The New Luxury Is Personal

A Host Shaped by Many Homes

Perhaps it takes someone who belongs to many places to make every guest feel at home.

Sonu Shivdasani was born in London in 1965 to an Indian family with business interests spanning West Africa, India and Europe. His father built a business in finance, trade and agro-allied industries, including in Nigeria. Sonu was educated at Eton and Le Rosey, then read English at Oxford. Shaped by Indian heritage, African connections and a British education, he grew up at ease between cultures and curious about people.

In 1995 he and his wife Eva opened Soneva Fushi, the name joining their own. From the start, they wanted it to feel less like a hotel and more like being welcomed into a private island home.

Someone Who Knows Your Name

At the heart of Soneva’s service is a single person: your own island host, known as Mr or Ms Friday. They look after you from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave.

They are not there to hover. They are there to notice. The table set under the stars on the night you mention a celebration. A marine biologist to take your children snorkelling because they asked about the reef. A quiet evening with an astronomer, because you once said you had never really seen the Milky Way. None of it is on a menu. All of it comes from paying attention.

This is what the most travelled people in the world now value most. They have stayed in the grand hotels. What they remember is the person who remembered them.

When Joseph Farodoye spoke with Sonu at Soneva Fushi in 2017, their conversation explored eco luxury and the thinking behind the resort. Watch their conversation. The image below captures that meeting.

Care That Brings People Back

Personal service is not only kind. It is a reason people return.

In 2018, Sonu told Forbes that 52% of Soneva’s business came from returning guests. That is a historical figure, rather than a current measure. In a world of endless choice, the loyalty it describes is striking. Guests come back because they are remembered, because the same care awaits them, and because it feels like coming home.

That care extends beyond the guest to the place itself. Soneva moved away from plastic straws and branded bottled water, filtering and bottling water in reusable glass. Its 2% environmental levy funds carbon-offset and environmental projects. Soneva describes its resorts as carbon neutral since 2012; that is a claim about its accounting and offset programme, not an absence of emissions. Its solar investment is also growing. For Sonu, caring for guests and caring for the islands belong to the same promise.

The bare feet matter. Soneva’s No News, No Shoes approach invites guests to set down their schedules and shut out the noise. In a place built for rest, time becomes the rarest amenity.

The Luxury of Being Known

The future of luxury will not be measured in thread counts or square metres. It will be measured in moments of recognition.

Sonu Shivdasani understood this long before the rest of the industry. In the 2023 New Year Honours, he was appointed OBE for services to tourism, sustainability and charity. In 2025, KSL Capital Partners took a majority stake in Soneva and appointed a new chief executive. The culture Sonu and Eva built, of warmth, attention and bare feet on soft sand, remains central to the brand.

Sonu says he has another lifetime of creativity ahead. Whatever he builds next, the lesson of Soneva will travel with him.

The finest thing a host can offer is not a gift. It is the feeling that someone was expecting you, and was glad you came.