According to Sunjae Sharma, managing director of India and Southwest Asia, the hotel group plans to add seven properties to 50 hotels in India by 2025 and aims to reach 100 by 2030. “The hospitality industry will have great benefits in the coming years.”
The head of the company that runs brands such as Hyatt Regency and Alila Diwa said the supply of new hotels in the country was faster than expected, even without the promotion of international operations.
“International travel is still not back, and India’s travel is still mainly driven by domestic consumption,” he said. “The business has not returned, but domestic travel has not yet been abandoned. This demand in India has fueled demand.”
He said: “With India’s advancement, second-tier cities are growing. The tendency of these cities to pay for hotels is also growing. We are also shifting our focus to destinations such as Igatpuri in Maharashtra.
The next 48 hotels will be mainly based on Andaz and JDV brands, and a new brand is introduced here. Like their peers, Hyatt is heading for experience-led accommodations where travelers have the ability to pay for hotel rooms grown in the country. The company will open a hotel in Kasauli, Himaal Pradesh, and sign a 200-room Grand Hyatt in the timber trail, Pawanoo, in Kandaghat, the same state.
New cultural destinations
It will also have attributes in the “new leisure and cultural destinations” such as Vrindavan, Kumbhalgarh, Katra, Jim Corbett National Park and Pushkar. Others will cater to business, leisure and religious travelers in Kochi, Bhopal, Vitalapur and Jaipur.
“In the coming years, in India, there is a huge benefit to the hospitality industry. We still don’t have some additional advantages of international operations. No matter what new hotel is being created, it may absorb faster than the demand for hotels grows.” When new hotels are opened, add more rooms to the geography or market. These rooms are “absorbed” when booking regularly – so new supplies won’t be empty.
The company also has three hotels under construction in Goa. It is expanding its footprint in areas like Nepal, with seven new properties set to open in 2025.
In 2023, the company launched Centric’s five-star boutique hotel brand in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Last year, it signed 21 new hotel deals in the region and strengthened its commitment to growth.
The company focuses on key business hubs such as Gift City, Gujarat and Greater Noida, while also expanding leisure and cultural destinations such as Flindawan, Khumbhargar and Jim Kobet National Park. Additionally, it is developing its lifestyle field through brands such as “Destination,” Andaz and “JDV by Hyatt.” Seven hotels will be opened this year.
These will help bring it closer to the 100 hotel goals in 2030. Currently, it operates 52 hotels in Southwest Asia, including 50 in India and two in Nepal, with over 10,000 keys in the region.
Lifestyle and luxury transformation
The company is seeing revenue increase in the food and beverage sector, now contributing about 50%, a few percentage points higher than before the pandemic.
It also focuses on better quality, more lifestyle and experience-driven characteristics. “We are now focusing on global lifestyles and luxury goods,” Sharma said. The company expects double-digit growth in RevPAR (revenue per available room) this year. Revpar is a measure of room yield based on how many rooms a hotel lives in.
“For us, the January-March quarter was stronger than the same period last year and is expected to perform very well this quarter,” Sharma said. “There are probably more wedding dates in the calendar year in 2025 than last year, which will help the hotel operationally.”
The U.S. Hotel Specialty specializes in the Indian stake through Juniper Hotel, which debuted in the stock market last year and operates several hotels here. Hyatt Hotels and Juniper both received direct support from Pritzkers, the original founder of the Hyatt brand. When Hyatt Hotels Corporation was released in 2009, Juniper Hotels was brought into the group’s wider scope of business. It owns partially property in Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Barrelli and Delhi.
Although Sharma did not share any India-specific figures, the company said in its fourth-quarter global results for 2024 that international inbound travel remained the driver of growth in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding the Big China.
Prashant Biyani, vice president of institutional equity research at Elara Capital, said the growth in the Indian hospitality industry is still driven by rising average house prices (ARR), with an expected increase of ARR by 11-13% in the first quarter of fiscal 26, especially in commercial locations. The occupancy rate may be stable in Pan India about 70%.
Biyani’s demand for Samhi Hotels and Juniper remains positive as demand continues to outweighs new supplies – a long-term agreement with Hyatt to manage its hotel assets and Chalet Hotels.
He said companies like Hotels in India are expected to release 10% ARR growth, while Chalet Hotels is expected to report a 12% increase in hybrid ARR, while Lemon Tree and Juniper may benefit from strong ARR and occupancy growth. Biyani said demand in the fourth quarter of FY25 was inspired by business travel and events such as Maha Kumbh, IIFA Awards and concerts, while as of June June in the first quarter of FY26, due to the higher the number of wedding dates and normalized travel after the election.
