Taj Hotels is a chain of luxury hotels and a subsidiary of the Indian Hotels Company Limited,[1] headquartered in Mumbai, India. Incorporated by Jamsetji Tata in 1902,[2] the company is a part of the Tata Group. The company employed over 20,000 people in the year 2010.[3][4]
Jamsetji Tata, founder of the Tata Group
In 1974, the group opened India's first international five-star deluxe beach resort, the Fort Aguada Beach Resort in Goa. In 1970s, the Taj Group also began its business in metropolitan hotels, opening the five-star deluxe hotel, Taj Coromandel in Chennai, in 1974, acquiring an equity interest and operating contract for the Taj President (now Vivanta by Taj – President), a business hotel in Mumbai, in 1977, and also opening the Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi in 1978.
The group has been converting royal palaces in India into luxury hotels since the 1970s. The first palace to be converted into a Taj luxury hotel was the Lake Palace in Udaipur, in 1971.[7] Other examples include the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad and Nadesar Palace in Varanasi.
In 1984, the Taj Group acquired, under a licence agreement, each of the Taj West End in Bengaluru, Taj Connemara, in Chennai and Savoy Hotel in Ooty. The five-star deluxe hotel, Taj Bengal in Kolkata, was opened in the year 1989, and with this, the Taj Group became the only hotel chain in India with a presence in the six major metropolitan cities of India, namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai.
Concurrently with the expansion of its luxury hotel chain in the major metropolitan cities, the Taj Group also expanded its business hotels division in the major metropolitan and large secondary cities in India. During the 1990s, the Taj Group continued to expand its geographic and market coverage in India. It developed specialised operations (such as wildlife lodges) and consolidated its position in established markets through the upgrading of existing properties and development of new properties. Taj also set up the Taj Kerala Hotels and Resorts Limited in the early 1990s along with the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation.[8]
In 1980, the Taj Group opened its first hotel outside India, the Taj Sheba Hotel in Sanaa, in Yemen and in the late 1980s, acquired interests in the St. James' Court Hotel (now comprising Taj 51 Buckingham Gate Suites and Residences and St. James' Court, A Taj Hotel) in London. In 2005, The Pierre in New York City was acquired.[9]
On 9 March 2022, Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, The Palm, Dubai, was opened. Other properties of the group include Taj Jumeirah Lakes Towers Dubai and Taj Dubai.[10][11][12]
Ten hotels of the Taj Group are members of the Leading Hotels of the World.[13] Two hotels of the Taj Group, namely Rambagh Palace in Jaipur and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, were ranked in 2013 by Condé Nast Traveller among its "Top 100 Hotels and Resorts in the World".[14] Condé Nast Traveller also ranked the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai as number 13 on its list of "Gold Standard Hotels" in 2014.[15]
