Hii Everyone!

What’s the first thing that pops up in your mind when you think of luxury hotels?

…..TAJ right?

Since I was kid i would associate TAJ with luxury, sophistication and royal service (and I am sure you’ll will agree with me on this!).  Amid all the hustle and bustle of Mumbai, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel stands by the sea glowing as a royalty.  TAJ as a brand, is a 110-year-old legacy of impeccable service and inimitable hospitality. It is a brand that stands for warmth and care. It has a culture that’s rooted in Indian traditions and a vision that seeks to reinvent them. A global presence that graces iconic landmarks, important industrial towns and cities, beaches, hill stations, historical and pilgrim destinations, and wildlife sanctuaries.

2.

Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris is one of Asia’s largest and finest group of hotels, comprising 99 hotels in 61 locations across the globe, including presence in India, North America, United Kingdom, Africa, Middle East, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal. From world-renowned landmarks to modern business hotels, idyllic beach resorts to authentic Grand Palaces, each Taj hotel offers an unrivalled fusion of warm Indian hospitality, world-class service and modern luxury.

3. 

The Taj Mahal Palace hotel was built 21 years before the Gateway of India was built in 1924, by the Viceroy, the Earl of Reading. The Taj Mahal Tower is an additional wing of the hotel that was built in 1972 in a completely different architectural style.

4.

The dome was the first clear marker of the Bombay Harbour. It is still a triangulation point for Indian Navy ships to fix their position in the harbour.

5.

TAJ brought a lot of firsts to the Indian luxury hotel scenario.

Taj Mahal Palace was the first Indian hotel to have an air-conditioned ballroom and restaurant, the first to hire English butlers, the first hotel to host an all-day dining restaurant etc. It also had the first international discotheque and licensed bar in the city. If that’s isn’t proof enough of its first-off-the-mark trait, it was also the country’s first hotel to have electricity, German elevators, Turkish baths and American fans.

6. 

Three hotels of the Taj group, namely Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai and Taj Lake Palace in Udaipur were ranked by Condé Nast Traveler among its “Top 100 Hotels and Resorts in the World” list.

This luxury hotel brand which began more than a century ago has many of its hotels converted from actual former royal palaces. As the chain grew globally, it became harder to find royal places- especially in places like the U.S. that never had any – so Taj acquired existing luxury hotels instead. Outside of India and the Maldives, almost all its properties are city hotels, including London & Cape Town.

7. 

The hotel on it’s inception had 17 guests on December 16, 1903, who were charged only Rs 10 as a set rate for a single room and Rs 13 for rooms “with the added convenience of fans and attached bathrooms”.  A higher version of rooms with more & better facilities was available for Rs 20. This may sound super cheap right now, but, in 1903, it was not.

8. 

The cost of building this majestic hotel was GBP 250,000 in 1903, which is approximately GBP 127 million (as of 2018).

Contrary to the popular belief that Tata built  Taj because he was denied entry to a whites-only hotel in Bombay,  the Taj was actually built at the time of a huge plague epidemic that started in 1896 and was threatening Bombay’s fortunes.Jamsetjee Tata set up the hotel “purely for the love of the city.”

9. 

During World War I (1914 to 1918), the hotel was turned into a 600-bed hospital to treat the injured victims.

10.

The Taj faced demolition in the late 1960s, Curt Strand, president of Hilton Hotels, remarking that it would remain standing “only so long as the termites keep holding hands”. However, JRD and his management team fought hard to save the building, believing that mass tourism was the future and that a revitalised Taj had a role as the flagship of a chain of luxury hotels.

For over a century, The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, the iconic flagship has set a benchmark for fine living with exquisite refinement, inventiveness and warmth. Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris is part of the Tata Group, India’s premier business house.

Waah TAJ!

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