Black Rock Hotels plans to scale up to 4,500 keys

New Delhi: Black Rock Hotels & Resorts, which runs resorts largely in Rajasthan on a revenue share model, is planning an initial public offering in 2031 and aims to take its portfolio to 4,500 rooms, founder Anshul Bhargava told ET.

The company operates seven hotels with about 950 keys. The portfolio includes Ananta Spa & Resort, Anant Mahal and Beelwa Palace in Jaipur, Pushkara Resort & Spa in Ajmer, and AamaGhati Wildlife Resort and The Farm Stay by AamaGhati in Ranthambore.

It plans to add around 900 more keys by the end of 2027 and expects to cross 3,000 keys by 2030.


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Unlike the usual management contract, where an operator takes 7 to 10% of the top line as fees, Black Rock pays owners 25% of gross revenue and keeps the rest while bearing salaries and running costs. Revenue flows through a common banking arrangement from which the owner is paid first. The company also funds the costs before opening, which typically means six months of staffing ahead of launch and four to five months after it until the hotel breaks even.

“The first thing an owner wants to know is whether his money is safe with us,” Bhargava said. “Whatever comes in during the month, he takes his 25% out first. Whether we make a profit or a loss, that doesn’t matter to him anymore.”

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The structure puts the bulk of hotel revenue on Black Rock’s own books, which the company sees as central to its listing plans.

“We may go public in 2031,” Bhargava said. “If we are sitting at a very healthy 25 to 30% margin on the books and that holds, then we should look at a public offering, so we can go ahead with a mix of picking up hotels and building our own.”

He said the company would need at least Rs 1,200 to 1,300 crore in annual revenue before it considers a listing, with Rs 2,000 crore being the ideal. Black Rock carries no debt, he added.

Its first owned property, a 241 room resort by a lake in Udaipur, will open with about 150 rooms in March 2027. A second owned project of 225 rooms is expected in about two years, taking owned inventory to roughly 450 rooms.

The company has signed an agreement with one of Jaipur’s leading developers for about 600 rooms on a sale and leaseback basis. Black Rock has brought in the designer, architect and consultants for the project and will manage the property once units are sold to investors and leased back.

“Sale and leaseback is here to stay,” he said. “But you need a very strong sales team to sell it off in a good time frame.”

Bhargava said a new brand would be unveiled in the next six to eight months, aimed at 18 to 20 hotels of 50 to 100 rooms each. The brand will be launched once 12 to 14 hotels are signed and five or six of them are open. Hotels in the current portfolio retain their owners’ names and are marketed under the Black Rock banner.

Two properties in Jim Corbett are due to open between December and March. The company has signed projects in Vrindavan, Alibaug, Kumbhalgarh, Ranakpur, Jodhpur, Shimla and Hanumangarh, as well as a palace in Jaisalmer and a resort about 35 km from Bengaluru on the Mysuru side. It holds a land parcel in Ayodhya and is evaluating a tea estate with a golf course in Dibrugarh.

For international expansion, it is in talks for properties in Dubai, the Maldives and Mauritius.

The company focuses on weddings and MICE business and prefers offbeat locations over city hotels. It is also in talks to manage a food village with 30 to 35 outlets on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, projected to earn Rs 55 to 60 crore a year, and a coworking space of about 2,000 seats in Bengaluru.

Bhargava expects occupancy of close to 90% from October to mid-March, driven by weddings and conferences. He said family celebrations such as birthdays and anniversaries are emerging as the next big source of demand for hotels.

Bhargava said inbound tourism, which was expected to return strongly this year, would probably take another year to recover. “Once that happens, occupancy should go up by about 8 to 12% over the overall benchmarks,” he said.