Foreign.
Hello and welcome to the Entrepreneurs on Monocle Radio.
The show all about inspiring people, innovative companies and fresh ideas in global business.
Today's show is all about hospitality and how to scale without losing a hotel soul.
First, we'll meet a hotelier who set out to redefine boutique hospitality in India and built a thriving group with dozens of locations.
I was very clear that I wanted to do hotels with a difference, to be reflective of contemporary Indian culture and I wanted to express that through art, design, fashion, food and fun and music.
Then we'll check in with the founder of a hotel brand.
Navigating global expansion.
You can build the most beautiful and most exciting hotels.
If you don't have the people, then it doesn't work.
This is the Entrepreneurs with me, Tom Edwards, you're listening to the Entrepreneurs.
Priya Paul is widely recognised as one of the most innovative hoteliers worldwide, shaping the Indian hospitality industry for more than three decades.
As the chairperson of APJ Surindra Park Hotels Ltd.
She's taken a family business and turned it into a leading name in the boutique space, blending heritage with a fresh casino contemporary feel.
With new hotels opening and more ambitious expansion plans, she's certainly showing no signs of slowing down.
I caught up with Priya to hear how she's built a brand that stands out and what it takes to set the pace in a fast changing industry.
We are now with about 36 hotels across the country.
We have a couple of different brands that we've grown and we've navigated the pandemic very successfully.
We had record occupancies actually, even through that, and it's a very exciting, vibrant company.
We did an IPO almost exactly a year ago and that has put us into a trajectory of growth which I'm going to see the company being transformed over the next few years in many ways.