ITC Ltd strategy to invest USD two billion in hotel business

According to a tale in Reuters, ITC Ltd., a multi-business conglomerate, which has a diversified in hotels, specialty papers, packaging, paperboards, agricultural business and cigarettes, is not involved in a hostile takeover of hotel chains like EIH Ltd. and Hotel Leela. ITC Ltd. is looking at minority partnerships in some hotel projects.

During the subsequently five years, ITC Ltd plans to invest about USD two billion in its hotels business. ITC Ltd has a stake of 14.98 per cent in EIH, which runs the Oberoi and Trident chain of hotels and has a 3.72 per cent stake in Hotel Leela through its investment unit Russel Credit.

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Second time in China? Head to remote Guizhou

In China, a Dong mystic introduces Stanley Stewart to a greedy ghost — but it’s the entrancing landscape of remote Guizhou province that casts the stronger spell.

Hotels Adjust Corporate Rates

MARCH 30, 2009 — Buyers who negotiated 2009 rates in rosier times for hoteliers now have new opportunities for savings with targeted renegotiations, as some hotel companies have implemented mechanisms to adjust corporate rates to reflect market declines. Meanwhile, analysts are elongating their forecast for a hotel buyer’s market, with hotels this year now expected to see their deepest rate drops in decades.

A recent analysis showed hundreds of benchmarked booked rates were coming in below levels negotiated in October and November, said Neysa Silver, director of hotel consulting in the Americas for Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s Solutions Group. Bob Brindley, vice president of BCD Travel’s Advito consulting unit, said as data comes in from the first quarter of the year, renegotiating opportunities would become clearer.

“Definitely, as we go into April, we will see clients going back,” Advito’s Brindley said. “They’re not going to open up a whole new request-for-proposals process, but if they see, for example, a negotiated rate of $175 and booked rates come in at $140 or $150, it’s worth revisiting, especially if a client uses the property a lot.”

Negotiating opportunities cross all hotel tiers, Brindley said. “Luxury properties have especially been hit hard, with the double whammy of people looking to save money and not wanting to be seen staying in a luxury property,” he said.

PKF Hospitality Research in March revised its 2009 forecast for the U.S. lodging industry, now saying there will be a 13.7 percent annual decline in revenue per available room versus its earlier prediction of a 9.8 percent decline. The forecast said occupancy would drop by 7.8 percent and average daily rate by 6.4 percent, the steepest plummet since PKF began compiling data in 1932, according to PKF Hospitality Research president Mark Woodworth.

Additionally, PKF said only two markets, Minneapolis and Orange County, Calif., will begin to see RevPAR gains again by the end of the year. In 2010, 12 additional cities will follow—Albuquerque, N.M.; Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Detroit; Fort Worth, Texas; Houston; Nashville; Oahu, Hawaii; and Raleigh, N.C.—with the rest of the major markets beginning a recovery in 2011.

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