Hyatt eyes emerging cities for its next 50 hotels in India

The hospitality group plans to add seven more properties to its 50 hotels in India in 2025 and aims to reach 100 by 2030, according to Sunjae Sharma, managing director for the company in India and Southwest Asia. “There is a huge upside to the hotel industry in the coming years in India.”

The supply of new hotels in the country is being absorbed faster than expected even without the boost of international business, said the country head of the company that operates brands like Hyatt Regency and Alila Diwa.

“International travel has still not come back and India’s travel is still primarily driven by domestic consumption,” he said. “Corporate business is not back yet, but domestic travel is still not relenting. This is fuelling demand in India.”

“As India progresses, tier II cities are also growing. The propensity to pay for hotels in these cities is also growing. We’re also turning our focus to destinations like Igatpuri in Maharashtra, Indore, in Madhya Pradesh and Vitthlapur, and Bharuch in Gujarat seriously,” he said.

The next 48 hotels will mainly be branded Andaz and JdV, while introducing one new brand here. Like peers, Hyatt Hotel is also moving to experience-led stays, with travellers’ ability to pay for hotel rooms growing within the country. The company will open a hotel in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, and has signed a 200-plus-room Grand Hyatt in Timber Trail, Pawanoo and another one at Kandaghat in the same state.

New cultural destinations

It will also have properties in “new leisure and cultural destinations” like Vrindavan, Kumbhalgarh, Katra, Jim Corbett National Park, and Pushkar. Others will be in Kochi, Bhopal, Vithalapur, and Jaipur, catering to business, leisure, and religious travellers.

“There is a huge upside to the hotel industry in the coming years in India. We also still don’t have the added advantage of some international business coming in. Whatever new hotel supply is being created, it is likely to be absorbed faster than the rate at which hotel demand is growing,” Sharma added. When new hotels open, more rooms are added to a geography or market. These rooms get “absorbed” when they are booked regularly—so the new supply doesn’t sit empty.

The company also has three hotels under construction in Goa. It is expanding its footprint in areas like Nepal, with seven new properties set to open in 2025.

In 2023, the company launched the five-star boutique hotel brand, Hyatt Centric, in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun. Last year, it signed 21 new hotel deals across the region, reinforcing its commitment to growth.

The company is focusing on key business hubs such as GIFT City, Gujarat and Greater Noida, while also expanding in leisure and cultural destinations like Vrindavan, Kumbhalgarh, and Jim Corbett National Park. Additionally, it is growing its lifestyle segment with brands like ‘Destination’, Andaz and ‘JdV by Hyatt’. It will open seven hotels this year.

These will help take it closer to the 100 hotels target for 2030. Currently, it operates 52 hotels in Southwest Asia, including 50 in India and two in Nepal, with over 10,000 keys in the region.

Lifestyle and luxury shift

The company is seeing increased revenues from the food and beverage segment, which now contributes about 50%, growing a few percentage points from before the pandemic.

It is also turning its focus on better quality and more lifestyle and experience-driven properties. “We’re focusing at a global level on lifestyle and luxury now,” Sharma said. The company is expecting its RevPAR (revenue per available room) to grow in double digits this year. RevPAR is a measure of room yield based on how many rooms are occupied in a hotel.

“The January-March quarter for us has been strong, stronger than the same period last year, and expect the current quarter to do very well,” Sharma said. “Calendar year 2025 is likely to have many more wedding dates than last year, too, which will help hotels operationally.”

The American hospitality major owns stake in India through Juniper Hotels—which made its stock market debut last year and runs several hotels here. Both Hyatt Hotels and Juniper have received direct backing from the Pritzkers, the original founders of the Hyatt brand. When Hyatt Hotels Corporation went public in 2009, Juniper Hotels was brought into the group’s broader business fold. It part-owns properties in Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bareilly, and Delhi.

While Sharma did not share any India-specific numbers, the company, in its Q4 global results in 2024, said that international inbound travel continues to be a driver of growth in the Asia Pacific region, excluding Greater China.

Prashant Biyani, vice president of institutional equity research at Elara Capital, said the hotel industry’s growth in India continues to be driven by rising average room rates (ARR), with the first quarter of FY26 expected to see an ARR increase of 11-13%, especially in business locations. Occupancy is likely to stabilise at around 70% pan-India.

With demand continuing to outpace new supply, Biyani remains positive on Samhi Hotels and Juniper–both have long-term agreements with Hyatt to manage their hotel assets–and Chalet Hotels.

Companies like Indian Hotels are projected to post a 10% ARR growth, while Chalet Hotels is expected to report a 12% rise in blended ARR, and Lemon Tree and Juniper are likely to benefit from strong ARR and occupancy gains, he said. Biyani said demand in Q4 of FY25 was buoyed by business travel and events like the Maha Kumbh, IIFA Awards, and concerts, while the first quarter ending June in FY26 is set to see further recovery due to a higher number of wedding dates and normalised travel post elections.