When the going gets tough, it’s time to buckle down and revisit one’s business plans. Chalet Hotels Ltd did precisely this over the past couple of years. It diversified into other asset classes besides hotels, and this strategy helped it during the pandemic as the rentals from annuity assets continued.
Chalet Hotels’ portfolio comprises seven fully operational hotels representing 2,554 keys, and four commercial spaces, representing ~0.9 million square feet, close to the hospitality assets. However, Rajneesh Malhotra, COO, Chalet Hotels Ltd, stated that the company would further diversify into new markets and leisure hotel segments.
“We renovated Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel, which is now rebranded to Westin Mumbai Powai Lake,” he revealed. “At Novotel Pune, additional 88 rooms should be ready this year before the peak season kicks in. Apart from these, we are evaluating the demand dynamics to commence construction of the new Hyatt Regency in Airoli.” On the commercial front, its building in Mumbai’s Powai district will go for commissioning next year, while the commercial towers in the Bengaluru Hotel Whitefield complex will be completed by mid-2022.
WAIT AND WATCH
When the pandemic broke out, Chalet Hotels’ management kept a close watch on costs. They paused everything that needed to be paused while constantly monitoring market conditions.
It also decided to push back the property improvement plans for Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel by a few months before the rebranding activity. Malhotra believes that this rebranding came at the ‘right time’ when COVID-19 restrictions ease, there is a positive overall business sentiment and the demand is ramping up. The company’s association with brands like Accor and Marriott helped it gain knowledge early on during the pandemic, as COVID hit other countries well before India. Therefore, Chalet Hotel’s teams could quickly roll out SOPs and protocols to ably deal with the situation on the ground as it unfolded.
“Through the pandemic, we maintained focus on managing cashflows, optimizing costs and adapting operations and services as per changing customer expectations. We re-jigged project timelines based on various demand drivers, repurposed a few assets to improve yield, leveraged technology to improve efficiency, and enhanced customer experience, as we continue to explore new growth avenues,” he added.
Chalet Hotels’ growth strategy in the hospitality vertical now includes expansion into leisure destinations and new markets like Delhi NCR, Chennai etc. Malhotra claimed that it would evaluate all options that come its way, even as it repurposes its retail assets to relatively low-risk commercial spaces.
