InterContinental Hotels Group and Marriott International each
plan to bring to India a few dozen of their midprice, business-travel-oriented
properties through separate joint-venture deals, the companies announced.
IHG has signed a deal with hotel investment firm Duet Group
to build 19 Holiday Inn Express properties, totaling about 3,300 rooms, in
India during the next five years. The development will concentrate on "major
metros and key secondary cities," including New Delhi, Mumbai and
Bangalore.
Marriott, meanwhile, announced a preliminary agreement with
New Delhi-based investment company Samhi Hotels to build by 2015 about 15
Fairfield by Marriott hotels, totaling about 2,500 rooms, in such Indian cities
as Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. The properties will be built to a new
prototype geared toward Indian business travelers, according to the companies.
Navjit Ahluwalia, Marriott senior vice president of
development in India, noted that India has "very few branded moderate-tier
hotels."
The agreements are a small portion of the development
pipeline in India for both IHG and Marriott. Not counting the Holiday Inn
Express hotels, IHG has about 46 hotels totaling more than 10,000 rooms, under
development to open by 2016 in India. Marriott plans to expand from 12 to 100
hotels in India across seven of its brands by 2015.