New Delhi, March 29: Choice Hotels India, a franchisee of Choice Hotels International, is drawing up plans to aggressively expand in the domestic as well as international markets.

The company will launch three brands in India ? Clarion Hotels, Sleep Inn and Comfort Suites. It will spend Rs 350 crore over the next five years to establish these brands and set up around 50 hotels in the country by 2010, including franchised hotels.

Choice Hotels India (CHI) is foraying into the international market by opening its first hotel in Muscat, Oman. The company also plans to expand its brand in Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan.

The chain already manages and operates 35 properties under the Quality and Comfort Inn brands.

Clarion Hotels will have more than 150 rooms with an average tariff of over Rs 3,000. It will be targeted at the premium segment travellers.

In the domestic market, CHI will introduce two more brands ? Sleep Inn and Comfort Suite. The company plans to develop the 50-room capacity Sleep Inn hotels with tariffs at over Rs 1,000. The company would invest about Rs 250 crore for developing eight Clarion Hotels in the country, with a debt equity ratio of 1:1. The first Clarion will come up in Goa in the next two months.

The Qutub Hotel in Delhi, which CHI?s Indian partner, the Gupta Group, acquired from the government in 2002, would be branded Clarion Metro after its renovation. The hotel is being renovated at a cost of Rs 40 crore and 120 rooms will be added to it.

Sandeep Gupta, executive director, CHI, said the company has already identified properties in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore for Clarion Hotels. Choice Hotels India is looking out for joint venture partners for the Sleep Inn brand of hotels.