Wallpaper* Design Awards: why Sharan Pasricha is 2026’s Best Host

For our interview with Sharan Pasricha, we were invited to meet him at Maison Estelle, the private members’ club he founded in a Grade I-listed Mayfair townhouse. With its understated opulence, richly furnished rooms and crackling autumn fires, it couldn’t have offered a better prelude to the world the hospitality impresario inhabits. ‘It’s a place that’s thoughtfully curated, not staged, where you can be social or alone without needing to explain yourself,’ says Pasricha, who founded the phenomenally successful hospitality conglomerate Ennismore in 2011.

His entrepreneurial story began when, as a boy, he sold his mother’s sandwiches at his primary school in Mumbai. ‘The sandwiches were fantastic and the margins even better,’ he notes. It was a life lesson that stood him in good stead years later when he had the chance to lead the acquisition of The Hoxton. At the time, it comprised just one hotel in Shoreditch, but he saw a gap in the market. ‘What struck me was the potential to create places that people actually lived in,’ he says. ‘Where locals worked, met and built their businesses in the same lobbies as travellers.’

It was that idea of community that eventually grew into Ennismore. At the time, many hotels viewed restaurants, bars and lobbies as a ‘side show’, secondary to the room product. But by smartly prioritising these spaces, Pasricha turned the traditional model on its head. It was a bold departure from industry norms that felt risky at the time, but it went on to shape the modern lifestyle hotel category. ‘Today, the majority of our revenue is generated outside the four walls of the guest room,’ notes Pasricha.

Sharan Pasricha is Best Host in the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2026

The expansion of Ennismore’s Hoxton brand caught the attention of Accor, one of the world’s largest hospitality groups. In 2021, the two companies entered into a joint venture that positioned Ennismore as Accor’s dedicated lifestyle arm and significantly accelerated its global expansion.

‘Accor understood that, to be successful, lifestyle brands need to be run differently from traditional hotels,’ he says. So the two groups built an autonomous brand-led structure that allowed Ennismore to keep its creative independence while benefiting from Accor’s global scale. The partnership now oversees more than 190 hotels in more than 40 countries, with 145 more in the pipeline, and a portfolio of 16 lifestyle brands, including 25hours, Delano and Mondrian.

Running at this scale has required discipline and consistency. Supported by four in-house studios covering interiors, graphics, partnerships and digital innovation, Pasricha emphasises the importance of retaining decision-making at brand level. ‘We obsess over every guest touchpoint,’ he says, referring to details like the scent in the lobby or the key card graphics. This structure allows the group to move quickly while safeguarding the character of each concept.

The effectiveness of this approach is evident in its upcoming openings, such as the Delano Miami Beach, which he says will be a defining moment for Ennismore. ‘It’s a showcase of what we do best: reimagining the brand’s iconic elements – like the glass apples in each room – while creating culinary destinations, introducing two Paris Society concepts in the US for the first time, and bringing back the legendary Rose Bar,’ he says.

Alongside Ennismore’s global trajectory sits the Estelle brand, which remains fully owned by Pasricha. It began with Maison Estelle in London in 2021 and soon after expanded to Estelle Manor, in the Grade II-listed former Eynsham Hall in Oxfordshire. Overseen by Estelle’s artistic director, his wife Eiesha Bharti Pasricha, the project took years of restoration and represents the fullest expression of his ‘hosted home’ philosophy. Next up is Celeste, ‘the mischievous younger sister’ to Maison Estelle and Estelle Manor, which is due to open in a restored townhouse in Notting Hill this year. Members will still be at the heart but, for the first time, the public gets a look-in with the opening of an Italian-American restaurant on the ground floor.

Like any successful entrepreneur, Pasricha acknowledges a tendency for restlessness, especially when it comes to pushing the boundaries of what hospitality can be. ‘I’m always asking: how do we make spaces more human, more connected, more unexpected? There’s always a new way to surprise and delight, and I can’t stop thinking about it.’ Pasricha is currently obsessed with how technology, especially AI, is reshaping the world around us. ‘Everywhere we look, companies are optimising for efficiency, speed and scale,’ he says. ‘It reinforces my belief that we need to go in the opposite direction in hospitality by creating spaces that slow people down, encourage real connection, and foster creativity.’

From hawking sandwiches in the school yard to helming a portfolio that has reshaped global hospitality, Pasricha’s path reflects the impact of a founder who understands how people want to live, work and connect, and whose ideas have helped steer the direction of what a modern lifestyle hotel is today.

ennismore.com, estellecommunity.com

This article appears in the February 2026 Design Awards Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.