Vikram Cotah, CEO, GRT Hotels & Resort

Vikram Cotah’s stirring human-centric stories on LinkedIn have made the company he leads — GRT Hotels and Resorts — a known name. Cultural storytelling is one of the USPs of GRT Hotels, instilled, no doubt, by its CEO.

Cotah, who comes from a strong cricketing lineage that boasts names like Buchi Babu Naidu (paternal great-grandfather) and Cotah Ramaswami (grandfather), shocked his well-heeled family when he announced he wanted to be a hotelier. “I had gone to visit my uncle at the Taj Coromandel when I was in my teens and immediately decided I wanted to be a hotelier,” he says, describing how, without the support of his family, he graduated in hotel management and became a management trainee at the hotel of his dreams. He did a stint with the Taj group in Maldives, too.

The passionate hotelier joined GRT Hotels in the late 1990s when the jewellery retailer GRT Group was setting up its first hotel in Chennai (GRT Grand Chennai in T Nagar). Fast-forward to now and GRT has 22 hotels across southern India and will soon have an international presence in Maldives. Even as GRT was growing its jewellery business (today it has 65-plus stores), the hotels business was expanding in parallel. “The philosophy of our Chairman is that human capital is much more important than profits,” stresses Cotah, adding that it drives the core value of the chain.

Every stay is a story

Inspired by Amar Chitra Katha, the group is making every stay into a memorable story. Through comic books titled The GReaT Katha, it introduces guests to various experiences at the hotel. The cultural storytelling is evident in other ways too — for instance, at the Radisson Blu GRT hotel near Chennai airport, Padma Shri winner Thota Tharani’s gigantic installations transport you to the Chola era even as the hotel chefs deftly serve chocolate rocks inspired by Pallava, Chera, Chola and Pandya dynasties.

Besides storytelling, GRT has two other well-thought ‘Ss’ in its strategy — sustainability and spirituality. “The new gen and also the older generation are saying hotels are the worst polluters on earth. So, if we can become sustainable, it’s going to be a really great step forward for not just hospitality but also regenerative tourism,” says Cotah.

He describes how the group’s Tamil Nadu hotels have reduced their carbon footprint through renewable energy — incidentally, supplied by GRT’s renewable power company. The breakfast at the properties are called the Great Sunshine Breakfast. “We offset the entire carbon footprint of this buffet at the Viriksham Foundation. They plant trees in villages and take care of them. Each tree is about ₹625; the carbon offsets are calculated accordingly,” says Cotah.

Pilgrim’s progress

The hotel chain has also taken a strong positioning in spiritual tourism. “We have covered all the Arupadai Veedu (six sacred abodes) of Lord Murugan,” says Cotah, listing GRT Hotels’ properties on the trail in Tiruttani, Madurai, Salem and Palani. Similarly, it has hotels in strategic locations along the Divya Desam (108 premier Vishnu temples) trail.

Finally, the chain is trying to promote good sleep through its ‘GReaT Wellbeing’ initiative. Guests will find magnesium gummies in their room and lavender essential oils. “We do a lot of initiatives on sleep, nutrition, touch therapy and social wellbeing of guests,” says Cotah, describing how, at sundown at the leisure properties, they try to get guests together, and the staff put up a talent show. “These are small things, but make a big difference to guests,” he says.

Given the huge brand-building happening around GRT Hotels — playing on the word GReaT with GReaT Trails, The GReaT Butterfly Effect (a book on sustainability) and so on — you can’t resist asking about the need for a partnership with global chain Radisson for some of the hotels. The global distribution muscle is needed is the simple answer.

(The writer visited Radisson Blu Hotels & Suites GRT Chennai at the invitation of the global hospitality chain)

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Published on March 23, 2026