HDFC enters online property search business

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Friday March 18, 2011.

The entry of HDFC Ltd has stirred the online property search business segment.The country’s top mortgage lender has launched its own real estate search portal www.hdfcred.com. The venture will be operated under its wholly-owned subsidiary HDFC Developers Ltd.

“Our portal is a logical extension of our real estate business. Some of the grouses we came across during our research is that the typical home buyer was not able to get all the details to facilitate their property search process. While there is a lot of information lying around across various mediums it is largely scattered. What we have attempted to do with our portal is bring all of it under one platform in a detailed structured manner,” Renu Sud Karnad, managing director, HDFC Ltd, said.

India’s online property search market is currently estimated to be around `60 crore. It includes general real estate websites like www.99acres.com, www.magicbricks.com, and classifieds portals like www.sulekha.com. The overall market has been growing at 50%.

Sanjeev Bikhchandani founded and BSE-listed Info Edge (India) Ltd’s online vertical 99acres.com is leading this growth with growth rates pegged at 70-75% year-on-year. Vineet Singh, executive vice-president and business head, 99acres.com and naukrigulf.com, said, “99acres pioneered the property search portal business in India and has been aggressively growing the market ever since its launch in 2006. We have been successfully acquiring market share in this space and by the end of this fiscal we will have close to 60% of the revenue share in the market. In fact, we are also at a stage where we will break even this year.”

When asked how HDFC Developers’ foray into this segment is different from existing market offerings, Karnad said existing players are into pure real estate and do not deal with developers in terms of project financing. “In our case however, we have a long-standing (close to 30 years) relationship with the top 1,000 builders/developers in the country. Besides, we also know the credibility of these developers to a large extent. These are some of the critical factors that differentiate us from the other players in the market.”

Other features offered by the portal include searching for properties in key Indian cities at the click of a button, use of filters to narrow down search, add properties to favourites, compare them, and even find out useful information regarding social infrastructure and facilities available in the neighbourhood.

The revenue model in this space revolves around online advertising revenues. For instance, all of 99acres.com’s revenues are online and largely comprises display advertising fee. “We charge a fee for listing new properties and do online campaigns for builders/developers and brokers. A small and growing percentage is the listing revenue wherein brokers buy listing packs to advertise resale and rental properties. Average entry level advertising rates for a broker could be anywhere in the region of Rs5,000 to Rs10,000 per year while bigger brokers spend between `50 lakh and a crore. The average ticket size for property developers/ builders is around Rs5 lakh for a quarter,” Singh said.

The market has its own challenges. Singh is of the opinion that a critical mass in terms of online traffic pertaining to real estate is a must to boost growth. “Until that happens, the explosion in the volume or value of online business (people transacting online) is not going to increase. There is an increase in the number of people taking the online route for property search so internet platform itself is adding to the growth by 30% odd to this business.”

On competition in the form of HDFCRED, Singh said, “We don’t see them as competitors and the coming few years will tell us how serious a player they are in this space. This is not that simple/easy a business to run and manage. We have domain expertise in the internet classifieds’ model and have managed successful business verticals in this space like naukri.com and jeevansaathi.com. This is an execution business and we have a four-year headstart over anybody who wants to get into this space.”

However, Singh also feels that if HDFCRED comes into the market with a worthwhile proposition, they will actually grow the space as against acquiring market share from existing players. “If they are able to do this successfully, they will also increase the credibility of internet as a media for the builder and broker community,” he said.

As for his company’s consolidation plans, he said, “My personal view is that instead of spending money on acquiring an existing player, we’d rather spend that money in marketing, advertising and building better products. I think that will be money better spent rather than going out and acquiring competition.”

Hilton set to upstage leader Starwood in Delhi market

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Thursday, March 17, 2011.

Hilton Worldwide is set to unsettle global hospitality major Starwood Hotels & Resorts from the number one position in the New Delhi hospitality market.

With five properties in the five-star deluxe and luxury segment under Le Meridien, Luxury Collection, Sheraton and Westin brands, Starwood currently is the largest international hotel chain operating in the Delhi/National Capital Region market. Hilton, which currently runs two hotels in Delhi (Hilton Jankapuri and Hilton Garden Inn Saket), is set to add three projects to its portfolio in calendar year 2011.

Its DoubleTree by Hilton and Garden Inn properties are expected to open in Gurgaon in the second half of 2011. Also, another property under development in Gurgaon would be managed by Hilton.

This apart, Hilton is in talks for management contracts for three more hotels, including two under development, with New Delhi-based realtor Eros group. These hotels (of Eros) will get onstream in the next 18-24 months, taking the overall portfolio to Hilton to eight in the Delhi / NCR hospitality market alone.

“The Hilton management is in the final stages of signing management contracts for realtor Eros Group’s three projects in New Delhi and the deal is likely to get through,” said the source.

Eros Group has a 214-key five-star deluxe hotel currently managed by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) under its InterContinental brand in addition to two developments, InterContinental and Holiday Inn, coming up at Mayur Vihar.

This entire portfolio is likely to undergo a rebranding exercise wherein Hilton Worldwide is expected to take over management control post the early termination of agreement between Eros and IHG.

Rajesh Punjabi, vice-president-development, India, Hilton, said, “As part of our ongoing development efforts, we speak to a number of developers and owners. For reasons of confidentiality we are not able to provide any of the details. We would also like to confirm that the Nehru Place and Mayur Vihar hotels stated in your query are not part of our pipeline.”

Industry sources, however, said Eros and Hilton were in an advanced stage of negotiations and were fine-tuning the management agreements.

Officials at InterContinental Eros Nehru Place did not comment.

When concluded, this development will mark resurgence of Hilton’s presence in the Indian hospitality market especially after its association with PRS Oberoi-promoted East India Hotels fell through. This development saw a wipe-out of Hilton branded hotels in the Indian market until Hilton Janakpuri and Hilton Garden Inn Saket opened doors in 2009-10.

While asset owners of the DoubleTree by Hilton are not known yet, the Hilton Garden Inn, Gurgaon is owned by DLF and is part of the Hilton-DLF joint venture pipeline that is expected to see a rollout of four projects. DLF also owns the operational Hilton Garden Inn at Saket which is Hilton’s first hotel in India under that brand.

The 440-room hotel-cum-convention centre in Gurgaon currently under development is owned by the Piccadilly Group (owners of the Hilton hotel at Janakpuri) and will be operated by Hilton.

Indian Hotels’ arm to sell stake to private equity firm Omega TC Holdings

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Thursday March 17, 2011.

Roots Corporation Ltd (RCL), a subsidiary of Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) that runs the Ginger brand of hotels, is selling a minority stake to Singapore-based private equity firm Omega TC Holdings Pte Ltd for Rs150 crore.

According to the IHCL management, Omega will acquire stake in RCL by making investments in various tranches. “Omega will also acquire compulsorily convertible preference shares from some existing holders for an aggregate consideration of Rs70 crore. This apart, Omega will have an option to invest a further Rs100 crore in RCL by March 2014, subject to satisfaction of certain conditions,” IHCL told the Bombay Stock Exchange.

RCL, however, did not disclose the purpose behind the fundraising and its deployment plan. Prabhat Pani, CEO of RCL, was unavailable for comment.

Industry experts, however, said that fundraising was pretty much on cards and it would have happened much earlier but the plans had to be deferred due to economic meltdown post 2008.

“Fundraising was scheduled by the IHCL management after achieving the critical mass of 20-25 Ginger hotels. In fact, the deal has come at a time when Roots has 24 hotels with around 2,400 guestrooms across the country,” said a source.

Interestingly, IHCL has shared no information about Omega TC Holdings in terms of its overall corpus and other investee companies.

The PE placement could also pave the way for RCL’s initial public offering which is likely to happen in the next couple of years. During the IHCL annual general meeting in August 2010, Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Group, had responded to a shareholder query saying, “The Ginger hotel chain would be listed in the next couple of years depending on a series of circumstances.”

While a significant proportion of the Ginger portfolio is owned, there are a few other projects such as Ginger Rail Yatri Niwas (operated under PPP arrangement) and two management contracts in Manesar and Agartala.

The Ginger pipeline currently comprises 10 hotels under various stages of development including the brand’s Mumbai debut at Airoli in Navi Mumbai. These hotels are likely to add 1,000 guestrooms.

Tourist arrival has little impact on overall hotel business

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

A 10% increase in the foreign tourist arrival (FTA) figures into India during January 2011 has had a very insignificant incremental impact on the overall hotels business across key business and leisure destinations. A comparative analysis of business performance numbers by Crisil Research indicated that average room rates recorded a marginal decline thereby leading to marginal improvement in revenue per available room (RevPAR) and occupancy levels. A key indicator of hotel's performance, RevPAR is calculated by comparing total revenues of the hotel with total guestroom inventory.

Another interesting revelation was that hotels in south India (Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai) have shown positive growth on all three parameters (occupancy, ARR and RevPAR) vis-a-vis their counterparts in west (Mumbai and Pune) and north (Delhi, NCR) India. Being business season, leisure destinations (Jaipur, Agra and Goa) saw higher single-digit growth in overall business.

Commenting on the overall business scenario, Ajay D'souza, head of research for Crisil, said, while individual cities / destinations have demonstrated varied results based on their market dynamics, the overall figures for January 2011 are marginally down vis-a-vis previous year's figures.

“Average RevPAR for premium segment hotels in six major cities increased by 2.6% to Rs 6,900 in January 2011. Occupancy levels improved on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis by 3% to 73%. Average room rates (ARRs) however witnessed a marginal decline on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis by 0.7% Rs 9,450,” said D'souza.

The survey compared business performance numbers from premium segment hotels in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, Goa, Hyderabad and Chennai. The Crisil Research data on FTA showed that approximately 0.54 million tourists visited India in January 2011 as compared to 0.49 million tourists during the same period in the previous year (figures also include arrivals from Pakistan and Bangladesh).

Interestingly, hotel occupancy in cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore witnessed an increase in the range of 10% to 16% while hotels in Delhi and Mumbai suffered a setback by 2% to 4%. Key beneficiaries of the tourist season however were hotels in leisure destinations wherein Goa registered the highest occupancy of 81%, while it was 72% and 71% in Agra and Jaipur respectively.

On average room rates, hotels in Chennai (among all business destinations) saw an increase on a y-o-y basis by 4% from Rs 5,900 to Rs 6,200 in January 2011. “While most business destinations witnessed stable ARRs, Mumbai and Pune witnessed a decline. Leisure destinations primarily Goa, and Jaipur recorded an increase in ARRs by 5% on a y-o-y basis,” said Crisil analysts Anshal Chavan, Swaroop G and Dipali Modi in the report.

Significant improvement in RevPAR was witnessed with hotels in Chennai and Bangalore. Improved occupancy levels coupled with increase in average room rates led to double-digit growth of 17% and 12% in RevPARs across premium segment hotels in Chennai and Bangalore on a y-o-y basis respectively. “Most business destinations in South saw improvement in RevPARs, hotels in West India (Mumbai & Pune) and Delhi witnessed decline in RevPARs in the range of 7% to 9% owing to lower ARRs and occupancy levels. Leisure destinations (Goa and Agra) however recorded a RevPAR increase of 6%,” said the analysts.

Commenting on the overall business performance statistics, Noshir Marfatia, associate vice president and general manager, sales and marketing, The Park Hotels, India, said, markets in the Indian southern region have seen a turnaround especially in cities like Bangalore and Chennai. “While the initial few quarters were slow for these markets, there has been resurgence in corporate traffic movement vis-a-vis last year. In fact, the momentum still continues and we are seeing a month-on-month increase as far as business in these cities is concerned. Though static Hyderabad market has shown positive results but I think with all the new inventory set enter the market in the coming quarters, there will be pressure on business. Chennai will see a similar trend going forward. Business in Kolkata continues to remain stagnant which is substantiated from the figures,” said Marfatia.

Industry experts attribute the subdued performance of hotels in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune to the heavy guestroom addition these markets have witnessed in 2010. They said, while FTA figures do show growth, what one needs to take into account is that the number of hotel rooms that got added also increased significantly.

“The January 2010 figures take into account certain number of hotel rooms while January 2011 figures also factor in the incremental guestroom inventory. Thus when you compare taking these aspects in mind, I'd say the overall market in these cities has certainly witnessed decent growth as the decline in occupancy, ARR and RevPAR numbers aren't very significant,” said a top official from one of the leading international property consultancy (IPC) firms requesting not to be quoted citing company's media policy.

With business season almost coming to an end the Indian hospitality industry set to enter the non-business season April onwards, it would be interesting to see how the overall scenario shapes up given the fact that new inventory will continue to be added in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai markets in the coming few quarters.

Singapore's Ascott to have 1,600 serviced apartment units in India

Ronald Tay

Singapore-based The Ascott Ltd will be managing a portfolio of 1,600 serviced apartment units in the Indian market in the coming years. A wholly-owned serviced residence business unit of Singapore's CapitaLand, Ascott is taking the equity participation route to expand its presence in the country. The company currently has a portfolio of 7 projects in key Indian metros. Under various stages of development, these projects are coming up in cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Overseeing the company’s business in India, Ronald Tay, chief investment officer, The Ascott Ltd, said, the first serviced residence, Somerset Greenways, will open in the first half of 2011. “Featuring 187 apartment units, the property is located in the MRC Nagar area in Chennai. This apart, we have recently partnered with RMZ Corp to develop a 203-unit serviced residence there. It's a joint venture wherein Ascott has acquired 50% stake in the project for Rs 151.75 mn (approximately Singapore $4.36 mn),” said Tay. This JV with Bangalore-based realtor (RMZ) will also see launch of Ascott's first Citadines apart’hotel brand in India to be operational in 2014.

On whether the company will make further investments in India going forward, Tay said there is tremendous potential for Ascott to grow in India. “We will expand our presence in through both direct investments and management contracts. In addition to expanding presence in the existing cities, we will be continuously seeking opportunities for growth in other markets like Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune,” he said without divulging financial details about their overall investment plans in India.

Citadines Galleria Bangalore

Prior to the RMZ joint venture, Ascott has invested in all the 6 developments being signed in India thus far. The company top management feels India is one of the key growth engines of Asia and continues to attract foreign investments due to its huge domestic market and sizeable educated workforce. On the demand side, the management believes that with increasing business travel into India and inter-city travel, demand for quality accommodation will increase significantly.

As for The Citadines Galleria Bangalore project is concerned, it will be part of a mixed development called RMZ Galleria and will be Ascott’s second property in the city. Ascott will manage the serviced apartment units when it gets operational in 2014. Located in Yelanhanka, the property is close to industrial parks such as the Kirloskar Business Park and Manyata Tech Park.

Also read: Serviced apartments' growth on a fast track in India

Reliance Broadcast, RTL Group JV to launch a bouquet of thematic television channels in India

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani promoted Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd (RBNL) is partnering with Europe’s RTL Group for a joint venture to launch a bouquet of thematic television (TV) channels in India. A preliminary, non-binding term sheet has been signed wherein RBNL (through its subsidiary) and RTL will have equal (50%) equity interest in the joint venture. Financial details however have been kept under wraps.

Industry sources familiar with the development said the JV will initially broadcast English Language general entertainment channels and add Hindi and regional channels at a later stage. "To start with, the JV would include English language international content, mainly from RTL Group’s production arm Fremantle Media. At a later stage, the duo are likely to explore Hindi Language and regional language general entertainment channels in the next phase," said the source requesting anonymity.

RBNL officials when contacted refrained from commenting on the aforesaid development.

RTL is Europe's leading operator of radio and television network with a market cap of $15.5 billion. With 40 television channels and 33 radio stations in 10 countries, it is one of the world’s leading producers of television content such as talent and game shows, drama, daily soaps and telenovelas, including Idols, Got Talent, The X Factor, Good Times - Bad Times and Family Feud. The Luxembourg-based company operates leading TV channels and radio stations in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Greece, Russia, Hungary and Croatia.

A multi-media conglomerate with presence across radio, television, out of home and live entertainment RBNL’s current television portfolio includes three channels (BIG CBS Prime, BIG CBS Spark and BIG CBS Love) through a joint venture with CBS Studios International. The entertainment company (RBNL) had recently acquired Imagine Showbiz from Cinestar Advertising Pvt Ltd and the channel is expected to be re-branded and launched shortly. In fact, the Reliance Group already has licenses for approximately 20 channels, which are expected to launch in phases through RBNL.

For the quarter ended December 2010, RBNL posted a consolidated total income of Rs 70 crore, with a consolidated EBITDA margin of Rs 6.5 crore. Its radio operations achieved break even, turning EBIT positive. The company had received approval to raise Rs 400 crore last year and has already raised Rs 283 crores by allotting shares to investors and company promoters. RBNL has also received FIPB approval of Rs 45.47 crore.

Wipro Consumer surpasses average industry growth rates

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Wednesday March 9, 2011.

Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting (WCCL), the FMCG vertical of IT major Wipro, has surpassed average industry growth figures in the lighting and furniture space during the current fiscal.

Parag Kulkarni

WCCL has registered 26% growth in the lighting segment and 32% growth in the furniture segment despite strong competitors such as Philips, Crompton Greaves, Bajaj, Godrej, Blowplast, Featherlite, etc, it said.

Parag Kulkarni, vice-president & business head - commercial lighting & furniture business, WCCL, told DNA Money, “The industry average growth in the lighting segment is 15-16% and in the furniture space it is around 18%.”

Kulkarni attributes WCCL’s numbers to innovation, introduction of new products at regular intervals and working closely with customers.

“This apart, we take a bouquet approach to addressing the customers’ needs, which is very unique to us. We are the only company which offers solutions in lighting, furniture, chair, electronic security and switches under the same roof,” said Kulkarni.

The company is among the fastest growing FMCG in India. Post acquisitions of Unza Holdings and Yardley, WCCL is currently amongst the top 10 FMCG players in the country.

The FMCG business has three main segments — Indian Household business (includes personal care and domestic lighting), Unza (the international personal care business spanning across Asia and Africa) and the Indian Office Solutions business.

With combined revenues of `2,250 crore in 2010, WCCL has registered an overall growth of 23% by the end of third quarter of the current fiscal. Not looking to tap international markets, the WCCL management envisages huge potential in the domestic consumption story and is aggressively addressing the needs with its range of products.

Its institutional business rakes in around 27% of revenues and services a lot of industrial applications that revolve around lighting.

“Infrastructure projects is where we sees tremendous growth in the coming years. For instance, Terminal 3 at Delhi International Airport has used a lot of our lighting and furniture products. A few other names in the list include Reliance and Siemens. Our products are extensively used by these large corporates for all their commercial and industrial establishments,” said

Kulkarni.

Going forward, WCCL will focus on the light emitting diode (LED) space and the company management sees very good business opportunities for its indoor and outdoor lighting solutions based on LED.

Movenpick to manage Kamakhya's Dharamshala resort

Movenpick Hotels & Resorts is all set to unveil its second project in India. The Swiss hotel company (Movenpick) has signed a long-term management contract Kamakhya Hospitality Services Pvt Ltd (KHSPL) which is the asset owning company for a resort development in Northern India. Christened Movenpick Dharamshala Resort & Spa, the property expects to take the design and delivery of upscale remote properties to a completely new sustainable level.

Jean Gabriel Peres, president and CEO, Movenpick Hotels & Resorts, said the project will be very unique wherein the management will Get the community involved in all stages of its development. "Its key attraction will be a 2,500sqm ayurvedic spa which will feature extensive preventive health programmes, detox sessions, international treatments alongside ayurvedic, meditation and yoga therapies," said Peres.

Featuring 124-rooms approximately 2,400m above sea level in the upper reaches of the Kangra Valley, the resort is surrounded by a dense forest and the Himalayan Mountains and will open in 2013. As befits the resort's stunning Himalayan setting, it is in the sustainable arena where Movenpick Hotels & Resorts is really pulling out all the environmental stops.

Sourcing for the entire development (construction process) will be done locally and will involve available materials in the Himalayan region. This apart energy-efficient systems will be installed to harness wind, solar and hydro power. The resort will also serve organic vegetables and fruits, and local products from rural farms nearby.

"Links with the local community won't end there, with guest programmes set to provide the opportunity to interact with villagers and learn about their mountainous lifestyles - and perhaps pick up a tip or two on the secrets to their longevity," said Andreas Mattmuller, chief operating officer, Movenpick Hotels & Resorts, Middle East & Asia.

In addition, the resort's lobby will double up as the living room and serve as a centre point for socialising and gathering around open fire places. The hotel will face the Dhauladhar mountain range and rooms will vary from 45sqm (standard) to 70sqm (suites). Offering a wide range of food and beverage options, guests patronising the resort will also get to undertake varied activities including mountain biking and trekking to adventure sports etc.

Vijay Sharma, chairman, Kamakhya Hospitality, said, "Movenpick is an upscale international brand with experience of operating renowned retreat resorts and we have partnered with them to manage the resort in a long-term, sustainable fashion."

Accessing the resort will require guests to take a one-hour flight from New Delhi to Gaggal, followed by a 40-minute drive through spectacular mountain ranges, trails and gorges.

Movenpick Hotels & Resorts is aggressively looking to expand in the fast-growing Indian market. Once opened, the resort will their second property in the country. "Adding this landmark property to our portfolio follows our global objective to expand our presence in India as we set to open the Movenpick Hotel & Spa Bangalore this spring," concluded Mattmuller.

Sterling Holidays has overseas buyout, local push in mind

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Saturday March 5, 2011.

Sterling Holiday Resorts (India) Ltd plans to expand overseas post its restructuring exercise which began in 2008. After having streamlined its operations, the company has chalked out aggressive growth plans that include acquiring resort properties overseas as well as in India. As part of this strategy, the Chennai-based BSE-listed, vacation ownership and leisure hospitality company plans to add six properties to its existing portfolio of 14 resorts. The additions are likely to be done within the next 12 months from now.

Siddharth Mehta, vice chairman, Sterling Holidays, said the management has already identified potential properties and is currently in negotiation with the respective asset owners for acquisitions and long-term lease arrangements. “Our international presence will include destinations that are within five to six hours of flying distance from India. Thus, destinations in the South Asia Pacific region will fit well in this plan because asset prices and the cost of debt are cheaper there compared to India. We are hoping to close these transactions in the next few quarters. This apart, we will also commission two greenfield projects this year. Construction is expected to begin shortly and these resorts will get online by 2014.” he said.

Mehta is also chief executive officer of Bay Capital Partners which currently owns 31% in Sterling Holidays. The acquisition was made in two tranches. So far, Bay Capital has invested $13.8 million.

Of the six additions, three will be international destinations (Far East, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka) while the remaining three resorts will be located in Goa, Kumarakom and a religious tourism destination. The company also plans to add nearly 800 guest rooms to its current inventory of 1,221 rooms across 12 destinations such as Kodaikanal, Ooty, Yercaud, Munnar, Goa, Lonavala, Manali, Mussorie, Darjeeling, Puri, Gangtok and Yelagiri. By March 2012, Sterling Holidays is targeting an inventory of over 2,000 in its network of properties across 20 to 22 locations.

The new additions, according to company officials, are expected to add Rs300-350 crore in revenues. “As these (acquisitions) are operational assets, we are confident about increasing revenues from the current Rs50 crore to Rs400 crore in a couple of years from now,” said Mehta.

Funding for the growth will initially come through internal accruals. However, the management will raise funds once the inorganic plans start fructifying. Besides cash on books, the company has arranged debt required for initial capital expenditure (capex). The management has also taken a call on raising funds through a mix of financial instruments (equity and debt) at a later stage. “While we haven’t put an exact figure to the quantum of money to be raised, it is likely to be in the $30-40 million bracket,” said Mehta.

Sterling recently brought Shahzaad Dalal, vice chairman of IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd (IIML), on board as director. Dalal, had in February 2011, resigned as an independent director from the troubled real estate company DB Realty’s board.

On how Sterling would benefit with Dalal’s appointment, Mehta said Dalal is among the largest private equity investors in the country and his expertise with a host of businesses will come in handy while repositioning Sterling as the leading hospitality company in the country.

The company has also embarked on a major refurbishment drive wherein 35% of its overall inventory has already been refurbished while another 40% will be done in the second cycle, post the peak season starting April 2011.

On the management side, Sterling has hired close to 1,000 people across various levels in the last 14 months. According to industry sources, a significant chunk of this workforce has moved from the leading player and a competitor in the vacation ownership business namely, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts, popularly known as Club Mahindra.

Check-Inn to a new business hotel concept

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Friday, December 3, 2010.

Imagine a mid-market business hotel without a restaurant, coffee shop, bar, business centre, space for meetings and banquets, gymnasium, spa, or even a swimming pool.

A hotel where the management has outsourced all operational requirements — including food and beverage production and service (breakfast and dinner), housekeeping and maintenance, laundry and security — barring only the front office and sales and marketing.

Welcome to the latest concept in hospitality — select service accommodation.

Mumbai-based Check-Inn Hotels Pvt Ltd has just launched its prototype mid-market hotel project in New Delhi’s Connaught Place area. Check-Inn Hotels is the hospitality arm of Mumbai-based Shree Naman Group, which has interests in real estate, financial services, hospitality, energy and ready-mix concrete.

With 43 rooms, Check-Inn New Delhi focuses purely on providing accommodation. It offers rooms in three categories — executive (6), deluxe (35) and superior (2). The room size ranges from 200 sq ft (superior) to 280 sq ft (executive), and the tariff ranges from Rs 4,999 to Rs 7,999 (inclusive of in-room breakfast).

Significantly, the cost of development is only Rs7.85 lakh per room and the staff-to-room ratio is at 0.5:1. The hotel has only 16 people on its payroll, including the hotel’s general manager.

Hemal Modi, chief executive office, CHPL, said the concept took shape after a study indicated that a full-service hotel doesn’t generate enough money to be viable on a profit and loss level despite all that vanity. “That’s when we started thinking about putting together a model by squeezing public areas, back of the house utilities, etc, thereby having a financial discipline to the entire business.”

This was followed by a product orientation exercise to identify the key requirements of a business traveller with an average length of stay being 1.1 day (in layman’s terms, a one-night stay). Working backwards from there, the management sought feedback from corporate travellers on their requirements from a hotel room. “We identified eight focus areas, of which four factors were topmost priority — location, safety & security, comfort (not luxury) and food and hygienic environment. We have covered these areas and added a fifth element — value proposition,” said Modi.

The management has laid down strict quality standards to ensure smooth operations and service delivery. Instead of investing on the operational infrastructure and support functions, it has taken to outsourcing, thereby bringing in operational efficiencies, timely service delivery, cost control and increased profitability.

Food & beverage production and service have been outsourced to a local catering firm, Rupeats, housekeeping & maintenance to Orvis Hospitality, and security to TOPS Security, while a neighbouring professional laundry operator has been roped in to deliver laundry within three hours of requesting the service.

“An open kitchen and supporting infrastructure is provided by us, while the caterer brings in the utensils, gas, supplies and ingredients, cutlery and crockery, production and service staff. The F&B approach is completely in-room dining with a pre-set menu for every day of the week. Dinner is in the form of a pre-plated sumptuous vegetarian thali. The arrangement here is that while the caterer retains 60% of the overall F&B revenues, we get to keep 40%,” said Modi. Similarly, with housekeeping, everything from towels, linen, pillows, curtains, cleaning chemicals, equipment and manpower is brought in by the outsourced company wherein Check-Inn pays the company a lump sum.

As for laundry, there is a very insignificant mark-up of Rs10 on the laundry operators servicing cost per apparel.

In terms of development, the Check-Inn New Delhi property was initially a cold shell and the management acquired it on a long lease from the asset owners. Interestingly, the hotel has been made operational in exactly nine months of taking possession of the cold shell, thereby lowering the breakeven. The entire approach, according to Check-Inn’s initial study, significantly increases the possibility of the product getting easily absorbed in the market.

“An important factor to be considered here is that Indian customers are highly price sensitive and if they buy into the product, the hotel is very likely to start running from day one as against crawling (3 years), walking (2 years) and running (if lucky i.e.) in case of upscale full-service hotels,” he said. That’s precisely the reason why the CHPL management is targeting a breakeven within 12 months from the launch date (October 2010).

At 35% occupancy (without any promotional spend) and an average room rate of Rs6,000, Modi sees the numbers scaling up well especially with busy season in the coming months. However, he  maintains that the hotel's business does not depend much on the seasonality aspect as the target customer base is largely domestic business and transit travellers looking for a no vanity functional accommodation in the heart of New Delhi.

With the select service accommodation prototype already rolled out, Check-Inn is currently working on its second project coming up in Mumbai. The hotel site at CST Road Kalina (close to Bandra Kurla Complex) has been identified already and the management is in the process of getting necessary permissions and approvals for the development.

The Mumbai hotel will have almost double the number of rooms as the New Delhi hotel, while everything else remains constant. The CHPL development team is also in the process of identifying a site in Bangalore and is likely to close it in the coming months.

“Once key metros have been covered, we will set up a shared service centre that will help streamline and centralise the entire sales and marketing, rooms reservation process for the hotel chain. Thereafter, we will get into the franchise mode under Check-Inn Xpress, Check-Inn Premier and Check-Inn Residences across other potential locations in the country. Only the owned and managed hotels will sport the Check-Inn Hotel brand,” said Modi.