race, but one of the largest drivers of the behemoth lodging companies is their omnipotent loyalty programs, which keep customers within their spheres of travel. It is something Rajakarier understands well.“ Loyalty today is a must,” he said.
Loyalty programs are also expensive to run. In 2007, Minor joined Global Hotel Alliance— a unified loyalty program for independent hotel brands— with its Anantara brand. It has since added more brands and in 2018 took a 10 % stake in GHA as a shareholder. In 2025, Minor coalesced its rewards framework under the single Minor DISCOVERY program linked to the wider GHA network. The biggest plus of GHA, Rajakarier points out, is that, unlike a single-platform program, travelers have an array of different brands and hotels to choose from.“ With Hilton Honors, you only stay with Hilton. With IHG Rewards, you only stay with IHG. With us, you have more than 50 different brands,” he said.
At the same time, lodging companies are folding in independent brands without changing dollars, such as Yotel’ s March tie-in with Hilton that allows it to take advantage of Hilton’ s expansive network. As Minor grows, Rajakarier sees a similar partnership path through quasi-marketing alliances.“ We are looking to see how we can get hotels to join us,” he said.
Down another, though parallel path, is technology: harnessing it and using it to gain an edge throughout the portfolio of hotels. Here’ s the good thing: Rajakarier, prior to his life as a full-blown hotelier, was a programmer back in the eighties. Sure, technology has changed by leaps and bounds, but one thing is certain: Rajakarier is earnest about the space.“ In every industry, every company is a tech company, whether they like it or not,” he said. Functions like AI are irreversibly altering how guests travel and their experience; it’ s giving back something invaluable and scarce, Rajakarier said: time.“ Technology makes for seamless travel,” he said.
In April, Minor put it to the test, unveiling plans to build a new global data and AI platform in partnership with tech heavies Google Cloud and Salesforce. Minor calls it one of the most significant technology investments in its history, and that might be an understatement. It marks a deliberate and determined lean into AI to create a single digital platform connecting global guest data, marketing and service operations. The new platform is set for full deployment this year.
Like most hotel executives, Rajakarier is loath to say that technology will replace humans. Far from it; but unlike mortals, technology doesn’ t need sleep, which comes in handy at 3 a. m. when AI recognizes a demand anomaly and can shift rates accordingly.“ Human touch is always going to be there still,” Rajakarier said.“ That’ s what hospitality is about.”
CREATING HOSPITALITY
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