About
A new generation hotel advisory firm, built to cover the whole asset rather than one slice of it.
Bunyas Asset Management is a new generation hotel advisory firm, built to cover the whole asset rather than one slice of it. We work with owners, investors and operators across the full life of a hotel, from daily operations and P&L performance through to systems, automation, transactions and sale.
Most firms cover one stage. Some do feasibility and operator selection, some do asset management, some do revenue. When the work moves outside their lane, they refer you on. We deliver the whole programme in house, including the parts most advisers do not touch at all, such as AI, automation and robotics on the floor of the hotel.
The firm was founded by Sanjay S Mahajan, who spent more than 30 years as a General Manager inside the brands that run hotels for owners. The gap between what a hotel earns and what it should earn is rarely visible in a monthly report. It sits in the cost base, the management agreement, the systems and the way the operation is actually run. We know where to look, because we have been the one accountable for it.
First generation hoteliers and families with one significant asset, who want a professional in their corner.
Funds, listed owners and offices holding hotels within a broader portfolio, who expect clean numbers and no surprises.
Developers holding or delivering hotel assets who need operational depth without building an in house team.
Operating groups and management companies who want another set of eyes on performance, systems or a transaction.
Across full service, resort, apartment hotel and select service assets, Australia wide.
Every engagement follows the same six steps, whether it is a single piece of work or the full programme.
01
We come to the property and see the asset and the operation first hand, not from a spreadsheet.
02
A structured review across operations, financials, agreements, systems and guest experience.
03
P&L and balance sheet, budgets, STR and benchmarking data, management agreements and everything that tells the real story.
04
What is working, what is not, and which of our services will return the most for the least disruption.
05
We carry out the agreed work alongside your team and track the result against measures agreed up front.
06
Where you want it, we stay on as your representative on the ground, holding the operator to account month after month.
From the P&L and the management agreement through to automation and robotics on the floor. Most firms cover one stage and refer the rest out. We deliver the whole programme ourselves.
Thirty years on the operator’s side of the table, through brand standards, budgets and performance reviews. We know how the numbers are built, so we know which ones to question.
Few advisers can audit a P&L and then build the automation that fixes the labour cost behind it. We do both, so recommendations arrive with the means to deliver them.
Founder & Principal
More than 30 years as a General Manager inside the brands that run hotels for owners: holding the licence, carrying the P&L and answering for the result.
Sanjay trained in the classical school, at Le Méridien (now Marriott), Sofitel and Hilton properties in France and Morocco, followed by two decades of international leadership: general manager of a 14 acre, 125 staff island resort in India, and President of the Port Blair Tourism Guild, area general manager of a 168 room hotel and luxury boutiques in Thailand, and a vice president role with a luxury retailer operating inside five star South African hotels.
In Australia he ran multi property operations for Accor across Mercure, Novotel, Ibis and Pullman, and at Sir Stamford Circular Quay, formerly The Ritz-Carlton, Sydney. Engaged through his own company to run a 105 room Sydney property, he delivered a $1 million refurbishment, a $50,000 solar installation and a full rebrand from Formule1 to Ibis Budget without closing the doors. He then managed a multi property Quest franchise portfolio through COVID, where the job was as much body corporates and unit owners as it was operations.
His last three properties each won an award on his watch: Readers’ Choice at Parklands Resort in 2022, where he reported to the CEO of ASX listed Elanor Investors Group, Readers’ Choice at Mercure Albury in 2023, and Best Accommodation Hotel, Regional Victoria 2025 at Peppers Marysville. He founded Bunyas Asset Management to bring that operating experience to the whole asset rather than one slice of it.
Credentials
Languages
English · French · Hindi
Systems
Fidelio / Opera PMS · POS & CRM platforms
Beyond the principal, the firm draws on a panel of senior specialists, engaged per mandate, disclosed to the client and chosen for direct experience in the question at hand.
Placeholder: to be appointed
Hotel Finance & Transactions
Placeholder profile: a senior specialist in hotel debt, transactions and asset strategy across the Australian market. Replace with the appointed member’s name and a short credential led biography.
Placeholder: to be appointed
Revenue Strategy & Distribution
Placeholder profile: a senior specialist in revenue management, distribution and direct channel strategy for full service and resort hotels. Replace with the appointed member’s name and a short credential led biography.
Placeholder: to be appointed
F&B Concepts & Development
Placeholder profile: a senior specialist in restaurant concepts, hotel F&B operations and venue development. Replace with the appointed member’s name and a short credential led biography.
Advisory panel appointments are announced as they are confirmed.
2024 – 2025
Best Accommodation Hotel (Regional Victoria) 2025. Home of the award winning restaurant Andiamo. Reported to the VP Operations, Shakespeare Group.
2022 – 2024
Readers’ Choice Award 2023. Turned around the on site restaurant Fabric.
2021 – 2022
30 acre resort with the region’s largest conference facilities. Reported to the CEO of ASX listed Elanor Investors Group. Readers’ Choice Award 2022.
2017 – 2021
Multi property franchise portfolio; body corporate and owner and investor relations through COVID.
2009 – 2013
Led a $1 million refurbishment and $50,000 solar installation; rebranded the 105 room property from Formule1 to Ibis Budget while trading.
Earlier
Mercure, Novotel, Ibis and Pullman operations in Australia, and Sir Stamford Circular Quay (formerly The Ritz-Carlton, Sydney). VP with a luxury retailer in five star South African hotels; GM of a 14 acre, 125 staff island resort in India (President, Port Blair Tourism Guild); Area GM of a 168 room hotel and luxury boutiques in Thailand; early roles with Le Méridien (now Marriott) and Sofitel/Hilton in France and Morocco.
Owner reporting fails when it hides behind averages. The firm’s oversight rests on a small set of measures, none of them exotic and all of them routinely misread, examined together every month against budget, prior year and the market.
The management agreement decides who controls a hotel asset for the next ten to twenty years. Most owners negotiate one a handful of times in their lives; the operator across the table negotiates several a year. These notes describe where the imbalance usually shows.
Operator selection works best as a structured process: a formal request for proposals across several credible brands rather than a single courtship. The tension of a genuine “beauty parade” is worth more than any single clause improvement: terms move most before exclusivity is granted, and barely at all after it.
Operators sometimes contribute capital, known as key money, to win a mandate. It is routinely amortised over the term and clawed back on early exit, which means it quietly prices the cost of leaving. Owners should read key money as a loan secured against their own future flexibility, and weigh it accordingly.
A useful termination right rests on a dual-limbed test: the hotel failing against its competitive set (a RevPAR index below an agreed threshold) and failing against its own budgeted gross operating profit, typically measured over consecutive years. Watch the drafting: tests that require both limbs to fail for several years, with broad cure rights, can be close to impossible to trigger in practice.
Base fees commonly run at 1.5–3.5% of total revenue; incentive fees at roughly 6–12% of gross operating profit. The split matters more than the headline: a fee package weighted to the base rewards revenue at any cost, while weighting to the incentive aligns the operator with the profit the owner actually keeps.
Three provisions do quiet, decisive work. Termination-on-sale preserves the asset’s value to an unencumbered buyer. Approval rights over key personnel, above all the general manager, keep the owner a say in who actually runs the asset. And radius clauses stop the brand opening a competing flag next door with the owner’s own market intelligence.
The firm reviews and negotiates these terms alongside the owner’s legal counsel, and polices them for the life of the agreement. Management agreement services
Next step
Tell us where you think the property is falling short, and we will give you an honest read on whether there is money being left on the table.
Start a conversation