Starwood Hotels and Resorts plans to have 100 hotels under its brands in India by 2015.
Dilip Puri, Managing Director (India), who visited Le Meridien Coimbatore on Friday with the Chairman and President (Asia Pacific) of Starwood, Miguel Ko, told The Hindu that Starwood had 29 hotels in operation in India and another 18 were under development. It planned to take the total number to 100 in another four years, including those under operation, construction and contracts signed.
The country had just about a lakh branded hotel rooms. Hence, the potential was huge. Most of these were in the five-star category and the potential was high for four-star branded hotels too. For Starwood, ‘Four Points' was already present in Jaipur, Pune and Navi Mumbai. One would be opened in Vishakapatnam in April. The company was actively pursuing plans for ‘Four Points' in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.
An ‘Aloft' hotel would be opened in Coimbatore in three months. Starwood planned to bring its ‘W Hotels' and ‘St Regis' brands to India in another couple of years. These would probably come first in the gateway cities.
Mr. Miguel Ko said Starwood had 180 hotels in the Asia-Pacific region and contracts for operation were signed for another 130. It had 80 hotels in operation in China and planned to include another 90. Starwood was looking at similar growth in India as “We see the same potential here in terms of economic growth and tourism potential.”
Palani G. Periasamy, Chairman of Appu Hotels, said Le Meridien Coimbatore would be fully operational by the end of March.
