With hospitality running in her veins, Amruda Nair, heiress of The Leela Group of Hotels, has
carved her own path in the world of luxury travel. Taking her family’s legacy forward while
reimagining it for a new era, she founded Araiya Hotels & Resorts, a luxury boutique hotel
management company. With its flagship property in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, Araiya is
redefining the smart lifestyle and boutique-luxury segment in India by blending global best
practices with a warm Indian service ethos.
Amruda brings to Araiya over 15 years of
international hospitality and asset management experience across Europe, the U.S., Asia, and the
Middle East. Her career began with the Mandarin Oriental, New York, before she joined Jones Lang
LaSalle Hotels (JLLH), Singapore, where she worked on investment sales mandates across
Indonesia, Japan, China, and Thailand, and handled asset management for hotels in Singapore and
China. In 2016, through a Qatar-based joint venture, she spearheaded the launch of a 611-room
hotel in Saudi Arabia, further strengthening her reputation as a global hospitality leader.
Her entrepreneurial vision and leadership have earned her multiple accolades, including the
‘Generation Next Award’ for Hospitality (2011) by the All India Association of Industries and
the Young Entrepreneurs Society, the Young FICCI Ladies Organization Women Achiever’s Award
(2012), a spot on Hotelier India’s Power List 2016, and the Rising Star – South Asia Award at
the Hotel Investment Forum India in 2016.
