Royal Orchid Hotels’ partnership with Hilton to bring 125 Hampton of Hilton Hotels to India is designed for India’s next hospitality curve, and responds to a clear gap in the country’s mid-scale segment.
In a move that would change the mid-market dynamics in the Indian hospitality industry, particularly in the Tier-2 and 3 cities, Arjun Baljee, President, Royal Orchid Hotels and Founder, ICONIQA Hotels & Resorts, has partnered with Hilton to bring the Hampton of Hilton Hotels to India.
Baljee plans to build 125 Hampton by Hilton hotels across India. Geographically, the company is prioritising six states—Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra—where the mix of metros, business hubs, pilgrimage circuits and leisure destinations creates sustained demand. “We see immense opportunity between the metros and tier 2, tier 3 cities,” he says. “There’s enough to do.” The ambition to roll out 125 hotels reflects confidence not only in the brand but also in the underlying demand structure of India’s mid-scale segment.
In a hospitality landscape animated by consolidation headlines, strategic alliances are increasingly common. Yet not all partnerships are created equal. Some are designed to capture momentum in a buoyant market. Others emerge from a more deliberate exercise in portfolio building. For Baljee, the decision to partner with Hampton by Hilton appears firmly in the latter category—one shaped by structural gaps, long-term brand architecture and a clear-eyed view of where Indian hospitality growth is headed.
“These partnerships take time, and they happen over a couple of years because it’s more like a marriage,” the hotelier says candidly. “This isn’t us selling a stake. This is us being custodians of the Hampton brand.” The distinction is important. Stewardship requires alignment, not only on commercial outcomes but also on values, positioning and operational discipline. “They have to be comfortable knowing that you will do right by their brand,” Baljee explains, “and then you have to figure out the math behind it… Everything we do has to accrete shareholder value.”
