Roseate Hotels looking to diversify portfolio with managed properties: CEO

Roseate Hotels and Resorts, which owns luxury properties in India and the UK, is eyeing new markets including Dubai, Italy, France and Switzerland and looking at diversifying its portfolio with a mix of owned as well as managed properties, the company's CEO Kush Kapoor said.

In an interview to PTI, Kapoor emphasised upon the need to market India better, streamline visa processes and improve the working conditions for hospitality sector employees in terms of rationalising their working hours and better wages, as key to attracting more foreign tourists to India and having a better talent pool for the hotel industry.

The Roseate Hotels and Resorts CEO also sought rationalisation of GST rates for the hospitality sector and lowering the number of licences required for hotels to reduce the compliance burden.

"Yes the focus is very heavily on India. We definitely want to be in the upscale market and would like to grow in tier 2 and tier 3 cities also. For us the most important thing is the location of our hotels. We are getting good proposals from the owners and owning partners who are keen to partner with us in terms of management agreements. So we are also looking into that," Kapoor told PTI.

The Roseate Hotels and Resorts CEO further elaborated on its international expansion plans.

"We are very keen to operate hotels in the United Kingdom, we have five out there. The Noida hotel at the Jewar airport terminal should open in a year's time. We will also expand our Rishikesh property post this monsoon.

We have a land bank in Goa so we should also get into the development of the Goa property by this year-end. We are very keen to get into places like Dubai and the key markets of Europe. We are definitely open to places like Italy, France and Switzerland," Kapoor said.

He informed that Roseate was looking at properties having anywhere between 30 to 250 rooms.

"One thing is very clear, we are not going to be a Shaadi or a wedding hotel. We don't want to have hotels with 300 and 500 rooms. So we are very clear on that part.

Anything ranges between a 30-room hotel to a 250-room hotel we are very keen to get into that segment," Kapoor said.

He stressed that the working conditions for the employees first of all in the hotels needs to get much better.

"When I am talking about working conditions, I am talking specifically about working hours, that needs to be rationalised. Second, the pay needs to be way high (considering) the amount of time, energy, the employees spend in the organisation," the Roseate Hotels and Resorts CEO said.

He asserted that "a lot needs to be done" in terms of marketing India better, urging to look at examples of countries like Dubai, Singapore and Vietnam to attract more foreign tourists to the country.