Real estate company Zinc Hospitality, which holds equity in properties like Taj Safaris, Taj Asia, Hilton in New York and India Safaris, is getting its own brands to India. The company has partnered hotel management company, Bangkok-based InVision, to launch its brands – Glow Studios and Zinc City — for the mid-market segment.
It plans to invest $40 million in four properties to be developed in India by 2013 — in Greater Noida, Surat and Cochin. “We have been a sleeping giant. Seven years ago, we wanted to create our own brand, it took us some time to accumulate assets and projects,” said Rahul Chaudhary, executive director, Indian sub-continent, Zinc InVision Hospitality. The company plans to develop another 15 hotels in the same category through a mix of ownership and management contracts. It is also on the look out for existing properties which can be renovated into hotels. “Initially we want to have equity stake in our projects and build our brands. Later on, we would like to have a strategic investor at the property level,” said Kevin Beauvais, chief executive officer and co-founder, Zinc InVision Hospitality.
The tariff of the two hotels – Glow Studios and Zinc City — will be in the range of $100 per room. The hospitality company wants to expand into Tier II and III cities like Coimbatore, Guwahati, Amritsar, Rudrapur, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. “We feel the luxury market in India is getting very saturated. We can look at that segment at a later stage,” said Chaudhary.
Also, the company plans to open, at least, 30 hotels in Asia and West Asia by 2013 including, its up scale brands like Zinc Edge, Zinc Living, Zinc Journey and luxury hotel Soma.
“We are willing to invest and put our money where our mouth is. We don't want to open a huge number of hotels but have focused growth with quality projects,” Beauvais said,adding, “People build hotels, but after some time there is no maintenance, which gives us an opportunity to stand out.”