jüSTa Hotels & Resorts adds 11 hotels to its portfolio

The business works on a revenue sharing model with property owners and currently operates hotels under two brands – jüSTa and NUO – is planning to launch another brand in the next few months. The latest brand of the company will focus on the uber-luxury boutique hospitality segment, Ashish Vohra, its founder & CEO said.

“We were 14 hotels pre pandemic and ended contracts with almost six of those during the pandemic due to various reasons. We are now back to full strength. Pre-pandemic, our turnover had touched almost ₹60 crore. However, we came down to ₹15 crore after the first wave. That is when we decided that it was time for us to reset the company,” he said.

The company shifted focus to luxury resorts and retreats and signed up its first hotel during the pandemic in Mukteshwar in August 2020. Since then, it has signed revenue sharing agreements with 11 hotels.

The hotels of the hotels opened were between the second and the third waves of the pandemic. “As per our business plan, we will achieve a turnover of ₹100 crore in FY 2023-24.” he added.

Vohra added, “We have reached a point where we will move from being a small company to a mid-sized company to reckon with. By the end of this fiscal, we will have a total of 22 hotels operational and another 3-4 signed up. Going forward, our biggest challenge is to manage growth. Therefore, we will pay close attention to service delivery and quality across all our hotels so that the strong value proposition that we offer to our guests is maintained.”

According to hospitality company Hotelivate, India has about 150,000 branded hotel rooms, and the months of July and August 2022 have clocked some of the best performances hotel businesses have seen across several markets. It added that business is robust across markets, especially with leisure locations continuing to outperform urban markets; city hotels have also seen an upswing in demand.