2017 Hotels in India: Trends & Opportunities
As the 6AM alarm blares at dawn, who doesn't find delight in pressing the snooze button ever so often? After all, sleep is silver. However, brushing aside the slumber, the active mind sketches tasks ahead and one leaps into the daily bustle. Crafting ideas, plotting schedules and planning conquests, the business of life and livelihood comes into play.
The Indian hospitality sector has woken up after a longish nap and, it is now time to set the cash registers ringing. While an assortment of influences had repressed the sector's endeavours to grow from 2009 to 2015, last year provided sufficient evidence that the next up-cycle was in the offing. Resultantly, 2016/17 played witness to a year, that has in no uncertain terms been positive on all fronts. Nationwide occupancy was the highest since 2008, countrywide average room rates clocked a clear and measurable increase over several preceding years and the overall supply-demand scale is now tilted squarely in favour of growth in demand outpacing new supply. The time to reap has arrived and industry stakeholders must not lose cognizance of the fact that the inherent cyclical nature of the hotel business would allow this opportunity only for a finite period. Lest we choose to doze off again, it is time for us hoteliers to truly elevate the sectoral performance to the next level. Indeed, Sleep is Silver, but Money is Gold!