Lemon Tree Hotels to invest Rs 4,500 crore;add 5,200 rooms by FY19

NEW DELHI: Hospitality chain Lemon Tree Hotel Company plans to invest around Rs 4,500 crore to add 5,200 rooms across India in the next four years.

"We plan to add 5,200 rooms across the country at an investment of around Rs 4,500 crore by end of next four financial years," Lemon Tree Hotel Company President and Executive Director Rahul Pandit told PTI.

Of these, nearly half of the rooms would be under the company's joint venture with APG, he added.

Founded in September, 2002 by Patu Keswani, Lemon Tree Hotels Company at present owns and operates 25 hotels in 15 cities with 2,800 rooms and 3,000 employees.

The company has a 53:47 joint venture with Dutch pension fund APG.

Pandit was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the company's 100 per cent money back offer, which allows guests to avail of vouchers equivalent to the value of their billing amount that can be used in their future stays in all Lemon Tree properties across India.

The company now operates hotels across its three brands--Lemon Tree Premier, which is a upscale brand, Lemon Tree Hotels that caters to midscale segment and Red Fox Hotels that is the economy brand of the company.

While the Lemon Tree Hotels constitute the largest segment of hotel properties at present, going forward it sees the Red Fox Hotels to be its future growth driver.

"As we go forward a large chunk of the new hotels will be Red Fox. As we expand into tier II cities and religious destinations, economy segment will mainly drive the growth," Pandit said.

When asked about the probable locations for expansion he said it will be pan-India.

"In the near future, cities we are looking at are Varanasi, Lucknow, Agra, Srinagar, Katra and Tirupati," Pandit said.