
BWH Hotels eyes growth in India with 100 properties in 5-7 years
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mid-market hotel operator BWH Hotels, which manages brands like Best Western Hotels & Resorts and SureStay Hotels, is expanding its footprint in India with a pipeline of 21 new hotels in the next two years. Larry Cuculic, the company’s global president and CEO, who was in India for the recently concluded hospitality conference HOPE 2025, said in an exclusive interview with Mint that all its upcoming properties will be new constructions—a strategic shift to enhance brand reputation and guest experience.
“We have a very strong pipeline of hotels. New constructions are important because they help us build the reputation of the brand, and there is a focus on quality over quantity, and we will be moving away from being known primarily as a "conversion" hotel brand here," Cuculic said. The company, which has 32 hotels in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka combined, operates in partnership with Delhi-based Sorrel Hospitality Pvt.
Ltd, which it signed on in 2016 when the company had about seven hotels here. Read more: Lemon Tree Hotels stock trades at a discount, but is the juice worth the squeeze?
Despite the slow growth in the last decade or so here, Cuculic said the next phase of expansion will target secondary markets, driven by improved infrastructure and growing demand for events like weddings. While leisure travel has led the post-pandemic recovery, he sees business travel as a future growth driver for BWH Hotels in India.