Pune: With the number of people visiting the city on the rise, the hospitality industry in Pune is striving hard to cope with increasing demand for rooms. This has also resulted in new luxury hotels coming up in and around the city.
The number of business class visitors to the city are also on the increase and hence the average occupancy rate of hotels in the city now is 80 per cent. A substantial increase in this number is anticipated with the approaching Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) that is scheduled from 12th to 18th October. Adding to this will be the onset of the festival season, beginning August, that will see more people visiting the city.
According to the estimates of the CYG organisers, at least 2,000 athletes and officials will participate in the games. This inflow of visitors will coincide with the tourist season and Diwali, putting more pressure on the already burdened infrastructure. Taking this into consideration, some hotels have even started advance reservation for the month of October. According to sources, the hotels have already started getting many enquiries for reservations for October.
Keeping this in mind, many star category and budget hotels are coming up in Pune. Arun Nayar, president of the Poona Hoteliers Association and director (operations) of Pride Hotels is confident that the city is ready to face the impending challenge. “Our estimate is that there will be at least a demand for 3,000 rooms in October. Out of this, around 1,300 rooms will be in the Balewadi sports village and around 1,700 rooms will be required in the city hotels,” he says.
The existing capacity of city hotels is 3,000 rooms. But many of these rooms are being occupied by business and tourist visitors. Hence, the need for new luxury hotels. According to Nayar, with the completion of these hotels, some 3,000 additional rooms will be available. The new starcategory hotels coming up in Pune include, ‘The O’, Royal Orchid Centre, Saint Laurn, Holiday Inn and Westin. There are some budget hotels also coming up. Hinjewadi and Wakad areas have also seen many service apartments coming up.
But there are some who are sceptical about the new developments in the industry. Ravi Karandeekar, a Punebased real estate consultant for the last 12 years says, “The new hotels will cater only to the upper business class clients. The economy conscious visitors have very little choice. Shortage of accommodations is a real problem and the city needs more
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