Lokhandwala Hotels, the owners of Regent Mumbai, is planning to build two new hotels at Lonavala, near Pune, and Bangalore. The company is also eyeing other metroes, especially New Delhi and Chennai.
"Lokhandwala hotels will be constructing two new hotels in Lonavala and Bangalore for which the land has already been acquired. The hotels are likely to come up within the next five years," Regent Mumbai vice-president and general manager Yogesh Dhawan said.
He said the upcoming Bangalore project would be a super deluxe hotel, whereas the Lonavala project would be a four-star resort. He added that Regent Mumbai would also see some new additions like mall-cum-commercial complex and service apartments.
He, however, declined to elaborate on the investment plans for the upcoming projects but felt that investment in the Bangalore project would be similar to that in Regent Mumbai, which is about Rs 500 crore.
Speaking on the occasion of a strategic tie-up between Regent Mumbai and Carlson Hospitality Marketing India Pvt Ltd (CHMI) to provide reservations, sales and marketing support to the Regent Mumbai, Dhawan said Regent was eyeing a turnover of Rs 100 crore this fiscal as against Rs 58 crore last fiscal. He said the hotel was likely to break even within three years.
Dhawan said the US slowdown would affect the company by about 10 per cent and added that other sectors like investment banking would make up for the shortfall in demand from the information technology firms. There will be an adverse impact of the ongoing Enron scuttle since Enron and Dabhol were its major clients.
CHMI's managing director Pankaj Kodesia said in the Mumbai hotel scenario, where supply is exceeding the demand, the new tie-up is very important as CHMI will be taking care of business and marketing plans of Regent Mumbai besides its performance monitoring.
Elaborating on Carlson's expansion plans, Dhawan said the group was planning to focus on its mid-market brand -- Country Inns and Suites -- the first of which is slated to open at Katra in July. About 10-12 such Country Inns and Suites would be launched within the next two years.
The Carlson group owns the Regent International hotels, Radisson hotels & resorts worlwide, Country inns and suites and TGI Friday's.
