Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ number of hotels, operation and pipeline, stands currently at 74. The company has 40 operating hotels as of now and intends to have 100 hotels by end of 2015, including operational and that in pipeline, with eight out of nine Starwood brands flying their flag in India. “We are pretty well on target. We are talking about the same target since 2010 and we have not shifted our goalpost,” Dilip Puri, Regional Vice President – South Asia, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, said while launching the Starwood’s SPGPro programme in New Delhi.
Starwood continues to grow its portfolio despite the hotel industry in India not doing well since the last two years, he opined. Puri was quite bullish over what is unfolding under the new government in India. “We have seen a spate of signings since the new government took charge. Our brands are seeing great traction as we emerge the preferred choice of developers,” he said.
Elaborating on the development front, Puri informed that Starwood continues to grow Westin in key gateway cities. The company is now looking to grow its resort portfolio with Westin in Khandala and in Bekal. Le Meridien is also going to witness a good growth. “We are opening Le Meridien Mahabaleshwar in December 2014. Le Meridien Jaipur, Kochi and Bengaluru are in various stages of renovations. We have recently signed Le Meridien hotels in Ahmadabad, Pune and Delhi, as well as two in Bhutan and one in Dhaka,” he revealed.
He further mentioned that Four Points is cashing in on the growth opportunity in India. With domestic travel industry booming, there is a need of mid-scale and upscale properties, he opined. “We currently operate eight Four Points by Sheraton properties. We see Four Points by Sheraton emerging as developers’ first choice with hotels under development in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Mumbai International Airport, Tirupati, Vadodara, Agra, Dahej, Aurangabad and Bengaluru Airport,” he revealed and added that Starwood believes that in the upscale brands, fastest growth would come from the Four Points by Sheraton and Aloft brands. In the upper upscale brands, it would be Sheraton and Westin.
Starwood, which has 10 Luxury Collection hotels in India, has opened an 11th one named ITC Grand Bharat Luxury Collection in the first week of October. “We are also bringing St Regis and W hotels to India. W Goa will open next year,” he added.
Commenting on this year, Puri said that 2014 has been an exciting year for the company. “We have already opened four hotels and have another two or three expected to open by year end. We have already signed seven deals and we are optimistic that this year will be a siginificant year for us,” he commented.
Commenting on the market trends, Puri said that there is an increase in domestic travel and changes in the market, mixed with good growth in the MICE segment. “We expect demand will continue to grow.”
Currently, India is Starwood’s fourth largest market and will soon be the third. “We know where in India we want hotels and we know which brands will work for us in which markets,” he said and added that there exists a tremendous opportunity for Starwood to capture the growing potential of Indian outbound market.
