Berggruen Hotels Pvt. Ltd has targeted to have 38 hotels in India by 2012 with a total investment of $500 million, Partha Chatterjee, Executive Director & Chief Marketing Officer, told Projectmonitor. A hospitality venture of New York-based Berggruen Holdings Inc. with an initial investment of $100 million, BHPL has planned to launch mid-market hotels, resorts and service apartments across India under the brand "Keys".
"Budget hotels are the latest trend in the hospitality industry due to consumers demand for value for money," Chatterjee said, explaining the rationale of launching a pan-India series of such hotels. Budget hotels are designed keeping in mind the mid-segment traveller, businessmen and lady travellers. These hotels are low cost but the facilities provided are equivalent to the 5-star hotels, he added. Berggruen, with a view to tap the business traveller, has ensured that all its hotels will be well equipped with business centers so as to enable businessmen to operate from the confines of the hotel.
BHPL has targeted to open its first hotel in January next year. To be located in Kerala's capital city Thiruvananthapuram, the hotel will have around 100 double rooms. The hotel will have video-screening facility for added safety of lady travellers. This unique feature will mean 5-star like safety at very competitive rates, Chatterjee said.
Berggruen has already begun construction on a 180-room hotel in Bangalore and hopes to complete it by 2009 end. In the same city, a service apartment complex of 75 units has also been planned offering studio, one-room and two-room apartments.
In tourist destination Goa, Berggruen has begun work on a 95-room upscale hotel. Highlighting the features, Chatterjee said that the hotel would be designed by world renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. The architect is known for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard paper tubes used to quickly and efficiently house disaster victims.
Discussing future plans, Chatterjee said that locations had been identified nationwide including Kovalam and Kochi in Kerala and Pune, Vadodara, Mahabaleshwar and Aurangabad in the western states. In the north, Ludhiana, Lucknow and Jammu are on the map while east India will be represented by Kolkata. Berggruen is close to adding Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Hyderabad to its project plans. "This will take Berggruen Hotels to over 20 locations in India," Chatterjee summed up.