Hilton, world's third largest hotel chain, plans to double India footprint in 3 years

A hotel room in Conrad, Bengaluru: Image: Hilton

The world's third-largest hotel chain Hilton is bullish on the Indian market and plans to expand to around 75 hotels by 2026 while bringing its luxury brand, Waldorf Astoria, to the country.

The time was right to bring the Waldorf Astoria to India—first in Jaipur and we are also exploring destinations like Goa, Hilton, Asia Pacific, president Alan Watts told Moneycontrol.

On April 12, Hilton announced an agreement for a Waldorf Astoria in Jaipur. The company signed a contract with Dangayach Group to develop the hotel, which is expected to open for business in 2027.

"In addition, we have signed four hotels in India. We have got 24 hotels today and 13 (are) under construction. We will double our India footprint in the next three years and will continue to double our footprint in every three to five years,” Watts said.

Alan Watts, president, Asia Pacific, Hilton

“If you think of the road expressways, the fast or bullet trains, airports that is a precursor to travel and tourism boom in the country."

The addition of the Waldorf Astoria in Jaipur will take Hilton’s portfolio of brands in India to six. Watts said India had been a key market for international brands, with a huge lucrative domestic travel market that recorded 700 million trips in 2022.

While Hilton's focus will be on metros, the hotel chain is also exploring smaller markets.

"For Tier II and III cities, Hilton Garden Inn is the right product. But a large of Hilton's inventory will look at cities like Delhi and Mumbai, which are grossly under supplied. You will also see more Hilton convention centres in India," Watts added.

Booked and sold to India

From a growth perspective, India was number one, he said. "It has the potential to become the third-largest lodging market in the world because India is undersupplied given the population,” the senior Hilton executive said.

The US was its biggest market US with 5.2 million rooms, while India had 2.6 million rooms for 1.4 billion people. “So, India is the opportunity and we have a long view and that view is bullish. It is India's time to shine," he said.

The hotelier said meetings would be a key demand driver in India. "In 2019, the Hilton hotel in Bengaluru's Manyata Tech Park was about leisure and business travel and now it is sold out for meetings. India should be excited about a self-sustainable tourism industry and a big part of that is meeting and events and being on the global meetings destination list."

On talent acquisition and retention in the hospitality industry, Watts said that there were market in Asia Pacific where Hilton was struggling to attract talent because they were at full employment.

On the other hand, India was not at full employment yet and the company was able to attract talent for its properties.

India was the first to recover as Covid eased followed by Australia and Southeast Asia. "I think we will maintain double digit revenue growth versus pre-pandemic in 2023," he said.