How Hotel Companies in India are Expanding Through Multi-Property Deals

India's hospitality growth story is now officially beyond the one-hotel-at-a-time stage.

Hotel chains in India are increasingly moving away from signing individual properties in favor of multi-property development agreements. This shift comes as the country’s hospitality industry experiences rapid growth driven by rising demand.

The Indian hotel sector is expected to cross INR 1 trillion ($11.7 billion) by the end of the current financial year and reach INR 1.1 trillion ($13 billion) by 2026-27, according to risk management and monitoring platform Rubix Data Sciences.

Occupancy rates are also increasing, projected to reach 73% by 2026-27, up from 68% in fiscal 2024 and significantly higher than the pandemic low of 35%. This is largely due to demand consistently outstripping supply.

This demand-supply imbalance is a critical factor driving long-term strategies across the sector.

Hyatt Hotels CEO Mark Hoplamazian noted that limited supply growth relative to demand is a global trend, including in India. "This is a positive attribute,” he said.

Accor chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin called India "an untapped market." He said there are less than 200,000 brand