Bengaluru | Hotel Micro-Markets – The Way Forward

by May 1, 2018Hotel Operations, Market Snapshots, Travel & Tourism

B engaluru, the capital city of Karnataka and the fifth-largest metropolis in the country, is famous as the “Silicon Valley of India”. Home to many prominent IT companies, it is the largest exporter of information technology in the country. Other industries flourishing in the city are aerospace, defense, banking, finance, telecommunications and machine tools.
Given that Bengaluru has such a strong commercial orientation, and has emerged as one of Asia’s fastest growing metropolitan cities, it’s hotel market being one of the largest in the country comes as no surprise. This article elucidates the evolution of independent micro-markets in Bengaluru, and the changing landscape of the city’s hotel industry.
Connectivity

Bengaluru is well connected to the rest of the country by air, road and rail. The Kempe Gowda International Airport (KIAL), located 35 km north of the city-center, commenced commercial operations in May 2008, and currently handles 26.9 million passengers per annum. It is one of the busiest airports in India in terms of domestic traffic, with a CAGR of 24.8% over the last five years.

Figure 1 : Bengaluru Airport Statistics

Bengaluru airport statistics

Hotel Micro-Markets
Central Bengaluru has been a hospitality hub for many decades, with hotels like The Oberoi on MG Road, Taj Westend on Race Course Road and The Leela Palace on Old Airport Road establishing the base of branded supply in the city. Gradually, as this area witnessed saturation in terms of space available for commercial activity, the city started expanding in all directions. Soon, commuting between hotels in the CBD and the commercial hubs in the peripheral areas of Bengaluru started posing a major challenge for travelers, with traffic congestions resulting in massive delays. Consequently, the peripheral areas began witnessing holistic infrastructural development, with each of these suburbs having commercial, residential, retail and hospitality components. Over time, as the rooms supply in these areas grew and demand generators in the city were more evenly spread out, Bengaluru saw the emergence of hotel micro-markets. Generally, poor accessibility can be detrimental for a hotel market, however, in the case of Bengaluru, this challenge allowed the growth and sustenance of various micro-markets that have a negligible demand overlap with the original CBD hotels.

To better understand these micro-markets, we have analyzed the keys demand segments serving each of them in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Demand segmentation

Demand Segments -Bengaluru
Overall, Bengaluru ended the 2017/18 fiscal with a market-wide estimated occupancy of 69.0% at an approximate ADR of INR 6,028. Despite a 9.2% CAGR in supply over the last five years, occupancy has steadily increased during this period, pointing to the growing demand for room nights in the city. More specifically, each of the hotel micro-markets with different rooms supply recorded varying performances, as depicted in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Bengaluru Micro-Market Performance
Market Performance
In the next five years, a total of 4,418 rooms are proposed to open, out of which 72% of the inventory is being developed actively. Per our research, 55% of the upcoming hotel inventory will be developed in the peripheral micro-markets like Whitefield, North ORR, Hebbal and Electronic City, whilst the remaining is being actively developed in and around the CBD area.

Hotelivate’s Outlook
Bengaluru is the fourth largest technology cluster in the world after Silicon Valley, Boston and London, with 80% of global IT companies having based their India operations here. The city’s current office stock spans approximately 120.6 million sq ft, with a further 25.4 million sq ft under construction and expected to be operational by 2020. Most of these developments are sprouting along the IT Corridor and upcoming micro-markets, with CBD’s office inventory only going up by 1.4%.

These facts indicate that Bengaluru’s economic growth is focused toward the suburbs, and with it, the city’s hotel industry is getting a larger representation from peripheral hotels. Moreover, with demand anticipated to increase steadily in the coming years, hotels are now focusing on improving average rates. Looking ahead, our outlook for the city is positive, as we expect hotel performance to witness further growth in the short to medium term.

For more information, please contact Karan Rahan at [email protected]

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