Star hotels stirred up as season starts

ITC Hotels- The Grand Central, The Luxury Collection, in Mumbai, has recorded a 15 per cent rise in bookings for September month as compared with last year's booking of 60 per cent for the same month.

Similarly, Le Royal Meridien expects its September bookings to go up to 90 per cent. The hotel has already recorded 65 per cent of bookings for the month.

While business season for hospitality industry has merely begun (from September to March), hotels in Mumbai have already started registering a 10-15 per cent increase in bookings.

Says Stephane Febregoul, general manager, Le Royal Meridien, Mumbai, "We have registered an increase in our bookings as we are changing our profile of guests. Earlier we had a lot of airline crew in our hotel as guests. Now we are looking at increasing our corporate base."

These figures are expected to go up with Mumbai likely to get over 12 lakh foreign toursits this season. Last year, of an estimated 44 lakh foreign arrivals in India, Mumbai received over 10 lakh tourists.

But while the inflow of tourists is expected to rise year-on-year, the supply is too short to meet the demand. At present, demand of hotel rooms is in excess of 11,000-odd rooms per night (premium category). It is expected to go up to nearly 20,000 rooms by 2012. According to hospitality industry estimates, currently only 6,700 rooms in the premium category are available in Mumbai.

According to Crisil Research, though around 15 five-star hotels are set to come up in the city"" in phases, between 2007-08 to 2011-12"" only 4,000 rooms will be added to the total inventory in the premium segment.

This includes several national and international players like Taj, Park, Sarovar, Marriott, IHG, Four Seasons, Accor and Hilton.

The industry however, is not worried of the short supply. Says Shishir Shrivastava, CEO, Phoenix Mills' hospitality division, "A slight shortage of hotel rooms is good for the industry as it leads to a healthy competition. It also means good occupancy level for the industry."