UK's Yotel in discussions to check into India
Yotel is in advanced discussions and is evaluating opportunities to hopefully sign its maiden hotel project in India this year, said its chief executive Hubert Viriot.
In an interview to ET, he said, “The population density, the growth in domestic and international travel are factors that are conducive for us to be successful in India. Apart from looking at specific projects, we are also in advanced discussions with a number of groups for potential partnerships here. I am quite confident that we should succeed this year, and that we should be able to announce our first partnership here this year.”
Yotel has hotels around airports and city centres in markets such as Singapore, London, New York, Istanbul, San Francisco, Washington DC and Paris. Backed by the Al-Bahar Group and Starwood Capital Group, it works with private equity funds, pension funds and real estate developers to build hotels that it claims are designed for 'Generation Go' or young professionals on the move.
Its top corporate accounts include FIFA, Adidas, IBM, Amazon and Google. The company has three brands in its portfolio – Yotel, located in city centres and urban locations; YotelPad, meant for longer stays, and YotelAir, targeted at airports and transit hubs.
“We are doing well. We have a lot of institutional investors investing in Yotels. We have one million loyal customers and we have a competitive advantage in the sense that we know how to operate hotels around the airports very well,” said Viriot.
“So, we are evaluating if we could
