Newstrack

Home Like Hotels looks at steady growth through 2009

Sayoni Bhaduri - Noida

Vineeth Puroshotahman

Newly established Indian sales, marketing and distribution agent, Home Like Hotels (HLH) is looking in the near future for more hotels from the cities of Hyderabad, Kolkata, Jaipur, Chennai, Trivandrum, Alleppy and others expected to join hands with them.Vineeth Purushothaman, chief operating officer, HLH, informed that based on current trends, the company expects to have over two hundred hotels as part of its collection in 2009. It has over 45 hotels on its lists. At the moment it is not looking at any international hotel chains; however, HLH has not discarded the option either. Says Purshothaman, "Our core focus is India at the moment and it will remain so for the coming year; however, the concept allows for international hotels to be part of the collection and we will be reviewing this in 2009."

With an investment in the range of Rs 60 - Rs 80 lakh over a period of two years, HLH is a total sales, marketing and distribution concept, where the investments primarily go into the corporate and operation teams, sales teams, marketing activities, reservation centres and distribution technology. "We are in a position to increase this investment if required, and figures may change based on operational needs," added Purushothaman. The company has also partnered with an e-learning centre at www.hotelladder.com which is open to member hotels for enhancing their skills. The most recent tie-up has been with UK-based Hospitality Sales Solution. The company has other similar partnerships in the pipeline with various travel, transport and media companies.

The focus of HLH has been to provide a sales and marketing platform to stand-alone, independent properties catering to the budget traveller on a global platform with the latest travel and hotel technology. Speaking on the benefits of enrolling HLH, Purushothaman says, "Independent hotels were often considered to be unpredictable in the past. This image is one of the key issues specific to the mid-segment independent hotels in India. Independent hotels have to work hard to move away from the reputation of being shabby in the past. This is one of the many areas where our concept can make a big impact for them."

To be part of HLH he further elaborates, "The hotel is pre-qualified by the HLH team and then invited to be part of the platform." "Alternatively, if a hotel contacts HLH, they will run the hotel through the following criteria: team, location, ambience, security, facilities and owner," he adds.