Last week, we were on the earnings calls of two Indian travel companies, and the common thread running through both was hotels.
At Taj-owner Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), the story was about scale. With 670 hotels operating or in development, IHCL expects to cross its 2030 target of 700 by March. A fresh goal is on the way. What’s interesting is how it is getting there. Almost all of its pipeline is capital-light, which means IHCL can take its brands into more Indian cities without having to own the buildings.
Then there was online travel platform Ixigo, looking at hotels from the other end of the market. Right now, hotels are a tiny slice of its business. But the company believes they could become its biggest, or second-biggest, in four to five years. The opportunity? India’s huge budget and independent hotel market, especially in smaller cities.
Yes, India needs more hotel rooms. But there is also a huge existing market that is still fragmented, independent and largely offline.
Work needs to be done to bring more of that demand into the branded and online world, the one with better hotels, better technology and, perhaps most importantly, more trust.
That opportunity is huge. And there’s plenty of room left to grow. Quite literally.
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