Anjali Mehra
Founder
Reefknot Consulting 

‘Seasoned’ is the word to describe this hospitality professional who has shaped and added value to brands the world over, and continues to share her expertise as a consultant today

Interviewed by Lyle michael

Hospitality Positive

Anjali Mehra is no unknown figure in the hotel industry. You say her name and you conjure logos of big chains like Marriott & Starwood, and brands like Leela and Westin, and you think success, brand development at its best. Now here’s a lady who knows her stuff, knows her worth and has built herself up from the ground up. People, places, properties…all luxury, all her passions which she has neatly woven to tell stories in the industry that have travelled as much as she has in her 37+ years as a hospitality professional and a consultant through her own firm.

‘What’s her blood group?’ she was once asked in an interview, to which her quick-witted response was, ‘H positive’. She lives and breathes hospitality and it’s the only industry she has known. “Would you believe I wanted to be a pilot as a young graduate in Literature from Delhi University, but fate had other plans for me,” shares Anjali. “I ended up doing the next best thing, marrying a pilot! My husband, Capt. Sameer Mehra, is a retired fighter pilot from the Indian Navy. And with my father being in the army then, I have been gifted with the travel bug.”

She sure has travelled a lot, both for work and pleasure, and the adage ‘travel is the best teacher’ holds every bit true in her case. Her journey began after her postgraduate studies in Journalism and Mass Communications and Business Management, when she took up a job in the aviation industry – again, the second best thing to becoming a pilot herself. For the first six years, she worked with Damania Airways – and after its sale to NEPC, too – and entered the hospitality industry in 2000. Goa Marriott was her first property, followed by Taj Lands End in Bombay, moving forward to the pre-opening team of Hilton Shillim in Pavna, then launching Westin Mumbai in Goregaon, followed by Poona, Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Chennai. She went on to take up regional roles in Gurgaon with Starwood handling brands like Aloft, Four Points by Sheraton, Le Meridien, W Hotels, St. Regis, and in South Asia, heading Mar-Comm for countries like India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Come 2015, the Middle East became home where she was heading communications for ME and Africa, at Starwood, before the grand Marriott merger with Starwood took place. She looks back, “I was born in Marriott, grew up in Starwood, and returned to Marriott. The merger was like a homecoming for me. The merger took place just at the time of COVID and I moved back to India post COVID.”

The Leela Group then beckoned. Anjali moved to Bombay and took charge as the Chief Brand Officer and Senior VP Marketing, in 2020, where she dedicated four years in service to brand development, nurturing and storytelling. She worked with the pure-play luxury brand till May 2024 before returning home. The professional and family-invested individual that she is, Anjali devoted herself to taking care of her parents, as equally as she could, and decided it was time to settle in and start her own practice. Surely, her years in the luxury hotel industry would hold her in good stead if she did. So, she did. Thus was born Reefknot Consulting, in 2024.            

“The reefknot is from my dad’s naval background – the strongest knot a sailor has to learn – and that’s what I want to offer with my consulting,” says Anjali. “Experiential travel is a big differentiator today and I believe I can add value to related brands through my global perspective and experience. Hyperpersonalised luxury experiences are what I have seen and helped foster. I love watching brands grow, it’s as simple as that.” Her journey has just begun, says the storyteller, the brand evangelist, the trendwatcher. “Stories that you tell must be stories that sell!” she advises. 

Given that Anjali has worked across brands, countries, segments, mostly premium and luxury, it comes naturally to her to understand and cater to the psychographic and demographic of the traveller audience. Even before her career, travel was the best part of her life. She was constantly on the move, growing up and post marriage. Be it well-known destinations or remote locations, she’s been there and lived that. What it did was make her resilient, open to change, well-versed with different cultures and ways of life, of the world, of traditions, of people and what makes them them.

Second to travel is education and learning. Anjali tells us, “I love to learn, there is no end to learning. I took up the Independent Director’s Course in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance). I was always concerned about and connected to the environment, rising AQI levels and climate change, natural resources and what we are leaving behind for future generations. The Leela was passionate about its environmental goals and so I decided to earn this certification,” states Anjali. An instance of the work they were undertaking at The Leela was a collaboration with Phool which saw the conversion of wasted flowers into non-toxic incense sticks, which were handrolled by 300 underprivileged women. Phool was even implemented at Anjali’s daughter’s wedding, she shares with us. “I love flowers and hated to see them go to waste!”

Anjali’s daughter, Saadhvi is also a hotelier with Marriott – runs in the blood – and her son, Abhinav works in investment banking. Her husband, Sameer, flies for Air India and Anjali runs her business from her home, in Delhi, with her in-laws for company. When she’s not busy tying the (reef) knot, she’s travelling, attending live concerts, reading and writing, cooking and baking. Though baking is much less now, given her children are no longer children!