Have you ever travelled on business and yearned for a quiet, memorable place to stay in, away from hordes of other business travellers? Or if on a vacation, have you longed for a unique experience?
If you have, small, independently-owned boutique hotels are the answer. And these days it is not too difficult to find such properties, thanks to entrepreneurs like Mamta Sharma.
Sharma, the executive director of 32nd Milestone, a hospitality group, is betting big on the concept of boutique hotels. Her company has already announced the opening of its luxury boutique resort at Candolim Beach in Goa.
"The 360 Degree Beach Retreat is a 12-room boutique property and tariffs would be between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000 per night," she says.
The group is also coming up with four new boutique hotels in Goa at an investment of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) and a five-star hotel in Gurgaon at an investment of Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion).
"We have just finished construction of a Portuguese-style 27-room hotel around the Baga river in Goa and a 'restaurant on stairs' which will be ready before the next tourist season," shares Sharma.
This property, she adds, will be built in a Greek-Mediterranean style villa and is slated for an October-November opening this year.
The company is also in the process of adding 16 rooms to another property in the Calungute area in Goa, which is a four-room Portuguese villa at the moment.
Sharma says that till some time ago, travellers in India had a limited choice of hotels. They could opt for a budget or mid-market hotel, or choose to stay in a more upscale property.
"Boutique hotels tend to denote smaller, innovative hotels that offer personalised services, superior locations, distinctive architectural designs and plenty of amenities that are not found elsewhere," Sharma says.
But how does a boutique hotel's financial performance measure against the industry-wide benchmarks of the cyclical hospitality industry?
"It should be noted that several boutique hotels lease out their food and beverage operations, thus lowering the contribution of food and beverage revenue to total revenue.
Boutique hotel owners will frequently lease out their restaurants and lounges to a celebrity chef or locally popular operators to further promote and emphasise the overall 'trendy' image and market position desired for the property," explains a PKF Hospitality Research analyst.
Interestingly, during the off-season, the 32nd Milestone properties could be offered to filmstars and other celebrities.
However, boutique hotel owners are aware that just a change in the architectural design of a property will not hook the travellers. To make her offering special, Sharma is chalking out an adventure sport plan.
The hospitality group will attract tourists by offering a 20-person private luxury yacht for an out-of-the-box holiday experience.
To take the adventure idea forward, 32nd Milestone will also offer air-conditioned tents on the cliff side. "We will bring our guests by yacht to the cliff side around Goa, and around 10 air-conditioned tents along with a fresh water pool will complete the adventure holiday package," says Sharma.
The hospitality company is in talks with the Sheraton group for management of its Gurgaon property, 32nd Milestone, which is also slated for expansion from the existing 50 rooms to 250 rooms complete with a night club and banquet area.
"We have tied up with Unitech to develop commercial areas and office spaces in Gurgaon and expect to invest about Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) before the Commonwealth Games in 2010," says Sharma. The company expects to register a turnover of Rs 25-30 crore (Rs 250-300 million) during the current fiscal, up from last year's Rs 17 crore (Rs 170 million).
Meanwhile, PKF Hospitality Research is forecasting a relatively stable level of industry performance for the next few years. It does not foresee any dramatic swings up or down in occupancies or room rates for the overall industry.
The hospitality research believes that boutique hotels will continue to enjoy the strong performance premiums they have historically achieved, but without the wild cyclical oscillations seen in the past.
