Delhi hotels are humming with the arrival of foreign delegations for the 18th Brics Summit this weekend, sending room rates up to ₹2 lakh a night.
At The Leela Palace, the kitchen has acquired an unusual new rhythm. Chefs have arrived with chopping boards, knives and other equipment in hand, working alongside the hotel’s culinary teams to prepare dishes requested by visiting heads of state. Premium ingredients have also arrived with the delegations, while embassy officials are helping fine-tune the menus.
All its restaurants and in-room dining now have special dishes from its signature Indian food restaurant, Jamavar.
Elsewhere in the fully booked hotel, protocol officers are coordinating other services as it doubles as both a and a temporary diplomatic base for the duration of the summit.
“Between the embassy, their protocol team and our chefs, it is like one team working together. We have specialists at our hotel who are trained to work on such events of national importance. It goes like clockwork,” Preeti Makhija, general manager of The Leela Palace New Delhi, told Mint.
More than 20 countries, including Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and Russia, are participating in the two-day summit at Bharat Mandapam, and hotels are seeing delegations, including envoys and businessmen, arriving starting 10 September.
About 3,000-3,500 rooms across 12-15 premium five-star hotels in central Delhi are already booked to host delegates for up to five months, with regular traveller bookings suspended for the 12-13 September summit.
Mint has learnt that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his envoy, as well as the Uzbekistan delegation, are staying at the ITC Maurya. Sheraton will house the Egyptian head of state.
The Philippines envoy will stay at the Taj Mahal Hotel, and the Chinese at the Taj Palace. It is likely that the Brazilian envoy will stay at The Imperial, while The Oberoi will likely house the Indonesian, Ethiopian, Kazakh, and Iranian heads of state.
While ITC Hotels Ltd declined to comment, Mint‘s queries emailed to other hotels mentioned above remained unanswered.
Brisk business
Delegation members, security personnel, media, corporate visitors, and accompanying staff typically arrive before the event and leave after it, creating what hotel operators call citywide compression.
The LaLiT, which will host heads of state from South Africa and Burundi, has 460 rooms, of which 90% will be booked for the duration of the summit, with average daily rates running 30-40% higher than normal, said its general manager, Vishal Sharma.
Nikhil Sharma, managing director and chief operating officer, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, said average room rates across the group’s portfolio are more than 25% higher year-on-year in September, with the summit driving demand. “The entire city is sold out on these dates,” he said.
and Resorts expects a 30-50% pickup over normal demand during the period, with average room rates remaining firm, said its chief executive, Kush Kapoor.
There are about 3,500 rooms in Delhi Aerocity. Lemon Tree in Aerocity is expecting a 15-20% rise in average daily rates and a 5-7% increase in occupancy over a regular weekend. Some buoyancy was also seen over the previous weekend, with another lift expected in the coming weekend, Vaibhav Jain, head of sales at Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd.
There will also be a 5-10% increase in occupancy on Thursday and Friday, with Jain expecting the entire Aerocity to reach 80-90% occupancy on these days.
“Revenue management at this time is about what the corporate businesses travelling with the delegation are willing to pay. But some of the really high rates we see are mainly a factor of limited inventory,” said Sharma of The LaLit.
What’s left of the room inventory at central Delhi hotels is going for eye-watering rates of ₹30,000 and above a night, rising to ₹1-2 lakh depending on the hotel.
Brics earning boost
For listed hotel companies with significant Delhi exposure, the event presents a particularly visible earnings opportunity. Prashant Biyani, vice president at Elara Capital, said Juniper Hotels Ltd could be a key beneficiary, with its 530-key Andaz Delhi contributing around 35% of its revenue.
Leela Palaces Hotels & Resorts Ltd’s New Delhi property contributes more than 24% of its revenue and 21% of its Ebitda, he said. Ebidta is short for earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization.
In the meantime, Indian Hotels Co. Ltd also stands to benefit through properties, including the Taj Palace and Taj Mahal, which together contribute around 10% of revenue and 9% of Ebitda. The company has about five other properties in and around central Delhi.
and Lemon Tree Hotels are among the other listed operators with exposure to the Delhi market.
“Advance parties, security teams that come a couple of months before and then take additional rooms until a day after departure, should add about 15-20% in incremental revenue. Though there is some revenue loss the day after departure, as it takes time to build up occupancy because of the trough,” said industry veteran Rattan Keswani, former deputy managing director of Lemon Tree Hotels.
India currently has only around 220,000 branded hotel rooms, and demand for them is projected to grow at 8-10% annually through FY28, according to K.B. Kachru, president of the Hotel Association of India and chairman, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group.
“The Brics Summit will put considerable focus on room inventory, and our hospitality infrastructure has not kept pace with our tourism ambition,” he said.
Semicon India, a major semiconductor industry exhibition and conference, will be held from 17-19 September at Yashobhoomi, bringing another wave of business travellers and industry delegates to New Delhi and testing the city’s already stretched hospitality infrastructure.