THE BIG INTERVIEW WITH DILLIP RAJAKARIER CEO MINOR HOTELS

BIOGRAPHY - Dillip Rajakarier joined Minor Hotels in 2007 as chief finance and investment officer. At the time, the group had a portfolio of 12 hotels concentrated in Southeast Asia. Since taking the reins as CEO in 2011, he has driven the company's rapid global expansion, which today includes more than 550 properties in 60 countries.

Minor Hotels has been busy recently with a flurry of recent openings. Can you tell us about some of the latest developments?

In 2024 we opened some of the best Anantara hotels in the United Arab Emirates. The Santorini Abu Dhabi Retreat is very exclusive, with just 22 rooms and suites, and the Ras Al Khaimah resort is almost a Maldivian experience with overwater villas. The Anantara Palais Hansen Vienna Hotel in Austria was another great acquisition - a rebrand of an iconic hotel. In October, we launched Anantara Ubud Bali Resort, and we've got a lot more coming - including in Zanzibar, China and Zambia.

What about your growth plans going forward?

Our aim is to open another 200+ hotels in the next three years, which will add about 40,000 rooms. We have a strong pipeline, with about 80 hotels already in progress, so we are confident that we will meet the target. We are looking at adding at least another 50 hotels in India over the next ten years, and also expand our brands in China. We feel strong in southern Europe, but we want to expand into the Nordic countries. We've already launched NH Collection in Copenhagen and Helsinki, and there's huge potential there.

What about launching new brands, or is your portfolio now complete?

We only have eight brands. In the future, we might have one or two more soft brands - we are looking to maybe create a collection at the luxury level. So, if you have a unique hotel that's a luxury brand with a passionate owner - but it's not an Anantara - it can be part of that collection.

What we don't want to do is have 40 different brands where no one can tell you the difference between brand number 25 and 35.

How hard is it to launch brands in new markets?