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Bharat Hotels on an heritage drive

EH Staff - Mumbai

Kolkata's Great Eastern Hotel, the city's heritage landmark, which was recently sold to Delhi-based hotelier and Congress Rajya Sabha MP, Lalit Suri for Rs 520 million (US $11.3 million), is the third heritage property of the eight owned by the Bharat Hotels Ltd. Suri is also keen to add the Mysore Palace to his heritage portfolio, as and when it is up for a bid.

The 165-year-old hotel, which Suri secured outbidding two others - Ramuk Scan AB and the Unitech Group, will need another Rs 1.2 billion for modernisation and a facelift.

Commenting on the group's strategy of picking up heritage properties, Suri said, "Heritage properties have a lot of mileage attached to it with a lot of people from all over the world having stayed there and carrying vivid memories of the place. These primarily include people who are renowned the world over for their respective contributions. Other than that, most of these heritage properties are government owned and thus are not professionally managed. Once restored, they can easily be turned into a profitable unit, because most of the mileage for the property already exists unlike a new property."

While Suri agrees that it is a challenge to run a government owned property, he says, "Once you have restored the properties after the initial glitches, there is hardly any challenge. It is just like running any new hotel minus the fact that the property already has made its name."

This is also Bharat Hotels' third property as a result of disinvestment. Disregarding popular belief that most properties brought under disinvestment end up having an identity crisis and thus do not earn profits, Suri says, "Take the example of the Grand Ashok Bangalore. When we started it, the ARR was Rs 1,200 but now it is at Rs 7,500. The hotel is one of the top achievers in the city."

Suri also reveals that he would be first to go for a bid if ever the Mysore Palace is up. "The Palace belongs to the Government of Karnataka and if ever it is up for a bid, we would be the first to go for it," he says.