Lemon Tree plans 200-room premium hotel in Ayodhya

Lemon Tree Hotels plans to open a 200-room property in Ayodhya, Patanjali Keswani, Chairman and MD the hospitality major told CNBC-TV18 in a conversation.

"We have a definitive agreement to open a 200-room Lemon Tree Premium in Ayodhya very close to the temple complex,” he said.

Currently, Lemon Tree Hotels has about 10,000 operating rooms across 102 hotels and another 3,000 rooms and 60 hotels in the pipeline.

In 2025 and 2026, the company plans to have 12,000 and 14,000-15,000 operational rooms, and another 4,000 and 5,000 rooms in the pipeline, respectively. And over the next five years, Lemon Tree Hotels will exceed 20,000 rooms, he said.

This Delhi-based hotel recently opened Aurika Skycity in Mumbai, which is the largest hotel in India. The average room rate (ARR) here is expected to take the company’s average rate up. So in FY25, the average room rate (ARR) will be little better than 10%, he said.

The current ARR in the Aurika Mumbai project is at ₹11,000-12,000. In January-March 2024, this project is expected to see 60-65% of occupancy.

The hotel company is also in the middle of discussions to open an Aurika in a palace on the banks of the river Ganges.

“We have got a whole bunch of hotels in religious destinations/locations,” he said.

The current market capitalisation of the company is ₹11,039.95 crore.