IN CREATING two of the world’s most acclaimed ultra-luxe resort brands, Soneva and Six Senses, Sonu Shivdasani and his wife Eva birthed a whole new genre of jet-setting vacation: barefoot luxury. Under the motto, No shoes, no news, visitors were enticed to totally switch off in unique island paradises. They replaced standard five-star trappings like marble and chandeliers with jungle paths, clunky bicycles and rustic furnishings, and they made real-deal sustainability a selling point.
Having shed Six Senses in 2012, the couple earlier this year sold a majority stake in perennial T+L Luxury Awards-winner Soneva, giving up all operational involvement with the A-lister-beloved brand that bears their portmanteau. Sonu’s focus in recent years has been battling life-threatening illness, including a diagnosis of lymphoma in January 2024. But now, he and Eva, T+L Southeast Asia has learned in an exclusive interview, will be turning their attention to founding a new hotel company.
The new baby: Sosei—which means “rebirth” in Japanese, and will be heavily inspired by Japanese concepts of wellness and hospitality. When we spoke in August, he was bound for Japan to look at locations, but has eyes on another global sensation. “We’ve got some opportunities in the Arctic Circle, in the European mountains, South Africa, and others in Asia,” Sonu told me. By year’s end he expects to sign several deals.
Before now-multi-award-winning Soneva Fushi burst out of seeming nowhere in 1995, this British-born son of a wealthy Indian trader had toured the world’s top hotels. But in the Maldives, he and his Swedish-model wife found an abandoned island retreat that they would use to help launch the country’s luxury transformation. Back then, most properties in the archipelago were modest, Sonu says, served by European tour outfits shuttling groups by boat. Sonu won a concession for an old resort on Kunfunadhoo Island in then-remote Baa Atoll. It had been built in the 1970s but soon shut because of basic issues of access: in rough weather, it might take days to reach from Malé.
The Shivdasanis came up with their first novel solution—helicopters chartered cheaply from Bulgaria in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Later they shifted to sea planes; air service, of course, has transformed the Maldives into the modern network of globally renowned island getaways it is today.
In an architectural revolution, Soneva Fushi’s bathrooms were open-air, guests could shower under a banana tree, dine with their toes in the sand, and indulge in the vast richness of nature. Eva did much of the design, with a keen sense of homey comfort gleaned from photo shoots in the world’s most pristine locations, and influenced by Scandinavian aesthetics. The Shivdasanis embraced sustainability and sensibility, pioneering concepts now common to today’s generation of forward-thinking hotels.
At the time, luxury required expensive imported everything. Few properties banned plastics, bottled their own water, served vegetables from resort gardens or recycled trash. “We were seen as eccentric, even by some of our staff,” Sonu recalled. Eventually they hired sustainability officers to independently ensure eco-accountability, prefacing the green-travel boom to come.
The Shivdasanis’ fresh viewpoint, rolled out across a portfolio of in-demand hotels—with fairytale-fun features like 24-hour chocolate bars and paragliding to check-in—recalled the splash Aman made on the stuffy luxury scene in the 1980s. And just like that brand’s founder, Adrian Zecha, who revolutionised high-end resorts in part by demonstrating that scenic rice fields and temple views could feel more luxurious than any traditional setting, built up a niche following of one-percenter intrepid travelers, then left his empire and started anew, Sonu now has his eyes on rebirth.
Sonu’s recent cancer treatments have been successful, and he continues with immunotherapy and chemotherapy. In parallel to this new phase of life, the Sosei concept will see the Shivdasanis pursue a fresh form of hospitality, emphasising spectacular comfort and offbeat luxury. Properties will be intimate, not only on islands and in exotic locations, but, unlike Soneva, also in major cities.
Named in 2023 an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to tourism, sustainability and charity, Sonu believes he and Eva have shown that travelers don’t have to choose between sustainability, luxury and wellbeing. “You know, people would say: If it’s sustainable, it can’t be luxurious. Or if it’s luxurious, it can’t be good for you. We proved that you can do all of that.” All of that, and more—with their new brand, new vision, and restored vitality.