8 more Ista hotels planned

Hyderabad: New Delhi-based IHHR Hospitality Private Ltd, which has just completed its Ista brand five-star business hotel in Hyderabad at an investment of close to Rs 200 crore on 17 acres in the midst of development centres of major IT and financial services companies, is planning eight more such hotels across the country in the next four years.

The company considers that its concept of building business resort hotels, which is different from the single structure regular star hotels, at a convenient distance to corporates would attract senior management executives and their companies.

'We will subsequently build Ista hotels in all the corporate towns at corporate locations targeting corporate travellers,' Jaideep Anand, general manager, Ista, Hyderabad, told reporters on Friday. The company, which owns two Ananda Spas in Kashmir and Mauritius, had set up its first Ista brand hotel in Bangalore last year.

According to Jaideep, the company is planning to build similar hotels in Amritsar, Pune, Nagpur, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Coimbatore and Ahmedabad besides a second hotel in Bangalore.

'Though the hotel is just a couple of months old and it will be fully ready with spa facilities by January 15, 2008, almost half of the 275 core accounts in the A-ring (the immediate catchment) have already committed business with us,' he said citing examples of Microsoft and Franklin Templeton.

The company would undertake the doubling of room at the Hyderabad hotel from the present 167 next year, he said, adding that they were expecting 70 per cent occupancy starting next year. The hotel's built-up area is close to 5-acre with just three levels of hotel rooms forming the outer part, while the inner building houses lobbies, restaurants, banquet hall, board rooms among other things.

Apart from expanding the room capacity at Hyderabad, the company will also start IHHR institute of management to meet the in-house manpower requirement, and a spa institute next year. It is also looking at the possibility of setting up a similar hotel in Visakhapatnam.

The investment would be anywhere between Rs 80 lakh and Rs 1 crore per room, depending on the land cost, and the company is looking at the option of going public to raise funds for its future plans in the next couple of years, he said.

Ashok and Goutham Khanna, the two promoters, own the controlling stake in the company while Morgan Stanley, G Corp and a few international investors hold the rest. The Ista brand would have over 1,000 rooms after it completes the hotels in the proposed locations.