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After Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group formed a joint venture with Bestech Hospitalities to develop Park Inn hotels in north and central India, the company is looking at similar alliances in the south, west and east.
Last year, Carlson Rezidor Hotel had sealed a strategic deal with Bestech to develop a network of 49 ‘Park Inn by Radisson’ hotels in north and central India by 2024. The alliance partners had decided to jointly invest $42 million to develop the first two hotels at Gurgaon and Mohali.
Simon C. Barlow, President-Asia Pacific, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, said: “We are looking to put in seed funding to create an investment vehicle that will build multiple hotels for the Southern, Western and Eastern regions, and strike strategic alliances with partners, just as we did for the North and Central regions.”
Scouting for alliances
He said these alliances would also be for the Park Inn Hotel brands that the company believed would drive growth. “Gone are the days when hotels could charge inflated room tariffs. The name of the game is to build and run hotels more efficiently that give good returns on investment for developers,” Barlow said about his company’s focus on the mid-market opportunity in India.
The hotel chain plans to touch the 100-hotel mark by 2015. “Despite various economic and regulatory challenges, we have been constantly delivering. We opened 13 hotels in 2012, as planned. In 2013, too, we expect to open about 13 hotels under all our brands,” said Barlow. These 13 properties will come up at locations that include Mumbai, New Delhi, Mysore, Bhatinda, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Udaipur and Guwahati. The company runs brands that include Radisson, Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza and Country Inn & Suites. It operates 63 hotels. The last 12-18 months have been challenging for the hotel industry with a funds crunch in the real estate sector as well as delays in getting permissions for hotels.
Asked if the company had plans to bring in its Hotel Missoni brand to India, Barlow said: “Missoni is a fashion brand and our strategy is to take this brand to some key city centres and resort locations in India. We see potential for the brand in New Delhi and Mumbai.”
The Hotel Missoni brand has been developed in partnership with the Italian fashion house of the same name.
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