Nayantara raring to go with “Nyne”
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Nayantara Fonseka
“‘Nyne’ was the name my late daddy Lester Fonseka fondly called me,” says Nayantara Fonseka, her husky voice tinged with emotion, as she speaks of ‘Nyne Hotels’ – the name she has chosen for her new foray into the hotel industry.
For so long, she was known to all as ‘Taru’, her eponymous brand synonymous with the distinctive elegance that she brought to all her boutique hotels. It is now time though to move on – and while she has relinquished Taru Villas, Nyne Hotels is her new passion. It has some quite stunning properties for which she has exciting plans, Nayantara revealed when she met the press at the launch of Nyne last Tuesday at Lake Lodge in Colombo 3.
Lake Lodge was a nostalgic venue for Nayantara to reveal this new offering, considering that this was where it all began; where her mother Priti had in the early days of the tourist industry, transformed the four-apartment building down a quiet Colpetty lane that her father had built for her into a 16-room tourist guest house – the first to be licensed by the Ceylon Tourist Board way back in 1969. It was where Nayantara remembers coming to after school days at Ladies’ College and spending afternoons watching her mother at work, unconsciously imbibing so much of the ethos and practices that she would carry into her own business years later, taking over Lake Lodge herself in 2009. Seated in the mellow calm of the upstair terrace at Lake Lodge, she is ready to look forward and look back.
Her own beginnings in hoteliering were with ‘Taprobana’ (now The Muse) at Bentota in 2002. “I started the first boutique hotel in Sri Lanka,” she says defiantly, “I don’t care what anyone says, it’s the truth!” It was to be luxury in its simplest form. She was able to sell a tiny ‘shoebox’ size room for 450 USD, – such was the value of the experience offered. It was all defined by her brand of hospitality and meticulous attention to detail.
By then she had already stamped her mark as a fashion designer in the early ’80s, taking on interior design and event management with her signature flair. There are many anecdotes she shares, recalling her brash younger days including her stay in San Francisco where she made it on her own, at one point even cleaning homes for 10 dollars an hour. All those were life experiences that have stood her in good stead. “I have been on the other side, I have done it all – and I respect what they do,” she says of her loyal staff, “I won’t ask them to do what I will not do.”
It is this conviction and vision of what hospitality means, that leads her to embark on ‘Nyne’ with optimism and her characteristic energy. There are six properties under their umbrella at present: Lake Lodge in Colombo, Rock Villa and The Muse in Bentota, Leela Walauwa in Induruwa, Mayur Lodge in Yala, and Landesi in Galle Fort. Every property is uniquely different, she says, from the art and decor, some, where she has enhanced the colonial feel with period furniture, others more modern but all with clean, spare lines and muted tones.
“Nyne Hotels will be a brand that focuses on providing a holistic sensory experience for guests,” she says explaining that in addition to the five traditional senses usually talked of, they will look to impart a sense of balance, intuition, time and presence into the experience through thoughtful design, innovative technology and personalised service.
“We want to give guests what they want, when they want it and how they want it, before they ask for it,” she says.
Surrounded by nature: The Mayur Lodge in Yala
Bentota is where she has the most expansive plans for three high-end seven star hotels which will open later this year. In the 60s, 70 and 80s, everyone went to Bentota (before the days of surfing deeper south took over) and she’s looking to bring back that forgotten fun vibe to Bentota among the 40 somethings.
Her Nyne hotels will also build on a very great passion of hers and one which discerning guests have enjoyed at all her properties – art. Nayantara has long had an unerring eye for local artists, the likes of Pala Pothupitiya and Priyantha Udagedera grace her walls and it is an eclectic collection that one encounters.
These ‘Art Hotels’ are where art and creativity will be central to the guest experience with an emphasis on supporting local artists and artisans, she explains. The concept is popular in Europe and Australia – and Nayantara envisages going beyond the mere art on the walls to encompass installations and artists’ workshops, gallery tours and live performances – an art and sensory driven hospitality experience.
Through tsunamis and pandemics, 22 years in the hospitality industry, the fire within is still there. Nayantara, in her own words, is raring to go.
(see www.nynehotels.com) -Renuka Sadanandan
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