Days Hotel targets Japanese expats in Chennai

Chennai, July 18 (IANS) With Japanese breakfast and bentos (single portion take out meal boxes) the 57-room new business hotel Days Hotel Chennai OMR is targeting the Japanese expats near here and also the corporate sector located nearby, said a senior official.

Run under the flagship of Wyndham Hotel Group - the largest hotel group in the world with around 7,200 hotels in 65 countries - the hotel property is owned by Saras Hotels Private Ltd.

"We have good number of long staying Japanese expats working in the nearby industrial estates. They find our property convenient to reach their offices avoiding long distance road ride," vice president Prakash Chandran told IANS.

"We have three chefs trained in Japanese cuisine. We have a separate Japanese menu. Our bento boxes have found favour with the Japanese guests," executive chef S. Sathiyaseelan told IANS.

He said once the hotel gets the licence to run the liquor bar, the resident and walk-in guests would go up.

The hotel is waiting for the bar licence to open up its 75-cover rooftop restaurant.

Agreeing that the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) is peppered with hotels-star and other categories -- and more are in the anvil Chandran said "We have soft launched the property couple of months ago. Our occupancy ratio is around 25 per cent which is actually good. End of the year we will have around 60 per cent occupancy."

"In six to eight months another 2,000 keys/rooms will be open adding to the current around 3,000 room keys. It is already a bloodbath in the OMR," Chandran said.

According to him, hotels in Chennai city have started doing well with better room occupancies but the same trend has not reflected in the hotels located in the OMR stretch.

Given this scenario Days Hotels has been positioned as the value for money property with bigger rooms (275 sq.ft, 420 sq.ft and 980 sq.ft) and better facilities as compared to other hotels in the similar category, Chandran added.

"Lots of mega apartment complexes are there housing several thousands of families. We would target them as well for our restaurants while the primary focus will be on the Japanese long staying guests," he said.

According to him Saras Hotels is also planning venture into standalone restaurants and the first one will be a fine dining vegetarian outlet.