Former SpiceJet official Kanesh Avili’s hotel chain enters Bangkok; plans to expand in South Asia by next year

NEW DELHI: Hotel NIDA, a venture by former SpiceJet Chief Commercial Officer Kanesh Avili, announced entry into Bangkok with the addition of Hotel NIDA Sukhumvit Nana to the Hotel NIDA portfolio.

“The hotel consists of 49 deluxe rooms and a roof-top swimming pool in Bangkok’s vibrant Soi Nana. The hotel currently operates under the Hotel Solo Sukhumvit 2 brand and has a Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor. Hotel NIDA expects to take-over operations in August,” na relelase from the company said.

“We are excited that Hotel NIDA Sukhumvit Nana has joined our family, bringing another excellent location and quality hotel for our customers. The management of Hotel NIDA is also extremely happy to have achieved a critical milestone of hotel level EBITDA profitability for first quarter and trending towards an annualized run rate revenue of over US$2m – all accomplished in under five months since the lease & operate model was launched,” Kaneswaran Avili, CEO and co-founder of Hotel NIDA was quoted in the release.

The hotel chain said that they have also achieved a positive, consolidated hotel level EBITDA for first quarter 2018 with four hotels in operation. “The best performing hotel achieving a 19.9% EBITDA margin. Hotel NIDA achieved record revenue in April and is tracking at +US$2m annualized revenues on the existing five hotels,” it said.

Hotel NIDA acquires long-term leases on existing, successful boutique hotels in excellent locations, re-brands and operates them. This asset-light, lease and operate model has been proven time and time again successful by a variety of China players including Home Inn, 7 Days and China Lodging Group.

“We continue to build an exciting pipeline and expect to achieve 15 properties in the portfolio by 4Q this year tracking in excess of US$6m of run-rate revenues. Subject to successful closure of on-going funding discussions, we would expect to achieve a 40 to 60 hotel portfolio by year-end 2019 trading profitability at US$25 million to US$36 million of annualized revenues. Ultimately, we see an opportunity to expand beyond Thailand and Malaysia with a view towards building a true ASEAN branded portfolio of several hundred properties.” Avili was further quoted in the release.