The Leela Palaces Hotels and Resorts today said it plans to add up to 1,500 rooms in the next five years, taking the total to 3,500. Based on estimated average cost of a room, the investments would work out to be in the region of Rs 1,500 crore.

The Mumbai-based hotel chain will also launch entry level five star hotel \\\'Essence\\\' across the country, Hotel Leela Venture Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Vivek Nair said. \\\"We will be opening 10 new hotels with an average of 100 to 150 rooms. Right now we have about 2,000 rooms. We will have a total of about 3,500 rooms in the next five years,\\\" Nair told PTI.

The addition of new rooms includes plans to set up \\\'Essence\\\' by The Leela, he said, adding, \\\"We are planning to open eight such properties (\\\'Essence\\\') across India mainly in tier-II cities.\\\" \\\"In the first phase, we will be involved in the design and architecture. The investment would be Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1 crore per room (for Essence), while investment for Leela Palace will be Rs 1-2.5 crore per room. We are discussing with three to four partners (for setting up properties under Essence),\\\" he said.

The company prefers setting up greenfield projects, Nair said, adding that through such projects, they would be able to know the design and architecture of the projects being built. Nair said they would also go for projects which can be later divested into a separate entity. \\\"We realised Rs 500 crore through our Kovalam (in Kerala) property,\\\" he said.

On the company\\\'s upcoming Chennai property, Nair said they have got a good response from several traders and tourist operators for its exotic location. \\\"I was told it will be a better hotel than the Leela Palace in Bangalore,\\\" he said. The Chennai-property, a sea facing hotel, would have 326 rooms.

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