AAHL and IHG Hotels & Resorts signed a managed hotel portfolio agreement last month to develop five hotels across ‘key’ airport-linked and ‘high-growth’ urban destinations in India. The portfolio is expected to add close to 1,500 keys and includes a Kimpton hotel in Jaipur, as well as Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels within upcoming hospitality-led mixed-use developments as part of Adani Airport cities. These hotels are planned across Navi Mumbai, Mengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram.
“There is a massive alignment between their aspirations and ours for the long term. This is centred around growth ambitions and the reliance on the infrastructure growth in the country,” said Jain.
“We are in talks to deepen the partnership. AAHL has got many airports, and many more hotels to build at those airports, and the existing ones. They have publicly said they want to do 60 hotels. We have signed five. Not all will come to us, but we are certain we will do more together,” he added.
IHG has a fair exposure near airports in locations such as Lucknow, Delhi and Mumbai. “When you land at Heathrow, you see IHG family hotels everywhere, and when you land in Singapore, you see the Crowne Plaza Changi,” said Jain. “As more land parcels come up around Jewar airport, and owners are interested, we would like to be in that consideration set. Given the breadth of our portfolio, we could also look at other tier II, tier III and tier IV markets if there is demand,” he added.
IHG Hotels & Resorts currently operates 52 hotels across six brands in India and has a pipeline of 98 hotels expected to open over the next three to five years.
Besides announcing the launch of the luxury lifestyle brand Kimpton through the AAHL deal, IHG is also bringing its Vignette Collection brand to India.