Prince Hotels, a subsidiary of Seibu Holdings, will add StayWell Groups 30 hotels globally to its own network and there are plans to add 100 hotels in the next decade.

PRINCE HOTELS, a consolidated subsidiary of a Japanese group, Seibu Holdings has acquired StayWell Hospitality Group including all the business operations of StayWell Group which operates and develops 30 hotels globally. This acquisition will add all the operated hotels of SWHG to the existing Prince Hotels network which serves as the core of the Seibu Group's hotel and leisure businesses. Seibu Group plans to deploy 100 hotels in 10 years.

BW Hotelier spoke to Rohit Vig, Managing Director, StayWell Hospitality Group to know how India will be affected by this collaboration. “Staywell is already on an expansion spree in India, this merger will help the group to plan everything more strategically. By 2018, StayWell is expanding to Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Vizag and Raipur. Also, our existing properties will be benefitted as it will give us the opportunity of building on the company’s customer programs, sales, marketing and distribution,” said Vig.

Speaking about the vision behind this collaboration, Vig explained “StayWell has built a solid base in Australia, India, Middle East and United Kingdom. Prince hotels needed additional resources to implement their business plan objectives to expand in other parts of the world and they considered us to expand their portfolio. On the other hand, Prince is the right partner to enable us to achieve our objective of expanding StayWell in Japan, so this common vision of expanding globally and forming our own niche led to this acquisition.”

Based in Sydney, SWHG has also extended its footprint in India with 'leisure Inn Shrey' in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The group has been in India since 2012 and it is their third property in Rajasthan Market.

Surbhi Vohra, Regional Director of Sales, Staywell Hospitality Group told us about the expansion "Tourism in Rajasthan is growing by leaps and bounds, I feel there is no lean season in these markets and the inbound footfall is constant. Now days, the corporates have also started to give decent business in these markets and locals are fond of Food hence the F&B revenue generation is also decent," she said.

StayWell currently operates two profile hotel and apartment style brands called Park Regis, which is an upscale brand and Leisure Inn, a midscale brand. Presently there are 50 rooms at Leisure Inn Shrey Jodhpur. The Standard price of the rooms at Staywell properties starts with 2999+taxes inclusive of breakfast for two.