Kamat Hotels to expand The Orchid Hotel brand across India

By Rashmi Pradhan KAMAT HOTELS India Ltd (KHIL) is looking to expand their flagship brand, The Orchid Hotel across the country. Speaking to BW Hotelier, Vishal Kamat, CEO, KHIL, said, ’The Company is aggressively looking to manage hotels in Tier-II and III cities. Currently, The Orchid Hotel is operational in Mumbai (flagship property) and Pune. We are looking for a strategic and controlled growth for our flagship brand, The Orchid. The expansion will be purely through management contracts. With the pool of talented manpower, the Kamat Hotels has an expertise in running hotels. We want to utilize the talent and expand in the market. Therefore, going forward we shall take up the management of greenfield and whitefield projects.’ Rajesh Gupta, Vice President-Operations, The Orchid Hotel Mumbai, added, ’We are in advance stage of talks with developers to enter management contracts, in cities including Igatpuri, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Indore, Lucknow, Lonavla etc. to manage hotels. By the end of this financial year we aim to sign up with 2-3 hotels.’ Elaborating on the expansion plan, Gupta said, ’For the upcoming properties we are looking for an inventory between 150-200 and large conference facility. The customers in Tier-II and III cities are waiting to explore and experience a five-star hotel and are aware of The Orchid brand. There is a huge potential for corporate events, weddings and social functions in these cities.’ He further said, ’We make sure that the agreement make business sense and value proposition for investor, owner, brand and consumers. The Orchid Hotel brand has minimum quality standards, which the owner is required to fulfill. We do a 360 degree assessment before taking up the management of a property. The Group doesn’t compromise on things which are essential and integral part of The Orchid Hotel.’ Talking about on the developments so far, Gupta said that the Company is in advance stages of talks to manage a 90 keys property close to Mumbai. The property is spread across 16 acres and can be converted into a great conference facility. Besides the property also has a great marriage venue. Gupta informed, ’We are also in talks to another hotel owner in the picturesque hill town of Lonavla. This property is also very nice and has a great potential to be developed into a five-star hotel. Besides the talks are on to build a greenfield project in Madhya Pradesh as well.’ Kamat revealed, ’We have been getting quite a few proposals for a long time, now we have decided to pursue the management contract root aggressively to expand the group’s presence in various parts of the country. We have created a separate division for the same and have created a team which would be headed by the Vice President.’ According to Gupta, the company is focusing on two aspects; one is to develop green properties. Since we are Asia’s first Ecotel hotel, we have the expertise to build green properties. We will be providing support and share the technology with these developers to create environment friendly hotels. We will be strengthening our various sales offices country wide to ensure that these properties get proper sales backing. The company operates five-star eco-friendly properties under the brand of The Orchid. The other brands of company are VITS, a four-star business hotels, Lotus Resorts and Gadh Hotels. Photo Top: Vishal Kamat, CEO Kamat Hotels India Ltd Photo Bottom: Rajesh Gupta, Vice President-Operations, The Orchid Hotel Mumbai The author is Assistant Editor at BWHotelier.