Hotelier and ex-Oberoi president Kapil Chopra has launched a new hospitality venture, The Postcard Hotel, a brand of intimate luxury hotels in India with plans to expand to 50 around the world in the next five years.

The first three hotels have just opened, and are spread across different neighbourhoods in Goa: The Postcard Moira, nestled in one of the four heritage villages of Goa; The Postcard Velha, surrounded by 300 acres of coconut plantations in old Goa; and further south, The Postcard Cuelim, which houses a 350-year-old chapel.

wellness plays a crucial role in The Postcard experience, and the hotel has partnered with Coimbatore-based Purnarnava Ayurveda to create an "optimum healing environment" in the quietude of Goa, offering on-site ayurvedic consultation and treatments for guests across all hotels in Goa ranging from seven to 21 days.

Forest Essentials, meanwhile, offer amenities from their range of Nargis, the Kashmiri daffodil.

Transformative experiences and local community are at the heart of The Postcard Hotel's offering. Each hotel will offer experiences that give guests a sense of the neighbourhood and the destination.

The experience within the hotel, too, will focus on authentic local experiences, from food, to design, to artisanal welcome cocktails, to defining your own check-in and check-out hours and immersions with the local community.

'What I wanted to do with The Postcard Hotel is make luxury hotels for the modern audience, but bring back the romance and charm of sun-kissed holidays,” said Chopra. “We wanted it to be rich in its experience but also wanted it to be simple. We believe guests want to stay in a place where the hotel does the thinking for them, where they get the simple things right, yet offer fantastic spaces for them to relax, meet like-minded people and experience local culture. This is why we handpick our locations and our hotels, so that guests have a different experience whether they are in Goa or overlooking the snow-clad Himalayas.'

In the next 12 to 18 months, The Postcard Hotel will be present in seven more destinations across the country:

• The Postcard, Uttarakhand

• The Postcard on the Arabian Sea, Karnataka• The Postcard, Dhauladhar Mountain Range

• The Postcard Ravangla, Sikkim• The Postcard, Darjeeling

• The Postcard, Sundarbans• The Postcard, Kanha

Architect Akshat Bhatt of Architecture Discipline was tasked with creating the spaces with sustainability at their core, and actor and designer Jas Arora has designed uniforms for the brand featuring traditional Goan motifs a modern touch. The interiors of all The Postcard Hotels in Goa will also have new photographs taken by photographer JJ Valaya.