No plans to enter luxury space: Lemon Tree Hotels

The Lemon Tree Hotels Company has said that it has no plans to enter luxury space and wants to position itself as a strong player in the ‘value for money’ segment.

Rahul Pandit, President and Executive Director, The Lemon Tree Hotels Company, told Business Line that the group aims to hit the 40,000-room-mark in the next 10 years and become the largest hotel chain in the country. “Today for most of the listed hotel companies, a majority of their top line is through international travellers, while our top line is focussed on domestic. About 84 per cent of our top line is domestic and we are engaged in how we can take this percentage up,” he said.

Pandit was here to launch a ‘100 per cent money back offer’, which allows guests to avail themselves of full money back on their stays at Lemon Tree properties. Guests can book a stay with any Lemon Tree Premier, Lemon Tree or Red Fox hotel in India and will receive vouchers equivalent to the billing amount at the time of check-out. Guests can then redeem these transferable vouchers on future stays on all hotel services. The earning period of this offer is valid from June 2 to September 30, 2014 while the burning period is till December 31, 2014.

On the idea behind the offer, Vikramjit Singh, Chief Sales Officer, The Lemon Tree Hotels Company, said, “We need to get higher engagement with our customers and also use customers as sales force. We expect this offer to increase our repeat customer percentage from 32 per cent to 50 per cent.”

The hotel group plans to get listed within the next three years, and aims to become the second largest in the Indian hospitality sector by that time.

“Over the next decade, we want to be the largest in this geography. As we speak, we are developing 12 assets on the ground across 8 cities. Over the next 10 years, we want to hit the 40,000-room-mark,” Pandit said.

On expansion, Singh said, “A property is set to come up in Hyderabad (third in the city), two more hotels in Gurgaon, and hotels in Mumbai, Pune, Udaipur, Kolkata, Dehradun, Chennai are on the anvil.”

The average room rates for the hotel brands are Lemon Tree Premier – ₹5,000, Lemon Tree - ₹4,000, and Red Fox - ₹2,500.

Founded in September 2002 by Patu Keswani, the New Delhi-based company currently owns and operates 25 hotels in 15 cities.