IHCL's Ginger to unveil first rebranded, full-service hotel in Goa today

Indian Hotels Co Ltd's (IHCL) smart basic hotel brand Ginger is transitioning to become a full-service value-for-money offering. Owned and operated by IHCL subsidiary Roots Corporation Ltd (RCL), the refreshed and repositioned prototype at Panjim in Goa will be unveiled today by the top executives of the Tata Group's hospitality firms.

DNA Money had first reported this development in its April 10, 2018 edition along with IHCL's plans to scrap the Gateway brand.

According to industry sources, brand Ginger is losing its smart basic hospitality services tag and going full-service, thereby repositioning itself in the market in an attempt to grab a larger pie of the business/leisure travel segment as well as the millennials.

"The room sizes are more or less the same. The colour scheme has been changed to make it look more warm, young and attractive to today's travellers and millennials alike. Additionally, the hotels are moving away from outsourced services format to in-house services and will have proper food and beverage (F&B) facilities across its portfolio going forward," said a source familiar with the development, adding that it's completely a different product now compared to a guest-house like offering earlier.

IHCL did not respond to DNA Money queries.

The prototype in Goa is basically an old Ginger hotel that's been revamped and retrofitted to conform to the new design language/template and services offerings.

"Have you seen their last launched Ginger hotel at Teli Gali in Andheri East (in Mumbai)? The Panjim hotel is two notches above that property, if you know what I mean," said another source, adding that all the new hotels being signed will follow the new design template and the older ones will be migrated to the new format or will go out of the network in case the transition is not possible.

While Indian firm DY Works has worked on Ginger's new brand identity, IHCL has availed services of JOI Design, a German entity, to design the interiors and the new template for Ginger.

As far as the new brand identity is concerned, all the existing hotels in the portfolio will now sport the name Ginger in a brand new font with a gradient of orange compared to a solid orange in an outdated font earlier. Akin to Google that uses the full word as well as the first letter as its brand identity, Ginger is using 'G' as the second identity in a white colour new-age font placed on a shiny billiards ball that's in a yellow and purple colour gradient. Both the Ginger name and 'G' logo feature a tag that reads 'An IHCL Brand'.

The re-positioned Ginger now becomes an offering that can be compared to the likes of Hometel brand by Sarovar Hotels and Resorts, hotels operated by Bloom Hotel Group and the Red Fox brand owned and operated by Lemon Tree Hotels. In fact, industry experts are calling it a big shift for Ginger from a purely room-driven and outsourced F&B business to a full-service product with in-house capabilities.

While there are some hotels in the portfolio that are gradually getting upgraded, it is understood that going forward all the Ginger branded hotels will feature amenities like swimming pool, health club, full-service restaurant, small meeting rooms and banqueting area in addition to vibrant looking guestrooms with a host of in-room facilities and services. The impact of this move will obviously be reflected on the room rates that are expected to go further up from the current levels.

The new Ginger could also mean that IHCL is probably exiting the economy/ budget accommodation segment. "What they are trying to achieve now is something that's comparable to a full-service value-for-money offering in the market. Indian market isn't still very receptive to a bed & breakfast (B&B)-type offering like the ones being offered in the US and European markets," said a hotelier, adding that it will be interesting to see if IHCL renters the economy/budget hotel segment at a later stage and the possibilities of reusing brand Gateway, which has been put in the cold storage for now, for the same.

Addressing the budget hotel accommodation segment, IHCL introduced a brand 'IndiOne' back in 2003 as smart, basic, no-frills hotels. However, the brand/business didn't really pan out the way it was envisaged and a few years later the entire portfolio was rebranded under the Ginger banner with additional outsourced services.

The Ginger portfolio currently comprises 45 properties with 3,987 rooms across 32 cities. Of the entire portfolio, 66% is through long-term leases, 20% are owned and 14% are managed. The company is also trying to divest shareholding in the hotels it currently owns. Going forward, the IHCL/RCL management will be mainly focusing on an asset-light strategy using the management contract route to build the portfolio.

NEW RED CARPET

• Ginger is losing its smart basic hospitality services tag and going full-service, thereby repositioning itself in the market in an attempt to grab a larger pie of the business/leisure travel segment as well as the millennials
   
• All the new hotels being signed will follow the new design template and the older ones will be migrated to the new format or will go out of the network in case the transition is not possible