In an episode of Mauve’s Happened Over Coffee, host Priya Lalwani sits down with architect Ar. Dhanshree Purohit for a conversation about hospitality, entrepreneurship, family, women in business and the making of her dream project, Hotel Meeravill.
What does it really take to run a hotel?
From the outside, hospitality can look effortless.
Beautiful spaces. Thoughtfully designed rooms. Good food. Warm service. Guests arriving and leaving with a memorable experience.
But behind that polished surface is an industry that demands constant attention.
For Dhanshree Purohit, hospitality is not simply about creating a beautiful property. It is about making sure every moving part works, every day.
From her transition from architecture to hospitality to the creation of Hotel Meeravill, the discussion explores what happens when a professional’s design sensibility meets the unpredictable, people-driven world of hospitality.
And Dhanshree has perhaps the most fitting way of describing it.
“Hotel chalana is like roz ki baarat sambhalna hai.”
Running a hotel, she suggests, is like managing a wedding every single day.
And anyone who has ever been involved in a wedding knows exactly how much that means.
From Architecture to Hospitality
Dhanshree’s journey into hospitality began with a background in architecture and a family business that has been part of the industry for four decades.
The transition was not simply from one profession to another.
Architecture taught her to think about spaces their structure, function, aesthetics and experience.
Hospitality asked her to think about people.
How they enter a space.
How they feel inside it.
What they expect.
What makes them return.
And how a beautifully designed property can still fall short if the experience surrounding it is inconsistent.
This combination of architecture and hospitality eventually found its expression in Hotel Meeravill, a project that Dhanshree describes as her dream.
It is a space where her design background and understanding of hospitality come together.
The Dream Behind Hotel Meeravill
Hotel Meeravill is not designed to feel like just another contemporary hotel.
Its aesthetic draws from Victorian and European influences, giving the property a distinct visual identity.
But creating a beautiful hotel is only one part of the challenge.
The real work begins once the doors open.
Hospitality is an industry where consistency matters enormously.
A guest may remember the interiors, but they will also remember the food.
They will remember the service.
They will remember how quickly someone responded when they needed something.
And they will remember whether the experience matched what they were promised.
For Dhanshree, maintaining that consistency is one of the most demanding parts of the business.
Because unlike a building, a hotel does not simply exist.
It has to perform every day.
The Business Behind the Beauty
One of the most valuable aspects of Dhanshree’s conversation with Priya is that it moves beyond the glamour of owning a hotel.
Hospitality is often romanticised through beautiful photographs and elegant interiors.
But behind every room is a team.
Behind every meal is a kitchen.
Behind every guest experience are dozens of decisions that most visitors never see.
Staffing, therefore, becomes one of the most critical aspects of the business.
The right people can elevate a property.
The wrong systems or lack of consistency can undermine even the most beautiful space.
And because hospitality is fundamentally a people business, the team becomes an extension of the hotel itself.
That makes managing a hotel less about simply maintaining a property and more about constantly managing people, processes, expectations and experiences.
Which brings us back to Dhanshree’s wedding analogy.
A wedding is never just about the venue.
It is about ensuring that everything comes together at the right time.
Hospitality works much the same way.
The Architecture of an Experience
Perhaps what makes Dhanshree’s story particularly interesting is that she entered hospitality with an architect’s eye.
For an architect, a space is never just a collection of walls, furniture and decorative elements.
It has a flow.
A mood.
A personality.
The same is true of a hotel.
The Victorian and European aesthetic of Hotel Meeravill gives it a distinct character, but the real experience comes from the relationship between design and hospitality.
A beautiful lobby can create the first impression.
A comfortable room can create a sense of ease.
But it is the service, food and attention to detail that determine what a guest ultimately takes away.
In that sense, Dhanshree’s work sits at the intersection of two disciplines.
Architecture creates the setting.
Hospitality brings it to life.
The People Who Hold the Building Together
Dhanshree also shares a thought that extends far beyond hotels.
“Jab aap ek ghar construct karte hain, so aapko beams hain, columns hain, slab, sabka support milta hai tab ghar banta hai.”
When you construct a house, she explains, you need the support of beams, columns and slabs for it to stand.
The same, she suggests, is true of success.
No person builds something substantial entirely alone.
There are people who support you.
People who challenge you.
People who work alongside you.
People whose contributions may not always be visible but are essential to the structure you are trying to create.
For a hotelier, that could mean the staff, the family, the management team, partners and countless others who contribute to the daily functioning of the business.
And for an entrepreneur, it is an important reminder:
The strongest structures are collaborative ones.
Women, Work and the Question of Balance
The conversation eventually moves beyond business and into a subject that remains deeply relevant for women building careers: balance.
Dhanshree speaks about the challenge of managing professional ambition alongside family responsibilities.
Referencing Indra Nooyi, she acknowledges the reality that the biological cycle and the career cycle of women can often run alongside one another.
It is a reality that makes the idea of “having it all” far more complicated than it sounds.
For women in leadership, success is not always just about reaching professional milestones.
It can also involve navigating expectations, responsibilities and different phases of life simultaneously.
Dhanshree does not present the journey as perfectly balanced.
Instead, her perspective recognises that balancing career and family is an ongoing process one that requires adaptability, support and, perhaps most importantly, the willingness to continue pursuing one’s goals.
Her Mantra: Stay Optimistic
If there is one philosophy that seems to connect Dhanshree’s professional and personal journey, it is optimism.
Her mantra is simple:
“My mantra is be optimistic… always and always pursue your goals. Obstacles will come, but you have to file through it and reach your boat.”
It is a mindset particularly suited to hospitality and entrepreneurship in general.
Because obstacles are inevitable.
A staffing problem.
An operational challenge.
A difficult phase in business.
A personal responsibility that demands attention.
The question is not whether these things will happen.
They will.
The question is whether they will become reasons to stop.
For Dhanshree, they are simply things to work through.
To keep moving.
To keep pursuing the destination even when the route changes.
Hospitality Is a Daily Commitment
The conversation between Priya Lalwani and Dhanshree Purohit ultimately reveals something that is easy to miss when looking at hospitality from the outside.
A hotel is never truly “finished.”
The building may be complete.
The interiors may be ready.
The rooms may be styled.
But the work continues every single day.
Every guest brings a new expectation.
Every day brings new operational challenges.
Every meal has to meet a standard.
Every employee needs support.
Every experience has to feel consistent.
And every day is another opportunity to make someone want to return.
That is perhaps why Dhanshree’s description of running a hotel as managing a wedding every day feels so accurate.
There is always something happening.
And there is always someone depending on you to make sure it all comes together.
Designing a Life, Not Just a Hotel
Dhanshree Purohit’s journey from architecture to hospitality is ultimately a story about building.
Building a hotel.
Building a business.
Building a team.
Building a career.
And building a life where professional ambition and personal responsibilities have to coexist.
Hotel Meeravill may be the most visible expression of that journey, but the philosophy behind it extends beyond the property.
It is about understanding that beautiful things require strong foundations.
That success rarely belongs to one person alone.
That obstacles are part of the process.
And that sometimes, the most important quality an entrepreneur can possess is the willingness to remain optimistic and keep going.
Because just like a house, a hotel and perhaps even a career does not stand because of one element.
It stands because every beam, every column and every supporting structure does its part.
This conversation with Ar. Dhanshree Purohit, architect and hotelier, is featured on Mauve’s Happened Over Coffee, hosted by Priya Lalwani, founder of Mauve.
