18-732: Taj Hotels is a chain of luxury hotels and a subsidiary of the Indian Hotels Company Limited , headquartered in Mumbai , India . Incorporated by Jamsetji Tata in 1902, the company is a part of the Tata Group . The company employed over 20,000 people in the year 2010. Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata , founder of the Tata Group , opened the Taj Mahal Palace , a hotel in Mumbai (formerly called Bombay) overlooking
36-908: A hotel in Dubai — the Taj Palace Hotel Dubai. Next year the company opened three more hotels — the Regent Hotel in Mumbai , Rawal-Kot in Jaisalmer and Usha Kiran Palace in Gwalior . The company planned to open hotels in Jamshedpur and Ranchi . Taj Surya was opened in Coimbatore and later renamed as Vivanta . IHCL also operates TajSATS Air Catering, in a joint venture with SATS (formerly known as Singapore Airport Terminal Services). In May 2017, IHCL announced it
54-898: Is headquartered in New York City . The company was established in 1928 by a group of European hoteliers. With 38 initial members, among them Hotel Negresco in Nice , the Mena House in Cairo , the Montreux Palace in Montreux and King David Hotel in Jerusalem , the organization was initially known as "The Luxury Hotels of Europe and Egypt". The founders opened an office in New York named Hotel Representative, Inc. (HRI). By
72-655: The Arabian Sea , on 16 December 1903. It was the first Taj property and the first Taj hotel. There are several anecdotal stories about why Tata opened the Taj hotel. According to a story, he decided to open the hotel after an incident involving racial discrimination at the Watson's Hotel in Mumbai, where he was refused entry as the hotel permitted only Europeans. Hotels that accepted only European guests were very common across British India then. According to another story, he opened
90-632: The IHCL announced plans to open over 90 new properties in the coming years, building on its accelerated portfolio expansion, which included 52 signings and 34 openings in FY24. Leading Hotels of the World The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. is a marketing organization representing more than 400 luxury hotels in over 80 countries. Established in 1928 by European hoteliers , it
108-831: The Taj Group acquired, under a licence agreement, each of the Taj West End in Bangalore , Taj Connemara , in Chennai and Savoy Hotel in Ooty . The five-star deluxe hotel, Taj Bengal in Kolkata , was opened in the year 1989, and with this, the Taj Group became the only hotel chain in India with a presence in the six major metropolitan cities of India, namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai. Concurrently with
126-913: The Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi in 1978. The group has been converting royal palaces in India into luxury hotels since the 1970s. The first palace to be converted into a Taj luxury hotel was the Lake Palace in Udaipur , in 1971. Other examples include the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur , Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur , Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad and Nadesar Palace in Varanasi . In 1984,
144-486: The World". Condé Nast Traveller also ranked the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai as number 13 on its list of "Gold Standard Hotels" in 2014. Indian Hotels Company Limited The Indian Hotels Company Limited ( IHCL ) is an Indian hospitality company that manages a portfolio of hotels, resorts, jungle safaris, palaces, spas and in-flight catering services. The company is part of India's Tata Group . IHCL
162-1012: The company was opened — The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Colaba neighbourhood of Bombay opened in 1903. It was the first five star hotel in India with modern elevators and Russian carpets. In 1980 the Taj Group opened their first international hotels: the Taj Sheba Hotel in Sana'a , Yemen and the Taj Pamodzi in Lusaka , Zambia . IHCL entered the Sri Lankan market with Taj Exotica Bentota and Taj Samudra in Colombo . In joint venture with G. V. Krishna Reddy , Taj Hotels form Taj GVK. IHCL entered Middle Eastern market with opening
180-462: The end of the 1960s, HRI had grown to 70 member hotels, all of which were in Europe. From 1971, it admitted new member properties worldwide. As of 2018, LHW represented "more than 400 hotels in over 80 countries". The properties include independent and unusual hotels throughout the world, including former castles, mountain hideaways, safari camps and private islands. Hotels seeking to join must have
198-413: The expansion of its luxury hotel chain in the major metropolitan cities, the Taj Group also expanded its business hotels division in the major metropolitan and large secondary cities in India. During the 1990s, the Taj Group continued to expand its geographic and market coverage in India. It developed specialised operations (such as wildlife lodges) and consolidated its position in established markets through
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#1732797314073216-612: The group opened India's first international five-star deluxe beach resort, the Fort Aguada Beach Resort in Goa . In 1970s, the Taj Group also began its business in metropolitan hotels, opening the five-star deluxe hotel, Taj Coromandel in Chennai , in 1974, acquiring an equity interest and operating contract for the Taj President (now Vivanta by Taj – President), a business hotel in Mumbai, in 1977, and also opening
234-719: The hotel when one of his friends expressed disgust over the hotels that were present in Bombay then. But a more plausible reason was advanced by Lovat Fraser, a close friend of the Tata and one of the early directors of the IHCL group, that the idea had long been in his mind and that he had made a study on the subject. He did not have any desire to own a hotel but he wanted to attract people to India and to improve Bombay. Jamsetji Tata had travelled to places like London, Paris , Berlin, and Düsseldorf to arrange for materials and pieces of art, furniture and other interior decor for his hotel. In 1974,
252-975: The upgrading of existing properties and development of new properties. Taj also set up the Taj Kerala Hotels and Resorts Limited in the early 1990s along with the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation . In 1980, the Taj Group opened its first hotel outside India, the Taj Sheba Hotel in Sana'a , in Yemen and in the late 1980s, acquired interests in the St. James' Court Hotel (now comprising Taj 51 Buckingham Gate Suites and Residences and St. James' Court, A Taj Hotel) in London . In 2005, The Pierre in New York City
270-699: Was acquired. On 9 March 2022, Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, The Palm, Dubai, was opened. The hotel is the recent addition to The Taj Hotel group. Other properties of the group include Taj Jumeirah Lakes Towers Dubai and Taj Dubai. Ten hotels of the Taj Group are members of the Leading Hotels of the World . Two hotels of the Taj Group, namely Rambagh Palace in Jaipur and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, were ranked in 2013 by Condé Nast Traveller among its "Top 100 Hotels and Resorts in
288-401: Was founded in 1902 by Jamsetji Tata and is headquartered in Mumbai where its flagship hotel Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is also located. The company's hotel chains include Taj , SeleQtions, Vivanta , and Ginger . The company was founded by Tata Group founder and industrialist Jamshedji Tata . He incorporated Indian Hotels Company Limited in 1899 and registered in 1902. The first hotel of
306-399: Was moving all of its hotels under a unique brand, Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris. The brands Vivanta by Taj and Gateway were merged into a single business unit. During the summer of 2017, Cyrus Mistry stated that some of the group's latest costly acquisitions (Sea Rock Hotel, The Pierre in New York, Taj Boston ) "destroyed the economic value of the company". The unique brand decision
324-555: Was reversed in 2018. In April 2018, the group opened its first location in Saudi Arabia through a partnership with the Umm al-Qura construction company. In April 2019, IHCL launched the hotel brand SeleQtions with 12 location openings. In May 2019, IHCL signed a strategic partnership with GIC Private Limited (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund) to acquire 600 million dollars' worth of hotel assets over three years. In March 2024,
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