After studying hotel management, Haseeb Mushtaq defied family tradition and started investing in the hospitality sector. Now he owns 628-key six hotels in Canada and North America, reports Mujtaba Hussain
For residents, creating a sustainable asset in Kashmir is a normal success story. There are, however, many successes that Kashmiris have created offshore. One of them is Haseeb Mushtaq, who owns and operates a transnational hospitality start-up, Skylight Hotels Group.
His wholly-owned company owns and manages six hotels based in Canada and the USA. The company partners with the world’s foremost hotel brands to manage their high-end luxury hotels.
The holding company now has boutique to mid-size hotels, apartments, and restaurants in its portfolio. With a turnaround of almost US $20 million a year, the company is keenly focused on rapid expansion based on the right market strategy. Haseeb oversees the operations of all six hotels on his own and has a dedicated staff of 470 people.
Haseeb Mushtaq hails from Srinagar. After receiving his initial education at the Burn Hall School, he moved to Missouri, for his secondary school education. After completing his Bachelor’s degree in Hotel Management from Griffith University, Gold Coast Australia, Mushtaq immigrated to Canada in 2001.
“I always dreamt of being an entrepreneur from the early days of my life. Primarily, working as an employee in the hotel and hospitality sector for a short stint, I made an entry into the hotel business in 2003 upon purchasing the Bed and Breakfast operation,” Haseeb said. “From running a ten-room guest house to now operating six major luxury hotels in the US and Canada, the journey has been very exhilarating and challenging.”
A Different Geography
Explaining the challenge of working in a societal set-up other than the one has been brought up in, Haseeb said that one has to understand the social and corporate configuration of the place anywhere in the world, and the things after that relatively work out conveniently.
“Setting up a business and running the operation in the US or Canada is much easier than here in Kashmir,” he said. “One can register the company within hours. The ease of doing business is higher in Canada or any other North American country than in the place we belong. There the opportunities for expanding the business are boundless and these places encourage the people who set up their business and provide employment to other people.”
Initially, he admitted it was tough to accommodate oneself and grow a business in a non-native place. “It took me ten long years to grow from a ten-room guest house to a hundred-room hotel,” he said. “I started slowly and invested all my money, energy, and time to come this far.”
Now, he works with Radisson, Best Western, and Hyatt among other high-end boutique hotels in Canada and the USA.
Unfolding the business of franchise operations of Skylight Hotels and the ascendancy of working with the big hotel brands, Haseeb said that the franchise owners merely set the brand standards and parameters but everything other than that is done by the franchise operators like him. He said there is an edge to the hotels working with big brands like Hilton, Taj, Hyatt, and Marriot. “Collaborating with the major global brands brings business, brand loyalty, membership, and corporate clients,” he said, adding, “Association with a big brand makes it easy for local hotel operators to accommodate quality things at relatively lower prices and on time.”
The Pandemic Experience
“Though COVID-19 put restrictions on all sorts of domestic and international travel and courier services, we managed to overcome that phase,” Haseeb said. “The government bolstered the private business of all sorts and the hotel industry alike, by sponsoring the salary of the employees throughout the harsh phase.” Besides, the government contributed fifty per cent in all sorts of loans and mortgages, which kept businesses afloat. This all was done without demanding any kind of favour in return.
He said his chain has employees from almost every place on earth who work together as a family. Some of them are from Jammu Kashmir.
Opportunities in Canada
Apart from being a huge farming economy, Canada is also emerging as a huge growth centre. Non-Canadian citizens do farming collectively in association with natives. The Canadian government is also investing huge resources in agriculture to encourage people towards agricultural and allied practices, and to save the declining practice of farming and agriculture.
In Saskatchewan and Manitoba provinces, the Canadian government provide large swathes of land to the local people on a subsidy and lease basis who want to pursue agriculture and farming as a full-time profession. A huge population of Indian states majorly from Punjab had immigrated to Canada, forming a significant population base engaging in farming, and allied activities.
Canada has emerged as a favourite destination for international students, fifty per cent of whom are of Indian origin. The universities of Canada are among the well-regarded institutions. Kashmiri students also form a significant percentage among the international students across the campuses.
Canadian Society
Canadian society is much more tolerant in terms of practising and following the faith or religion. Human life is valued above everything, and all people regardless of financial status are the same. People are judged by capacity, capability, and skill set rather than religion, faith, caste, or colour, he said. Commendations and endorsements of any kind are not permissible rather meritocracy is the only compass used.
Unlike our societies, in Canada or the US, Haseeb said you do not have to bribe the officials to perform their mandated duties.
Future Endeavours
“Being a son of Kashmir, I always had a dream of running a business based here, and I am trying my best to find a suitable location where I could set up the hotel, which would be of Kashmir-centric theme,” Haseeb said. “I look forward to adding one more property to the name of Sky Light Hotels Group based in Kashmir.”
