Lemon Tree is ready to open their first upscale property in Udaipur within a month, said Sumant Jaidka, Senior Vice President Operations – Lemon Tree Hotels.

Sharing the company’s road map at the launch of its upper midscale brand Lemon Tree Premier at Kolkatta today, he added that Lemon Tree’s first upscale property at Udaipur has been built by the company and will be managed by the company as well.  This is tangent to the regular management contract model that the country’s largest hotel chain in the mid-priced hotel sector and third largest overall operates on.

Backed by private equity firm Warburg Pincus, Lemon Tree upscale hotel is likely to compete against likes of Oberio Group’s Trident hotel and Indian Hotel Co Ltd’s Vivanta brand hotels.

He added that the company has a target to operate around 107 hotels in the country across 57 cities by 2021, giving 10,500 rooms.  Currently, with the Kolkatta hotel, the chain now has 58 hotels with 6000 rooms across 35 cities.  33 of these properties are owned by Lemon Tree, while the remaining are managed by the company.