Estimated hotel transactions in India stood at US$700 million in 2019.
HVS Anarock’s President Mandeep Singh Lamba shares a deep analysis of the 2019 performance of the Indian hospitality industry.
Last year has been a mixed bag for the Indian hospitality sector. The year started on a positive note, with the first quarter of the year performing better than market expectations.
However, the closure of Jet Airways, the impact of general elections in the country and the ongoing economic headwinds led to a temporary softening in demand during the year. Later, the easing of Goods & Services Tax (GST) rate on hotel room tariffs across the board in the latter part of the year brought some cheer to the sector.
As the year drew to a close, the industry witnessed a record-breaking performance in November, with several hotels in major markets proclaiming it to be their ‘best-ever to date’. However, the hardening economic headwinds and protests related to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) are expected to dampen the spirits in the near term.
While the prediction at the beginning of the year was a RevPar growth of around 9.5%, the year is likely to end at about 5% of growth in RevPar. In 2020, we anticipate the sector to perform at similar levels of growth as witnessed in 2019. The ongoing reform plan of the Government of India is expected to start showing results in the second half of 2020, reinvigorating the economy and fueling hotel demand.
The successful completion of the Brookfield acquisition of Leela Hotels in 2019 is likely to improve market sentiment and pave the way for more hospitality M&A activity in the country.
Hospitality players are also expected to tap the equity market in 2020 – SAMHI Hotels is expected to list in January 2020, while Apeejay Surrendar Park Hotels is planning to tap the market in the first quarter of the year.
At the beginning of 2019, we had estimated hotel transactions to reach US$ 800 million. While the year is likely to close at circa US$700 million. Several deals remain active and are expected to complete in 2020.
According to our TOPHOTELCONSTRUCTION online database, 158 hotel projects are currently in the pipeline for India:
With 35 years of experience in different leading roles and 17 years as CEO Lamba specializes in roles such as hotel operations, development, strategy and advisory. Currently, he is the president of HVS Anarock where he advises investors on hospitality strategies and related growth.
