Cabana Hotel In Ooty
Charles Helm, chairman of Best Western International, with Cabana Group chairman Prabhu Goel in Mumbai.Cabana Hotel Management has signed a master licensee agreement with leading global hotel chain Best Western International. It will invest $1.2 billion to set up over 100 Best Western-branded hotels in the next 7-9 years.These hotels will come up in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Ooty, Kanyakumari and Jaisalmer. The Cabana group will also develop its own properties for the Best Western brand in India.Cabana has already identified locations for six Best Western hotels and will invest $10 million in each.“We are establishing hotels in Ooty (Udhagamandalam), Bangalore, Kanyakumari, Jaisalmer, Rameshwaram and Bhubaneswar, on which we will start construction soon,” Prabhu Goel, co-chairman of Cabana Group, said.
On revenue expectations, he said, “It depends on market tariffs, but it should be over $10 million per hotel by 2010 for these six locations.” These six properties would complete construction in two years, he said.Apart from developing its own properties, the group would distribute franchises to convert hotels and render the Best Western brand hotels across Tier-I and Tier-II cities in the country.
“Non-availability of land, and tedious paper-work procedures still pose challenges for the domestic hotel management industry. We plan to raise funds through private equity to meet the cost for land acquisition in big cities,” said Goel.
