The Leading Hotels of the World Ltd represents 400 hotels in more than 80 countries and has its headquarters in New York. The membership of the organisation provides benefits to the hotels in the form of a global reservation network.

According to Veer Vijay Singh, area director and general manager, Taj Krishna, "Hotels need to get audited by Leading Quality Assurance, a third party group, to obtain the membership." After two audits a hotel becomes a member, he added.

Singh revealed further that the membership is given for three years and involves a one-time fee as well as an annual fee. He said different fee structures are given to different hotels based on the occupancy rate, number of rooms available and so on he said. He said Taj Krishna had applied for this membership a year back.

Beate H K Mauder, vice-president (marketing) of Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, said, "With this membership we can strengthen our brand positioning across the world." She said, "There are travellers who stay only in the hotels that are members of The Leading Hotels of the World and this will definitely benefit us."

She added that The Leading Hotels Group has given its consent to hold its annual convention this year in New Delhi to be held during October 26-30 2004." This is the second time the Leading Hotels Group is holding its annual convention in India.

Taj Krishna had an income of Rs 43 crore in fiscal 2003-04 and is expected to grow to Rs 64 crore this fiscal. The hotel records occupancy rates of around 85 per cent at present.