Global luxury hotel operator, Langham Hospitality Group,signed an agreement with Lavasa Corporation on Wednesday to manage two 200-room properties in Lavasa.
Under the agreement Langham will launch two of its hotelbrands – Langham Place and Eaton Smart – in the hill city of Lavasa.
The properties which will open in 2013 will form part ofthe second phase in the, walkable city of Mugaon.
Brett Butcher, Chief Executive Officer of LanghamHospitality Group who was in India to sign the agreement, said: “India isone of the most exciting hospitality frontiers in the world today. We’rebullish as there are opportunities to expand at multiple levels for the luxuryLangham brands and the upscale and midscale Eaton brands which will also have strongdomestic appeal.”
However Butcher may not have expected events which wereshortly to follow.
Yesterday, the Indian government ruled that the man-madehill city of Lavasa was being developed illegally and that the project hadbroken environmental laws.
This is somewhat unexpected given comments made by NathanAndrews, Executive Vice President of Lavasa Corporation, who welcomed theLangham partnership by saying; “Langham Hotels brings significant value tothe Lavasa project. Their ecofriendly principles and the calibre of the hoteloperations across the globe mirror the values we want to see in our newdevelopment.”
Seemingly, that is exactly what the project needed, butthe Langham credentials were not enough to throw the Environment Ministry offthe scent. Fortunately for both parties, the government has allowed work on theproject to continue.
This is a bad start for Langham Hospitality Group whichhas aggressive expansion plans for the Indian market as it looks to become awell-known operator across the subcontinent within the next five years.
The group’s first hotel will open in the first quarter of2011 under the Eaton Smart brand at New Delhi Airport as the country’s firsttransit hotel, followed later in the year by its modern, tech-savvy property -Langham Place in Pune.
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