In contrast, global hospitality giants with far larger portfolios and stronger international brand equity trade at significantly lower EV/room figures. US-listed Marriott International, which manages over 5.8 lakh rooms globally, has an EV/room of ₹1.25 crore. Similarly, Hilton Worldwide stands at ₹2.17 crore. UK’s InterContinental Hotels Group has an EV/room of less than ₹20 lakh. France’s Accor is even lower at ₹14 lakh. China’s H World Group has an EV/room of less than ₹10 lakh.Mid-tier hospitality stocks in Indian listed space have participated too. Chalet Hotels is up 46 per cent in three years. Lemon Tree Hotels has gained 33 per cent, while Royal Orchid has delivered 44 per cent. So why are India’s hotel valuations per room so elevated?First, Indian hotel companies continue to own a large portion of their inventory, unlike their global peers which primarily operate under asset-light franchise or management contracts. Owning land and buildings, especially in high-value city-centre locations, results in far higher capital intensity. This drives up the cost, even if the actual room count remains modest. For instance, IHCL has nearly 26,500 rooms, a fraction of what Marriott or Accor own or manage globally.

On a high

Published on May 31, 2025 Back in India, signs of a shift are visible. Firms like IHCL, EIH, and ITC Hotels are actively moving towards an asset-light strategy to drive future expansion. New projects are increasingly management or franchise-led. For instance, 15,900 of the new 19,500 IHCL rooms to be added will be under management contract. If this continues, India’s per-room valuation metrics may start converging with global benchmarks over time.India’s hotel sector is hogging the headlines with the country witnessing its largest-ever hospitality IPO. Brookfield-backed Schloss Bangalore, owner of The Leela hotels, recently mopped up ₹3,500 crore.Tata Group-owned The Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), the country’s largest listed hotel player, commands an EV/room of ₹4.06 crore. EIH, operator of the Oberoi chain, stands at ₹5.3 crore. Soon-to-be listed Schloss Bangalore, which operates at the very top-end of luxury hotels, has an EV/room of over ₹5 crore.

Asset-light models

Two, optimistic growth expectations are already baked into these valuations. Investors are assigning a premium to Indian hotel stocks on the back of improving domestic tourism, higher room rates and occupancy and global travellers returning to India post-pandemic. With relatively younger hotel chains and room portfolios that are still expanding, Indian stocks are being priced for future potential.Interestingly, the strong valuations haven’t come on the back of heavy borrowing. Most of the top listed Indian hotel firms today have low debt on their books. Instead, enterprise value which is the sum of market capitalisation and the net debt on the balance- sheet has expanded largely due to rising market capitalisation in the post-Covid rally. Around 80 per cent of listed Indian hotels stocks have beaten Sensex’s 14 per cent three-year CAGR.Over the last three years, top players have delivered handsome returns. EIH and IHCL stocks have grown at a CAGR of 42 and 51 per cent in last three years. In comparison, 3-year stock returns of global hotels like InterContinental (22.4 per cent CAGR), Hilton Worldwide (20.4 per cent CAGR), Marriott International (15.2 per cent CAGR) and Hyatt Hotels (14.3 per cent CAGR) reflect more modest gains. Compare this with global peers where hotel majors like Marriott, Hilton, and Accor have shifted almost entirely to a franchise-plus-management model. This approach keeps debt and capital expenditure off their books, helping scale rapidly without bloating their balance-sheets. As a result, their enterprise value reflects fee-based income, not real-estate holdings, which naturally brings down EV/room metrics. But this doesn’t necessarily signal under-valuation, it reflects the difference in business models.A look at trailing EV/EBITDA further underlines India’s valuation premium. Indian Hotels trades at 40 times, Chalet at 30.4, and Lemon Tree at 24.1 and Schloss Bangalore at 23. In comparison, Marriott stands at 19.9 times, Accor at 12.8, and Las Vegas Sands at just 11. Hilton is the only outlier at 27.8 times. While the premium valuation is partly explained by more owned assets, for it to sustain the Indian hotel stocks will need to deliver without any glitches on the strong growth expectations as well.But there’s a bigger story brewing underneath: India’s top listed hotel companies now enjoy the highest enterprise value (EV) per room in the world. Take a closer look at the numbers.

Indian Vegetable Oils Producer Association President Sudhakar Desai said edible oil processors had been seeking an increase in the duty differential as prime palm oil-producing countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia were subsidising exports of refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm oil and palmolien. A trade expert said the duty-free import will favour Russia and Canada, while pulses import could rise further from the record 6.63 million tonnes in 2023-24. The SEA president said the cost and freight price of RBD palmolien is approximately –50 per tonne lower than CPO. It encourage refined imports at the cost of domestic value addition.

Effective duty

The other feature of Friday’s order is that the relief that countries such as Nepal got through the South Asian Free Trade Agreement will be reduced. Nepal had a 35 per cent duty advantage due to which at least an additional one million tonnes of palm oil was being exported to India.The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said the Government’s decision to increase the duty differential between crude and refined edible oil from 8.25 per cent to 19.25 per cent will help create a level-playing field for domestic refiners and contribute to stabilising edible oil prices for Indian consumers.Published on May 30, 2025 Desai said it will help growers, too, as it would curb imports of refined palm oil, in particular. 

Growers to benefit

The duty on refined cooking oils – palm, soya, rapeseed and sunflower -is 32.5 per cent, with the 10 per cent social welfare cess making the effective duty 35.75 per cent. “We were asking for a 20 per cent duty differential. After today’s revision, the differential is 19.25 per cent. We will take this,” said Desai. “That duty advantage has been cut to some extent. It will help the industry,” the IVPA President said. 

Aiding refiners

A gazette notification said the duty cut will come into effect from May 31 (Saturday). The edible oil sector has welcomed the duty cut since it widens the duty differential between crude and edible cooking oils to 19.25 per cent. From May 31, crude edible oils – palm, soya, rapeseed and sunflower – will attract a basic Customs duty of 10 per cent, 5 per cent agri cess, 10 per cent social welfare cess, taking the effective duty to 16.5 per cent. Asthana said this trend has been exacerbated by the export policies of supplier countries, which impose higher export duties on CPO (raw material) and lower duties on refined palmolien (finished goods). India imports a significant volume of palm oil, primarily from Indonesia and Malaysia. Historically, Indian refiners have imported CPO, and substantial investments have been made in port-based palm oil refining infrastructure to meet the growing domestic demand for palmolien. Importing CPO enables value addition within the country and supports employment generation in the refining sector, said Asthana.

Trade upset on yellow peas move

As a result of these subsidies over the past year, imports of RBD increased to 35 per cent of total palm oil imports. Sanjeev Asthana, SEA President, said it will discourage imports of refined palmolien and shift demand back to crude palm oil (CPO). It will revitalise the domestic refining sector. “This move will not impact the overall volume of edible oil imports and is unlikely to cause any upward pressure on edible oil prices,” he said. The Indian government late on Friday cut the import duty on crude edible oils such as palm, soyabean and sunflower oil to 16.5 per cent overall from 27.5 per cent. However, it extended duty-free import of yellow peas until March 31, 2026. On the other hand, the Centre’s decision to permit duty-free import of yellow peas irked the trade. “Yellow peas imports are responsible for the current bearish trend in prices of pulses. This will affect growers too, as they are getting returns below the minimum support price for crops such as chickpeas (chana/gram),” said a trader, without wishing to identify.