Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India to add 850 rooms in FY26: CEO Manoj Bhat

Business Standard

04-05-2025

Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd plans to add 850 rooms in the current fiscal as part of it ongoing strategy to have 10,000 rooms by 2030, according to its Managing Director and CEO, Manoj Bhat.
The company, which added 520 rooms in FY25, could see a doubling of its capex in FY26 from the Rs 300 crore spent last fiscal depending on receipt of permits and regulatory approvals for its planned expansion, Bhat told PTI.
"We had the highest ever room additions in FY25 and FY26 will be higher, and I think we'll add about 850 rooms... They'll come at various points, (spread from) from Q1 to Q4...," he said when asked about the company outlook for 2025-26.
Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd (MHRIL) currently has total 5,800 rooms under its flagship brand Club Mahindra.
On the total number of rooms expected in FY26, he said,"FY26, my guess is (it will be) anywhere between 6,500 to 6,600 rooms." When asked about capex for FY26, he declined to share an exact number saying "we don't give out numbers because it depends on approvals. We have to take approvals for almost everything..." However, he said,"my own sense is that it will be higher than what we spent in FY25" which was close to over Rs 300 crore.
"FY26 will be higher than that. Maybe, if everything goes well, we could even double our capex from FY25 but then that depends on permits, approvals...A lot of things have to fall in place." The capex will be higher than the previous year because "we are adding more rooms, and also we are planning to renovate some of the existing resorts. So both put together, capex will be higher...," Bhat said.
On resort revenues, he said it grew 12 per cent in Q3 and 14 per cent in Q4 of FY25 for the domestic business, "that growth in result revenues will continue as we go forward".
In FY26, he said the company is also focussing on "profitability growth and that's showing a sharp improvement".
MHRIL has set a target of increasing its room count to 10,000 by FY30 and last year the company had stated that it planned to invest up to Rs 4,500 crore in the next three to four years to achieve the target.
When asked about the expected room occupancy in FY26, he said it is expected to be around 83-85 per cent considering the continued strong trend of people travelling more, taking shorter breaks and driving vacations.
"The number of rooms will increase and volumes will go up but occupancy as a percentage, I don't think will change much," Bhat noted.
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