The US hospitality major Wyndham is back in Chennai with its Ramada brand. The opening of Ramada Chennai (formerly Marina Towers) in the city, marks the brand’s re-entry into the market, after a couple of short-lived associations with various promoters here.
“This time we have come with renewed vigour, and for good,” says Duane Elledge, Executive Vice-President and Managing Director of Wyndham Hotel Group.
On the group’s earlier experience and the learnings from that, he said the group now works with property developers who are in sync with it. “We do our homework now more diligently. The product now is highly evolved too,” he said.
The 150-room hotel in Chennai has been refurbished at an investment of Rs 12 crore to spruce it up to the brand’s standards. It is positioned as a mid-scale hotel. In line with the Wyndham group’s policy, the brand Ramada is lent on a franchisee agreement. However, the group will also market the property abroad. “We will also oversee service quality in every aspect,” said Elledge.
Being a diverse hotel company, Wyndham Hotel Group has over 7,340 hotels with close to 6.3 lakh rooms across 66 countries under 15 brands. “Our loyalty programme – Wyndham Rewards – has seven million active members, and we hope this will prove to be a major advantage for us in a cluttered market space such as Chennai,” he said.
With this, the group has 17 properties under four brands – Ramada (14), Days (1), Wyndham Grand (1) and Dream (1) – with a total room inventory of 1,800. It has another 26 properties with close to 3,000 rooms in the pipeline, which are expected to be up and running in the next few years, he said.