Visitors to India are often shocked by the amount of pollution in the air of India’s biggest cities. Urban metropolises such as Mumbai and Delhi are plagued by intense pollution, and visitors often rely on their hotel to act as a refuge from the oppressive atmospheric conditions. While many 5-star hotels and resorts make it a priority to ensure fresh and clean airflow within the hotels themselves, it is almost impossible to control the external conditions, and this may affect outdoor swimming pool areas, roof terraces, bars and patios. However, moves are being made by some of India’s top hotel brands and chains to try and provide guests with as much information as possible regarding the pollution levels.
Many of Delhi’s luxury hotels receive important guests such as diplomats, politicians and heads of state, who demand the highest quality service. But in a city where pollution regularly surpasses World Health Organization safety limits, it is more pressing than ever for the hospitality industry that these levels do not affect conditions within the hotel. Top hotels are implementing IAQ (indoor air quality), enhancing technology which theoretically will meet WHO standards, and the first to introduce this technology will be the ITC Maurya.

Dipak Haksar, chief executive, ITC Hotels and WelcomHotels, said, “As part of our responsible luxury ethos, luxury experiences are delivered through responsible initiatives aimed at guests, associates, community and the environment. This is in keeping with our objectives of providing our guests with better air quality, minimizing air pollutants and creating an environment of cleaner, healthier air. A sign will display real time air quality, both inside and outside the hotel.”
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The Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi is also taking steps to improve the internal air quality in its guest rooms by upgrading air filtration systems that treat its air intake, and also installing monitoring systems which record levels of CO2 and control air changes per hour. A spokesperson for the hotel said, “To ensure that guests are comfortable at all points of time, the hotel has placed dehumidifiers on the corridors to ensure humidity levels are maintained and an in-house microbiologist conducts random air sample tests within the hotel.”