By Neha Kirpal
The Tree of Life Resorts & Hotels is a collection of resorts and lodges in 13 locations across India. Away from the hustle and bustle of cities and yet conveniently close, the group offers limited but fresh menus, often growing some of their own vegetables. Their spa resorts offer amazing experiences, such as a meal with an elephant, teaching at a school, treks in the hills, yoga, meditation and much more.
In this exclusive interview, we spoke to Akhil Anand, Director, Tree of Life Resorts & Hotels who spoke to us among other things about the group’s distinguishing features, opening India’s first ehotel at a shipping container in Agra and how the brand is contributing to the environment and the local community.
Tell us some of the distinguishing features of your brand, Tree of Life Resorts & Hotels?
There are essentially three differentiating elements. The first is that we must be away from the city centres in calm and peaceful surroundings. The second is that we must operate in an inventory size ranging from 3 to 25 keys. The third is that each of these rooms or villas must offer a certain amount of space and privacy to our guests. Most importantly, a Tree of Life property must reflect the essence of the location and environment which the hotel is situated in. This starts with the architecture and the use of local materials and methods and goes on to the guest experience in terms of the welcome, culinary, uniforms, etc. In a nutshell, the cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work for us and we like to fine-tune all of these elements with a very individualistic approach.
Your recent property in Agra is India’s first ehotel in a shipping container. Could you tell our readers more about the idea behind it?
We’ve converted shipping containers into living spaces called ecotainers. This is not only a very sustainable form of construction but is also something different that many of our guests have not experienced as yet. Our endeavour has always been to deliver such unique experiences to our loyal client base. Each ecotainer offers you 320 square feet of well-lit indoor space along with lush green private gardens and open spaces to compliment this.
Tell us briefly about the current promotions and packages you are offering?
Currently, we have a myriad of different packages being promoted such as ‘Pawsome Holidays’, where the package is designed for you as well as your four-legged companions. ‘Corporate Retreats – off the beaten track’ is another offering of ours focused on MICE events but with an experiential and immersive twist. ‘Self Drive Getaways’ offer tailor-made experiences from close driveable distances, which has been a very relevant product for us in the recent past.
Tell us about some of the ways in which your brand is contributing to the environment and the local community?
The environment and local communities have always been at the core of what we do. This is not only on the operational front but also on the guest experience front where we have realised that travelers today want to really get under the skin of the destination they are visiting and get a sense of the culture and people. Our flagship resort in Jaipur for example was built using lime and limestone only. There were no bricks, cement or steel used in the construction of the resort. This is how Rajasthan was built traditionally and within the first year of opening, we won the Architect and Interiors award, India. Further, all of the labour who built the resort came from within a two kilometre radius of the site and today roughly 25% of our workforce comes from the village we are situated in,thereby creating local long-term employment opportunities.
Your hotels are unique for being pet friendly. Please elaborate more on this?
Booking.com has recently done a study that mentioned travel along with pets as one of the most emerging travel trends globally. The Tree of Life Resorts & Hotels has been pet friendly since inception and we treat our four-legged guests with as much warmth and affection as we do our two-legged guests. We have gone deep into designing the culinary experience, in-room amenities, and welcome and departure experience for pets travelling to any of our destinations. We will continue to refine this as we go along and give this segment the importance it deserves. We also have certain guidelines in place for guests traveling with pets, so as to not inconvenience other guests who may not be so comfortable with this idea. More often than not, we have had people converted from non-pet lovers to pet lovers because of their interactions with our other guests during their stay with us!
The pandemic has witnessed a shifting trend in the accommodation options that travelers are choosing for leisure travel. Could you elaborate more this?
Over the past 3-4 years,people have been moving away from the traditional format of large inventory hotels and now seem to prefer properties that are secluded, close to nature and more private. These are essentially the cornerstones within which we enjoy operating. The pandemic has certainly accelerated this thought process and has really stamped such hotels at the forefront for leisure travelers. We found ourselves at the right place and at the right time, with roughly 13 years of experience behind us in this specific space. All of our past experiences combined with the shift in the mindset of the leisure traveler continue to give us the confidence to take big leaps of faith. Yes, we’ve doubled our size from six operating hotels to fourteen, during the two years of the pandemic. And we further plan on accelerating this pace to double again to about 25 properties within the financial year 2022-2023.
What are the Tree of Life’s plans for the coming months? Any new properties in new locations? Expansions, renovations, etc.?
We realised an increased demand for the three to six keys private cottage/villa space quite early on in the pandemic. In response to this, we created a new brand called ‘Tree of Life Collections’. The idea was to offer even more intimate properties allowing a family or a group of friends to book these experiences exclusively for themselves. We currently have three destinations under this brand and I do feel that this is going to be a segment that will grow rapidly in the coming times. With time, I see this brand contributing to a significant share of our total destinations.
