Ginger Hotels plans 11 properties

Ginger Hotels, a budget hotel chain from Roots Corporation Ltd, a subsidiary of Indian Hotels Company belonging to the Tata Group, is planning to invest around Rs 100 crore for setting up 11 budget hotels across the country. The hotel chain is planning to add 1,100 rooms by December 2010.

Prabhat Pani, CEO and director, Roots Corporation Ltd, said Ginger Hotel operated 19 hotels across the country with an inventory of 1,800 rooms.

A 100-room Ginger Hotel required an investment between Rs 10 crore and Rs 15 crore in each property, depending upon the model used in the location. The company was planning to set up these hotels through ownership, lease, public private partnership and management contracts, he said.

Some of the hotels under construction include Surat, Indore, Chennai, Tirupur, Jamshedpur and a second hotel in Pune.

In the south, Ginger Hotels’ properties are operational in Bangalore, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry and Thiruvananthapuram with nearly 480 rooms. The company will widen its network in south India with the launch of Ginger in Chennai and Tirupur. It is also evaluating options in Hyderabad and putting up a second hotel in Bangalore.

Ginger Hotel in Chennai, which is currently at an advanced stage of construction, is coming up next to the IIT campus in Guindy. The hotel would have 86 rooms and the proposed investment is around Rs 12 crore, he said.

Pani added the growth in the branded budget hotel segment was a reflection of the changing Indian consumer and his lifestyle.

Though there are no formal estimates, this sector is expected to be one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian hospitality industry. The main growth drivers are the economy’s and the customer’s inclination to shift from the unbranded to branded segment.