Keys Hotels & Resorts Strengthens Core Team

Keys Hotels, a leading chain of business hotels, has appointed several new veteran hospitality and marketing professionals to bolster its operations, marketing and sales functions.

Arpan Dutta joins as ‘Senior Vice President, Operations’, Shailesh Srivastava and Harish Rao join as ‘Head – Sales’ and ‘Head – Marketing’ respectively, while Kaustubh Lawande comes onboard as ‘Head – E-Commerce.’

Arpan Dutta, Senior Vice President, Operations, with over twenty years of experience in the hospitality and Entertainment industry has worked with companies like The Oberoi, Hyatt Regency, Taj etca at the leadership role. Most recently he was with Cinemax India Limited as Chief Operating officer which merged with PVR Limited. He also serves as a council member for prestigious global industry expert network Gerson Lehrman Group.

Shailesh Srivastava, Head- Sales, is a seasoned sales and marketing professional and brings a wealth of experience from diversified industries like consumer banking, insurance and telecom. He has worked with large organisations like ICICI Bank, GE, Fullerton India Credit and Reliance-ADAG group in various roles across geographies. Most recently he worked for Reliance Communications where he was responsible for managing online, alliances and channel sales businesses at a national level. He is a gold medallist in management and also serves as a council member for prestigious global industry expert network Gerson Lehrman Group.

Harish Rao, Head - Marketing, is an MBA - Marketing from Pune University and has over 15 years of experience in the field of marketing. He has worked for various companies namely Kingfisher Airlines, Idea Cellular, Jet Airways and Air Costa before joining Keys Hotels.

Kaustubh Lawande, Head-Revenue, an Art graduate from the University of Mumbai, joins from AirAsia and has over 15 years of hospitality experience spread across Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, Go Air and The Lalit, Mumbai.

Speaking about the appointments, Ms. Anshu Sarin, CEO, Berggruen Hotels Pvt. Ltd said, “We have an aggressive plan to rapidly grow our base across India. Hence it Imperative for us to strengthen our core commercial team. This would help us deepen our brand penetration, bolster sales and strengthen our operations. We are delighted to appoint Arpan Dutta, Shailesh Srivastava, Harish Rao & Kaustubh Lawande at strategic positions in Keys Hotels. We believe that professionals like them, with their wealth of experience, are assets who will play a pivotal role in achieving our business objectives.

About Berggruen Hotels (KEYS Hotels):

Funded by Berggruen Holdings, a New York headquartered proprietary fund, Berggruen Hotels was formed in September 2006.

Berggruen Hotels launched its brand “Keys Hotels” in January 2007 and opened its first hotel in 2009 under this brand. Keys Hotels has total of 35 hotels in India including those under development and follows the following modes of growth: Management contracts and franchise model.

Over the years, Keys Hotels has been on an aggressive growth trajectory with addition of several owned, managed and franchised business hotels. Of the total current portfolio of Keys Hotels, 16 properties are in operation with 6 owned, 6 hotels under management and 4 under franchise contract with a total inventory of close to 1500 rooms. Keys Hotels now have presence across cities such as Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Mahabaleshwar, Mumbai, Pune, Silvassa, Shirdi, Tirupati and Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.