Somewhere along the way, luxury travel stopped being about infinity pools and towering breakfast spreads. It stopped trying to impress everyone in the room. Instead, it began asking a different question: who is actually in the room?
Today, luxury is less about excess and more about access. Not just where you stay, but whether you are allowed to stay there at all.
Algorithm-friendly travel is everywhere. The same photogenic villas. The same sunset decks. The same viral tablescapes. But true exclusivity has quietly moved offline. The real flex now is not visibility. It is restriction.
The most coveted stays are the ones that are hardest to book. Some ask you to apply. Some require a referral. Some share their address only after deciding you are the right fit.
The gate is the upgrade
Last November, actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas shared glimpses from her stay at Goa’s Palacio Aguada, owned by entrepreneur Pinky Reddy, a property that perfectly captures this new wave of luxury. Perched on a cliff, the ten-suite estate is booked only as a whole, priced at roughly ₹21 lakh a night.
There is no online booking link and no option to arrive for a single night. The ten-suite home is taken only as a whole, and every request is screened through a detailed questionnaire
A similar philosophy shapes Aatman, designer Rahul Mishra’s first architectural project in the Himalayas. Located at 6,000 feet in Kalakhet village near Nainital, the space serves as both his family home and a boutique stay.
With only six bedrooms, one reserved for Mishra himself, it feels less like accommodation and more like being invited into a private world. Stays here are centred as much on cultural immersion as on comfort, including thoughtfully prepared Kumaoni thalis that introduce guests to the flavours and rhythms of the region.
“Aatman is not designed to be accessed—it is designed to be entered. Because it is our family home and remains deeply personal to us, welcoming a guest is closer to an invitation than a reservation,” says Mishra. There is no fixed waiting period. Some responses are immediate, while others depend on alignment of dates, intent, and what he calls the rhythm of the house.
The home opens only during select windows across the year. Guests may practise yoga, sip morning tea by the pond, or walk into the forest where breakfast is served deep among trees. Afternoons are deliberately unscripted, spent reading, painting, gardening, or simply sitting still. Phones, Mishra notes, are often forgotten. For him, the right guest understands that luxury today is not abundance, but calibration of time, space, silence, and care. “The rarest luxury now is privacy, intention, and stillness,” he says.
The right room
Sometimes the real destination is not the landscape, but the people you meet there. The Secret Ski Party in Gulmarg is built entirely on this belief. Hosted by Krishan Anand, whose family has welcomed royalty and industrialists for over a century, the retreat offers a deeply personal view of Kashmir.
“Access to the right people, the right events, the right everything,” says Anand. “No one wants something that everyone can be a part of. There is a lot of money in India today, but this is not about money. It is about the right room. It is about the community. It is about belonging.”
Getting in is famously difficult. Last year, 212 people applied for just 32 spots. Applicants are screened through their social media presence and personal story to ensure the mix feels right. “Someone joked with me at the Mumbai Marathon that it is tougher to get into the Secret Ski Party than Harvard,” Anand recalls, “because the acceptance rate is lower.”
The focus is chemistry, not spectacle. Days may involve skiing, while evenings end with a 12-course wazwan meal eaten on the floor alongside artists, founders, and first-time strangers. At roughly ₹1.5 lakh per person for four nights, everything is taken care of. What guests remember most are not the slopes, but the conversations.
Finding your people
Travel communities like Bucketlist and the Beachhouse Project have taken this idea further. Both were founded on the belief that the future of travel lies in small, intentional groups.
The Beachhouse Project hosts week-long stays in villas across Goa, Ladakh, and Bali, designed as brain vacations for founders and creators. The invite-only model is central to how these trips work. “It was never about exclusivity for its own sake. It was about chemistry. When you put 14 to 18 strangers together for a week, the wrong mix kills the experience. The right mix creates something you cannot manufacture,” explains founder Jay Ahya.
Applications focus on personality and intent rather than titles. Prices range from ₹80,000 for residencies to nearly ₹3 lakh for longer expeditions.
Living differently
Then there is Vaatalya, which offers a pared-back take on invite-only travel in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan district. Spread across 90 acres with just five rooms, the community retreat run by Aditya Sharma and his wife prioritises sustainable living over scale. The space also gained wider attention after creator Bhuvan Bam mentioned it.
The application process is intentionally personal. Prospective guests are told upfront that there is no room service, meals follow set timings, and the nearest shop is half an hour away. It works as a filter, ensuring alignment before the location is shared.
“ The place is all about quietcation, experiencing wellness programmes rooted in yogic practices, guided forest immersions and exploring the night sky. Anyone who spends time here gets exposed to a different way of living,” says Sharma. “That shift in perspective is what we aim to create.”
