To begin with, stop thinking of your hotel as a standalone trophy asset. In India’s next hospitality super cycle, driven by rising disposable incomes, domestic leisure travel, spiritual tourism, and short-break culture, a hotel only succeeds if it operates as an institutional asset embedded in its ecosystem. Its neighborhood, workforce, and food culture are no longer “add-ons”; they are key elements of the product.
If locals don’t see value in your hotel, travelers won’t either.
Build for relevance before scale
Design your hotel around how India actually travels today: staycations, blended business-leisure (“B-Leisure”) trips, family-led exploration, and social gatherings or destination events. Star categories and room counts matter far less than usefulness.
This is why properties that double down on purpose-led relevance see occupancy follow naturally. Hotels that create destination dining, community events, or work-friendly environments don’t depend solely on seasonal tourism. They become part of people’s routines, not just their vacations.
Design spaces of purpose
Indian guests don’t experience hotels in straight lines. Lobbies turn into meeting rooms by morning, cafés become workspaces by afternoon, and dinners stretch into long conversations at night. Designing rigid, single-purpose spaces copied from global templates will not cut it anymore.
Successful hotels in metros like Mumbai and Bengaluru are already building small-format cultural venues within their properties, hosting independent musicians, cultural artists, and niche creative performances. These spaces turn hotels into cultural anchors for the city rather than passive places to sleep.
The lesson is simple: flexibility beats formality.
Treat hospitality as a profession, not a cost
Your biggest competitive advantage will never be marble, lighting, or imported finishes; it will be people. Hotels that treat their workforce as professionals, not line items, win in the long term.
This is evident in models like Taj Safaris and Kipling Camp in Kanha, where teams are hired almost entirely from nearby villages. These “neighborhood heroes” bring lived knowledge, intuitive storytelling, and cultural fluency that no standardized training manual can replicate. Guests trust them instinctively and that trust is the foundation of loyalty.
When hospitality is offered as a career with dignity, training, and growth paths, service becomes natural rather than performative.
Communicate like a human, not a brand
In India, trust is built through authenticity, not polish. Over produced influencer campaigns are losing relevance. What works instead is honest storytelling rooted in real experiences.
Frameworks like IHCL’s Care@Tajness show how local rituals can become central to the guest journey whether it’s participating in the lighting of a thousand lamps around a lagoon in Kumarakom or engaging with community-led traditions that make the stay feel personal and grounded.
Your communication should feel like a conversation, not a pitch.
Build income streams beyond rooms
Rooms alone won’t future-proof your business. Hotels must create opportunities for people to engage even when they aren’t staying overnight.
This is why destination dining and culinary micro-histories are becoming critical. Properties like The Khyber in Gulmarg highlight Kashmiri Wazwan with depth and pride, while hotels in Jaipur and Lucknow reinterpret street food into gourmet formats that reflect the identity of their Tier-2 cities. These experiences compel locals to keep coming back, making them your most reliable revenue base.
Participation drives loyalty far more effectively than discounts.
Use technology to remove friction, not impress
Technology should disappear into the background. Faster check-ins, intuitive payments, smart personalization, and seamless guest communication matter more than flashy features that look good in presentations.
In the Indian market, convenience builds repeat business faster than novelty. The best tech is the kind guests barely notice until it’s missing.
Prioritize consistency over luxury
In 2026, Indian travelers will choose reliability over extravagance. Consistency across touchpoints – service, food, cleanliness, communication – is the new premium.
Hotels like Sawantwadi Palace in Maharashtra demonstrate how this consistency can coexist with deep local character. Operating as both a boutique hotel and a living museum, the property integrates local artisans directly into the guest experience, from woodwork to hand-painted Ganjifa cards. The result is not performative luxury, but cultural credibility delivered every day.
Similarly, properties like Anantara Jewel Bagh in Jaipur embed tikri mirror work by third-generation local artisans into their interiors, ensuring the design itself tells a regional story rather than borrowing a global aesthetic.
The takeaway
The future of Indian hospitality isn’t about being bigger, shinier, or louder. It’s about being relevant, reliable, and rooted.
Hotels that integrate community, culture, people, and purpose into their operating model won’t just survive the next cycle, they will define it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nikhil Shah, CFA, is the Managing Director of Hospitality & Alternative at Colliers India, where he established and leads the firm’s Hospitality Transaction Advisory platform covering asset sales, acquisitions, joint ventures, land deals, operator searches, and capital advisory. A banker-turned-hotelier with 18+ years of experience, he is a recognised industry voice featured on CNBC, Mint, Economic Times, and Financial Express.
