Even as the hospitality sector remains one of the worst-hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Indian Hotels Company, Puneet Chhatwal, expect better margins once things improve as the firm has currently cut costs.

“Post COVID, once the impact is gone and life comes back to pre-COVID levels, our margins should expand further because… 50 percent of our portfolio would then be owned and operated,” Chhatwal told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. The remaining 50 percent would only be operated based on management contracts, he added.

Commenting on the business front, he said, the leisure destinations of Rajasthan, Goa, and Shimla have been doing well. The staycations in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru have started off quite well, he added.

Chhatwal further said that they exceeded their expectations after they announced ‘Aspiration 2022’ in February 2018 and achieved 80 percent of the plan in 50 percent time. “We actually ended up signing 70 new contracts from the time we launched Aspiration 2022 till now and even in the year of the pandemic we signed 17 contracts. Despite the lockdown, we opened several hotels,” he said.

For the entire management interview, watch the video

(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)