Bed-and-breakfast gains popularity in Delhi

Source : Business Times - 10 Mar 2009

As New Delhi prepares for the Commonwealth Games in 2010, a shortage of hotel rooms has left organisers scrambling to house the 100,000 spectators expected to descend on the Indian capital.

Planners insist that the 39 planned hotels will be finished by the time the Games are due, but the numbers tell a different story. Only 19 of the hotels have begun construction work, according to a parliamentary report, which predicted a shortfall of 14,000 hotel rooms. The situation has forced the government and tourism officials to look elsewhere for accommodation, and private homes are topping the list as part of a bed-and-breakfast scheme that has proved popular with homeowners who have room to spare.

More than 300 houses and 800 rooms have been registered as bed-and-breakfasts in the year and a half since the plan was launched, according to the Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation (DTTDC), which is responsible for the programme.

Most applicants live in the posh southern and central parts of the city, where large, landscaped houses in gated communities are nestled among plenty of green space and upmarket shopping areas. Many are older couples or retirees who have extra space and time because their children have left home.

Tourism officials also hope promoting the more personal homestay option rather than costly luxury hotels will boost flagging tourism numbers, which have declined steadily in recent months due to the global financial meltdown and November’s Mumbai attacks.

The bed-and-breakfast concept, while popular in Europe and North America, has taken time to catch on in India, and tourism officials say the Commonwealth Games present an opportunity. ‘Necessity is the mother of invention. In India we had never thought these kinds of schemes can work,’ said Vijay Thakur, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), which suggested the bed-and-breakfast plan to the government.

While the focus is on the Commonwealth Games, Mr Thakur said there was wider potential for attracting tourists ‘who want to see India on their own and experience Indian hospitality’. Various government promotions mean the concept is ’slowly and steadily picking up’, despite some initial teething problems, said Pervez Hameed, who runs the three-room Delhi Bed and Breakfast with his wife and mother.

Mr Hameed registered his three-storey home in south New Delhi in 2005 under a previous government tourism programme after stumbling upon another bed-and-breakfast in the city. ‘I didn’t understand much about it. I thought it was like a hotel,’ he said. ‘But then I did a Google search on it and it appealed to me.’