Assessing the size of India’s hospitality sector for the number of rooms has rarely been attempted, given the complexity of the exercise.
But a hospitality consulting firm Hotelivate conducted a survey to put the figure at 2.72 million hotel rooms as of December 2018, across the country.
It estimates the number to grow to 3.33 million rooms by 2023.
These rooms operate across branded/traditional hotel chains like Indian Hotels Company Ltd, Marriott International, ITC Hotels; new-age hotel chains like OYO Rooms, Treebo, Fab Hotels; independent or unbranded hotels and alternative accommodation that include guest houses and residential properties.
According to a report titled The Ultimate Indian Travel & Hospitality Report , released by Hotelivate in association with the WTTC II and CAPA India, the independent/unbranded segment constitutes 72 per cent of the hotel rooms in India.
The growing popularity of homestays, along with guest houses, makes alternative accommodation the second largest room unit category in the country at 15 per cent. Traditional hotel chains that dominated the organised sector in the past, now constitute only five per cent of the total rooms in India, while new age hotel chains, with their highly scalable models, constitute eight per cent.
“The Hotelivate team decided to conduct a detailed market sizing exercise in consultation with key industry stakeholders. While we are not claiming to be 100 per cent accurate, our approach is methodical and uses reliable data points and assumptions,” said Manav Thadani, founder and chairman of Hotelivate and co-author of the report.
Room-to-employee ratio
The report estimates that the hospitality industry employs 2.4 million people directly, as of December 2018, resulting in a weighted average of 0.89 employee-per-room on a nationwide basis and expects the number to rise to 3 million by 2023. Despite a low room-to-employee ratio, independent/unbranded hotels are the largest employers.
Branded/traditional hotel chains come second, with the highest room-to-employee ratio, followed by the new-age hotel chains.
Hotelivate tracked close to 500 hospitality markets in India to establish the “known” supply for these rooms.
Between July 2017 and March 2018, ₹6,709 crore was payable in goods and services tax (GST) revenue by the Indian hospitality industry, as per Hotelivate estimates, most of which came from the sale of rooms (73 per cent), with the balance being contributed by F&B and other departments of the hotels.
Hotelivate estimates the total GST payable by the industry to touch ₹23,982 crore annually in 2023-24.
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