Newstrack

Lords Hotels & Resorts looks at steady expansion

SANJEEV BHAR - New Delhi

Lords Hotels and Resorts plans to have 12 properties under its belt up and running by end 2010. "We are looking for a minimum period of 10 years for management contracts with a management fee of six-eight per cent on total turnover which excludes technical fee and upfront charges as applicable. We will continue to focus on commercial properties that are viable projects to be operated as within 100-room hotels," said Ramesh Koul, director, Lords Hotels and Resorts. The company is scouting for prospective ventures and is in talks with investors in Delhi, Jammu, Mysore and Lucknow. The company does not plan to offer franchise of the brand in near future. "For the time being, we will not part away from our control to manage properties that we sign contract with, in order to adhere to the quality specifications of the brand," he summed.

The group is charting a slow and steady expansion plan. Starting with two properties in 2007 at Surat and Vadodara (owned by directors of the company), the group now manages two more properties in Dahej and Ankleshwar that opened in the second and third quarter of 2008-09, respectively. Koul said, "We recently signed a management contract with J P Jadeja, director, P P Developers in Rajkot for a 68-room Pradhyuman Lords Inn property having 60-cover coffee shop cum restaurant and health club. Additionally, the property would offer an open space for wedding parties with a capacity of 1,200-1,300 pax, apt for a city, like Rajkot. We expect to go operational by July or August this year." The company also plans to launch Lord Plaza with 70 rooms in Bengaluru slated to open in end July this year, and another property in Ludhiana - Lords Inn - with around 50 rooms, which will be upgraded with 40 additional rooms in the next 18 months.

For branding, the company has taken a flexible approach where ownership brand can be pre-fixed or suffixed to its hotel brands, viz. Lords Inn and Lords Plaza. "We understand the aspiration of small cities and towns and are not going rigid on the way hotel will be named. We are giving them their legitimate right," Koul added.

Despite the current economic melt down, Lords Hotels and Resorts claims to have clocked an average occupancy of 60 per cent for its four operational properties over the last six months. Koul explained, "The situation was bad but we have braved it strategically. Our focus has always been to be in the mid market budget segment focusing tier II or III cities, which proved to be an enticing market revenue wise. While the average occupancies dipped to 30-40 per cent for most mid to upscale hotels in smaller cities, we continuously scored an average mark of 60."