Relais & Chateaux aims to double India portfolio in 4 years: President Laurent Gardinier

India’s hospitality industry is shaping up extensively. In a recent chat with Fortune India, Laurent Gardinier, president, Relais & Châteaux, talks about the association’s India strategy and how India fares against China in the hospitality industry. Relais & Châteaux is a global association of over 600 individually-owned and operated luxury hotels and restaurants.

“For Relais & Châteaux, India stands at a very important point in the strategy, a very important point. The fact that if you look at the map of the Relais & Châteaux, we have about 580 members, we are quite strong in Western Europe, in South America, and Japan, but in between, we have [very few] beautiful properties in India. But we have the potential of India, [for now, our presence] is relatively small, maybe we could try to find other gems,” says Gardinier.

Currently, India hosts only 10 properties part of the Relais and Chateaux association.

“We are at 10 now, if over the next 3-4 years, we have about 20-25 properties, I think that it would be great to double it, which is quite difficult to do, but I think it is possible if we work hard, we have also the help of the existing members, so we have a nice team to develop it,” he adds.

While India remains a vital destination market, it is also an integral traveller market. A recent R&C business survey revealed that over 82% of Indian, Thai and Sri Lankan customers of the association were booked for Europe, with France (28%), Italy (23%), Switzerland (9%) and the UK (6%) the most popular destinations, according to booking data from Relais & Châteaux channels.

“The activity in Switzerland alone recorded an increase of +127% in sales volumes compared to last year, which showcases a rising interest for this destination,” the survey added.

As a result, Gardinier adds that India has become more open over the last few years, paving the way for a stronger demand and supply probabilities from the country.

“It is an important market because it is a very fast-growing economy, it opens to the world more strongly than before, and because {of that}, we consider we have a lot of property that could join us in the next year,” he says.

Recently, Jaipur-based Sarvato restaurant was added to the R&C portfolio in India. The association enables its members to promote their businesses, with the association taking over the entire marketing and PR spends of the members, aside from providing cross-networking opportunities to the restaurateurs and property owners.

On Indian hospitality: The pros and cons

When compared with China, Gardinier adds that the Indian hospitality industry is much more mature, particularly due to their openness.

“We have India and China, that are important markets that we want to develop for the future. The fact is that the language barrier is much stronger in China than it is for India, and India’s hospitality industry has always been quite easier and more open than (that in) China. So, India has always been seen as a more natural destination for Europeans, and now it starts to be the same with the Americans,” Gardinier adds.

A recently launched Business Survey by the association reveals that while hotels contributed to 52% of sales revenue in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand in 2024, in Greater China, it contributed merely 17%.

“So, that’s why we want to be there, to showcase what are the beauties of India,” Gardinier added.

Yet, despite receiving as many as 60 applications annually, Gardinier says that each property has to be inspected on 500 parameters specific to the association. This is one of the key reasons why very few properties and much fewer restaurants are there on the India portfolio.

Gardinier, thus, notes that the same communication can be improved much better across logistics for guests in the hospitality industry.

“[what maybe] lacking is communication between one area to the other, quite complicated to understand the way you’re going to travel in India [within the country]. So, communication in terms of infrastructure,” he adds.