CENTARA Hotels and Resorts is pressing ahead with plans to operate 85 hotels by 2015, and to launch a budget hotel brand by end-2011.

Group president and CEO, Gerd Steeb, said the number of managed and signed properties in Centara’s portfolio might double within the next five years.

The Thai-based hotel chain currently operates 32 properties – with a further 29 under construction – under six mid- to upscale brands in Thailand, the Maldives, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Also in the works are ongoing negotiations to manage a property in China within the year, as well as the debut of its budget brand concept and prototype - after a two-year delay - with the first property to be developed under a joint venture in Thailand.

Centara registered 2.56 billion baht (US$85.7 million) in revenue for the first half of 2011, a year-on-year increase of 21.3 per cent.

In Thailand alone, Centara recorded an average occupancy of 71 per cent in the first quarter and 58 per cent in the second quarter, higher than the country’s average of 65 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively.

Citing high occupancy in July and strong bookings for the rest of the year, Ronachit Mahatthanaphruet, senior vice president of finance and management for Central Plaza Hotel Public Company, the chain’s parent company, said Centara was expecting 80 to 90 per cent occupancy in its Thai properties for the second half of 2011, and 65 per cent average occupancy for the whole year.