Night curfew not a big deterrent; haven't seen any major cancellations: Indian Hotels

Amid rising concerns of the new COVID-19 strain and with many state governments having imposed night curfews to avoid large gatherings Prabhat Verma, Executive Vice President of Operations at Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) on Thursday said that the night curfew is not a big deterrent and they continue to see surge in occupancy.

“The surge in occupancy which we are seeing and we are still seeing for our leisure destination continues. In terms of the restrictions that have been announced, I think people have got used to all the restrictions. Precautions are being taken by our customers, our guests, as well as all our hotel fraternity colleagues. So, it is not a big deterrent. We have not seen any major cancellations,” he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

Verma said that the leisure destinations are doing extremely well.

“Goa could do similar occupancy as last year. Rajasthan has done very well. Our hill stations of Theog, Rishikesh, and Corbett have been doing nearly full house occupancy. The newest brand that we launched with the Ama Homestay & Trails is almost full for all our 20 operating and some more that we are opening in the next few days,” he said.

On revenues, he said, “Q2 we were nearly 25-30 percent of the revenue. For the month of November-December, we are almost 50 percent of the revenues of last year,” he said.

Verma also said that rates for city hotels were lower by almost 25 percent.