ARRA Hotels expands with zeal

As a new hotel management and marketing company, ARRA Hotel Group has its goals in place and is moving fast towards achieving them. Anshu Malik, Managing Director, ARRA Hotel Group, shares what the group’s two brands – ARRA and Twist – stand for, and plans of expanding into the international market by 2022.

Nisha Verma

The ARRA group of hotels is helmed by Anshu Malik, a passionate hotelier by choice who learnt the reins of the business under the patronage of Late Captain Nair, Chairman of the Leela Group of Hotels. The new brand  – ARRA Hotels – promises to offer the best of modern amenities, warm hospitality and unmatched service.

Sharing his plan for the company, Malik says, “We have signed 25 properties pan India, which are under various stages of reinvention as per our standards, and will be operational by end of the year. We will operate these properties under our flagship brand –ARRA – which is our upscale brand, and Twist -which is the budget brand with a young feel. We have opened our first hotel in Gurugram and the second would open in Manesar. By February, we will have five hotels in our kitty in Gurugram, Manesar, Jim Corbett, Nainital and Dehradun, with an inventory of 450 rooms.”

The USP of the brand, according to Malik, is the service level they offer. “We will create a niche in the market. The brand has a very young and dynamic team that will take the brand forward. Our motto is ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’, and with this vision, we believe that guests will experience a feel-good factor once they come and stay with us at both our brands,” he claims.

Hotels will be launched in the most exotic locations across the country, right from popular tourist places, business hubs and exotic locations to religious sites. The group, according to Malik, will be targeting all segments, including leisure, FIT, corporates, airline crew and travel agents. The company is currently on a hotel acquisition spree and will be following different models for the same—revenue sharing, sales & marketing, franchise and gross operational profit. In terms promotion and marketing, the brand will not only make sales & marketing efforts individually for each hotel, but there is also a corporate marketing department that will coordinate regional and national marketing opportunities. They also have an in-house advertising agency.

“We have a very good agency for our social media campaign to handle our SEO and SEM. We will market ourselves against all possible verticals, whether it’s print media, electronic media, social media or digital marketing,” informs Malik. While 2020 wasn’t a very good year for the industry, it worked for ARRA to acquire new properties. “Because of COVID, people were apprehensive, they were leaving the lease and the hotels. On the other hand, we were acquiring properties and that, too, at very good deals. I believe that our return on investment will be much faster,” he insists.

Malik is quite upbeat about the future. “We are quite optimistic and I believe that the market will open up soon. We will do great business, and the industry would prosper. People are fed up of staying home and want to travel. In the next few months, things would really improve and we will do well,” he claims. The strategy forward will be aggressive marketing, shares Malik. “We have a dynamic sales & marketing network. We are acquiring as many hotels as possible. We aim to be the youngest and fastest growing chain in India. We are planning to enter the international market next year,” he concludes.