Chennai, Mar 9 (IANS): Luxury villas and tents, shipping container rooms, dining on the beach sands are some of the new or proposed offerings by the luxury resorts at the Bay of Bengal near here as the occupancy touches peak levels during the weekends, said industry officials on Tuesday.
A star hotel in the heart of Sriperumbudur-Oragadam industrial belt will be targeting corporate segments with day packages for employees and their family members to unwind and as well as jumbo burger eating contests.
Hospitality industry officials told IANS that the beach resort properties are doing extremely well now and the tariff rates are also high.
Sheraton Grand-Chennai Resort & Spa, a luxury beach resort on the East Coast Road (ECR) has built single and double bedroom villas with private swimming pools and gardens.
The single bedroom villa is priced upward of Rs 35,000 per night and the double bedroom villa about Rs 1,20,000 per night.
"The villas are getting booked during the weekends by families. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced many to look out for safe stay more minutely, including the availability of private swimming pools," Shiv Bose, General Manager told IANS.
"We are also looking at the wedding segment which would result in bulk booking of rooms as well as the villas," Bose added.
According to him, the overall business for the resort is good with occupancy touching 90 per cent of the pre-Covid-19 levels.
On its part Radisson Blu Resort Temple Bay Mamallapuram will soon come out with its tent villa and shipping container converted into a luxury room, said T.Nataraajan, CEO, GRT Hotels & Resorts told IANS.
"The tent villa is a sturdy one and can withstand heavy winds. The youth find the shipping container rooms attractive," he added.
The Radisson Blu Resort Temple Bay already has villas.
On the other hand, the InterContinental Chennai Mahabalipuram Resort is not contemplating villa offerings.
"The business is good. Guests prefer dining out in the open. Earlier, dining on the beach sands was offered in the evening. We have started lunch service," Manav Goyal, Director, Adyar Gate Hotels Ltd (resort property owner) told IANS.
According to Rahul Nama, General Manager, Mercure Chennai Sriperumbudur, the business has picked up owing to the fresh investments that have come in the area.
The 100-room property Mercure, part of French group Accor is located in the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam industrial area.
He said as part of the upcoming burger and beer festival, guests who win the jumbo burger (800 gms meat patty) contest will win instant gift vouchers and participate in a lucky draw at the end of festival, chance to win complimentary two nights stay voucher at selected Accor hotel or a dining voucher at the hotel.