Shervani Hospitality to consider more strategic tie-ups to expand brand footprint, ET HospitalityWorld

A hospitality company that runs its own hotels primarily comprising its flagship hotel, Shervani HillTop Nainital and a boutique business hotel, Shervani Nehru Place, New Delhi, is slowly and steadily expanding its presence through a strategic partnership with the owners. The hospitality company recently added two hotels to its portfolio: a 48-room leisure hotel, Shervani Pebbles & Pines, Corbett; and an 18-room boutique hotel, Te Aroha by Shervani in Mukteshwar. While the Corbett property is a new development, the Mukteshwar property was an operational hotel that joined the Shervani portfolio. Shervani Hotels started the operation of these two properties on May 1, 2024.

“We are currently focusing on Uttarakhand and we want to have one or two more destinations,” said Ahsan Shervani, vice-president of the company, who is trying to bring a generational change in the company built assiduously by his father SM Shervani. who is a known figure in the tourism and hospitality industry in the country having held leadership positions in NRAI, FHRAI, FAITH, etc.

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“With these three hotels, we have a golden triangle in Uttarakhand for our guests with diverse experiences. Rishikesh is a destination that we want to develop. Rishikesh has become an important place for religious and adventure tourism post-Covid,” said Ahsan.

Talking about the new properties, Ahsan said that Corbett and Mukteshwar properties enjoy magnificent locations. Shervani Pebbles & Pines Corbett is located inside the forest and close to the river. Similarly, the Mukteshwar property was a working hotel maintained with passion and care by the owners offering 2 and 3 bedroom cottages, overlooking the Himalayas, he added.

Sharing the growth model, Ahsan said the idea is to work with new owners who share a similar mindset and want to overcome the ups and downs of the business with a long-term approach. He said that instead of signing management contracts, they were looking to work with potential partners on a “hybrid model” with a minimum guarantee and a revenue sharing percentage.

In many cases, “expectations are mismatched” and “owners are “misguided about market returns,” he said. So the goal would be to work with owners who have realistic expectations, he said.

Ahsan doesn’t have big expansion goals. He plans to add 5 more hotels over the next five years. Goa, Rajasthan and Delhi NCR are places where it plans to establish the brand and expand its footprint.

Compared to the older generation, Ahsan, who holds an MBA from Les Roches International School of Hotel Management, also understands the importance of investing in technology to achieve business excellence. He said he was able to incorporate advanced revenue management practices based on data analytics. These changes help streamline real-time decision-making, which was not the case before, he said.

“We also invest in people. Shervani Hospitality is now a family of 200 people,” he informed.

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