Ecolodge UK set for PLUS float

Carbon-neutral hotels in India are the bait that entrepreneur Suchit Punnose hopes to dangle before PLUS-quoted investors in a London float now under consideration for his company, Ecolodge UK.

Backed by emerging markets project investor Red Ribbon Asset Management (which he also heads), Ecolodge has the stated aim of developing a portfolio of 100 carbon-neutral hotels in the ‘limited service’ Travelodge-type hotel bracket, charging £20 to £30 a night.

Punnose, an entrepreneur who started out selling clothes door to door, argues that he is targeting a ‘real market gap’ in India, which, despite the presence of well-known luxury hotels, has ‘fewer hotels in the whole country than there are in the metropolitan area of New York’.

Ecolodge, which was founded in 2008, is close to completing a 16-room prototype in Cochin in Kerala state and has adopted steel modular technology to achieve a rapid launch of the hotel brand across India.

Ecolodge hotels will have rooftop turbines, solar panels and other environmentally friendly features.

Guests coming to the company’s hotels will be able ‘to buy carbon credits on our website’, declares Punnose, who has in his time ‘incubated companies’ in sectors ranging from retailing and commercial printing to vehicle leasing and accident management.

A ‘social entrepreneur’, management consultant and investor, Punnose is ‘passionate’ about climate change. He says Eclodge should ‘break even in a year’s time’.