Intercontinental Hotels Group to expand India presence

The hotel chain will add 51 hotels over the next five years; India key market after US, China

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Global hospitality brand Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) is planning to expand its business in India over the next five years to add another 51 hotels to its existing portfolio of 25. The company announced the launch of its first resort property under the Intercontinental Hotels and Resorts brand at Mahabalipuram, near Chennai.
 
The InterContinental Chennai Mahabalipuram Resort with 105 suites, is its second under the luxury brand Intercontinental in India. The first one is in Mumbai. The property was earlier supposed to be managed by ITC Ltd. However, Adyar Gate Hotels Ltd later tied up with IHG to manage the resort.

 
"With this, Chennai is the first city in India where we will have presence of all our four brands in the country," said Shantha de Silva, head of South West Asia, InterContinental Hotels Group.
 

The company, which has gone in for an asset-light model over a period of time by focussing on managing hospitality without owning the property, will add about 10,000 rooms across the country over a period of 3-5 years, de Silva said. At present, it manages 25 hotels with 4,000 rooms in 14 Indian cities.
 
The target is to have around 100-150 hotels across the country under its brands in 10-15 years. "We will reach the first 100 hotels soon and look forward to 150 hotels over a period of time," he said.

 
IHG in India has four brands: InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, a luxury brand, Crowne Plaza, an upscale brand, Holiday Inn a business hotel and Holiday Inn Express, a budget hotel. The company owns nine brands globally. It will also look at launching its brands such as Staybridge Suits, which is a brand for long stay and Hotel Indigo, which is a boutique hotel brand, in India, de Silva told Business Standard. However, the launch of the new brands are not in the pipeline at present, he clarified.
 
He said that for IHG, the Indian market is growing and is the most important after the US and China.

 
In 2015, the company launched six hotels, and has four lined up for this year, including two in Chennai. The company's pipeline currently has more Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels.
 
It currently has a Holiday Inn Express at Mahindta World City, near Chennai, Crown Plaza Adyar Park which it opened in 2015 in collaboration with Adyar Gate Hotels Ltd and is expected to launch the new Holiday Inn hotel in collaboration with Brigade Group in next couple of months, near the IT complex Tidel Park. It is also planning to launch one more Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Chennai in a few months.