How is Lemon Tree and Red Fox different from other hotels?
I guess Lemon Tree has actually no competitive hotels in it’s category at present in India but it certainly is refreshingly different from the other existing hotels in India — much funkier and brighter, not stuffy, fun, extremely professional (the last is today offered only by five star deluxe hotels). Red Fox will also have no competition in its category — it’s positioned as an efficient, safe and clean, limited service hotel in the economy ie budget segment. How did you convince Warburg Pincus to come on board? By 2005 with our internal accruals, the money that I put from my own pocket and by raising through private sources we had bought about six plots and private equity investment never occurred to me. I was not really looking for funds then as it could have led to equity dilution. When Warburg Pincus approached me in 2005 we got talking only casually and nothing happened beyond that. Eight months later Warburg Pincus’ managing director called me from outside a Lemon Tree Hotel i
