India’s hospitality sector is witnessing a shift as demand for organised, tech-enabled premium economy hotels accelerates beyond metro cities. Kahraman Yigit, co-founder of Olive Hospitality, tells FE that the company is positioning itself to capitalise on this opportunity through a portfolio that includes Olive Hotels, Spark by Hilton, and Open Hotels. With over 5,000 operational keys and aggressive expansion plans, Yigit outlines the company’s growth strategy, the role of AI in hotel operations, and why emerging business corridors could define the next phase of India’s hospitality market. Edited excerpts:
Q1: Olive Hospitality has evolved from a single-brand operator into a multi-brand platform. What market gaps are these brands addressing?
India remains significantly undersupplied in branded mid-market and premium economy hotels, even as domestic travel demand continues to grow rapidly. Each of our brands addresses a specific gap within that ecosystem. Olive Hotels caters to the ‘missing middle’ between unorganised budget stays and expensive full-service business hotels. Spark by Hilton addresses rising demand for reliable branded accommodation in the value segment. Open Hotels, meanwhile, is our AI-native operating platform designed to improve hotel economics through automation, remote operations, and centralised management.
Q2: Olive currently operates over 5,000 keys with a large pipeline ahead. What are your key priorities as you scale?
The biggest priority is scaling without compromising consistency. As hotel portfolios grow, operational fragmentation becomes a major risk. Our focus is therefore on building centralised systems across revenue management, guest servicing, procurement, and operational monitoring. At the same time, hospitality remains fundamentally human. Technology should remove operational friction and improve responsiveness, allowing hotel teams to focus more on guest experience rather than repetitive processes.
Q3: What long-term opportunity do you see in India’s premium economy hotel segment?
We believe premium economy is one of the most underpenetrated opportunities in Indian hospitality today. Travellers increasingly want professionally managed hotels with strong design, digital convenience, consistency, and trusted brands — without paying luxury prices. Simultaneously, India’s business travel ecosystem is expanding beyond traditional metros into manufacturing hubs, GCC corridors, logistics clusters, and infrastructure-led growth markets.
Organised hotel supply in many of these regions remains limited relative to demand. That creates a significant long-term opportunity for scalable premium economy hospitality platforms.
Q4: Open Hotels has been described as the world’s first fully remote, AI-native hotel operator. How is AI changing hotel operations?
Open Hotels is reimagining hotel operations through a remote-operated, AI-native model built around automation, centralisation, and real-time operational intelligence. Functions such as guest servicing, reservations, pricing, operational monitoring, housekeeping coordination, and front-office workflows are increasingly managed through a centralised operating layer instead of independently at each property.
A key differentiator is our use of live video reception, voice AI, and real-time analytics to proactively identify service gaps and improve response times. This allows us to operate more efficiently while maintaining consistency across properties. However, we do not believe AI replaces hospitality. Guests still value warmth, empathy, and human interaction. Technology should enhance hospitality, not remove the human element.
Q5: Olive recently partnered with Hilton to launch Spark hotels in India. What is the strategy behind this expansion?
Our strategy is deliberately asset-light and conversion-led, which allows us to scale efficiently and with lower capital intensity. India still has relatively low branded hotel penetration compared to the size of its travel economy. As business travel expands across Tier 2 cities and emerging commercial corridors, we see strong long-term demand for organised premium economy hospitality. The partnership combines Hilton’s global brand ecosystem with Olive’s local operating capabilities and technology platform. The initial rollout will focus on high-growth business markets where branded hotel supply remains limited.
Q6: Looking ahead, do you see Olive evolving primarily as a hospitality operator or a technology-led platform?
We see Olive evolving into a technology-enabled hospitality ecosystem. Hospitality remains at the core of the business, but technology increasingly becomes the operating layer. Over time, we believe the strongest hospitality companies will not necessarily be those with the largest footprint, but those with the most efficient, adaptable, and technology-enabled operating platforms.