Carlson opens Park Plaza in Coimbatore

Carlson Hotels has recently opened a new Park Plaza hotel and its 40^th operational location in India in Coimbatore, by signing a management contract with Sabari Group. The company further plans to have over 100 Carlson branded operating hotels in India by 2015 with its capacity touching over 10,000 rooms by then. The company has several brands in its portfolio namely Radisson, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Park Inn by Radisson and Park Plaza. The upcoming properties will be a mix of all the Carlson brands. Also, the new hotels will be pre-dominantly a combination of franchise and management agreements (majority of the new signings are management contracts). The company may consider co-investment with a strategic partner for a few hotels in high visibility locations.

Presently, Carlson is looking for management opportunities in key locations such as Munnar and Madurai but no properties have been signed as yet at these locations. The company has six hotels in Tamil Nadu out of which three are operational (including Park Plaza Coimbatore) and developing various properties in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, most of them are managed properties. Carlson is also expecting to increase the number of rooms with existing franchisees. It is negotiating with existing owners for multiple hotels as well as new potential owners however most of them will be management agreements.