Tasmayee Laha Roy Moneycontrol News
Imagine a hotel where there's no specific check-in or check-out time, no welcome drinks and no set breakfast hours. Kapil Chopra, a veteran in the Indian hospitality sector, offers all this and more at his new luxury hospitality brand The Postcard.
The Postcard Hotel group is expected to start 50 luxury hotels in the next five years across the country.
The Postcard Hotel has announced the opening of three luxury hotels in Goa. The Postcard Moira, nestled in one of the four heritage villages of Goa, The Postcard Velha, surrounded by 300 acres of coconut plantations in old Goa; and further south, The Postcard Cuelim, that also houses a 350-year-old chapel in the premises.
To keep the experience intimate and personal, none of the upcoming or existing hotels would have more than 50 rooms. Most of the hotels would be an eight to fifty room property with room rentals in the range of Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000.
"What I wanted to do with The Postcard Hotel is make luxury hotels for the modern audience but bring back the romance and charm of sun-kissed holidays. We wanted it to be rich in its experience but also wanted it to be simple. We believe guests want to stay in a place where the hotel does the thinking for them, where they get the simple things right, yet offer fantastic spaces for them to relax, meet likeminded people and experience local culture. This is why, we handpick our locations and our hotels, so that guests have a different experience whether they are in Goa or overlooking the snow clad Himalayas," said Chopra.
To explain the bespoke experiences better, Chopra said he had handpicked the chef at one of his Goa hotels from 50 home cooks in the area. A guest gets to go shopping with the chef, come back to the hotel and cook it with the chef and also take the recipe back with them.
"We want everyone to take a piece of the hotel back with them," Chopra said.
In the next 12 to 18 months, The Postcard Hotel will be present in Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Dhauladhar Mountain Range, Ravangla Sikkim, Darjeeling, Sunderbands and Kanha.
Some of these hotels would be in partnership with strategic brands. For instance, in eastern India, The Postcard Hotel will jointly deliver the three hotels in Sikkim, Darjeeling and Sundarban with Harsh Neotia's Ambuja Group.
Among other strategic partners who have pitched in to put together the brand are Akshat Bhatt of Architecture Discipline and designer Jas Arora. Coimbatore-based Purnarnava Ayurveda has been brought to run Ayurvedic healing programmes ranging between 7 to 21 days in all the Goa properties. Forest Essentials has been roped in for some amenities.
As it starts its operations, the hotel company, funded by UAE-headquartered Small Ventures has Rs 600 crore of assets under management. The brand has set up a REIT (real estate investment trust) for strategic buyouts.
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