Peerless Hotels, the hospitality arm of city-based Peerless General Finance & Investment (PGF&I), plans to double the room count over the next five years.

The company, which has five properties with 450 rooms, will look at management contracts or acquisition routes to reach the target.

Debasree Basu Roy, MD of Peerless Hotels, said: “First, we focus on the existing properties. As and when we get opportunities through acquiring or management contracts, we might consider that.”

The company embarked on a transformation journey last year. It revamped two floors of the 168-keys Calcutta property, the flagship of Peerless Hotel, in an attempt to move up the pricing chain.

Additionally, the name of the city hotel has been changed from Peerless Inn to Peerless Hotels.

The company also has properties in Durgapur and Hyderabad and two resorts, Mukutmanipur and Port Blair. Kuldeep Bhartee, CEO of the company, said after renovating 32 rooms in Calcutta, it would take up the upgradation of the rest of the properties.

Roy suggested that Peerless Hotels would look for distribution partners so that the properties could reach different feeder markets.

The transformation journey comes at a time when the hotel arm of PGF&I is set to post the highest profit in its three-decade-long journey.

While the Calcutta hotel occupancy is about 83 per cent, Durgapur is operating at 70 per cent and Hyderabad at 99 per cent. Resorts are operating at 50-55 per cent, the management informed.

Bhartee said revenue would grow 29-30 per cent in this fiscal over FY23.

Supriyo Sinha, director of PGF&I, said the holding company would support the hotel arm if M&A opportunities come up. “Right now, we don’t have a plan to build a property from scratch. But we are open to acquiring a property or a chain of hotels — that one cannot predict the timing. If an opportunity comes up, we will definitely evaluate,” he said.