IT & ITES News

aero city: Bookings up in many hotels as India Inc gets moving again

[ad_1]

At Aero City in the national capital, hotels of multinational hospitality chain Accor- the largest operator in the area with around 1000 rooms are buzzing with activity, clocking occupancies of around 78%.

Vineet Mishra, complex general manager for the chain’s Pullman and Novotel hotels in Aero City said the area, with its close proximity to the airport, has around 4000 rooms and has its highs and lows based on air traffic. “It’s a fair indicator of how the hospitality sector will start reacting in other markets. Earlier, occupancies were going up from Friday for staycations but now we are seeing fairly consistent occupancy levels from Monday to Thursday as well. The average rates are starting to move up too,” said Mishra.

It is not just Delhi hotels. Big ticket business bookings, conferences and seminars are back at city hotels in India and are leading to an appreciation in room rates.

hotel

ITC Windsor in Bengaluru saw a surge in occupancy owing to the India International Jewellery Show organised by The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council in the city last week, while the ITC Royal Bengal in Kolkata recently received delegations from pharmaceutical companies. ITC Rajputana in Jaipur has hosted professionals from banking and finance, according to people aware of the matter.

Anil Chadha, COO at ITC Hotels said the good news is that corporate travel has made a modest start, with several companies permitting essential travel.

Nikhil Sharma, regional director, Eurasia at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, EMEA said numerous companies continue to reopen offices and welcome back staff in a new hybrid environment. “As a result, we are witnessing a gradual growth in corporate bookings within Pharma, IT, and manufacturing sectors,” he said.

“At Wyndham we believe that for the remainder of 2021 there will continue to be a strong demand for domestic and intra-regional travel, with long haul trips expected to come back more gradually,” he added.

Kerrie Hannaford, VP, commercial at Accor for India and South Asia said finally, the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. “Corporates are travelling for projects that were postponed last year. We have seen some encouraging updates in the last one week where we have also seen a spike in the IT & ITes segment which has started supporting our hotels in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. With the festive season ahead we also anticipate the FMCG industry is likely to bounce back,” she added.

Sanjay Sethi, MD and CEO of Chalet Hotels, which owns and develops high-end hotels for brands such as Marriott, said he has seen an uptick in conferences at all hotels across locations such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and Bengaluru.

“As per reports even the load on carriers is around 50% business travel now. Rules vary from state to state on the numbers. Hyderabad has no capping while Maharashtra allows up to 50 people. For anything above that, we have to get special approvals. We have had larger groups with social distancing and all other norms followed,” said Sethi. “We think domestic business travel will pick up further post Diwali and will be similar to pre pandemic levels by January February next year,” he added.

Better business is also leading to a week-on-week appreciation of stock prices of some of the listed chains.

[ad_2]

Source link