2023 looks very promising & ARR’s will continue to grow: Sahil Anand, Managing Director, The Acacia Hotel & Spa Goa

The Acacia Luxury Hotels and Villas, Goa sets sight to expand the hotel and holiday home portfolio pan-India on a lease and management model, expanding the holiday home inventory to over 30. Setting the prime focus on the FIT market, the Acacia Luxury Hotels and Villas look to a promising 2023.

How is the performance in terms of occupancy, ARRs, and RevPar for The Acacia Hotels & Villas in Goa? What is the expectation from 2023?

Occupancy is above 75% and ARR is above 5800, RevPar is around 4600. 2023 looks very promising and our ARR’s will continue to grow. We expect an upside of at least 15-17% in room rates and about 4-5% growth in occupancy levels as Inbound business should fully recover by the 4th quarter of 2023, which will be a good boost to the market as filling up weekdays is always a challenge with domestic FIT travelers.

What are your plans for expansion?

We are starting to develop luxury villas in North Goa at different locations for sale and then we plan to run them as holiday homes. Homeowners get a return of 7-10% per annum wherein the upside can be more than 10%. We’ll soon expand our hotel and holiday home portfolio to other cities of India on a lease and management model along with that we’ll be adding self-owned assets also. Our holiday home inventory will touch over 30, all villas will be with private pools by 2024 last quarter. We are just about to launch our new rooftop restaurant & bar NOVU at our Candolim hotel.

How is the mix of domestic and international guests at The Acacia in Goa?

During summers, its 99% domestic, and during winter months from November to March share of international guests go up to 35% post covid. Pre covid, the inflow of international guests was 30% higher than today.

What is the contribution of the various market segments in your overall business?

90% of business is leisure at our hotels & villas in Goa. Business travel is very less in the coastal belt of Goa. The contribution of F & B is quite low compared to city hotels. Most of the wedding queries are for a minimum of 75 rooms & an outdoor space which we currently don’t have in our portfolio. MICE contribution is roughly 10%. Our focus is on the FIT market & we love doing what we are doing.

What changes in trends have occurred according to you in the hospitality business?

Firstly, the spending power has really shot up in the last five years. Most of Indians now want to invest in travel which is a very good change. Earlier, people used to travel once a year but now it’s almost 3-4 times a year. The use of plastic & digital money has shot up like anything, there has been a four-fold increase in the use of credit cards and digital transactions.

What is the ratio of OTAs and travel agents contributing to your overall bookings vs your portal?

Nowadays, the OTA’s have developed a very strong foothold and it is becoming increasingly difficult for offline agents to generate the same amount of business the way they used to before 2016. We have a strong offline sales team as we deeply value our relationships with our travel agents. We always strive to keep a balance with our OTA business is roughly 55% and 45% of business is from travel agents (both domestic & inbound).