Hospitality firm major Leela Palace announced that it has inked a pact related with sales and marketing with US-based Preferred Hotel Group.

The company entered into this agreement with the aim to increase its brand awareness, reservations and yield via the American firm’s 29 global sales offices.

With the proposed contract, the company is expecting more business customers from the US corporate world.

The alliance will also give Leela access to Preferred Hotel's travel managers in the US, Singapore and Australia.

With the view to make India its third largest market after the US and Europe, Preferred Hotel plans to take the total number of hotels under its sales and marketing agreement in India from the present seven to 25 by the end of this year.

Leela is planning to pump$500 million to add seven hotels in three years. It has acquired land in Agra and Jaipur to build hotels with the capacity of 100-125 rooms.