Shangri-La opens its 1st hotel in India

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, the leading luxury hotel group of Asia Pacific, opened their first-ever hotel in India on Wednesday in collaboration with India's Eros group in the heart of New Delhi.

The Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) hotel began with a "soft opening" while a grand opening is scheduled in November this year.

The 17-storey hotel opened with a limited inventory of guestrooms and suites, with a "interactive" coffee shop, a health club and spa as its unique features.

"Our USP is the strategic positioning of our hotel, the fact that it is just next to the Parliament and government offices. Our service level is better than our competitors," Gilbert Gaston Jung, general manager, Shangri-La group said.

In the final phase, the five-star hotel with its 323 guestrooms including 36 suites would offer exclusive retreat with a host of special privileges and amenities, he said.

The renovated hotel, formerly known as Hotel Kanishka, was acquired by the Eros group as a part of the divestment of ITDC Hotels by the then government in 2002.