The company currently operates 7,167 keys across 118 hotels with another 2,500-plus rooms under development, and plans to add about 230 hotels over the next five years, taking the portfolio to 22,000 keys by FY30.

Baljee is clear about how he wants the group to be perceived. “We won’t be India’s Marriott. India’s Marriott is Taj,” he told Mint. “We’re building a distinctly Indian portfolio, with Indian roots and values, present wherever the Indian travels, at home and across the diaspora.”

For him, signing new assets is the easy part. Royal Orchid has “about 60-odd” in the bag and expects to add around 40 properties over the next 12 months, but executing them with the right brand fit and return on capital is what will matter.

At the premium end sits ICONIQA, an upscale lifestyle brand launched in Mumbai, which will be capped at eight hotels by 2030, given the design and investment intensity. Crestoria, a leisure-focused offering, will debut in the hills outside Dehradun shortly and could grow to 25 properties over the next five years.

The mid-market will continue to be led by Regenta and Regenta Place, while the biggest thrust will come from Regenta Z, a tech-first economy franchise that aims to ‘brandify’ India’s unorganised neighbourhood hotels with standardised rooms, hygiene systems and digital rails. “Every neighbourhood in India has a hotel. The dream is to bring them into the fold,” Baljee said. Flexi-lease structures typically involve ₹5-10 crore per asset, but are booked as advance rent recoverable from owners, helping the group scale without straining its balance sheet.

Financial discipline meets growth ambition

Royal Orchid ended FY25 with nearly 10% growth in consolidated income, up to ₹343.18 crore from ₹312.70 crore the year before, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose modestly to ₹96.8 crore. Net profit eased to ₹47.5 crore as against ₹50.8 crore a year earlier, though return on capital employed improved to 17.3%.

In Q1 of FY26, the company posted a 28% jump in profit after tax to ₹11.2 crore, with consolidated income at ₹82.8 crore, up 6.6% year-on-year. Free cash flow of about ₹55 crore is expected this year, with 40% earmarked for growth and another 40% for internal improvements and brownfield expansions.

Baljee insists that Royal Orchid’s growth filters are straightforward: brands must mean something to guests, execution must be meticulous from design to service, and every project must deliver high returns on capital. “If all three are met, we’ll do the hotel,” he said. Domestic demand is at the core of the plan. “India has 100 million people travelling. International inflow is a bonus,” he added.

The average room rates, he believes, will keep climbing steadily as higher-quality supply enters and independents come under brands. “Record highs will keep getting reset, subject to the world not falling apart.”

GST, infrastructure and the road ahead

While upbeat on growth, Baljee cautioned that tax policy could alter economics in unexpected ways. The reduction of the goods and services tax rate from 12% to 5% for hotels in the lower tier, he said, looks positive at the first glance but carries a hidden sting: the inability to claim input credit on supplies and lease rentals. “It increases operating costs, especially in the mid- and lower-mid market, and may get passed on to customers,” he said.

The company’s network spans 80 cities, but the ambition is to be in all 560 district headquarters and then deepen presence in mature markets. Baljee sees opportunity in both metros and micro-locations: from Amritsar in Punjab, where Royal Orchid already has five hotels and is planning more, to Gujarat’s Kevadia, home to the Statue of Unity, where new demand nodes are emerging.

The company is also betting on India’s growing events economy, from Coldplay weekends to G20-style summits, but Baljee stressed that scalability depends on public transport and venue infrastructure. Around the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor, Royal Orchid is developing a large hotel in Surat to capture the expected surge in demand.

Risks remain familiar: an economic downturn could stall momentum, and execution lapses are a constant challenge in an asset-light model reliant on developers. But Baljee is bullish. “We’ve invested heavily in the team and systems to align on a long-term vision, not just quarterly optics,” he said.