Indian cities with the most hotels and the 20 largest hotel chains

Having recorded its highest levels of occupancy in a decade earlier this year, the hotel industry in India is currently booming. A report from HVS consulting provides a detailed account of the availability and supply within the hotel industry in India, including the distribution of hotels by city. 

The study, titled ‘Hotels in India: Trends and Opportunites,’ reveals that hotel occupancy in the country is at a decade-long high. Simultaneously, the Average Room Rates across the country have also hit a four-year high, boosting the value of the entire hospitality industry.

The authors attribute the growth to a number of factors, including government initiatives such as ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ and ‘Incredible India,’ which are primarily aimed at promoting tourism in the country. As a result, the travel and tourism industry of the country grew by 8.5% in 2016 alone, contributing 9.3% to India’s employment growth in the process.

Naturally, this growth has not been evenly distributed, being primarily concentrated in the major economic and tourism hubs of the country. The study uses the supply of hotel rooms as a metric of sorts to determine the size of the market by region. Overall, the supply of rooms in India grew by 6.8% in 2016, amounting to 119,219 rooms.

Examining the distribution across major cities, New Delhi emerged with the highest number of hotel rooms last year with a total of 14,296. “The city witnessed an increase in average rate (1.9%) for the first time in eight years. This growth was complemented by a 5.5% growth in occupancy, resulting in it crossing the 70% mark for the first time in nine years,” said the report.

New Delhi was followed, somewhat predictably, by Mumbai and Bengaluru, with 13,494 and 11,995 rooms respectively. Mumbai, incidentally, topped the list for occupancy rates in the country for the third year in a row, with 74.3%. In addition, the city had the highest average rate of more than Rs.7000, and the highest revenue parity (Rs. 5,705) for the fifth year in a row.

Commercial centres such as Gurugram and NOIDA also made the list of major cities, the former performing much better with 5,263 rooms, while NOIDA recorded the lowest amongst all major cities with 1,422 rooms. In terms of occupancy, Gurugram recorded 66.6%, while NOIDA had a relatively poor occupancy rate of 11.7%.

In terms of growth, however, Kolkata recorded the highest growth rate by far at 18.4%. Goa, which is one of the country’s biggest tourist hubs recorded the second highest level of growth at 14.8%, demonstrating the tangible impact that the growth in the tourism industry has had on the sector.

The study also ventures into predictive analysis, proposing a list of expected growth in supply and number of rooms across major cities until 2022. In terms of future supply, the tables turn to some extent, as NOIDA (lowest existing supply) tops the list with expected growth of 73%, while New Delhi (highest existing supply) falls to the bottom with an expected growth rate of only 12%.

Hotel chains

Alongside the regional breakdown, the consulting firm also examines the major players in the hospitality industry who are behind this growth. The report details the top 20 hotel chains in the country, based on the number of rooms that they operate with.

Topping this list is the Marriott International chain. The chain operates with 45 hotels in India, and, according to the report, currently holds 15,900 rooms. ‘Taj Hotels Resorts Palaces Safaris’ comes in at second on the list, operating with 14,100 rooms. In third place is the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group with 9,500 rooms, followed by AccorHotels in fourth with 9,000.

Rounding off the top 5 is ITC Hotels, with 8000 hotels, followed by the Hyatt Hotels Corporation in sixth with 6100. The Intercontinental Hotels Group comes in at seventh with 5900 rooms, while Lemon Tree Hotels fall below the 5,000 mark in eighth with 4,200 rooms. Rounding off the top 10 are the Sarovar Hotels and Resorts in ninth with 4,150 rooms, Oberoi Hotels and Resorts with 3,900 rooms. Other hotels in the top 20 included popular hotel chains such as The Leela Palace, Hotels and Resorts, as well as illustrious chains such as The Lalit and Hilton Worldwide.

HVS is a consulting firm for the hospitality industry that has been operational with helping hospitality firms to make strategic decisions. Headquartered in New York, HVS operates from 50 offices across the world, employing more than 300 people. Based on in-depth analysis of the tourism and hospitality sectors in each of its operational countries, HVS provides solutions to a number of hospitality-chains across the world.