INDIA’s HOSPITALITY industry is on an upswing. Gurugram-based Cygnett Hotels & Resorts has recently added more than 640,000 travel agents globally in partnerships with other travel management companies. Cygnett group has now successfully added around 1000 rooms in the market space. “Cygnett has opened eight Hotels in the last two years and at present actively working towards opening more than 103 hotels across 75 cities across South Asia (Including India) in the next five years.
The company plans to add 5000 plus rooms by 2020.” Sarbendra Sarkar, Founder & Managing Director, Cygnett Hotels & Resorts told BW Hotelier while talking about the expansion plan. The Cygnett group has individual brands catering to most customer segments. It offers services under the brand names- ‘Cygnett Plaza’, ‘Cygnett Park’, ‘Cygnett Inn’&‘Cygnett Residences’ and manchise brand ‘Cygnett Lite’. The group also includes international brands such as the ‘Jameson Inn & Suites’, ‘Jameson Suites’ and ‘Jameson Inn’.
Speaking about the challenges, Sarkar said, “For us, the development cost of the hotels is a major challenge which includes the land cost and infrastructure costs. Another major issue that hinders our work is the lengthy government approvals for various licenses. “ However, this problem resides with the entire hotel industry, “When we build a new hotel in India, it takes about two to three years for its completion which is very high than other developed/developing countries. We lose the opportunity cost in time wasted. When we burn more time for developing the hotels, the cost of raw material and labour increases which ultimately impacts profitability” Sarkar concluded.