Going Green: India’s hotel sector is changing its complexion

On average the phrase “Eco Hotel” is searched at least 4,500 times a day on Google, targeting businesses operating on the subcontinent: stark evidence (if evidence be needed) that travellers of every complexion are increasingly aware of the importance of environmental compliance in their choice of hotel accommodation. But the recent surge in demand for Eco Accommodation is still not wholly matched by supply in India (the subcontinent’s vast expanse currently has less hotel units than the State of New York alone). And it’s not just about the environment either, because Eco Hotels in India are more and more reaping the economic benefits of environmentally friendly operations through reduced room costs and higher occupancy rates.

With unprecedented numbers of tourists and business travellers, the Indian hotel mid market is naturally focusing on the need to meet this key demand matrix: making better use of energy, water and building materials whilst at the same time maintaining the highest standards of service and accommodation quality. This is the successful formula that lies behind the recent growth of India’s Lemon Tree Hotels Group (with a very recent and oversubscribed IPO now under its belt) as well as Eco Hotels, the World’s first carbon neutral hotel brand; both of which are now picking up business at the expense of more traditional, chain operations.

From the point of view of the hotel operator, eco compliance also reduces costs and potential longer-term liabilities, generating a higher return and lower cost investment platform, so it is safe to say that the current trends towards “greener” delivery are likely to continue into the foreseeable future: if only because they make solid business sense too. It helps, of course, that the eco model is also attracting sustained levels of high demand in a largely unsaturated sub continental market.

And the core concept of a truly “green hotel” starts (literally) from the ground up, as part of the original construction process: using renewable building materials and incorporating design features which will eventually make reduced energy and resource allocation part of the building’s DNA, an intrinsic component of its operating structure. Once completed, it comes down to recording current and chronological usage statistics, acting on them and establishing key baselines and targets for future consumption (70% of non compliance variables in the segment involve excess guest consumption, so accurate record keeping is crucial). Inevitably, therefore, most of the day-to-day procedures for “going green” take place behind the scenes of any hotel’s operations.

All of this is also helped (crucially) by a range of key policies and initiatives instituted by the Indian Government over recent years, favouring eco hotel and mid market operation: all of them designed to deliver eco hotels as sustainable business ventures with clear short term deliverables for the environment (and, not unimportantly, profitability too).

Red Ribbon Asset Management is the founder of Ecolodge, a key brand within the Eco Hotels Group, which has an ambitious programme of developing a £1 Billion premium value hotel network, supporting sustainable living without compromising on standards of service delivery. And given the Eco Hotels brand is also modelled to operate from a low cost and high profit platform, it also delivers above market rate returns for investors. What more could you ask for?

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Red Ribbon CEO, Suchit Punnose said:

I am constantly struck by the fact that the Island of Manhattan alone has more hotel accommodation than the entire, seemingly endless expanse of India’s hinterland: but when you bear in mind that there is also now an unprecedented surge in tourist and business travelers on the subcontinent, most of them looking for eco friendly accommodation, it starts to look like a phenomenon with only one outcome…a resurgent Indian mid market for Hotels and Eco Hotels in particular. Not that we didn’t see it coming.  For several years now Red Ribbon has been the driving force behind the Eco Hotels project on the subcontinent, successfully meeting the unique challenges that this congruence of market economics and public demand has generated. But we aren’t just proud of our participation in Eco Hotels; we think it makes great business sense too.

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