Currently operating five hotels throughout India, Accor announced its plans for expansion with ‘Ibis Pune’ hotel, to open later this year, followed by seven hotels opening in 2010, 18 hotels in 2011, and 19 programmed for completion in 2012. This will see the network totaling to 50 hotels and over 10,400 rooms with current commitments.
This expansion includes three hotels as part of ‘Aerocity’, the hospitality precinct at Delhi International Airport, where Accor will operate a Pullman, Novotel and the Ibis, with a combined stage one total of 985 guest rooms. There is provision for the expansion of the Ibis hotel in the future, which will open in late 2011, with the Pullman and Novotel opening in 2012.
As part of India’s first hill city – Lavasa in Maharashtra State (in western India), Accor will manage four hotels with a total of 676 guest rooms, in addition to Lavasa Lakes Convention Centre, with facilities to cater to 1,500 delegates for events. The hotel portfolio includes the Pullman Lavasa with 258 rooms, Novotel Lavasa with 200 guest rooms, Mercure Lavasa with 130 guest rooms, and Grand Mercure with 88 apartments.
Ibis Gurgaon opened in the second half of 2008, and will soon be joined by the ibis Pune, which is scheduled to open in October 2009. In addition to these two hotels, 14 Ibis hotels are committed to development to date, taking the total inventory to 2,909 guest rooms by 2012.
Today, Accor details five Novotel’s for India, all scheduled to open in 2010 and 2011. Novotel Bangalore with 219 guest rooms will be the next to open by the end of 2010. Opening in December 2011 is Novotel Kolkata, a new 300 room hotel situated in the heart of New Town and close to the upcoming suburb and IT hub of Salt Lake.
Novotel Visakhapatnam Varun Beach in southern India, will be the first internationally branded and operated hotel in the city of Vizag. The hotel is located on the Marine Drive, and will feature 240 rooms all of which will face the Arabian Sea, a convention facility for 1,200 people, with two restaurants, a bar lounge, and a spa. Apart from these, other Novotel hotels are Novotel Delhi International Airport and Novotel Lavasa.
Currently, there are three Novotel’s operating throughout India – Novotel Hyderabad, Novotel Hyderabad Airport (in the eastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh), and the recently opened Novotel Mumbai Juhu Beach (in the western Indian state of Maharashtra). The committed network includes 13 additional Novotels and 3,524 rooms in Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Goa and Chennai.
Sofitel, Accor’s luxury brand, will debut with the 283-room Sofitel Mumbai Bandra Kurla, scheduled to open in 2010. Other commitments for Sofitel include Sofitel Mumbai Muland, and SO Mumbai Muland having 193 guest rooms, both of which will open in 2012 and centered within the Nirmal Lifestyle Complex in the suburb of Muland in Mumbai City. SO is the design label attached to the Sofitel brand.
Accor’s Pullman Hotels and Resorts brand has become the region’s fastest growing five-star hotel brand. There are presently 13 Pullman hotels operating throughout the region, and a further 18 committed to development, including two projects for India – Pullman Gurgaon with 284 guest rooms and Pullman Lavasa with 250 guest rooms.
