UK-based budget hotel chain Premier Inn (PI) has chalked out a plan to set up 90 hotels in India through a mix of owned, part-owned and managed properties over the next 10 years.
The company today announced its third property in the country at Pune, a 109-keys hotel due for launch in April 2013. This hotel will also mark the installation of pre-fabricated, pre-engineered (Pod) bathrooms for the first time in the country. These are being sourced from Unipods, a Dubai-based manufacturer of customised pre-engineered bathrooms and kitchens. “The business plan is to have 90 hotels and 11,000 rooms in India by 2022,” Aly Shariff, Managing Director, Premier Inn, South Asia said. At the end of the first phase of investment, British Group Whitbread Plc, of which PI India Pvt Ltd is a subsidiary, will have invested a total of Rs 300 crore in its two existing hotels at Delhi and Bangalore and four upcoming properties at Pune, Goa and Chennai. All four of these will be operational by the end of 2014.
PI owns all these six properties, but will also look at an asset light business model in the second phase of its investment, Shariff said. “There could be a mix of owned, managed and part owned properties,” he said.
Amongst the key features of the PI hotels are the Hypnos brand mattresses and beds that are used by the British Royal family, and the typical English breakfast.