InterGlobe Hotels to add 7 more hotels at Rs.800 crore outlay

Hospitality major InterGlobe Hotels that runs the ibis brand of hotels plans to have 19 properties with a total room inventory of 3,500 by 2017, a top official said on Wednesday.

J.B. Singh, president and chief executive officer of InterGlobe Hotels, said the company targets a turnover of Rs.300 crore next year -- an increase of Rs.100 crore.

InterGlobe Hotels is a 60:40 joint venture between InterGlobe Enterprises and French hospitality group Accor Hotels.

There are 12 operational ibis hotels in India as on date.

"We are committed to having 19 ibis hotels in India. The total committed investment for the 19 hotels is around Rs.2,000 crore," J.B. Singh told reporters here.

"Around Rs.800 crore investment is in the pipeline. Currently our total ibis brand room strength is around 2,000 and this number will go up to around 3,500 rooms," J.B. Singh told IANS.

He said that out of the total 12 ibis hotels, 11 were owned by InterGlobe Hotels and one by a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

The company formally opened its second ibis brand hotel in Chennai.

The company is building hotels in Hyderabad, Goa, Cochin, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata, J.B. Singh said.

The company has invested around Rs.110 crore in its new 155-room ibis Chennai City Centre.

J.B. Singh said the average occupancy in the ibis hotels is around 70 percent with some properties having over 80 percent occupancy ratio.

The company is open to various options like lease, out-right purchase of properties for expansion, he added.

According to Rajesh Gopalakrishnan, general manager of the new ibis hotel here, guests are given a 15-minute guarantee to services. "If the said service is not delivered in the stipulated 15 minutes, then the guest need not pay for it."

Another novel marketing strategy to be implemented by the hotel is 'pay what you want', said Jean-Michel Casse, senior vice president, Accor Hotels.

He said a guest can choose to pay whatever he wants while checking out.

Casse said a similar campaign was held in ibis Hotel in Delhi a-year-and-half ago.

"The average realisation per room during that campaign period was Rs.2,000. Some guests paid more than the rack rate and couple of guests did not pay anything," Casse said.

However, he did not agree that the promotional campaign is a price-discovery mechanism.