Lemon Tree Hotels to operate 19 hotels in India by 2013
Posted by paragjani on December 29, 2009
Delhi-based hotel chain Lemon Tree Hotels, which is in the process of expanding its footprint in the country is expected to operate 19 hotels across 16 cities in the country by 2013. It presently operates 11 hotels and will increase its room inventory to about 2,700 rooms at the end of the current development phase. Currently, the company has hotels under development in Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The hotels developed in these locations will be business hotels.
As a parallel growth strategy, the company aims to increase its presence in the leisure segment. It presently operates one resort property in Goa and will commission more resorts in Shimla, Alleppey in Kerala, Aurangabad and Goa until 2013.Lemon Tree aims to increase its presence in the country with the ‘multiple units per city’ format.
“We will look at increased penetration in markets like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad where we can compete aggressively. Once, we gain enough market share in these locations and saturate these markets, we will grow through the ‘hub and spoke’ model,” informed Patu Keswani, CMD, Lemon Tree Hotels.
Furthermore, the company plans to expand to cities like Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Nashik, Vishakapatnam and Kochi. In the leisure space, it aims to set its presence in Himachal Pradesh, as well as Adventure Tourism locations.
The company recently introduced its first property in the limited service, Economy brand Red Fox Hotels in Jaipur. It is now in the process of launching its second hotel in Delhi in early 2010. “Our present focus is to stabilise the hotel model with the first few properties. Post this we will enter into Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Over a period of two years, we will operate about six hotels under this brand with about 1,000 rooms in our portfolio,” added Keswani. The company aims for aggressive growth with this brand. It will incur an investment of Rs 30-35 lakh per room for this brand.
Source:http://www.travelbizmonitor.com/lemon-tree-hotels-to-operate-19-hotels-in-india-by-2013-9213
