Aitken Spence upbeat on Gulf, Indian Hotels

Adds Oman desert hotel to portfolio at $ 400 a room night:

Ravi Ladduwahetty

Diversified and leisure - rich blue chip conglomerate Aitken Spence is upbeat about the 15 hotels it currently manages in the Gulf and in India and is confident that they will impact the bottomline for the current year.

The Group through its listed subsidiary Aitken Spence Hotel Managements Ltd is managing five hotels in Oman which also includes the recently acquired Desert Night Hotel in the Wahiba Desert which is currently selling at a premium $ 400 a room night.

The other Omani hotels fetch between US$ 150 and US$ 250 during the current off season, but are higher during the season which begins in October.

“This is the recognition of our management capacity and achievements. By creating the Heritance Brand and grouping our hotels we were able to harness the strength and effectively portray our management skills and achievements of our staff which results our clinching management agreements, Aitken Spence Hotel Managements Ltd Managing Director/CEO Malin Hapugoda told Daily News Business yesterday.

The other hotels at Al Falaje and Ruwi in Muscat, The Zur Plaza in Zur, The Alwadi Resort in Sohar and the recently acquired Desert Night.

The Al Falaje hotel which is currently 140 rooms will be expanded into 250 while the Ruwi hotel which is 80 rooms will be expanded into 100.

The Zur Plaza will be expanded from 100 rooms to 170 while the Wahiba Dessert Night Hotel will be expanded from 36 rooms to 50. The highlight of the Wahiba Desert Night Hotel is that they are fixed in tents but have full air conditioning, Hapugoda said.

The attraction for Aitken Spence is that these hotels are in Oman which is more scenic than the rest of the Gulf.

A further highlight is that all these Gulf Hotels which are managed by Aitken Spence are having occupancy of 85%-90% despite it being the off season and is expected to reach saturation point when the season commences in October.

It was with that in mind that the owners of the properties want to expand their capacities, Hapugoda explained.

Commenting on the Indian hotels, he said there was a chain of ten of which three are currently managed while another four will be scheduled for operation by end 2008. The remaining three are currently under construction.

These Indian hotels also fetch premium prices which are around US$ 200 a room night, he said.