Accor, a leading international hotel operator, is setting up a string of low-cost hotels in the country, according to Mr Jean Michel Casse, the senior vice-president (operations).
He said in an interview here on Sunday that the room rent in the hotels would be less than Rs 2,000 a day and the first in the series — christened Formula One — would be opened in Noida in January. By 2020, there would be 25-30 such hotels in the country. “We are planning to open such hotels in Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad within a year or so,” Mr Casse said.
He said he was here to see the new property of the group – Novotel Vizag Varun Beach near RK beach in the city which will be formally opened on December 7. He said he was “delighted that the hotel had come up very nice”. The hotel, overlooking the Bay of Bengal, has 225 ergonomically designed rooms with a panoramic view of the ocean. Besides star hotel amenities and a wide range of dining options, landscaped gardens, infinity pool and the ocean, the hotel has a fitness centre and the joggers track on the terrace gardens with a sea-view.
He said the Accor group would become the leading international hotel operator in India by 2015. “We have ten operating hotels now and the one here to be opened next month would be the eleventh. We have 33 hotels under construction in the country,” he explained.
Mr Nikhil Dhodapkar, Accor Group Regional Director (Sales and Marketing-India), and the General Manager of the hotel, Mr Mohd Shoeb, were also present.