Hotels in India’s major cities are increasingly prioritising banqueting and conference infrastructure over room inventory, reflecting the rising profitability of weddings and corporate events. Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels’ latest project in Kolkata highlights this shift, with the company redesigning The Park at EM Bypass to favour large-format event spaces.
Speaking during a recent earnings call, Managing Director Vijay Dewan said the hotel’s room count has been reduced from the originally planned 250 to 218, with the additional area reallocated to banqueting and conferencing facilities. The move, he noted, is a strategic response to strong and sustained demand for MICE and wedding-led business in the city.
“Looking at the market, we have given more allocation to banqueting and conferencing facilities rather than just to the rooms,” Dewan said, describing it as a long-term design decision.
The shift underlines a broader trend in urban hospitality, where MICE and social events are no longer supplementary revenue streams but central to hotel profitability, often delivering higher margins and more predictable demand than room-only operations.
Source: Skift