Thirty Five years ago, a retired engineer tried to make a dream of his come true. Fond of traveling he wanted to open a hotel in his adopted hometown; Jaipur. A hotel that was clean, safe and pleasant, yet affordable for a middle class person like himself. He owned a rundown haveli/mansion that had once belonged to a feudal lord of the old Jaipur State.

On his request, his engineer sons left their jobs and joined him in converting the haveli into a hotel, while the ladies of the house took charge of the kitchen. Everything was envisioned and designed by the father and sons themselves, to the extent that even a architect was not involved in the design of the hotel as the patriarch could not find any that would put his dreams to paper.

And so, with the whole family engaged in its operations, Arya Niwas opened its doors for guests with 20 rooms in 1983. As no family member was a 'hotel management' graduate or had any exposure to regular hotels and their operations; they did what they thought was right and fair.

Some ideals that were laid down at its inception, and have came to define Arya Niwas are:

• High standards of cleanlines, hygiene and maintenance.
• Well lit and well ventilated, aesthetically pleasing rooms.
• Plenty of open spaces, gardens and lawns.
• Sincere and transparent pricing policy.
• Fair and fixed prices, great value for money.
• No commission to auto/rickshaw wallahs.
• Vegetarian, self service restaurant with an open kitchen serving home like food.
• Visual on display menu, fresh preparations made every day.
• No bar or service of alcoholic drinks.
• Limited room service.
• No Tipping policy.

Most of these policies were quite new at that point of time and sometimes, like in the case of open kitchen, no tips, or no commission to rickshaw/auto wallahs, were against the accepted way of running a hotel.