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Mumbai-headquartered Mirah Group, the owner of Citrus Hotels, plans to roll out two new properties by the end of 2013. Citrus has around 520 rooms spread across eight hotels in the country.
While a 40-keys hotel is set for inauguration at Pench (Madhya Pradesh) within the next three months, the 80-room Jodhpur property is due to open around June-July this year.
Plans are also afoot to start construction of another 120-room hotel in Nagpur. The hotel is expected to be operational in another two years’ time.
The group, currently, owns seven hotels; one each in Lonavala, Mahabaleshwar, Pune, Bangalore, Goa, Sriperumbudur and Alleppy; and manages one hotel in Gurgaon.
“We plan to double our room count to nearly 1,000 keys by the end of FY-15,” Somnath Pal, Chief Executive Officer, Citrus Check Inns, said.
According to him, the company has spent around Rs 700 crore on its nine properties including the upcoming ones (in Pench and Jodhpur).
“We are also keen on entering into management contracts for other properties,” Pal said adding that the company was exploring tie-ups in Mumbai, Gujarat, Delhi, and other smaller North Indian cities that have commercial importance.
Apart from hospitality, the Mirah Group, which reported a turnover of Rs 800 crore in 2011-12, has presence in food and beverages through the Rajdhani chain of restaurants, Manchester United café bars, Mad over Donuts (MoD) outlets and Café Mangii. It also operates in the holiday package segment through Citrus Check Inns and in the tours and travel segment through Bon Voyage.
Holiday Memberships
According to Pal, having its own chain of hotels will help the company cross sell its holiday memberships – such as a flexi stay package. It would also reduce dependence on affiliated hotels. “We would cross sell the holiday membership schemes through our hotel chains too,” he added.
The holiday membership scheme, which operates under the Citrus Check Inn brand, was introduced in April last year, and has around 700-odd members. Club Mahindra and Sterling Holiday Resorts offer similar membership-based prepaid holiday schemes.
Apart from setting up its own offices, the Mirah Group would also look at tie-ups with agents, especially those selling financial products, and telco retailers for pushing through the membership plans.
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