Skift Take
There is something to be said for the will to survive through hardship. Other hospitality groups should take note of the Oberoi Group story. India's luxury hotel group is one of the subjects in Skift’s recent sixth anniversary book, For the Long Haul, Lessons on Business Longevity, whose chapters we are excerpting for you here in the coming weeks.
It all started with a plague.
In 1922, 24-year-old Mohan Singh Oberoi fled his hometown of Bhaun, India, in the Punjab province, now a region of Pakistan. He was penniless, but his mother, who raised him alone, urged him to escape the virulent outbreak overtaking their village and find work in Shimla, India, a nearby city. He spent the summer rambling around the countryside, desperately trying to land a job. One day, he walked into the Hotel Cecil and asked if there were any openings. To Oberoi’s surprise, the manager hired him as a front desk clerk.
A decade later, in 1934, Oberoi had an opportunity to acquire the hotel, and mortgaged his wife’s jewelry in order to buy the property. His next acquisition came in quick succession, after a massive cholera outbreak killed over 1,500 people in Calcutta, India, one of the country’s largest cities. After 100 foreign guests died from drinking water at The Grand Hotel, one of Calcutta’s most elegant destinations, the property was forced to shut down. The owners of the hotel were drowning in debt, and Oberoi took over the property in a leveraged deal for 7,000 rupees a month (about $53,000 in today’s money, adjusted for inflation).
Read About the Secrets to Business Longevity in Skift's New Book, For the Long Haul
Two years later, at the start of World War II, Calcutta became a major hub for British troops, and the army desperately needed housing. Oberoi opened his doors. The hotel was at capacity for years, and he made his fortune. “Cashiers unable to count the money were shoving it under the carpet to resume the task next morning,” journalist Bachi Karkaria wrote in Dare to Dream, her biography of the hotelier. In 1941, the British government rewarded him with the title Rai Bahadur, which roughly translates to “honorable prince,” for his services. “Taking over a cholera-ridden hotel had been a landmark in my career,” Oberoi wrote of the experience.
These initial acquisitions jump-started Oberoi’s legacy in high-end travel, ushering in a new way of looking at hospitality in India. The Oberoi Group has stood as a cornerstone of India’s luxury hospitality industry for over half a century and currently has 33 locations across Asia and the Middle East. “Their backbone has always been in the delivery of service,” says Manav Thadani, chairman of the Asia-Pacific market at HVS, a hospitality consultancy. “When you go into their hotel, their quality is at the level of the Fou
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