Exclusive Interview | Mr Tarun Gulati, Director, Himalayan Hotels
/“Launching something new is exciting because it’s like a clean canvas on which you can give your vision shape and physicality and turn it into a reality. Hospitality projects require a lot of hard work to shape a vision into reality, and it’s a creative process.
The fact is that hospitality and real estate projects have a long gestation cycle, but they are also generational assets that keep giving you returns over many decades. So yes, they are exciting because we do like to think long-term.”
Tell us about your journey. How did it all start?
In 2005, I began my career in the hotel industry after spending several years as a private equity investor, where I interacted with entrepreneurs across sectors.
My father himself was an entrepreneur, so I guess I always had that bug in me. Whenever I met an entrepreneur, I tried to imagine myself in their shoes – what their day looked like and what drives them. Seeing a self-driven and motivated achiever create, generate livelihood and a run dynamic organization around her/him really excited me and I wanted that for myself.
In 2009, I felt ready to pursue an operations-heavy business on my own, and I took over Himalayan Hotels, which was then a struggling one-asset business that my father had left behind. Within three and a half years, we grew from 35 staff members to around 100 and by mid-2014, the company had grown fourfold and was making a healthy profit. However, I wanted to explore other opportunities, and so I founded a hospitality tech company called DJUBO.
After five years of running DJUBO, I realized that I missed creating beautiful hospitality products, and I decided to return to expanding Himalayan Hotels. Since 2020, we have acquired land and property, and developed award-winning F&B brands.
Currently, we are developing two unique properties in Rishikesh: 'Vileeen on the Ganga,' a wellness retreat that blends Pahari living with fine hospitality, and 'Oneness,' a one-of-a-kind glamour camp which will be positioned as North India's best glamour camp. We plan to expand to other parts of the country in the future, offering highly curated experiences through character hotels and resorts that tell stories about the region, its cuisine and weave local experiences for our guests.
The new, young traveller wants experiences and Insta-ready content. What do you have in store for them?
The young traveller nowadays wants to document everything in the form of vlogs or Instagram posts or circulate privately among friends and family whatsapp groups.
So, at our current and upcoming properties, we prioritise this aspect and build picture-friendly areas and selfie zones as call them internally.
Additionally, we pay close attention to the presentation of our food, including the serving sequence, introduction of food items, and overall appearance. Only when we are able to relay the thought behind the offering to the guest, will they be able to engage with the offering in a meaningful way and then post or share their content that relays the story to a wider audience.
Launching something new is both an exciting opportunity and a responsibility. Share with us a deep dive into your process for these new launches.
Yes, absolutely. Launching something new is exciting because it’s like a clean canvas on which you can give your vision shape and physicality and turn it into a reality. Hospitality projects require a lot of hard work to shape a vision into reality, and it’s a creative process.
The fact is that hospitality and real estate projects have a long gestation cycle, but they are also generational assets that keep giving you returns over many decades. So yes, they are exciting because we do like to think long-term.
Our new projects are designed with a long-term perspective, especially since they are being developed in highly sensitive, biodiverse areas with unique flora and fauna. We focus a lot on preserving the sanctity of the area and its surroundings, not only during construction but also after the project is completed.
At our new project, we planted 30,000 plants to enhance the existing green cover. We are also focusing on how to bring in the right species of birds and butterflies by choosing the right plantation. We don't just think like a regular hospitality developer who is just focused on building or doing civil construction or choosing fixtures and fittings. But we also care deeply about vision boarding, land gradation, levels for views and plantations because a guest experience is primarily about their vantage points and what they see from various angles.
That is a big part of our offering and how we are thinking about these projects. For example, we are creating a hiking trail at Vileeen where all across the trail, we are planting the endemic fruits and flowers of Uttarakhand. It will make our guests learn about the endemic species of fruits and flowers of this region. Guests will be able to handpick them and request that the chef add them to their salads. So, we are thinking very long-term by bringing those plantations into our projects.
We are also creating and bringing in a very rare species of Kalanchoe, a forest variety, that brings in 14 different kinds of butterflies to the property thereby creating a butterfly garden at our other project ONENESS. And because of the butterflies, we will also get some insects, and because of those insects, we will also get very rare birds that will visit the property.
Weaving unique experiences isn’t easy and a lot goes behind the scenes in achieving a consistently delivered unique experience for every future guest and the work starts at the drawing board stage itself. So we are planning a kitchen garden on day zero because we don’t want to rely on an inconsistent supply chain for some specific herbs we want to serve in our Himalayan Tasting Menu at VILEEEN.
So that's the kind of input that we are bringing into our new resorts, and we're thinking and doing this in a very responsible manner and something that will enhance the experience for our guests for many decades to come.
What does the future look like? For the industry, you, your project / initiative?
The future for Indian hospitality is very bright, as if you look at just the numbers, there is a huge middle class that is now moving towards being high spenders, and each one of them has 52 weekends in a year, and everyone is travelling more often. Yes, everyone has a foreign vacation on their annual calendar. But for every foreign vacation that they take, they also take two or three domestic vacations. Not just that, there's a lot of work that the government has done on sort of spreading the word around India internationally. So the international PR about India is changing, because of which even inbound tourists to India are increasing year on year.
There has been a big upsurge after a couple of bad years due to COVID, and the middle class that you've noticed now comprises people who are not just looking for good-looking rooms, but they're looking for uniquely curated experiences delivered at an international standard. They are willing to loosen the purse strings for quality products in India. At the same time, India has only about 1,00,000 recognisable accommodations, out of which the top 8,000 are the only accommodations that sell well online or have decent occupancy. So it is a highly underserved market in terms of quality inventory.
Just taking an example of our region, New Delhi is a big feeder market for Rishikesh. New Delhi alone has a population of close to 2.2 crore people whereas the number of quality resorts and hotels is only about 50 which total upto 2000 quality rooms in this area. With road and air connectivity having improved in a big way just the Delhi market’s demand is contributing to Rishikesh's tourism, occupancy rates, and price points in a big way but the city’s quality room supply still under serves the demand. And not just that; I mean Bombay, Bangalore, London, New York, California, Australia, and Germany..all of these regions are pulling people to Rishikesh. It has finally come onto the map as a globally relevant destination. While it was always well known, it is now in a league of its own.
In fact, this year the Times of India as well as Hotelivate, a hospitality research firm, ranked Rishikesh as number one in the country in terms of average room rates (ARR). Rishikesh hotels are now more expensive than regular cities that were traditionally at a higher price point, like Udaipur.
What does not exist in the world, but you would like it to?
Last year, I contemplated the concept of social travel for solo travellers, realising that there is a void in the market for a platform that aggregates and offers special interest itineraries to single travellers across all geographies. While some small companies provide tours for single women, hiking trips, or religious excursions, none have gained much traction in the social environment that brings solo travellers together.
Solo travel is a rapidly growing segment in the hospitality industry, with promising numbers in the USA. Our surveys have revealed that many solo travellers have a desire to visit certain locations but face obstacles such as the absence of a travel partner, mismatched plans, budgets, or itinerary preferences. Even some married couples experience similar issues when travelling alone. However, travelling solo in a group with like-minded individuals who share similar interests and destinations is much more feasible. Unfortunately, there are no platforms with traction that cater to solo travellers seeking to experience their chosen destination while also being assured of a social experience.
