Newstrack

Walk Inns taps Maharashtra's semi-metros

Chetan Kapoor - Mumbai

Budget hotel chain Walk Inns, which already has 16 hotels across 15 districts of Maharashtra, plans to expand to semi metros of the state. Speaking to Express Hospitality, T A Dhake, promoter, Walk Inns Hotel Management, said, "Our aim is to redefine travel in Maharashtra with comfortable lodging experience, throughout all business centres and district locations in the state. Our business model is to associate with single-owned properties at major locations in the state and provide clean, convenient, quality accommodation with friendly services at affordable prices."

Walk Inns has properties in Satara, Sangli, Osmanabad, Latur, Chakur, Ajanta, Buldhana, Ahmednagar, Vashim, Chandrapur, Dhule, Mumbai, Shahada and shall be entering Akola, Kolhapur, Karad, Malegaon, Parbhani and Bhandara shortly.

"We are growing at the speed of five hotels every month and have identified 120 locations in Maharashtra where we plan to have a Walk Inns property. We plan to have presence in semi-metros by end of June with four properties in each semi-metro location. We will be covering entire Maharashtra by this year and where we don't get a property which fits in to our standards, we will wait and look to develop our own or lease and renovate it completely," he stated. Walk Inns is also in talks with a coffee shop chain, health club chain, ice-cream parlours, and is also working on its own value-for-money brands in F&B.

Additionally, it has also identified over 100 outdoor tourism activities around its properties and has already introduced 20 packages related to the guests' staying experience. Dhake added, "Our tourism product ranges from Rs 1,500 to Rs 7,000 for a couple including stay, food and the adventure activities, sight- seeing etc. At locations where we don't have lodging facility, we are coming up with camping sites of our own. We have come up with budget holidays which are not available in market today."