Marriott Int'l eyes 13 Fairfield hotels in India in 3 yrs

Marriott International is planning to expand its Fairfield brand in the country and is eyeing 13 hotels in about three years, a senior company executive said.

"We have one property in Bangalore, which became operational last year. We have 12 more Fairfield hotels in the pipeline in India. We expect to add 12 more properties to our portfolio in approximately three years," Shruti Gandhi Buckley, Vice President Global Brand Management for Fairfield Inn & Suites at Marriott International told PTI here.

The Fairfield Bengaluru Rajajinagar property offers 148 rooms.

The US-headquartered hospitality major is currently planning to develop properties in cities including Bengaluru, Sriperumbedur, Indore, Katra, Goa, Kathmandu, Belgaum, Kochi, Jodhpur, Lucknow, Surat and Amritsar, she said adding that this will represent about 1,863 rooms.

Fairfield will mainly be looking for developing properties that will ensure that it has a profitable building and operational model to drive owner returns, Buckley said.

"We will follow both contract managed and franchised model. The model will primarily be managed but we do have some franchised hotels underway with experienced franchisees that we are confident can deliver a high quality service and experience expected by Fairfield," she added.

Introduced in 1987, Fairfield is Marriott's solution for affordability and is mainly designed for the value-minded business travellers.

There are more than 715 properties under the Fairfield brand across the US, Canada, Mexico and now India.

"We conducted research in India and Asia to better understand guests' preferences for over a year around the guest rooms, public spaces and food and beverage offerings. Then the Fairfield brand was created for the value-seeking Asian business traveller and is differentiated from the competition," she said.

Fairfield, Buckley explained, fills the much-needed gap in the moderate tier with its fresh, contemporary design, service excellence and quality.

When asked if there will be any sub-brands under Fairfield, she said, its the moderate tier, entry price point brand for the Marriott portfolio so the group will not introduce any additional brands under it.

"We will not introduce additional brands under Fairfield, but will continue to evaluate the Indian hospitality market to determine if other Marriott brands may present a strong opportunity in India," she added.