(Zo Selections, Zo World’s new social premium hospitality vertical, opens its first address in Jaipur)
TTT NEWS NETWORK
JAIPUR | 3 SEPTEMBER 2026
Zostel, the world’s largest chain of backpacker hostels, today announced Zo Selections, a new social premium hospitality vertical under its parent company, Zo World. The brand’s first address, Zo Selections Jaipur by Zostel, opens with statement private rooms, jacuzzi suites.
The launch is less a new direction than the next one. Since opening a single 24 bed hostel in Jodhpur in 2013, Zostel has grown into a network of around 5,000 beds across India, Nepal and Thailand, recording more than 5 million journeys and building what it calls the largest community of young travellers in the country. Zo Selections is what that community asked for next. The backpackers who found Zostel a decade ago are now in their thirties, travelling with partners, parents and colleagues. They have outgrown dorms, but not the reason they chose Zostel in the first place.
Aviral Gupta, CEO of Zostel said, “Premium hospitality is easy to buy and hard to earn. We did not want to build another five star hotel with a logo on the door, we wanted to build the next chapter of a community we have spent thirteen years growing. The traveller who found us in Jodhpur is now planning family holidays and company offsites, and they still want what they wanted then: people, not just a room. Zo Selections is us answering that. It is not louder and it is not bigger, it was built for the same reason our first hostel was, to bring the right people into the same space. Jaipur is where we start. It will not be where we stop.”
Where much of premium hospitality in India has moved toward privacy and distance, Zo Selections is built around the opposite instinct. Bonfires, workshops and sundowners are engineered into the stay rather than left to chance, spaces designed for entrepreneurs, families, couples and offsite teams to be together by intention, not accident. In Jaipur, that shows up as pastel, Pink City inspired interiors, expansive common areas and dedicated workstations, alongside Amaano, the property’s in-house restaurant serving Rajasthani flavours.
Every Zo Selections property is built on three constants: quality service that anticipates rather than reacts, thoughtful design rooted in the culture and craft of its destination, and curated, personalised experiences shaped around how travellers want to spend their time.
Zo Selections Jaipur will be followed by a second address in Gokarna, a coastal retreat built for slow travel, with a wider roadmap planned across Mussoorie, Pench, Lonavla.It joins a portfolio that already includes Zostel Plus for premium hostels with aesthetic spaces and curated experiences , Zostel Homes for nature led escapes, and Zo House, India’s first permanent hacker house network, each one born out of what Zostel’s own travellers asked for next.
The launch also marks a period of aggressive scale-up for Zo World more broadly. Over the past year, Zostel opened its 100th property and its first overseas location in Phuket, alongside a European footprint added through Safestay across more than 20 destinations. The group is currently working toward a target of 10,000 beds, and Zo Selections represents its formal entry into the premium segment of that expansion .
About Zo Selections:
Zo Selections is Zo World’s social premium hospitality vertical, built for travellers who have outgrown hostels but not the community that came with them. Each property is designed around local craft and culture rather than scale, with connection built into the stay as a product, not an amenity.
Advertisement:
Add Comment