Oakwood's service apartment India debut in Pune

Oakwood Asia Pacific, a division of the Los Angeles headquartered Oakwood Worldwide which has the largest chain of service apartments globally, today in Pune launched its first service apartment in India. The company also announced plans to expand its portfolio to include atleast eight more properties across the country over the next two years.

Its first property in Pune, Oakwood Residence Naylor Road, is targetted at international business travellers. Later this year - Oakwood Premiere Mumbai and Oakwood Premiere Prestige Bangalore will be launched. Followed by the launch Oakwood Residence Hyderabad in 2008. In 2009 the company will add four more properties, whereby both Pune and Bangalore will their second Oakwood service apartment and the company will also expand to Chennai and New Delhi.

"We are also looking at Kolkata and Goa for further expansion," Veronique Sirault, general manager, Oakwood Residence, said.

Currently, Oakwood Asia Pacific has 12 properties in Asia Pacific spread across China, Thailand, Korea and Japan. "We plan to open 19 more in the region in the next 2 years," Sirault said. With over 20,000 apartments globally, Sirault is optimistic about a minimum 55 per cent occupancy after 9 months of operations in Pune. "We are already experiencing a lot of cross sales, especially within the Asia Pacific region," she said.

Oakwood operates properties under four brands - Oakwood Premier, which provides five-star service, Oakwood Residence - four-star properties with full service, Oakwood Apartments - four-star properties with limited service and Oakwood Corporate - no service properties. It also recently launched Oakwood Resorts and Oakwood Premier Resorts which are furnished residences and villas in resort destinations. "In India the company is bringing in its top two brands and would also consider the Resorts brand for popular tourist places like Goa," Sirault said.

In Pune, Oakwood has partnered with Panchshil Realty for both its projects and will take the partnership route for expansion throughout India. It has 84 apartments of 1 and 2 bedroom hall kitchen (BHK), priced at Rs 10,000 and Rs 14,000 for single night occupancy of single and double BHK respectively. There are different rates for corporates and long stay bookings.