The journey of the KGH Group began when Karna Sakya, Founding President of the group established Kathmandu Guest House in Thamel, 48 years ago. Sakya recalls that Thamel was nothing more than a paddy field then. Thamel, the tourist hub of today grew around the hotel which started with 13 rooms.

Sakya, a government employee then, used to work at the department of forestry and was not satisfied with the working environment. Brought up in an affluent family, he never felt that he had to take up a job to make his living. A traveller himself, he says that one must be able to comprehend what tourists want in order to run a tourism business and adds: “Tourism is a business of dreams and only a dreamer can delve deep into this sector.”

His expertise as a forester and environmentalist is reflected in the hotels of the group. He has always prioritised the harmony between buildings, nature and the culture of the locality where the hotel is built and it can be witnessed in any of the sister hotels of the group. Sakya says he never developed a property on a leased or government land and all land where hotels are built is owned by the group.

When the country was at the peak of insurgency, the group never took a break. Rather it expanded into new projects and purchased land that helped it achieve success that it had never seen earlier. Today, the group has eight hotels and three travel agencies and is about to mark its golden jubilee in two years’ time.