Lords for 40 keys by 2020

Announcing expansion plans to venture into the East and South, Lords Hotels & Resorts earmarks 30 per cent of its hotel portfolio for the pilgrimage segment along with identifying a host of pilgrimage sites.

TT Bureau

With the hospitality industry showing signs of recovery from the decade-long slump, Lords Hotels & Resorts has decided to switch its expansion drive into top gear to become a 40 properties chain by the end of FY 2020. With the demand for hotel rooms outpacing supply, the hotel chain is not only aiming at increasing its footprint at a faster rate but is also looking to venture into new geographies and focus on niche segments. The brand will now also target at becoming the fastest growing pilgrimage hotel chain in the country.

“Our hotels across the country have registered room occupancies in the range of 70-75 per cent in the last financial year. While there was only a marginal rise in ARR, the RevPAR grew by almost 8-12 per cent. This is an indication of demand outpacing supply and the need for increasing room inventories,” says P R Bansal, Chief Operating Officer, Lords Hotels & Resorts.

In the current financial year, the hospitality chain has plans of establishing hotel properties in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar in the East, and in Hyderabad and Chennai in the South.

“After a sluggish growth for close to a decade, the outlook appears positive for the industry. We have identified potential projects in the East where Lords Hotels & Resorts has not made a mark yet and also in the South where we see tremendous growth in the coming years,” adds Bansal.

Lords Hotels & Resorts is a home-grown, mid-market player with a focus on serving the burgeoning Indian traveller. “We have broadened our portfolio of hotels to better accommodate the needs of the leisure tourist, the business traveller, the bag-packer as well as the pilgrimage tourist. We have identified Katra, Mathura, Vrindavan and a couple others for our upcoming projects dedicated for pilgrimage tourists,” says Rishi Puri, Vice President, Lords Hotels & Resorts.

There are close to 200 iconic, sacred places of worship in the country and these sites receive footfalls in excess of 1.5 million tourists annually.