Viceroy Hotels eyes metros

The Hyderabad-based Viceroy Hotels is planning to set up five-star hotels across major metros. The expansion will be either through acquisitions or by setting up new projects.

Viceroy, which will become operational as a Mariott International Hotel "" with which it has a franchisee tie-up "" by October, is now expanding its Hyderabad hotel from 165 rooms to 308 rooms at an investment of Rs 86 crore. Narasimha Rao director-finance, confirmed the expansion. "Everything is at the drawing board now," he said.

Hospitality analysts, however, said the company might set up hotels in Delhi and Bangalore before it starts off on its pan-India plans. Sudhir Nair, head, research, of Cris Infac, said Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad were slated to show maximum growth in hotel expansion. Leading hotels such as Leela, EIH, Indian Hotels, ITC and Shangri-La were planning to come up with new projects in these cities, he said.

Industry experts said a tie-up with Mariott would help Viceroy expand its activities. A franchisee tie-up with Mariott would leverage Viceroy's chances of raising funds from the market, which is essential for expansion.