Wyndham to Debut Its First Luxury Hotel in India in 2025

Savills issued a market report saying the number of five-star rooms in Hanoi in Vietnam rose by 3% in the second quarter of 2024 from the first quarter with many four-star properties being upgraded. The firm said the city now has over 11,000 hotel rooms across 67 projects. One of the four-star properties that were rebranded or upgraded is the Movenpick Living West in Cau Giay District. It was formerly the Eastin Hotel & Residences. Savills said the hotel and condotel businesses are capitalizing on the rebound in tourism to rebrand or develop new projects to boost their competitiveness and market share. Savills said the average hotel occupancy rate during the second quarter in Hanoi was 67%, up 2 percentage points from the first quarter and up 3 points year on year. The average tariffs at four and five-star rooms fell -6% from the previous quarter but were up 9% from a year ago.

Indochina Capital reported that Vietnam received 8.8 million foreign tourists in the first half of 2024, higher than the pre-Covid level of 8.5 million. CBRE reported RevPAR in Hanoi and HCMC reached 80% of pre-Covid levels in the first half of 2024, up from the 70% seen a year ago.

This past Saturday set a new summer day record in Macau with 166,562 tourists arriving. That is 7.5% higher than the highest single-day total in 2019. Since the summer holiday period started on July 1, the average daily visitor count has been 107,313, 91.9% of the levels seen in the summer of 2019. International visitors have averaged 5,495 per day so far this summer.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts will launch their first luxury hotel in India next year when they open the Wyndham Grand in Udaipur. The chain is also considering strategic alliances with white-label operators to boost its presence in the country and bring in more brands. Wyndham has 60 operational hotels in India, with 45 hotels in the pipeline. They believe there is no better time to expand in India with upcoming hotel openings this year in Srinagar, Nainital, Ayodhya, Vrindavan, and Wayanad. This follows Wyndham opening three hotels in the country in the first half of the year. The company recently appointed Shailender Singh as the market manager for Eurasia.

Marriott International's Moxy Hotels brand announced the opening of Moxy Mumbai Andheri West, the brand's debut in Mumbai, India. The hotel is nestled in the heart of Mumbai's Andheri West, a prime location just 9 kilometers from Mumbai International Airport. The hotel offers 105 stylish and cozy rooms, the Moxy Bar in the heart of the lobby, along with social spaces like the Lounge and Library. The hotel has three distinct F&B spaces, with the Moxy Kitchen being the all-day dining venue, the Moxy Bar and sitting on the rooftop, adjacent to the infinity pool is Moxy Sky. The hotel also offers a fully equipped gym, two event spaces and more.

Indian Hotels Company Limited's ama Stays & Trails premium homestay offering has reached a significant milestone with over 200 bungalows in its portfolio, spread across offbeat locations in more than 15 states in India. IHCL said a dual growth strategy has fueled the expansion, including penetrating high-demand clusters such as Goa and Maharashtra and building a footprint anchored around IHCL hotels to leverage cross synergies and service excellence. IHCL said the development of homestay villas is attracting fresh capital through greenfield projects. They said over 65% of their pipeline consists of new builds. The portfolio currently includes 203 bungalows, with an additional 97 under development, spread across idyllic destinations.

The Royal Turf Club of Thailand was reported to be looking at investing TBH200 billion (US$5.9 billion) in an integrated resort project comprising a casino, horse racing facilities and luxury hotels. This is as the government continues, despite the political turmoil, to more towards approving the country's first legal casinos. The Nation said a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between RTCT and potential investors for a complex to be known as "The Royal Siam Haven." They did not specify where the project was to be located. The complex would also feature a golf course, yacht club, luxury dining, a theater, medical tourism hospital and a learning center. A study by Thailand's Finance Ministry will probably energize the opposition groups that are beginning to get louder. The study suggested 90% of the visitors to these entertainment complexes will be local Thailand residents. Of the 10% of the visitors that will be from outside Thailand, 90% of them are expected to be from mainland China. We point you to the failure of casinos in Vietnam and South Korea. While they were foreigner-only casinos and they could only rely on foreign visitors, they were all built on the expectation that they would have a very steady stream of Mainland Chinese visitors. For various reasons that did not happen, ranging from Beijing cracking down on their Chinese nationals visiting casinos outside of Macau to government issues causing a rift between the countries.

Personnel Moves

Hilton announced Hendrick Calles was named Area General Manager for Seychelles. Henar Gil joined Hilton as Cluster General Manager, Marc Schumacher became General Manager, and Ryan Roach was named Country Commercial Director. Hilton operates six hotels across five of their brands in Seychelles, including the recently opened Waldorf Astoria and Canopy by Hilton. Calles adds the Area General Manager position to his current GM role at Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa. Gil will be Cluster GM covering Mango House Seychelles LXR Hotels & Resorts and Canopy by Hilton Seychelles. She previously managed major hotels in Mexico. Schumacher has been with Hilton for 26 years, most recently in Morocco. He previously had been GM at Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa and DoubleTree by Hilton Seychelles Allamanda Resort and Spa. Finally, Ryan Roach comes to Hilton from a hotel company based in South Africa where he was Commercial Director, strategically managing teams to maximize revenue across 23 properties.

Indian Hotels Company has appointed Dr. Anmol Ahluwalia as Area Director, Operations and General Manger – Taj Mahal, New Delhi