On the Ginger trail
Business Standard — March 22, 2006

A hotel chain now emulates the Air Deccan example and provides rooms sans frills.

Downsize? Dumb down? For the Indian Hotels Company (that’s the Taj group of hotels), going low-cost was a logical decision. The airlines had been doing it, true, but could a group associated exclusively with luxury do efficient, business hotels sans frills? Hotels that sold rooms for Rs 1,000 a night?

With IndiOne in Bangalore, launched in June 2004, the chain proved it could, but other promised hotels didn’t follow through. Was the formula working, or had it run out of steam even before it had begun?

With the renaming of IndiOne (under the “Smart Basics hotel” banner) to Ginger, the Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) and its subsidiary, Roots Corporation Limited (RCL), has proved it has been working on the concept. It has now revealed that Ginger hotels are set to roll out budget hotels across the country.

Priced between Rs 950 for a single room and Rs 1,175 for a double room, Ginger hotels have created a new category in the domestic hospitality landscape, said Raymond Bickson, managing director and chief executive officer, IHCL.

RCL’s chief operating officer, Uday Narain, said Ginger hotels is catering to the modern, experienced traveller who does not relate cheap with poor standards. For instance, these hotels include a cyber café, an ATM machine, 24-hour automatic check-in kiosk, wifi facilites all over the hotel, a basic gym, and a 17-inch television in every room.

The first Ginger hotel in the new rollout phase was launched in Haridwar today. Bickson added that starting today, a new Ginger hotel will be launched every six weeks on average. By the end of 2006, Ginger hotels will be operational in Bhubaneswar, Pune, Mysore, Thiruvanthapuram, Durgapur and Goa, while work will soon commence on hotels in Agartala, Tirupur, Pondicherry and Nashik.

Excluding land cost, the budget of each Ginger hotel is approximately Rs 10 crore, said Narain, the money to be raised from long term debt and equity. After an average of 85 per cent occupancy rate, the Bangalore hotel last year had a turnover of Rs 3 crore.

The hotels will employ skeletal staff; services such as facility management, maintenance, and food and beverage services will be outsourced.