Lebua Hotels plan four luxury properties in India

New Delhi: Thailand-based luxury hotel chain Lebua Hotels and Resorts in on expansion mode in India with four luxury properties in biggest cities in the next two years for an investment of about Rs.2,000 crore.

Speaking to reporters Deepak Ohri, chief executive, Lebua Hotels, said, “Since we have started the management of three properties in Rajasthan, we expect a strong bottom line that will help the company grow in the country.”

The company has three properties operational in Rajasthan with a total room inventory of 140. The four properties planned for Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Goa will take Lebua’s total number of rooms to 1,500, Ohri said. The expected investment per room is around Rs.2 crore. Of the four properties, three are new projects.

Lebua has six luxury properties in three countries—Thailand, New Zealand and India.

The company plans an air charter service under the Lebua brand in the next three months in all three countries. To begin with, the hotel operator is looking at three chartered planes.

“We will start Lebua Air in the next 90 days which will cater to all our properties across the three countries,” said Ohri. Industry analysts said small foreign hospitality companies may face hurdles in the short term.

“Currently, the industry is facing a liquidity crunch that may force many developers to stick with their core business area of real estate, so we may see more of these deals falling through, but it will be a short-term scenario,” said Chintan Patel, director, real estate and hospitality services, Ernst and Young.