Accor, a leading player in the French hospitality industry, has ambitious plans to expand its presence in India over the next three to five years. Puneet Dhawan, the Senior Vice President of Operations for India and South Asia, revealed that the company intends to open 30 new properties in India during this period, recognizing the immense growth potential in the region. With a global portfolio comprising 40 distinct brands, Accor currently operates nine of them in India. Additionally, they are exploring the possibility of introducing more brands to cater to diverse customer segments within the country.
“Currently our pipeline is about 30 signed contracts…These are expected (to be operational) in the next three to five years,” Dhawan told PTI when asked about the company’s expansion plans in India.
Local partners will take charge of the development of these properties, which will subsequently be managed by Accor under its existing nine brands in India. These brands include renowned names such as Fairmont, Novotel, Mercure, and Pullman, among others. The financial investments required for these new properties will be undertaken by the partnering entities.
The forthcoming properties are scheduled to be established in various cities, including New Delhi, Chandigarh, Mohali, Bhubaneswar, and Amritsar.
Dhawan mentioned that the hospitality chain is actively exploring opportunities in tier II and III cities. These cities have experienced increased demand and rising room rates in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.
“I think the pandemic kind of opened these tier two, tier three market because the rates that they were able to demand are actually higher than the cities like Delhi and Mumbai and that has encouraged developers or investors to develop in these local markets,” he added.
When asked if Accor would consider bringing more global brands in India, Dhawan said, “Currently nine brands are present in India out of the 40-plus (global) brands, but the scale and the diversity India has and the growing middle class or the growing spending power in India, we believe there’s a market for many more of Accor brands that could be introduced into India.”
According to him, these new offerings might come from a lifestyle brand or potentially from other brands such as Swissotel or Movenpick.
“We definitely think (with) the right partner in the right location, we will be able to bring some of the other brands into India as well,” Dhawan said.
He further mentioned that depending on the circumstances, Accor might consider introducing additional brands even sooner.
“We do have a few conversion brands. For example, we have got a brand called Handwritten (Collection), which could be introduced in India,” he said.
The conversion brands are primarily oriented towards incorporating existing hotels that require upgrades to meet international standards and seek access to Accor’s global distribution network. This integration allows them to leverage advantages like participation in the loyalty program and other beneficial features.
On the potential of the Indian hospitality market, Dhawan said, “India today has about 1,60,000 branded hotel rooms, (on the other hand) Dubai has 165,000 rooms and growing. So that tells you how under penetrated the hospitality landscape is in India and there’s so much opportunity across the brands.”
At present Accor has 61 hotels in India under its nine brands with about 11,500 operating rooms.
