adha Arora can rationalize any trip to Paris . On a January afternoon , the president of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts is at Hôtel de Crillon , A Rosewood Hotel , a designated Palace-grade hotel in the 8th arrondissement that ’ s hosted real-life royalty and the fictional kind : the protagonist of Ernest Hemingway ’ s “ The Sun Also Rises ” composes letters from the hotel lobby .

On this particular day , Arora , a Los Angeles resident , is in Paris for work , though the City of Light isn ’ t why . Rosewood Hotels & Resorts , the luxury hotel management arm of Hong Kong-based Rosewood Hotel Group , is opening the

Rosewood Schloss Fuschl , close to Salzburg , Austria , later this year and though Rosewood also has a hotel in Vienna , Arora is working out of Paris , ensconced in the landmark Crillon . Paris for any occasion .

The city and the hotel mean more to Arora than just plain work stopovers ; they both played pivotal roles in Arora ’ s upbringing as the son of a foreign service worker . “ It ’ s a great love affair I have with the city ,” he said , and for good reason . Arora may have a 40-plus-year career in the hotel industry , but one could argue he ’ s been in it his whole life . Travel is requisite for someone working in the foreign service and when his father received his

first posting abroad in Moscow , the entire family accompanied him from Arora ’ s birthplace of New Delhi .

Prior to Russia came a stop in London , where the family stayed at the Strand Palace , just across the way from one of the world ’ s iconic hotels , The Savoy , which , among other London hospitality institutions , Arora refers to as a paragon of hotel virtue .

After Russia came Paris , where , by pure coincidence , the family lived in the Hôtel de Crillon , which opened as a hotel in 1909 , but stood as a building since 1758 — in 1793 , King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were guillotined in the Place de la Concorde

directly in front of it . It ’ s a rich , even macabre history .

It was the 60s when his love affair with the hotel industry coalesced . How could it not when you are a real-life Eloise ? “ Living in hotels , being surrounded by and building relationships with the housekeepers , the room-service staff , the bellman , the concierge , front desk — that desire to be around people that are so caring and nurturing ,” he said . “ Those were my formative years .”

It was precisely those years that led him to a career in hospitality because tradition did not . It ’ s typical Indian culture to strive to become a lawyer , a doctor , a financier , but “ I wanted to be a hotelier ,”

20 hotelsmag . com Mar / Apr 2024