Infosys is India's Largest Hotel Chain!

Infosys is a top IT consulting company? WRONG! In a year it will also become the largest hotel chain in India. Read this:

Infosys, an Indian software giant with 66,000 employees worldwide, has built a 500-room, in-house hotel next to its headquarters in Bangalore. By June, it expects to have 15,000 company- owned rooms across India — an eighth of all the rooms in the country and more than any Indian hotel chain.

India has a total of 110,000 hotel rooms – roughly equal to those in just New York Metropolitan area. No wonder the tourism despite all the pulls is not as strong as in the big apple..

India, a country of 1.1 billion people, to New York, a city of eight million: New York attracted 6.8 million foreign tourists in 2005; India attracted 3.9 million. Visitors to New York pumped $22.8 billion into the local economy, or about $2,850 per New York resident; visitors to India pumped in $6.7 billion, or about $6 per Indian resident.

This queer situation where the occupancies in India are at record highs.. it has become very hard to plan any visits to India metros – specifically for the corporate people. So, what Infosys is doing makes sense. IN their own guest rooms, it costs them $15, while a 3 star luxurt will cost $150. A lot of companies are big time into real estate – quite contrary to what people think…

.. For example, McDonald’s real estate portfolio is now folklore. It is now also the largest land owner in Russia.

So, these jokers from OEH and their like – beware guys – if Tatas dont get you…. Infosys might!