Courtyard emerges fastest growing brand of Marriott

AHMEDABAD: Five years after the first Courtyard by Marriott hotel opened in Chennai, the mid-sized hotel brand has emerged as the fastest growing among the five brands that operate under the Marriott International Inc banner in the country. In the next three years, the brand is expected to make further headway as the US-based international chain plans to build 18 more Courtyard hotels while expanding into smaller towns and satellite cities in India.

"We opened the first Courtyard hotel in Chennai in 2006. Today, the brand is the fastest growing brand," said Rajeev Menon, area vice president (India, Malaysia, Maldives & Australia) of Marriott Hotels India Pvt Ltd. Among the 15 operational hotels in India, the Courtyard brand accounts for nearly half of them. Currently the hotel-chain operates five brands in India which includes, JW Marriott (two properties), Renaissance (one property), Courtyard (seven properties), Marriott Hotels & Resort (four properties) and the Marriott executive Appartment brand (one property).

"We have 42 hotels under construction in India, of which 18 are Courtyard," Mr Menon told ET. The upcoming Courtyard hotels are expected to come up in small towns and satellite cities like Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bilaspur, Kochi, Guwahati, Raipur, Ludhiana, Shillong, Jalandhar, Bhopal and Amritsar.

"While brands like JW Marriott exist in gateway destinations, Courtyard is a great four-star brand to be put in secondary and tertiary markets," he remarked adding that the hotel chain is focussing on expanding in to the "relatively untapped" Tier-II, III and IV towns in India. The average per night room rental of a Courtyard is about Rs 6500, while that of the JW Marriott is over Rs 14,000.

Marriott also plans to bring in two new brands into India. The first will be the premium Ritz Carlton brand, and the other will the be Fairfield Inn brand that will be launched in Tier-III and IV cities. "The first Fairfield hotel will be up and running in Manesar near Gurgaon by 2013," Mr Menon said.