Indian hotels saw a mixed Q1. Will the next quarter bring cheer?

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₹5686, up 9% over last year. The company has over 10,000 rooms across its 107 hotels.

"When I talk about a structural uptick and change, I reflect on China and Indonesia back in the 2016-17 period when their GDP per household was roughly the same as India's today," Keswani told investors on their earnings call last week. “What happened for them in the next six years, was a massive increase in SUV car sales, an increase in four lane highways, an increase in runways and airports, a massive increase in airline seats and this led to a 22-25% CAGR growth in the market for hotel room demand over the next six years." “So, we felt we would prefer to bite the bullet now in terms of our renovations and upgrades and take some short-term pain for what we anticipate will be long-term gain and become future ready today," he added.

Usually this is the weakest quarter for hotel companies, but the election made it worse, Manav Thadani, founder chairperson of hospitality consultancy, Hotelivate told Mint. "Plus when we compare this to last year when we had the G20 summit, hotels showed high occupancies even during the leaner period." Thadani is also a non-executive director of SAMHI Hotels, which owns hotels over 30 run by brands like Hyatt, Marriott and IHG.

This business achieved a net profit of ₹4 crore in the quarter. For many top hotel companies, prices are well north of 25% over their pre-covid rates and this may be a way of pushback from travellers.