New Delhi, March 10 -- Bengaluru-based Tamara Hospitality is set to double its footprint over the next three to five years, investing Rs.480-540 crore across eight new hotel and resort projects as it expands both owned and asset-light operations. The company will add about 600 rooms to its existing portfolio of 1,000-odd keys, Samir MC, chief executive officer (CEO) of Tamara Leisure Experiences, told Mint. Alongside owned developments, Tamara plans to expand by managing and franchising hotels through an asset-light model that enables pan-India expansion at lower capital investment and risk. This comes at a time when many Indian hospitality firms have been moving towards an asset-light or asset-right strategy over the last decade to balance out their portfolios amid strong travel demand. Founded about 15 years ago by billionaire co-founders of Infosys, SD Shibulal and S Gopalakrishnan, Tamara operates nine self-owned and managed properties across its three brands. These include The Tamara, a luxury leisure property which it owns and operates, O by Tamara, which are upscale city hotels, as well as Lilac by Tamara, a mid-scale hotel brand. They also have Amal Tamara, an Ayurveda hospital in Alappuzha, Kerala. The company has signed its first asset-light property, a 40-room Lilac hotel in Kufri, and is open to revenue-share leases and management contracts. This marks a strategic shift from Tamara's earlier focus on fully owned assets as it looks to expand beyond its southern base. The company is evaluating opportunities in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and other metros through both ownership and asset-light structures. Tamara aims to at least double its portfolio over the next three to five years and grow earnings faster than asset count as it builds scale across owned and managed properties. Samir said the group reported turnover of around Rs.150 crore in FY25 and its hotel-level operating margins are in the high 30% range, though company-level profitability is moderated by depreciation, as more than half its portfolio has opened in the past 3-4 years....