Featured MEdia
Supply Chains

Chalet Hotels Limited (CHL) has announced the launch of ATHIVA Hotels & Resorts, a new premium lifestyle hospitality brand debuting with over 900 keys across six hotels. The company said the new brand is designed for the millenial and Gen Z travellers and the word ATHIVA is derived from the Sanskrit word for “abundance” and “to a great extent”.

The company said it will relaunch The Dukes Retreat in Khandala as ATHIVA Resort & Spa, Khandala. Alongside this hotel, Chalet has identified five additional properties to transition to ATHIVA, over a period of time. These include a fully renovated business hotel in Navi Mumbai, The Resort at Aksa Beach, a K Raheja Corp Group Hotel and three greenfield projects under development—two in Goa and one in Thiruvananthapuram. “With ATHIVA, we bring the trust, credibility, and operational excellence of Chalet Hotels to a brand built for today’s India—welcoming business, leisure, bleisure, and MICE guests with one consistent promise: abundant joy, wellness and care,” said Dr. Sanjay Sethi, MD and CEO of Chalet Hotels. “Starting with our first ATHIVA Resort & Spa, Khandala, we will scale with discipline and heart – delivering experiences that are joyful, wellness-first and sustainably curated,” he added.

Chalet Hotels said ATHIVA introduces signature differentiators that redefine the guest journey, including anytime breakfast, Binge Box—a complimentary snack offering that replaces calorie-heavy minibars besides local immersions.
“Today, India’s demographics are supporting India’s growth. Two thirds of our population is under 35, and the per capita income is touching the $ 3000 mark, giving Indians more power to travel,” said Sethi in an interview with ET. “85% of the millenials and Gen Z consumers say they are willing to spend more on travel and pay a premium for good experiences. With India’s branded inventory still at under 2 lakh rooms, the opportunity is huge and creates a gap for companies like us to introduce new brands and business models,” he added.

He said travel today is about self discovery, planning less, seeking joy. “We are aiming to serve the millenial and Gen Z travellers with their mindset and warm and contemporary Indian hospitality,” he added.

Chalet said each ATHIVA property will integrate ‘energy-efficient’ design, ‘waste-conscious’ operations, local sourcing, and ‘meaningful’ community partnerships. Sethi said the brand will be for internally developed hotels. “That means we have three hotels that we run ourselves like The Dukes Retreat in Khandala and the hotel in Vashi. We have got a few more sites under development. We started this process over a year back. The ATHIVA brand highlights the mindset of the millenial and Gen Z travellers. The millenials are rapidly becoming the primary target for high-end hotels,” he said. “They are now in the mid thirties, they have reached positions where they can stay at good hotels, and are willing to pay a premium. Our team over the last one year has developed a service offering which is very free flowing. We are positioning the brand in the upper upscale, upscale segment but are giving it the fluidity to adapt to the target audience for that particular hotel. We are not aiming to give the same experience at a Goa and a Vashi hotel. It has to be unique and differentiated,” he added.