Joy Roy Choudhury – Kolkata
Cygnett Hotels and Resorts is planning to open six new properties by the end of this year, which will take the total number of properties to 10. Sarbendra Sarkar, founder and managing director, Cygnett Hotels & Resorts, said, “We currently have four operational hotels and another six projects are in their final stages of launch. Shortly, we are launching two new properties, the first one is a 100-key Cygnett Inn property with casino at Nepalganj and another at Bongaigaon in Lower Assam, under the Cygnett Park brand name. By the end of this year, we are certain to take our tally to 10 or more.”
Sarkar said that the company will explore both management and franchise route to expand its footprints in the country. The hotel management and brand franchising company has tied up with US based hospitality company, Jameson Inn Inc, to promote their Jameson Inn brand of hotels in the India market. Besides, the US partner’s brands, Jameson Inn and Jameson Inn & Suites, Cygnett also plans to promote its own range of brands – Cygnett Plaza, Cygnett Park, Cygnett Inn, Cygnett Residences and Cygnotel. The company has also recently launched Cozzet Hotels brand which primarily does franchise and management tie-ups across the country.
At present the company is operating four hotels, namely Jameson Inn Shiraz in Kolkata, Cygnett Inn – Repose in Guwahati, Cygnett Inn – Celestial in North Goa and Cozzet Resort at the beach resort of New Digha in West Bengal. “We are also in discussions with owners/developers for hotel properties across other Tier II and Tier III cities in east and north east states like Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya. We are also eyeing Bodh Gaya in Bihar,” revealed Sarkar.
Apart from opening properties in east India, the company is targeting other cities in north and south India. “You would soon see our first property being launched at Sonipat, the new food hub on the outskirts of Delhi. It would be under the Cozzet brand and should be operational within the next few months. Also in the pipeline are properties at Mussoorie; Belgaum, Karnataka; Mysuru; Ooty; Jaipur and several other Tier II and Tier III cities. We are on the verge of closing our deals at Delhi, Ujjain, Rajkot, Dwarka, Udaipur and Lucknow,” he stated.
The company aims to attract loss making budget hotels with an inventory of minimum 30 rooms and above into its fold and turn them around after making “cosmetic changes”, wherever required to fit the service standards of Cygnett and Jameson brands. The company is in the process of investing in technology to introduce central reservation system (CRS), micro booking engine, mobile booking apps to achieve a higher rate of occupancy, and customer relationship management (CRM).
Commenting on future plans, Sarkar informed, “We do have plans to promote Cozzet brand of hotels in the second phase. For our future expansion plans, we need funds and so we are in talks with global PE funds to raise around US$ 150 million, but nothing has been finalised as of now. F&B would be another growth engine for us. We have done a lot of research and development on this.”