RIL did not respond to an email requesting clarification on this. The Maker Group could also not be reached for comments. An EIH spokesperson in an email statement said that they “declined to comment on speculation”.
A chief executive officer (CEO) of an Indian hotel company said that the BKC area is best-suited for hotel operators, given its existing infrastructure such as large corporate offices, schools, sports stadia and hence a captive consumer audience.
“The top three performing districts in Mumbai are BKC, which includes Bandra, then north Mumbai or the area around the airport, and finally, the south Mumbai area,” he said, adding Mumbai is the single-best market for hotels in the country.
The rates for Oberoi’s ‘vilas’ hotels are much higher than its Trident or other city-based hotels. For example, Rajvilas Jaipur starts at Rs 75,000 per night for a premier room and goes up to Rs 11 lakh per evening for a villa with a pool.
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Oberoi Group won’t be the first to bring a resort destination to a major metro. International luxury hotel chain Aman Resorts International, which has historically used exotic locales for its resorts worldwide, built a resort in the middle of Tokyo. It has plans to build similar hotels in other urban areas such as the heart of Manhattan in New York, and also in London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
EIH attributed its drop in revenue and profit in the first quarter of the current year to a general slowing of business activity, the decline in air travel and reduction in the airline catering business. The quarter resulted in a loss before tax of Rs 11.25 crore, compared to a profit of Rs 16 crore in the same period a year before. Loss after tax was Rs 7 crore, as against a profit in the comparative period of Rs 10.2 crore. Total revenue fell to Rs 303 crore, from Rs 343.5 crore.
While Executive Chairman P R S Oberoi was not present at the company’s annual general meeting recently, his son and managing director and CEO Vikram Oberoi read his speech out to shareholders and indicated that revenue and profit would improve over the next three quarters.