founded 1991 founder aman nath and francis wacziarg headquarters new delhi india number of locations 17 area served india website official site the neemrana hotels is an indian organisation noted 1 for restoring ruins and turning them into heritage hotels . 2 3 it was started in 1991 by aman nath and francis wacziarg . aman nath was a post graduate in medieval indian history from delhi university 4 and francis wacziarg a former french diplomat and resident of india since 1969 and they were researching wall frescoes for writing the painted frescoes of shekhavati 2 when they encountered the 15th century neemrana fort on the aravalli range in rajasthan . 5 the fort was built by local chieftain nimola meo 6 and had been a ruin for 40 years . they bought the fort for rs 700 000 in 1986 7 and restored it opening as a hotel in 1991 with 12 rooms . 8 following this restoration the hotel has been used as the venue for the international festival of indian literature in 2002 for mastermind india 5 and for several indian weddings . 2 contents 1 restoration process 2 examples 3 books 4 references 5 external links restoration process edit neemrana fort palace hotel at neemrana alwar district rajasthan the first property of neemrana hotels opened 1991 the modifications made to the ruins to retain a consistent design include basic amenities like plumbing and air conditioning hidden from view and designing 19th century rooms in the colonial style 7 they call their hotels non hotels to emphasise this design . 6 the buildings are restored in phases with revenue from guests of restored parts being used to restore the rest . 8 along with their practice of using local artisans and materials this keeps costs low and their hotels break even in two to three years rather than the industry average of seven to eight . 2 the punjab government transferred the baradari palace in patiala to them as a public private partnership and the rajasthan government leased them the tijari fort . similarly the pataudi palace of mansur ali khan pataudi and sharmila tagore was sold to them and thakur mangal singh sold them the 14th century kesroli palace in alwar . 8 the tijari fort at alwar is not a ruin but a building that had been left unfinished in 1845 because of war ; the pair have undertaken completion . most of their projects have been initiated by the owners of the buildings approaching them and they have over 2 potential projects on hand . 2 8 the company also manufactures jam from the fruit orchards in ramgarh and tea from the plantations in coonoor and coffee from coorg . it also runs a neemrana music foundation . 9 the clientele which initially consisted mostly of foreign tourists is now as of 2010 70 % indian . 2 in 2011 neemrana hotels had 25 properties in 17 locations and crossed 300 million us 4.5 million in revenue . 10 examples edit bungalow on the beach neemrana hotels in tranquebar tamil nadu piramal haveli bagar rajasthan ruins and forts restored by them and turned into hotels include 14th century hill fort kesroli alwar rajasthan 5 15th century neemrana fort palace delhi jaipur highway shekhawati rajasthan 5 16th century le colonial cochin kerala citation needed 17th century the tower house cochin kerala citation needed 17th century the bungalow on the beach tharangambadi tamil nadu 5 17th century the gate house tharangambadi tamil nadu 11 18th century hotel de l orient puducherry . 5 19th century the verandah in the forest british matheran near mumbai 19th century darbargadh palace morvi gujarat opening shortly 19th century villa pottipati malleswaram bangalore karnataka 5 19th century the wallwood garden coonoor tamil nadu 5 19th century green hills estate kodagu karnataka citation needed 19th century the baradari palace patiala punjab 5 19th century the ramgarh bungalows ramgarh kumaon hills uttarakhand 5 20th century piramal haveli bagar shekhavati rajasthan 5 20th century pataudi palace pataudi haryana 5 21st century the glasshouse on the ganges rishikesh uttarakhand belonging to the maharaja of tehri garhwal 5 tijara fort alwar district rajasthan 12 books edit rajindra kothi baradari palace patiala became punjab s first heritage hotel in 2009 13 books published as part of the project include the painted frescoes of shekhavati 2 jaipur the last destination 5 arts and crafts of rajasthan 5 references edit mentions some detailed in about 72 books and 8 papers and 43 news sources a b c d e f g pramila n. phatarphekar accidental hoteliers open magazine 24 april 2010 the heritage tourism specialists . financial express . 31 october 2010 . alka pande a new lease of life the hindu 1 august 1999 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o savita gautam ruins revisited the hindu 29 july 2004 a b arundhati basu article in the telegraph saturday 13 september 2008 a b malini suryanarayan an interview with mr. aman nath architect interior designer and art restorer the hindu wednesday 20 december 2000 a b c d malini goyal forbes india hotel kings bring back the fine life to palaces ibn live 24 august 2009 chitra subramanyam holding fort india today 27 november 2008 neemrana hotels making history hip . outlook business . 18 february 2012 . high on history . financial express . 3 january 2010 . holding fort . india today . 27 november 2008 . fort right . the tribune . 6 august 2009 . external links edit official site talk by aman nath at tedx retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title neemrana hotels & oldid 741836490 categories hospitality companies of indiacompanies established in 1991companies based in new delhiheritage hotels in indiahotel chains1991 establishments in indianeemranahidden categories use indian english from september 2016all wikipedia articles written in indian englishuse dmy dates from march 2013all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from june 2010 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 29 september 2016 at 23 44 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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