Hospitality management chain Sarovar Hotels and Resorts, which presently has 80 properties across India and some overseas locations, is on course to crossing the 100 properties mark by 2021 or early 2022.
Ajay Bakaya, Managing Director of Sarovar Hotels, said, “At Sarovar Hotels, we are embarking on our journey of managing 100 hotels soon. In line with our growth strategy within India and in Africa, we plan to further strengthen our presence in existing and newer tier II & III cities.”
“We have already signed new hotels in Jammu, Indore, Jalandhar, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Panipat etc. Expected openings in next two years include hotels in Dalhousie, Indore, Rajahmundry, Pathankot, Jagdalpur, Ajmer, Guhagar (Maharastra), Dhamtari (Chhattisgarh) among others,” he said.
“Currently Sarovar Hotels comprises of over 6400 keys under its three brands-Sarovar Premiere, Sarovar Portico and Hometel with more than 80 hotels across 50 destinations. In line with our strategic business plan, we will add more than 2000 keys in next three years,” Bakaya told BusinessLine.
Andhra Pradesh operations
“We recently opened a hotel in Dindi, RVR Sarovar Portico, which is a 50 rooms property nestled on the banks of picturesque East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. Two more properties are in the pipeline in Rajahmundry, including a Convention center schedule to open this year and a 105 rooms five star hotel to open in early next year. Apart from this we are already operating hotels in Kakinada and Tirupati in the state of Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
Telangana operations
In Telangana, Sarovar is operating three hotels in Hyderabad and expanding footprint in this market, which is on its future business expansion plan. It has a tie up with Manjeera Group for whom it manages three properties in Hyderabad and the new one at Rajahmundry will also come from the same group.
On the hospitality sector, Bakaya said “In recent years we have seen many consolidations among hotel companies and online travel agents. Going forward, we’ll see the full impact of these changes. We have been a part of similar progress and expect bigger and positive impact from this. Post GST cut, we expect better occupancies in the coming quarter as the season has already begun with weddings, foreign leisure travel, inbound traffic set to gain more traction.”
“We are an asset light company and offer hotel management services assisting in setting up new hotels and then managing them. The current level of occupancy is about 70 per cent,” he said.
Overseas expansion plans
Sarovar’s current portfolio includes two hotels in Nairobi, Kenya–The Heron Portico and The Zehneria Portico and one hotel in Lusaka, Zambia–Neelkanth Sarovar Premiere.
“Our International expansion plan will see Sarovar expanding its all three brands in Africa with two premiere hotels in Somaliland and Ethiopia, One Portico in Dar Es Salaan Tanzania and Hometel in Nairobi Kenya,” he said.