The city will get a new Hyatt address after a gap of more than two decades when a new brand from the global hospitality chain checks into Calcutta.
Hyatt Centric is going to open its doors in Gariahat in the winter, said an official who is in charge of the hotel.
This would be only the second hotel sporting the brand after Hyatt Regency started operations in 2002 near the Salt Lake stadium.
The 93-key property is under renovation and is expected to be ready before the busy holiday and wedding season in winter. The hotel will be under the management contract of Hyatt, which will manage the property and provide services.
Hyatt Centric is positioned as a modern boutique hotel which is usually located in the heart of the city and preferred by travellers who would pick a property based on good location. There are about five such Centric properties in India at present — in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa and Chandigarh.
The Calcutta property will have its usual mix of restaurants, coffee shop and banquet catering to the locality which is predominantly residential but with a good mix of business and retail. There are going to be three restaurants, including one on the rooftop.
The new management, which took over the property before the pandemic, is hoping that the brand refresh would infuse a new lease of life to the hotel.
After starting operation as Park Plaza in 2013, the property got upgraded to an upscale Radisson brand in 2018. The rebranded avatar was short-lived in the wake of the pandemic, which hit the hospitality, tourism and aviation businesses hardest globally as leisure and business travel came to a standstill.
The new owners, who have interest in real estate and mining, parted ways with Radisson Group
during the pandemic and the property was closed for renovation from the middle of 2022.
“We are completely revamping the hotel to meet the standards of Hyatt. It will be a new-look property in every way,” said the official who is in charge of the Gariahat hotel.
Hospitality and real estate sector observers said the introduction of an internationally branded boutique hotel augurs well for the hospitality ecosystem of Calcutta as it increases the supply of rooms in the premium segment.
“Hyatt Centric will play an important role in attracting guests who wish to stay in the centre of the city. The hotel would also have a place in the marriage and MICE segment as it would provide a branded experience to customers/market section looking for pricing which is in line with Hyatt Centric experiences,” said Abhijit Das, senior director (east), Knight Frank India, a property consultant.
MICE refers to meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions.
For tourists coming to Calcutta, members of the Hyatt loyalty programme — the World of Hyatt — are now going to have another option at a different price point and location, Das said.
While a number of star properties have come up in Calcutta over the past decade, they are mostly located along EM Bypass or in New Town. A functional star property in the heart of a prime residential locality in south Calcutta could score high on F&B (food and beverage) and room revenue as the city is known to be a high-spend marriage market, business experts said.