NEW DELHI : American hospitality firm Marriott International Inc., which runs Marriott Hotels and is the largest operator in India, will initially launch its “playful, young hotel brand ‘Moxy’ in Mumbai, Chennai, and Bengaluru, Neeraj Govil, Senior Vice President, Operations – Asia Pacific (Excluding Greater China), Marriott International, said in an interview.
The Moxy brand will have a “pretty solid resonance in India", he said. “It will combine style with affordability and we believe we will have significant traction with this brand here," he said.
In 2022-23, Marriott expects to open 20 properties in India, including the 300-room JW Marriott Bengaluru Prestige Golfshire Resort and Spa. JW Marriott has presence in several Indian cities, including Delhi and Mumbai.
Globally, it owns 30 brands, such as Bvlgari Hotels, St Regis, Edition, The Ritz-Carlton, and W Hotels in the luxury space, besides premium hotels like Le Meridien, Sheraton, and Westin.
Marriott operates 128 hotels in India at present across 16 brands. Last year, it signed 24 new hotels in South Asia, 17 of which were in India. The company expects to have 70 more hotels in India by 2027. It will also launch its luxury brand Marriott Marquis in New Delhi.
The new additions, primarily in the luxury and premium space, are growing significantly, Govil said. Several newly signed projects are under construction in tier II markets, he said.
“We do expect to see considerable traction across all segments in India. Our South Asia region is anchored around India and it is the second biggest market for us in the Asia Pacific (after China). So it is a big, big market for us. These hotels should come to fruition in the next three to five years," Govil said.
According to hospitality consultancy Hotelivate, with approximately 21,000 rooms, Marriott International remains the number one hotel operator in the country. Indian Hotels Co. Ltd (IHCL) (Taj Hotels Resorts, Palaces, Safaris, and Ginger), despite having more properties than Marriott International, ranked second as its room count is lower.
“Another (covid) wave notwithstanding, we do see a lot of indicators that point to the fact that demand is likely to return. We see a lot of our hotels growing in occupancy. We also believe that our profit margins in the business will improve in these years as we ramp up back to 2019 levels. These two years will be very important years for us," Govil added.
In the next two years, the company will open hotels in Goa, Vadodara, Trichy, Trivandrum, Amritsar, Rishikesh, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad, besides mid-priced brand Courtyard by Marriott in Mumbai.
Late last year, it signed an agreement with the Prestige Group and DB Realty to launch the Marriott Marquis in New Delhi and St. Regis at Aerocity, which will be operational by 2025. The 779- room inventory across the two brands, will include the 600-room Marriott Marquis.
The hospitality industry is going through seismic changes and all the companies are recalibrating their businesses from time to time, Govil said. “This has not been overly helpful to us, because we’ve had to recalibrate periodically," he said. However, the recovery has been faster compared to the previous waves, Govil said. “This time around, we are not seeing as many cancellations, but instead there have been postponements," he said.
Hotelivate said in a report that in FY21, organized rooms supply in India grew by 3.3% over the previous fiscal year. India has about 144,000 branded rooms, including the 4,093 new rooms launched last year. A majority of this inventory came up in major metros, growing 1% in FY21. Delhi topped the charts with 15,181 rooms, followed by Mumbai, including Navi Mumbai (14,330), and Bengaluru with 13,901 rooms.
According to the 2021 Indian Hospitality Trends and Opportunities report by Hotelivate Marriott, IHCL, and Radisson Hotel Group were the three largest hotel companies in India followed by French hospitality firm Accor.
