Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, operated by Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (IHCL), has launched a new brand, ‘The Gateway Hotel’ to target an emerging guest profile.

The company plans to launch 50 hotels in the next three years.

According to the company, the pricing of the latest brand will be very competitive, which may vary between Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000, depending on the location of the hotels. The group is eying at smaller cities as they are growing and also plans to expand its footprints in locations such as Varanasi and Agra, which are favorite tourist destinations.

Immediately, 16 existing hotels under the Taj brand umbrella will transfer to the Gateway brand. The firm has already signed deal for 10 hotels and presently it is in talks with another 15 hotels.

The hotels that would be rechristened as “Gateway” include Taj Hotels located at Agra, Bangalore, Calicut, Chikmagalur, Conoor, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Madurai, Mangalore, Nasik, Sasan Gir, Surat, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vijaywada and Visakhapatnam.