Nair is the daughter of founder of The Leela group of hotels.
Amruda Nair, the eldest granddaughter of Late Captain C.P. Krishnan Nair, the legendary founder of The Leela group of hotels, is all set to launch a new chain of hotels in the Middle East and India, under the brand Aiana Hotels & Resorts.
Nair created Aiana Hotels & Resorts, a joint venture with Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, a Doha-based business tycoon, last year. The company has signed management contracts for eight hotels and resorts in India and the Middle East.
The company, based on the philosophy aimed at catering the needs of the next generation traveler, is expected to launch its flagship hotel in Mecca next year. The 611-room Aiana Makkah is specially designed for the families that visit Mecca for the holy pilgrimage.
The chain of hotels under Aiana brand will have an Indian service ethos and will reflect Indian values in design and appearance, said Nair. According to Nair, Indian luxury hospitality industry is more focused on the foreigners traveling to the country, but her brand is capitalizing on the 20 million Indians traveling abroad every year.
“The basic premise of creating a new brand was to launch an Indian-inspired brand in the Middle East. If you look at the number of Indians traveling abroad, you’ve got five times that much. We’re expected to see 20 million [Indians traveling abroad] this year alone,” Nair told Forbes India.
Aiana plans to open many hotels in many parts of India including Munnar, Kerala (1 hotel opening in 2017), Karnataka (5 hotels; first hotel opening in 2019) and Agra (1 hotel opening in 2019).
Nair’s meeting with Al Thani at the Leela Group’s Chanakyapuri property in New Delhi, in 2014, gave the chance to present her ideas before the chairman and CEO of Qatar’s Al Faisal Holding that led to the formation of Aiana.
The company is based on the asset-light model in which the company runs hotels through management contracts without owning any property.
As Joint Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Aiana Hotels & Resorts, the 33-year-old Nair is responsible for the design of the brand’s signature programming as well as spearheading the company’s overall business development.
An economics graduate, Nair holds a master’s degree from the world’s leading hotel school, Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. She went on to gain qualifications in Hospitality Management from CHN University in the Netherlands.