New Delhi, April 4 -- Indian hotel operators have run into high valuations and a lack of quality assets as they seek to expand in a market hungry for luxury travel. They have turned creative to overcome these hurdles by acquiring properties that can be redeveloped or repurposing office buildings into hotels and even incorporating apartments into their projects.

Good assets are few and far between, according to Sanjay Sethi, managing director and chief executive officer at listed hotel ownership company Chalet Hotels Ltd. "On the M&A side, we focus on such assets with development or upside potential of expanding rooms or repositioning them to make them better."

Chalet will look to build more rooms in some of its upcoming acquired hotels....