Five new Gateway Hotels
The brand has become an important growth vehicle for the group and it is looking at scaling up the brand to a large number of hotels across India...
Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, owned by Indian Hotels Company ( IHCL), launched a new brand ‘ The Gateway Hotel’ in the second half of 2008. With a pan-India network of upscale hotels and resorts that offer travellers a contemporary experience, The Gateway Hotel is part of the Taj Groups’ strategy to have a larger footprint across India. The brand has become an important growth vehicle for the group and it is looking at quickly scaling up the brand to a large number of hotels across India. This was revealed by PK Mohankumar, COO, Gateway Hotels and Resorts.
The target is to have a multi-location presence in each metro city. In line with this, the brand will target metro cities and also the micro markets within the Tier- II and Tier- III cities. “Five Gateway city hotels are in the final stages of construction at Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Faridabad, besides Hubli and will be ready in the next two years,” he revealed. The hotel in Chennai would be the first to open and will commence operations by March this year, he added. Also in the pipeline are more Gateway city business hotels in Tier-I and Tier-II cities.
“Management contracts have been signed for another 10 hotels in various locations, including Mumbai, Kolhapur, Pune and Chandigarh,” he said.
Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces currently has 22 Gateway hotels across India. Talking about the business model of the brand, he pointed out, “We are investing in assets and are providing only technical expertise. We give the hotel owners technical expertise in architecture, design, etc. After completion, a management contract is signed. We bring in the brand to manage assets and this is how the future hotel business is going to be.”