More Ista brand hotels planned

Hyderabad: Delhi-based IHHR Hospitality Pvt Ltd has lined up eight Ista brand hotels in the next four years, taking the total to 10. 'The company will open Amritsar facility by December 2008. The other facilities would come up in Pune, Ahmedabad, Noida, Coimbatore and Navi Mumbai,' Mr Jaideep Anand, General Manager of Ista, said. The hospitality group, which also owns the Ananda brand destination spas in the Himalayas and Mauritius, recently opened a 167-room `business resort' in the Financial District, home to global multinational companies in Hyderabad.

The company has invested about Rs 200 crore in the 16-acre facility, the first star hotel to come up in the area, which is dotted by IT majors such as Microsoft, Wipro, Infosys and Polaris. In order to produce quality manpower, the company would set up two training institutes by next year. While the first one would offer management courses, the other one would train personnel exclusively for spas. 'This is going to be the first such institute in Asia,' Mr Jaideep Anand said.