Holiday Inn Express debuts in India
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InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has officially debuted India’s first Holiday Inn Express in Ahmedabad yesterday.
The hotel, and a further 18 properties under the same brand are being developed through a joint venture partnership between Duet Hotels India (DIH) with 76% stake and IHG with 24% equity stake.
Located in close proximity to the airport, Holiday Inn Express Ahmedabad offers 173-rooms. The hotel will focus on providing guests with quality, well designed rooms, a core range of facilities, free Wi-fi and breakfast.
“We identified a gap for quality mid-market hotels across the country and fulfilling the growing demands of these guests is our business focus. The mid-market hotel space in India offers a compelling investment proposition, with favourable demand-supply dynamics and an attractive build cost to operating returns equation,” said Naveen Jain, President of Duet India Hotels.
“Our strategic partnership with IHG gives us with the platform to tap into the full potential of this opportunity. At Duet, we concentrate on the property asset using our expertise to find the right site and building the product. IHG then manages the operation of the hotels on our behalf. The strengths of our two organizations combined will ensure these hotels succeed,” added Jain.
The demand is there for branded hotels that people know and trust – midscale hotels in India currently represent just 15% of all hotel rooms and this means there is incredible headroom for growth. If you look at domestic trips, Ahmedabad is one of the cities benefiting from a strong, local travel base and a clear gap exists in the mid-market segment,” said Douglas Martell, Vice President for Operations in South West Asia at IHG.
