InterContinental Hotels checks into Chennai with Crowne Plaza

Global hospitality major InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has set its foot here with its upscale brand Crowne Plaza signing up with Adyar Gate Hotels Ltd., a senior official said.

"We found IHG like us hungry for business and our interests matched. IHG is strong in room reservations and has over 4,800 hotels under its fold. It has a young and energetic team. There were lot of synergies and hence the partnership," Manav Goyal, owner, director at Adyar Gate Hotels Ltd., told IANS.

The two parties signed the agreements a few days ago.

Adyar Gate Hotels owns properties in and near Chennai and Ooty in Tamil Nadu and Vizag in Andhra Pradesh with a total room strength of 566. It is coming up with a 60-room hotel at Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu.

According to Goyal, the 288-room five-star hotel property (formerly Sheraton Park Hotel and Towers) will now be called Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park.

Goyal said the hotel all these years majorly got its clients from Americas and Europe where IHG has a large presence.

He expects the tie-up would boost the room occupancy levels at the property, which is currently at around 53 percent levels.

"Our restaurants and banquets are doing well. It is only the room occupancy that needs to go up," he said.

A major portion of the property was recently modernised at a sizeable outlay.

"We have the option having the InterContinental brand once the renovation of the other part gets over," Goyal said.

While Goyal is silent on the reasons ITC checking out of the property after 30 years of relationship, industry officials say the divorce might have come out owing to conflict of interest.

ITC has built its own over 600-room ITC Grand Chola here and is competing against Sheraton Park Hotel and Towers.

Queried about rebranding of the restaurants following the agreement with IHG, Goyal said except for the discotheque Dublin, all other outlet brands are owned by Adyar Gate Hotels.

"Our famed South Indian restaurant Dakshin would continue. The Dakshin trade mark is owned by us. Some of the ITC hotels have Dakshin restaurants. Given our long relationship with ITC, I don't see any problem cropping up on that count," Goyal said.

The Dakshin restaurant operates in five of ITC hotels located in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Mumbai and New Delhi.

Goyal said Dublin has got back its old name Gatsby 2000 to avoid a competing chain's brand in a hotel under IHG.

As to the distance restrictions on IHG from having another Crowne Plaza hotel, Goyal said the radius and duration of the restriction are being discussed.