BackHotel majors rush to keep pace with Pune’s room shortage
Hotel majors rush to keep pace with Pune’s room shortage
PremiumFuture plans: Radisson Hotel in New Delhi. The hotel group plans to set up a 150-room hotel in Pune, to be operational by August 2008.
This western city’s reputation as one of the fastest growing IT and manufacturing destinations in the country continues to pull in hospitality industry majors that are lining up to cater to the huge demand for hotel rooms here.
Radisson Hotels and Resorts now joins the long list of global industry majors that will have properties in Pune with the company signing a management contract with the Pune-based Calista Properties Pvt. Ltd to set up a 150-room business hotel here, to go operational by August
Panchshil Realty, a leading player in the hospitality business has firmed up plans to invest more than Rs400 crore for a 200-room Renaissance brand business hotel and a 250-room Marriott serviced apartment, to be operational in three years, the company’s managing director Atul Chordia said.
The Pune-based Deepak group with interests in fertilizers and chemicals, has meanwhile entered into an agreement with Indian Hotels to set up a 250-room Taj branded premium business hotel in the city, sources close to the development said. Both Deepak and Indian Hotels Co. Ltd representatives declined to comment on the development.
Pune’s hospitality industry is witnessing a sharp growth with occupancy rates now more than 80% and room rates in the five-star category crossing Rs12,000 a night. With business traffic into the city at an all-time high, corporate houses are faced with the prospects of having to book their rooms months in advance.
While software company Infosys Technologies Ltd is setting up its own 800-room hostel in the city, others have little option but to depend on expensive hotel rooms or serviced, long-stay apartments which are in limited supply in the city. Industry players maintain that the city is currently witnessing a shortage of over 3,000 rooms across categories, which has resulted in a frantic rush among leading players such as Hyatt, Radisson, Leela Kempinski, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Westin and Sheraton, among others, planning properties here.
Barring the proposed Taj hotel, the three new hotel properties are coming up at Kharadi, an emerging IT hub on the outskirts of the city, which is already home to companies such as Tata Consulatancy Services Ltd and Zensar Technologies Ltd. Panchshil is already building a 4 million sq. ft special economic zone in the area and is firming up plans to set up a mall, which, at 1.2 million sq. ft when complete, will be the largest in the city.
“Kharadi is a catchment area for not just for the IT companies setting up base here but is also en route to Ranjangaon, which is home to MNCs such as LG, Carraro India, Whirlpool India Ltd, Fiat Auto among others. Visitors to this belt currently depend on hotels within Pune city for their accommodation and we want to tap the latent demand for quality accommodation in the area," Calista director Rajiv Gupta said.
Gupta brought the Le Meridien hotel brand into Pune a few years ago in partnership with another real estate company, but early this year exited that deal to set up Calisata Properties.
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