The 2025 Indian Hospitality Trends & Opportunities Report
Hospitality in the Fast Lane
“Race strategy is a balance between pushing hard and knowing when to hold back. Patience often wins more races than aggression”
– Lewis Hamilton
The Indian Hospitality Industry is charging down the track at full throttle. This pace of growth and acceleration over the past two years is not very different from witnessing a Grand Prix — precision engineering, high-speed manoeuvres, and the constant balance between risk and reward. The hotel industry has three key metrics: how current markets are performing, what the supply pipeline ahead looks like, and how the demand–supply balance is playing out across city tiers, segments, and brands.
For 28 years, the Hotelivate Trends & Opportunities report has been the sector’s remote monitoring framework that helps hotel owners & operators analyse performance, identify overtaking opportunities, and anticipate where warning flags may appear.
In the half a decade since the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian hospitality industry has demonstrated remarkable resilience and strong growth. The sharp recovery in occupancy has continued, even with supply growth in the past five years. This suggests that the demand-supply equation remains favourable in 2024/25. Occupancy for the year stood at 68.0%, the highest in recent memory and comfortably above the pre-pandemic levels. Average Daily Rate (ADR) and Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) also saw meaningful year-on-year growth of 4.7% and 5.7%, respectively.
The proposed supply pipeline, additionally, reflects a bold strategy introducing branded hotels into 177 new markets. For the first time in over a decade, India’s proposed supply has crossed the 1,00,000-room mark — a 58% surge in the next five years. It’s an aggressive push for growth, but experience reminds us that boldness without patience can quickly become unsustainable; and that timing and execution are just as critical as ambition.
Right now, the industry feels like a Grand Prix in full flow — engines screaming, strategies diverging, and the pressure to deliver mounting. Brands, owners, and operators are all racing, each hoping to outpace rivals. However, as mentioned in the very beginning, it’s not just speed. It’s about racecraft: knowing when to attack, when to defend, and when to press the brakes.
Hotelivate, a multifaceted hospitality consulting firm offering specialised services to clients across Asia Pacific and the Middle East, is proud to present the 2025 Indian Hospitality Trends & Opportunities report, our 28th edition. The current participation base of 2,008 hotels with a total inventory of 1,96,464 rooms offers thorough coverage of India’s branded hospitality landscape enabling more incisive and detailed insights on national trends, performance of major hotel markets, and demand and supply forecasts.
The results of our survey and analyses have been presented at an All-India level, specified by star category, by administrative zones, by city tiers and with a focus on the 20 major hotel markets, indicating the best and the worst performers and identifying reasons for the same. Furthermore, a detailed review of the existing and future supply has been conducted at the macro and micro levels to facilitate a better understanding of the growth in the number of branded rooms in the country across positioning.
Formula 1 buffs will tell you that 2026 is slated to see some major changes in how cars will be racing next year, thereby contributing to uncertainty in how various teams will perform. Given the varied supply-demand dynamics across India, coupled with the geo-political and socio-economic state of affairs in the world, it won’t be inaccurate to say that India’s hospitality sector in 2026 (and onwards) will likely witness some degree of uncertainty as well. We are all hopeful of a sustained upcycle, of course; however, it would be a mistake to take your eye off the road.
For more information, please contact Achin Khanna at [email protected] or Harinya Sreenivas at [email protected]
