Aero India brings happy times to Bangalore hotels

Aero India brings happy times to Bangalore hotels
The FInancial Express

The Aero India 2007, the sixth edition of aerospace exhibition scheduled in Bangalore during February 2007, has seen the demand for hotel rooms in the city touching new heights. All the major city hotels have registered 100% occupancy level for that period.

“There is a tremendous demand for rooms in February. A number of delegations including foreign delegates would come to participate in the aero-show and all the hotels would have 100% occupancy level”, said Royal Orchid Hotels CMD CK Baljee.

Hotel majors including the Leela Palace, Taj West End, Oberoi and the Park Hotels have already sold out their room inventory. A similar situation prevails in other star hotels including the Chancery Hotels, the Grand Ashok and Royal Orchid Hotels. The Park Hotels director, sales, Arjun Chopra, described the situation as “happy time for the hotels.”

According to Taj West End general manager PK Mohan Kumar, “The aero-show is organised once in every two years and each year there is growth in participation”. Compared with the last aero-show held in 2005, the number of participants have increased by 30% while the room inventory in city hotels have increased by 20%, he said.

Serviced apartments providers are likely to benefit from the mismatch of demand and supply of hotel rooms as most of the visitors would be forced to stay in these apartments due to dearth of hotel rooms, industry players said.

“There is a requirement of 800 to 1,000 room-night in the five-star category from aero-show visitors only. Bangalore’s five-star hotels offer 1,400 to 1,500 room-night. Hence, the regular corporate travellers would postpone their visit or look for other alternatives like serviced apartments”, said Taposh Chakraborty, president, the Chancery Hotels.

, the official hospitality partner of Aero India 2007.

The shortage of rooms is likely to push up the tariffs. An official with The Leela Palace, on condition of anonymity said, “The demand for rooms (during that time) is phenomenal and there is a mismatch of demand and supply.” The average room rates (ARRs) of the Leela Palace during February 2007 would go above Rs 20,000 from current Rs 16,000, the official said. Similarly Royal Orchid Hotels will hike their tariffs up to 50% depending on their relationship with the companies.

Though some hotels like the Oberoi and the Park have decided to stick to their current rack rates, industry experts say the cent percent occupancy level would improve the bottomline of the city hoteliers irrespective of their tariff structure.

The week-long exhibition is being jointly organised by the department of defence production, ministry of defence, Ficci and Farnborough International Ltd.