Leela Group to invest USD 500 mn in five hotels by 2012

Hospitality player The Leela Hotels, Palaces and Resorts is planning to invest USD 500 million (about Rs 2,500 crore) for opening five new properties across the country by 2012.
    
"We have presently five hotels and resorts in India and we are inaugurating our recently completed property in Udaipur this month. We are now planning to invest 500 million USD to open five more properties by 2012", The Leela Hotels, Palaces and Resorts Group Head-Corporate Communications Mithu Basu said on the sidelines of a Group event.
    
He said the Group would open a hotel each in Delhi and Chennai by 2010 and in Hyderabad, Pune and Agra by 2012. The Group presently has an inventory of 1,600 rooms, including the soon to be opened Udaipur property, and it will be adding more
than 1,000 rooms in the five hotels planned by 2012.

The Leela Hotels is also planning to launch its series of schemes for attracting visitors to its leisure segment. The hotels in Goa and Kovalam (Kerala) are in the leisure segment and the one in Udaipur would also fall in the category.

"We are launching special schemes and packages besides reducing rents by up to 10 per cent to attract more customers during the upcoming summer season," The Leela Kempinski Goa general manager Pascal Dupuis said.
    
He added, that the hotel chain would be offering packages including special breakfast, airport transfers, wedding facility and reduced room rents, especially focusing on domestic consumers.
    
Regarding the ongoing downturn, Dupuis said that room occupancy in the leisure segment is around 75 per cent.