Hilton Hotels Partnering DLF in INDIA

The downturn in the US economy has led to many companies looking for ‘greener’ pastures. One of those companies is the hotel chain: The Hilton Group. Hilton had announced earlier in 2007 that it would be pursuing a gigantic expansion plan especially towards the Asian continent.

In this regard Hilton has made strategic deals to open up three hundred hotels in the Asian region alone. The objective is to familiarize the people of the continent with the Hilton brand name in addition to generating billions of dollars worth of revenue over time. For Hilton it is imperative to recognize the growing clout of China and India which it has done so rather late.

Not surprisingly Hilton has initiated the construction of its hotels in India on a mammoth scale. It plans to build 75 hotels on Indian soil in every possible metro and city where they can.

The crucial factor for Hilton is the fact that they have managed to negotiate a joint venture with real estate giants DLF. The idea is for DLF to provide land, construction help and infrastructure while Hilton manages to bring its service and name to the luxury hotel industry.

Hilton’s very first operational hotel in India is scheduled to open later this year.Their first hotel is run under Hilton’s ‘Garden Inn’ franchise and is based out of Saket near New Delhi. The next few years will see them opening hotels under their ‘Hilton’ and ‘Garden Inn’ franchises in Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, two in Bangalore and one in Mysore apart from Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

Hotel chains in the past have looked toward expanding in Asia. However they have concentrated on countries like China, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Hilton aims to be the largest international hotel brand in India. Their partnership with DLF will go a long way in ensuring this over the next decade.

Apart from expanding in India Hilton also aims to offset the slow strides that its rival Marriot group has been making in Asia.Marriot apart Hilton will also have to compete with the French group Accor which has a well established base in China with fifty hotels and plans to expand in India as well. This apart there will also be stiff competition from the Starwood Hotels & Resorts group that has commissioned the construction of 95 more hotels in Asia which will take it well past the 200 mark in the entire Asian region.

The entry of all these hotel chains into India clearly means a definite restructuring for domestic hotel chains like the Leela and Oberoi chains. Even the Taj group of hotels run by the Tatas will have to come up with means to prevent turnover and device a pricing strategy to rival those of the international hotels.

With government estimates already pegging India as a country that needs more hotels to appease its growing economy and emerging tourism sector, the consumer and the tourist will be happy to hear that the competition will lead to less damage on the wallet.

For the international hotels themselves it will be the domestic chains that will be the biggest competition.