Hospitality chain Sarovar Hotels will open 15 hotels across the country and overseas by the end of 2019 as part of its expansion plans...

Hospitality chain Sarovar Hotels will open 15 hotels across the country and overseas by the end of 2019 as part of its expansion plans, a top company official said. The hospitality firm has close to 80 hotels in over 50 cities, at present.  "We will be opening 15 hotels by 2019-end. Of these, two hotels in Africa, one each in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania and Lusaka in Zambia will be opened by the end of 2018," Sarovar Hotels Pvt Ltd Managing Director Ajay Bakaya told PTI.

Sarovar Hotels will open 15 hotels across the country and overseas

In India the company plans to open hotels at locations such as Jaisalmer, Gorakhpur, Katra, Dehradun and extension of a hotel in Agra in 2018, he added. "The eight hotels that will be opened in 2019, will be in Dahisar in Mumbai, Dibrugarh, Morbi, Junagadh, Dalhousie, Bodh Gaya and Jalandhar in India and in Auxum in Ethiopia," Bakaya said. The upcoming hotels will be mainly under the Sarovar Portico brand, three of them will be Sarovar Premiere and one each will be under the Park Plaza and Hometel brands, he added.

Sarovar Hotels operates properties in the premium, mid-range and budget segments

When asked about the business model the company follows, Bakaya said: "We are a predominantly a hotel management company, though we also own two hotels." Founded in 1994 by Anil Madhok, Sarovar Hotels operates properties in the premium, mid-range and budget segments. In January 2017 French hospitality major Louvre Hotels Group, part of Chinese Group Jin Jiang International, had acquired a majority stake in Sarovar Hotels for an undisclosed amount.