Tamara Hospitality is preparing for a significant expansion in India’s hospitality sector. The company plans to grow its hotel footprint with new properties, increased room inventory, and a mix of owned and asset-light projects to strengthen its presence across major cities.
Over the next three to five years, Tamara Hospitality intends to add roughly 600 rooms through eight initiatives. In order to grow outside of its southern base, the company is also implementing an asset-light approach.
Tamara Hospitality Expansion Plan
Over the next three to five years, Bengaluru-based Tamara Hospitality plans to develop both owned and asset-light operations, doubling its footprint and investing ₹480–540 crore in eight new hotel and resort projects.
Samir MC, CEO of Tamara Leisure Experiences, told Mint that the company will add roughly 600 rooms to its current portfolio of over 1,000 keys.
Asset-Light Strategy for Expansion
In addition to owned developments, Tamara intends to grow via franchising and operating hotels using an asset-light strategy that allows for pan-Indian expansion with less risk and financial outlay.
In order to balance out their portfolios in the face of robust travel demand, several Indian hotel owning businesses have been shifting over the past ten years toward an asset-light or asset-right strategy.
🏨 Tamara Hospitality Expansion Highlights
- Investment Plan: ₹480–540 crore over the next 3–5 years
- New Projects: 8 hotel and resort developments
- Room Addition: Approximately 600 new rooms
- Expansion Model: Combination of owned and asset-light hotels
- Goal: Double the company’s current hospitality footprint
- Focus Cities: Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and other major markets
Background of Tamara Hospitality
SD Shibulal and S Gopalakrishnan, the millionaire co-founders of Infosys, founded Tamara approximately 15 years ago. Through its three brands, Tamara manages and owns nine properties. These include O by Tamara, which are high-end city hotels, Lilac by Tamara, a mid-scale hotel brand, and The Tamara, a luxury leisure facility that it owns and runs. Additionally, Amal Tamara is an Ayurvedic hospital located in Alappuzha, Kerala.
A 40-room Lilac hotel in Kufri is the company’s first asset-light property, and it is currently accepting management contracts and revenue-share leases. As Tamara seeks to grow beyond its southern base, this is a strategic change from its previous emphasis on entirely owned properties.
Expansion Across Major Cities
Through ownership and asset-light structures, the company is assessing prospects in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and other metropolitan areas. As it expands its size across owned and managed buildings, Tamara hopes to at least quadruple its portfolio over the next three to five years and increase earnings more quickly than asset count.
The group reported turnover of over ₹150 crore in FY25, according to the CEO, and its hotel-level operating margins are in the high 30% range. However, depreciation moderates company-level profitability because more than half of its property has opened in the last three to four years.
Financial Performance and Growth
Tamara Leisure Experiences recorded sales of ₹150.6 crore in FY25, up from ₹108.9 crore a year earlier, according to a ministry of corporate affairs filing accessible on Tracxn. This indicates steady growth as new properties increase. Even though Ebitda increased to ₹7.97 crore from ₹1.26 crore in FY24, the company reported a net loss of ₹16.4 crore as expenses increased with expansion.
A 24-boat electric houseboat resort in Alappuzha, a 50-cottage resort in Hosur, a 50-room wildlife resort in Kaziranga, a 112-room O by Tamara in Bodhgaya, and a 190-room O by Tamara in Whitefield, Bengaluru are among Tamara’s next projects. Additionally, the company is building a separate wedding venue in Madurai and Lilacs hotels in Velankanni and Kaloor.
📊 Upcoming Tamara Hospitality Projects
- Bodh Gaya: 112-room O by Tamara
- Whitefield, Bengaluru: 190-room O by Tamara
- Kaziranga: Wildlife resort development
- Alappuzha: Electric houseboat resort
- Hosur: 50-cottage resort project
- Additional Locations: Velankanni, Kaloor, and Madurai
Investment and Brand Strategy
He continued, “The committed pipeline of new hotels will draw an average investment of ₹80-90 lakh per key.” Samir stated, “With the Tamara Resorts brand, we aim to keep them boutique and personalized and will only normally have hotels with 35-60 rooms range.”
Due to its higher key count per property, O by Tamara is anticipated to account for 40–45% of its total room inventory once its next pipeline is operational, with Lilac and The Tamara resorts contributing about 30% apiece.
Revenue Mix and Hotel Positioning
Due of its greater banqueting and food and beverage operations, as well as its higher room inventory, Tamara will tilt revenue in favor of O. The Tamara resorts attract average daily rates of ₹30,000 and more, depending on the market and season, even though their key counts are lower. “Our objective is to surely go more than 2X of what we are at this level.” The CEO added, “Even if we have the land to create more, we aim not to go above the 50–60 room range in our leisure portfolio.” He stated that internal capital is used to finance all pipeline-owned and existing assets.
In comparison to the scale of its tourism market, India’s supply of branded hotels is still somewhat limited. In the first half of 2025, there were only over 209,200 branded hotel rooms spread across almost 2,300 establishments in India.
Growth of India’s Branded Hotel Market
A report titled “2025 Hotel Development Cost in India” by HVS Anarock and Gleads Consulting projects that this will grow to over 350,400 rooms by 2030.
Key Industry Insights
Over the next three to five years, Tamara Hospitality intends to invest ₹480–540 crore to increase its hotel footprint.
Owned developments and an asset-light model through management and franchising are both part of the expansion strategy.
The supply of branded hotels is expected to rise by 2030, indicating that the Indian hotel sector is expected to develop significantly.
Due to the strong domestic demand for moderately priced hotels, the hotel development pipeline is increasingly skewed towards the midscale category, which accounts for roughly 39% of incoming rooms and 37% of current branded supply.
With average hotel prices and revenue per available room increasing by roughly 5% per year since 2017 and national occupancy stabilizing in the low-60% range, industry fundamentals have also improved. Even when expansion stretches into tier-2 and tier-3 cities where land costs are cheaper, developers must carefully control capital deployment because development costs have increased by 8–12% annually, with midscale hotel construction costing up to ₹69 lakh per room.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. To what extent does Tamara Hospitality intend to invest in its expansion?
Over the next three to five years, the business intends to invest ₹480–540 crore to increase the number of hotels and resorts in India.
2. How many additional rooms will the extension include?
Through eight planned projects, Tamara Hospitality intends to add roughly 600 more rooms to its present inventory of about 1,000 rooms.
3. What is the company’s expansion strategy?
The company is using an asset-light approach, which incorporates revenue-share leases, franchising, and management contracts, in addition to constructing its own hotels. This makes it possible to expand throughout India with less financial outlay.
4. Which companies are part of Tamara Hospitality?
The business runs several brands in the hotel industry:
The Tamara Resorts are opulent vacation spots
O by Tamara: luxurious city lodging
Lilac by Tamara: mid-range lodging
Amal Tamara is a Keralan Ayurvedic hospital and wellness center.
5. Which major initiatives are coming up?
Future developments consist of:
An O by Tamara in Bodh Gaya with 112 rooms
In Whitefield, Bengaluru, a 190-room O by Tamara
Kaziranga National Park’s wildlife lodge
Alappuzha’s houseboat resort
New accommodations in Kaloor and Velankanni
Conclusion
Over the coming years, Tamara Hospitality plans to expand its hotel footprint as part of an ambitious growth strategy. The company intends to grow beyond southern India into major metropolises and rising locations by combining owned developments with an asset-light expansion approach.
Given the robust demand in India’s hospitality industry and the anticipated rise in branded hotel supply by 2030, Tamara’s strategy puts it in a position to expand operations, boost earnings, and fortify its position in the nation’s quickly expanding tourism market.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. The information is based on publicly available sources and industry reports and should not be considered financial or investment advice.
