IHCL Reimagines Ginger for a New-Age Traveller

For years, the brand was synonymous with a no-frills stay, a place where, as Deepika Rao, Executive Vice President – New Businesses & Hotel Openings, IHCL puts it, “People used to come to us just for the sleep, shower kind of an experience.” That positioning worked in its time. But the traveller has changed, and so has the expectation from even a mid-scale hotel.

“We decided that in the mid-scale segment we had to be very unconventional and connect to people at that aspirational and emotional level”

That shift in thinking led to what IHCL calls the reimagining of Ginger, a transformation that began in 2018. The idea was not to discard the fundamentals that made the brand efficient, but to layer it with personality, design and a sense of place.

“We maintained at the core what Ginger did not need to fix, which was its efficiency,” Deepika explains. “We did not want to cause a brand creep and just say let’s increase room sizes and change the economics. We kept the room size the same but changed the material palettes.”

The result is a format IHCL describes as ‘lean luxe’. It is a careful balance. “The play is on lean, to say that we don’t have to be ostentatious, but you can get the aspiration,” she says.

That aspiration shows up in unexpected ways. Walk into a Ginger today and you might find a guitar on the wall, a foosball table in the lobby or music that is deliberately more upbeat than what one associates with a traditional hotel. “It has to exude that personality,” she says.

The changes go deeper than design. Rooms have been rethought to reflect how people actually use them. “Something as simple as a study table, we asked can it be on wheels, can it be multi-purpose? People are working on their beds, dining in their rooms. It’s about recognising that the consumer has changed.”

Food and beverage has also been reworked with equal intent. Instead of multiple outlets, Ginger focuses on a single all-day dining format that is both familiar and flexible. “We keep our food offering around comfort and convenience,” she says. “About 80% is standardised, but 20% is localised.”

That localisation is deliberate, especially in a country as diverse as India. “A lot of people are travelling from elsewhere, so can we offer them local specialties,” she adds. At a broader level, the brand is also leaning into a more confident expression of Indian identity. “There was a time when we didn’t want to show our Indianness,” she recalls, adding, “But today, everybody wears being Indian with a lot more pride.”

This shows up not just in food but in sensory cues like music, fragrance and even greetings. “We encourage our colleagues to greet in the vernacular,” she says. “The idea is to wear your identity. That is the Indian of today.”

The reimagining, however, is not just about aesthetics or guest experience. It is also tightly linked to scale and business performance. Ginger today operates over 80 hotels with strong margins, and IHCL sees it as a brand that can travel across markets, from metros to pilgrimage towns.

“In a country like India, one brand that can be made into a thousand hotels would be Ginger,” says Deepika. That ambition is backed by a structured approach to expansion. Many of the company’s agreements are built as fully fitted leases, allowing IHCL to retain control over design and consistency. “We centrally run the design programme very tightly,” she explains, acknowledging that scale can easily dilute identity if not managed carefully.

At the same time, she is clear that design itself cannot remain static. “Every five years, you need to refresh. Materials get old, monotony sets in. We are already in our second avatar of design.”

Yet, for all the emphasis on hardware, Deepika believes the real differentiation lies elsewhere. “It’s not always in the hardware. It’s in the software. It’s in the people, how they communicate, how they provide that service,” she says.

This is where IHCL’s larger legacy comes into play. Even within Ginger, the expectation is to carry forward the group’s hallmark of intuitive service. “Within the services we provide, can we be pre-emptive. If you see someone who needs help, it should come to you instinctively,” she says.

The launch of Ginger Hyderabad Airport is part of this larger journey. It marks the brand’s entry into a city where IHCL already has a strong presence across segments, and where growth is accelerating.

“Hyderabad is also growing in different dimensions, Deepika notes, pointing to infrastructure and expanding business hubs as key drivers. For IHCL, Ginger is no longer just an entry-level offering. It is a strategic bridge between affordability and aspiration, designed for a traveller who is as comfortable with global influences as they are rooted in local identity. And in that balance lies the brand’s next phase of growth.