The 2021 Indian Hospitality Trends & Opportunities Report

Hotel lobbies, railway stations & airports, malls, and grocery stores, movie theatres, and restaurants – all places of public gathering have had to amend, adapt, and accept a paradigm shift in reality. What was yesterday’s perpetual white noise in the crowded, shoulder to shoulder packed streets of India is today’s relatively silent, socially distanced, mask-laden truth. De-sensitised to being repeatedly shot by temperature guns and sprayed by disinfectants, we have all adapted to this new world order.

Sir Winston Churchill once said, ‘In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet’. The first few weeks and months of the pandemic were filled with a flurry of white papers, scenario analyses, TV interviews, and crystal-ball gazed predictions by experts of every industry. Multiple frameworks were examined, sensitivities run and what-ifs analysed. Much like Mr. Churchill, the words spoken had to be repeatedly taken back. It took a little while for the world to come to terms with the fact that we knew almost nothing about how bad this situation really was and worse, how long it may last. The hospitality business too was served a dish that it hadn’t tasted in a while – Humble Pie. This lesson in humility, the need to pause & reflect, the fact that circumstances were well and truly out of control, took some time to digest. However, calendar 2021 brought with it the new year resolution to focus on change. The sector shifted focus from attempting to manage what was perceived to be a temporary setback, to concentrating on the need to make decisions that were geared towards rebooting and reimagining the business in its entirety. Several strides have been taken in recent months. India’s hospitality sector has moved from despair to development. While the roadmap isn’t entirely clear just yet, it is certainly better defined. 

Overall, while the landscape is still in a state of rapid change, it is important to understand the journey so far and the trendlines that have appeared in this unprecedented period. With the hope of capturing the state of our industry and aiding all stakeholders in driving its recovery, we now present The 2021 Indian Hospitality Trends & Opportunities Report. 

When looking at the occupancies achieved by the sample set of 1,200 plus branded and organised hotels across the nation, less than 5% of these hotels breached the 60% occupancy threshold, with another 28% clocking between 40% and 60% occupancy. More than half the overall inventory of India managed between 20% to 40% occupancy through the COVID crises, while almost 15% of the hotels did only single-digit or early to mid-teen occupancies.

Hotelivate, a comprehensive hospitality consulting firm offering specialised services to clients across the Asia Pacific region, is proud to present the results of The 2021 Indian Hospitality Trends & Opportunities Report. The current participation base of 1,201 hotels, with a total inventory of 1,44,047 rooms, offers a comprehensive coverage of the country’s branded hospitality landscape, enabling better incisive analyses of national trends, performance of major hotel markets, and demand and supply forecasts than any other survey of a similar nature.