ITC Hotels and Tatas’ Indian Hotels Company will invest strongly over the next few years to add properties in the segment, considered a booming one. ITC is planning to start at least 40 hotels in the next few years. Under various stages of development, the additions would take ITC’s tally to 150. The Tata group-promoted Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), which runs hotels under four brands, including Taj, at present has 109 properties in India and abroad; it aims to add 41 in the next four years. ITC, which has all its hotels in India, already has the biggest domestic tally, of 110. IHCL has 93 in India and 16 abroad.

As per a report by Swaraj Baggonkar in Business Standard, ITC is pumping Rs 9,000 crore over the next few years to double its room inventory to a little over 16,000. The Kolkata-based company’s aim is to spread the expansion across all its brands — ITC Hotels, WelcomeHotels, Fortune Hotels and WelcomeHeritage.

Mumbai-based IHCL is also looking to maintain an average rate of opening two new properties every three months, for the next 48 months. As many as 41 new properties, with 6,500 rooms, would be added to the tally under the brands Taj, Vivanta by Taj, Gateway and Ginger, in India and six other nations. “In view of the positive long-term outlook for the Indian hotel industry, ITC continues to sustain its aggressive investment-led growth strategy. The company is poised to emerge as the largest hotel chain in the country over the next few years,” remarked Y C Deveshwar, chairman of ITC, in the company’s annual report.

The onslaught of several foreign hotel brands in India such as from Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood, to name a few, has hastened the expansion plans of Indian hotel brands, especially of IHCL and ITC.