Starwood to launch hotel in Sriperumbudur - mid-market brand Aloft

Global hospitality major Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc, which has four of its nine hotel brands in India, plans to bring in another four in the next few years.

“We are in talks with various developers to bring in our five-star luxury brands St. Regis and W, four-star brand Four Points, and the mid-market economy brand, Aloft,” said Mr Vasant M. Prabhu, Chief Financial Officer and Vice-Chairman of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.

India needs more hotel rooms than what it is projected to have in two to three years. The number of rooms that are available here is “surprisingly small”, considering the country's size and potential, he said.

Demand, Mr Prabhu said, will rise to meet supply even if there is a situation of the number of hotel rooms exceeding demand. He pointed out the example of Beijing – ahead of the Olympics, many hotels came up but even now they are enjoying “good occupancy at reasonable rates.”

“During boom years, people who came to Bangalore used to stay in Chennai and made day trips to Bangalore and back because of the lack of good hotel rooms at reasonable rates in that city,” he said.

In India, Starwood has 26 hotels. With 18 hotels coming up across the country, it will have 44 hotels (over 10,000 rooms) in the next two to three years.

“As of now, with over 6,500 rooms, we are the largest international hotel company in India in the high-end, in the four- and five-star categories.”

Of the proposed 18 projects, there will be seven Sheratons, three Westins, two Le Meridiens, three each of Aloft and Four Points.

According to Mr Prabhu, in the next couple of weeks the company is all set to launch Aloft at Sriperumbudur. The property is being jointly promoted by Aura Matrix and the Citi group. Chennai will be the first city to have an Aloft. The second one will come up in Bangalore in August, he says.

Challenges

Talking about the challenges the hotel industry faces in India, he says assembling large parcels of land, price and the time it takes to have a property up and running are the key challenges that are unique to India.

“On an average it takes five years or more for hotels to be developed in India. Elsewhere in the world, it is only two to three years,” he added.