Despite slowdown and amidst a range of several international branded luxury hotels in Pune, Keys Hotels, the mid-market brand of New York based Berggruen Hotels has launched its new brand Keys Klub and announced the name of its first Keys Klub as property Keys Klub Hotel Parc Estique in Pune.
Commenting on the launch, Sanjay Sethi, managing director and CEO, Berggruen Hotels said, "Pune is a very important city for us. We are looking at opportunities of further expansion via franchisee and management contract. After having extensively studied the consumer and having successfully established Keys Hotels chain across India, we designed the personality of Keys with cutting edge technology and infrastructure support. Keys Klub Hotel Parc Estique is the perfect match, and this move is in the direction of turning Berggruen Hotels into a holistic hotel company catering to all categories of customers. This also is the launch of our first franchised hotel."
At present, the group has four brands - Keys Hotels, Keys Resorts, Keys Apartment and Keys Klub - and 14 hotels that are operational with around 1,400 rooms. The company's immediate focus will be the SAARC nations.
It is in talks with countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives and it may announce in this year.
The group is planning to add at least two Keys Klub Hotels into its bouquet every year in its target cities, including Mumbai, NCR, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jaipur, Kolkata and Hyderabad by 2016. Company's combined revenue is of Rs 410-430crore from the owned and managed hotels.
In March 2013, has opened a new property in Pimpri, a industrial hub in Pune with the investment of Rs 30 crore.
By end of this year, it has a total portfolio of 30 hotels of which 12 are in operation with an inventory of over 1200 rooms, while 18 properties are in various stages of development, slated to open in due course of time.
The hospitality group has till now made a total investment of $62 million in equity and Rs 182 crore in debt.
