A spanking new ‘Made in India’ luxury hospitality brand – The Postcard Hotel – announced its launch in the Capital today. Set up by Kapil Chopra, former President of the Oberoi group, The Postcard Hotel, which has funding from the UAE-based Small Ventures, aims to offer “transformative” and “differentiated” experiences in travel and hospitality.

Chopra, who quit the Oberoi group exactly a year ago, said his hotel chain would create intimate properties that bring the romance and charm of leisurely holidays. Set up after considerable research and understanding of consumer pain points, his hotels will have flexible check-in and check-out timings, no set breakfast hours, no sugary welcome drinks – but would offer authentic local experiences.

The go-getting hotelier flagged off the launch of The Postcard Hotel in characteristic flamboyant style, announcing the opening of three hotels in Goa - The Postcard Moira, the Postcard Velha and The Postcard Cuelim. All three properties are located in unique neighbourhoods of Goa, with the Postcard Cuelim even housing a 350-year-old chapel on its premises.

The company is starting operations with Rs 600 crore worth of assets under management. Chopra said since most of the properties would be 15-20 room intimate hotels, the model would be to go for long-term lease or strategic buy-outs.

In the next 12-18 months, he said, seven more hotels would launch in offbeat destinations such as Uttarakhand, the Dhauladhar Mountain Range, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Sundarbans, Kanha and Mangalore in Karnataka. He said Postcard had entered into a partnership with the Ambuja Neotia realty group to deliver three hotels in East and North-East India.

Chopra said the brand is targeting 50 hotels in the next five years, and even looking at international destinations. He emphasised that The Postcard Hotel is looking to create new destinations and would not like to be present in saturated markets.

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