By Venkatachari Jagannathan
Pune, April 10 (IANS): American hotel major Marriott International will be increasing its presence here with two more properties, taking the total number of hotels under its various brands to six, said a senior official.

"A totally new Marriott brand will be launched some time this year by converting an existing hotel. I will not be able to share more details on this. We will also have The Ritz-Carlton luxury hotel brand in Pune in 2016," Abhishek Rajagolkar, director of sales at Courtyard by Marriott Pune Hinjewadi told IANS here.

Currently, the Marriott group has three Courtyard by Marriott hotels and one JW Marriott in Pune.

Marriott commands around 900 hotel rooms in Pune and with the new properties it is expected to touch around 1,500 rooms, he added.

According to Rajagolkar, sourcing of hotel requirements has been centralised and the strength of more properties on the anvil would be leveraged in price negotiations.

Speaking about the Pune star hotel market, he said it is very price-sensitive with several local hotels trying to match the services of global hotel chains.

"Over the past decade, the Pune hotel sector has emerged a formidable competitor to other the hospitality markets in the country, growing from a negligible base of branded hotel rooms in 2005 into becoming one of India's top five hotel markets in 2014," Mandeep Lamba, managing director-Hotels at Jones Lang LaSalle-India, a real estate consultancy firm.

Lamba in a statement issued recently said Pune city has logged double-digit percentage increase in night demand for hotel room over the past five years.

"This has largely been driven by the influence of the multiple business sectors thriving in Pune, ranging from IT/ITeS to manufacturing, healthcare as well as numerous educational establishments," he added.

He said Pune has around 1,050 branded economy rooms and accounts for 18 percent of the total branded supply in the market.

"The market is largely project driven. With more industrial projects coming in, officials connected with them stay in hotels for months together. Once the project gets going, there will be steady stream of guests," Rajagolkar said.

In order to cash in on the industrial visitors to Chakan, the US hotel group has its Courtyard by Marriott there and the new property is doing well, he remarked.

Speaking about his hotel, Rajagolkar said a new open air restaurant on bar and grill concept will be opened for guests next month and the project cost is around Rs.3 crore.

"The restaurant will be called Alfresco and is likely to have 80-100 covers. The grill will be three metre charcoal grill. The meat and vegetables will be on display," Aniruddha Limaye, executive chef told IANS.

Rajagolkar said the 153-room hotel is logging around 82 percent occupancy ratio in 2015 up from 79 percent last year.

He said the hotel earns good revenue from outdoor bulk catering for corporate and others.