Puneet Chhatwal, MD & CEO of Indian Hotels, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the company's business plans and growth prospects.

Chhatwal said our occupancies and revenue have improved over the last 9 months.

“Year-to-date we are looking at double-digit growth in revenue and almost 27 percent increase in EBITDA. We are also witnessing a very healthy growth in the upper upscale and luxury segment and 70 percent of our portfolio trades in that positioning,” Chhatwal said on Friday.

On the capex front, Chhatwal said, “We have added 22 contracts to our pipeline in the current financial year and we hope to continue with this trend and our ambition is to open a hotel every month commencing next financial year and most of that will be on a management fee-based model which will help us balance our portfolio.”

“We are confident that this growth will help us achieve, what we call our aspiration 2022, in increasing our margins by almost 50 percent coming from 17 percent EBITDA margin to 25 percent and growth in our portfolio is a very important pillar of this journey,” he added.

Talking about the low-cost hotel format, he said, “We do see a big opportunity in that segment with our Ginger brand which we have completely revamped in the last 6 months.”

“Opened the first Ginger in the lean-luxury segment, as we call it, in Panjim, Goa and 10 more will follow this year and see kind of a refurbishing over the next 12-18 months. I think that will revolutionize the positioning of this brand in this segment and lead a branding charge in the Indian subcontinent,” added Chhatwal.