Ginger Hotels, run by Roots Corporation Ltd (a unit of Indian Hotels Co. Ltd), is looking to tap the wedding market in the South.
The budget segment hotel chain is keen to get into management contract with family-run businesses to scale up room inventory in regions such as Guruvayur in Kerala.
Explaining the game plan, P.K. Mohankumar, Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Ginger hotel chain, said, “The huge wedding market is a segment that is of great interest for us.
Spiralling land cost and slow process for approvals and permits in the hospitality sector forced the hotel chain to increase their average room rates to Rs 2,000.
To cut costs, the hotel chain has now tweaked its business strategy for future expansion plans.
“We are exploring various options – from Greenfield to Brownfield and also conversion of existing operations and management contract route. We are also look at the franchise option,” said Mohankumar.
The company has got responses, mostly from Mumbai and Bangalore and from tier-1 cities in South such as Trichy, Salem, Mysore,
Mangalore, he added. “In the North, places such as Chandigarh and Amritsar and new emerging towns such as Kota will be our focus,” he said.
According to an HVS survey, the mid-market and budget segment are expected to witness the highest increase in the branded supply pie. This segment was 50 per cent of the branded hotels category under construction in 2012, the report said. The estimated requirement in the budget and economy segment is about 50,000 to 70,000 rooms.