Hotel Talk

Leelaventure to manage Ambience's Gurgaon hotel

Departing from its existing norm of managing its own hotels, Hotel Leelaventure has signed its first management contract with Ambience Hotels and Resorts Ltd for the latter's 5-star deluxe hotel property at Gurgaon.

The Gurgaon property, with 319 rooms and 90 serviced residences, shall hold the name of Leela Kempinski and would be operational in April 2007.

Commenting on this new avenue opted by the company, Hotel Leelaventure vice chairman and managing director, Vivek Nair said, "We plan to enter into more such management contracts selectively in India and abroad provided the standards of the hotels would be in keeping with the Leela and its affiliate Kempinski's high standards."

The Gurgaon property is spread on a plot of five acres, located strategically across the Delhi border. The new property would cater to upmarket clientele including IT, ITES, BPO as its highly successful hotel property in Bangalore, a Hotel Leela release said.

Apart from the Gurgaon property, Hotel Leelaventure currently owns and operates four properties with 1,001 guest rooms.

The expansion projects at these four properties coupled with the Gurgaon property will increase the total inventory to 2,547 rooms by 2008, Mr Nair said.

With the group positioning its products at upmarket business travellers, four other projects are also under various stages of completion. The 92-room palace hotel at Lake Pichchola in Udaipur will be completed in 2007 at a cost of Rs 69 crore.