ITC’s hotel business continues to leverage its ‘asset-right’ strategy to be among the fastest-growing hospitality chains in the country. The company has over 130 properties and 12,000 rooms under its distinctive brands of ITC Hotels in the luxury segment, Mementos in the luxury lifestyle segment, Welcomhotel in the upscale segment, Storii in the boutique premium segment, Fortune in the mid-market to upscale segment, and WelcomHeritage in the leisure and heritage segment.
The business is witnessing growing interest amongst property owners to partner with its iconic brands, resulting in a healthy generation of leads and a pipeline of management contracts. ITC Hotels is confident of rapidly scaling up revenues through this route going forward.
Over the years, ITC has expanded its footprint in the luxury, upper-upscale, upscale, and mid-market to upscale segments of the Indian hospitality industry. ITC’s ‘asset-right’ strategy envisages a substantial part of incremental room additions to accrue through management contracts. In the last 24 months, 25 hotels have been opened under the brand portfolio, out of which 24 are managed properties.
ITC Hotels has embraced an ‘asset-right’ approach as part of its ITC Next strategy. The focus is on sweating existing assets, increasing the footprint of management contracts, and creating additional revenue streams to engender the next horizon of growth and value creation while providing a best-in-class consumer experience.
Continuing with the pursuit of its ‘asset-right’ strategy, the ITC recently launched two new brands: Mementos in the luxury lifestyle segment and Storii in the boutique premium segment.
– Storii by ITC Hotels is positioned as a collection of handpicked properties offering unique, bespoke, experience-led stays that co-exist in harmony with the environment and the local community.
– Mementos by ITC Hotels brings together a collection of unique hotels across varied destinations ranging from modern marvels and hidden retreats to historic treasures, leaving guests with experiences and memories that become prized mementoes long after their visit.
Currently, the ITC manages seven hotels under these brands.
The Welcomhotel brand now consists of 25 hotels and over 2,700 keys and is well positioned to scale up rapidly on the back of a strong pipeline of management contracts.
The Fortune brand continues to maintain its preeminent position in the mid-market to upscale segment, with a positioning of ‘First-class, full-service hotels—an affordable alternative’, comprising 51 operating properties and over 3,800 rooms. The ‘WelcomHeritage’ brand continues to create best-in-class authentic experiences with an operational inventory of 38 hotels comprising over 1,000 rooms.
The hotel business delivered a stellar performance, driven by strong growth in RevPAR across customer segments (retail, contracted, MICE, etc) as well as leveraging marquee events hosted in the country. The business continued to focus on its strategy of offering a host of curated propositions across accommodation, dining, and banqueting services to augment revenues across properties. This included the introduction of special packages offering distinct value propositions and flexibility, targeting short getaways/staycations, revamped packages for the MICE and wedding segments, and the extension of exclusive privileges to members of the Club ITC Loyalty programme.
The financial performance of the business touched a record high as segment revenue for the year stood at Rs 2989.50 crore while segment EBITDA at Rs 1049.88 crore exceeded the Rs 1000 crore mark for the first time. Segment PBIT for the year stood at Rs 753.77 crore, witnessing a growth of approximately 39% over the previous year.
