Treebo Hotels eyes 1,500 properties in 150 cities by 2018

Budget hospitality chain Treebo Hotels plans to have 1,500 properties in 150 cities, constituting over 35,000-40,000 rooms by 2018, a company official said.
The hospitality brand, which became operational from June 2015, has 200 properties in 40 cities with over 5,200 rooms, at present.
"We think the country has huge potential and as compared to the overall market we are under-penetrated. We are mainly looking at expansion in a mix of tier I, II and III cities," Treebo Hotels Co-founder Sidharth Gupta told PTI.
The hospitality brand is looking to strengthen its footprint in the cities with existing presence and also to foray into newer places like Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir soon, he said.

"Our focus is to increase the width of our footprint, uniformly spread out in the country. Besides deepening our presence in the existing cities, we will also look at religious destinations, hill stations and industrial hubs," he added.
The company had raised USD 23 million from SAIF Partners, Matrix Partners India and Bertelsmann India Investments for funding the expansion, he said.

In July this year, it raised USD 17 million in a Series B funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), along with existing investors, SAIF Partners and Matrix Partners India.
The Bangalore-based hospitality brand, which operates in asset light model, emphasises on tight quality control.

"As we are operating on franchise model, maintaining quality is very important for us. We have quality auditors or floating general managers, who are responsible for 5-6 properties. They look into staff training and work with the owners in ensuring the maintenance of brand guidelines and its implementations," Gupta said.
The company at present is focused on expansion in the country, but going forward would like to expand overseas into emerging economies having similar potential like Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and South East Asia, he said.
The company also plans to raise its headcount from 400 to 1,000-1,200 by 2018, in line with the expansion, he said.