There are some places that you discover as a traveller, and then there are places that become a part of your life long before you realise what they could become.
For me (Rajyavardhan Singh), House of Amer was the latter.
Long before it became a heritage boutique stay welcoming travellers from around the world, it was a family home belonging to my aunt, Sona Kanwar. The house had a history that fascinated me from an early age. It was associated with the Bakshi of the erstwhile Royal Family of Jaipur, and its architecture, character and location carried the feeling of another era.
Today, as the founder of House of Amer, I often think about how naturally the idea began. It was never simply a plan to build a hotel. It was an idea to bring an old piece of Amer back to life without taking away what made it special.
A Family Home in the Heart of Historic Amer
Growing up, I would visit my aunt at the property. Even then, I was fascinated by its location.
The house sits in the historic heart of Amer, just a short walk from the magnificent Amer Fort. Around it are old havelis, temples, narrow heritage lanes and buildings that still carry the character of the old town.
Amer has a completely different atmosphere from modern Jaipur. It is a place where history isn’t confined to a museum or monument. It exists in the streets, homes, temples, architecture and everyday life.
The property, however, had been lying empty.
Every time I visited, I kept thinking about what could be done with this beautiful old house. Rather than seeing an empty building, I started imagining travellers staying here, waking up in the middle of historic Amer and experiencing the place beyond the usual tourist itinerary.
That was when the idea of House of Amer slowly began to take shape.
From an Idea to Hundreds of Sketches
Restoring an old heritage property is very different from constructing a new hotel.
One of the first things I realised was that we couldn’t simply apply a modern hotel design to an old haveli.
The biggest practical challenge was the bathrooms.
Modern travellers expect the comfort and privacy of an attached bathroom in their room. But when this house was originally built, the concept of an attached bathroom in every bedroom simply did not exist.
So we had to find a way to introduce modern comforts while respecting the original character of the property.
I started working on the layouts myself.
There were countless sketches, ideas, changes and discussions about how the rooms could be planned, where bathrooms could be created and how modern requirements could be incorporated without destroying the character of the old building.
The central question was always the same:
How do we make this house comfortable for a modern traveller without making it stop feeling like an old house?
That question became the foundation of the restoration.
Bringing Another Person Into the Journey
Once the design and restoration idea became clearer, another practical question emerged — financing the project.
We needed someone who believed in the idea and was willing to contribute to the project.
That was when I brought my friend Aviral into the journey.
What began as an idea around an old family property gradually became a shared project — one that required patience, planning, investment and a great deal of work.
Then came the renovation.
Nine Months of Restoration
The restoration took approximately nine months.
Our intention throughout the process was simple: restore, don’t replace.
We did not want to turn this historic house into a conventional modern hotel.
The old character of the property was the very reason we were doing the project in the first place.
So instead of making major structural changes simply for the sake of modernisation, we worked around the existing character of the house and carefully introduced the facilities required by today’s travellers.
The result was not meant to look new.
It was meant to feel alive again.
And that distinction mattered enormously to us.
When the restoration was complete, we had created a small heritage boutique property — but I soon realised that the rooms themselves were only one part of the experience we could offer.
I Asked Myself: Why Would Someone Come to Stay in Amer?
This was perhaps the most important question I asked after the renovation.
A traveller coming from another part of India or from another country isn’t travelling thousands of kilometres simply to sleep in a beautiful room.
They come to experience a place.
And if they are staying in Amer, why should their experience be limited to Amer Fort?
Amer has centuries of stories, temples, havelis, streets, traditions, food and local culture waiting to be discovered.
That led me to a simple idea:
House of Amer should not just provide accommodation. It should help travellers experience Amer.
Creating the Heritage and Cultural Walks
We began curating heritage and cultural walks around Amer so that our guests could step outside the property and experience the neighbourhood around them.
Our walks introduce guests to places such as Panna Meena Kund, Jagat Shiromani Temple, Ambikeshwar Mahadev Temple and Keshav Rai Ji Temple, along with historic havelis, old streets and lesser-known corners of Amer.
The idea isn’t simply to take guests from one monument to another.
It is to help them understand how these places connect with the history and culture of Amer.
For many international travellers especially, walking through an old neighbourhood, meeting local people, seeing traditional architecture and understanding the stories behind centuries-old places can become more memorable than simply taking photographs of a famous monument.
We wanted our guests to slow down and experience that.
Discovering Rajasthan Through Food
The next question was food.
Food is one of the most beautiful ways to understand a culture.
We wanted our guests to do more than simply order a Rajasthani dish from a restaurant menu. We wanted them to understand how traditional Rajasthani food is actually prepared.
That is how our live cooking experiences began.
My aunt, Sona Kanwar, who has been connected with the house since long before it became House of Amer, became an important part of this experience.
During our cooking sessions, she explains and demonstrates how traditional Rajasthani dishes are prepared in a more traditional style.
Guests can watch, learn, participate and eventually sit down and enjoy the food together.
For us, this is not just a cooking class.
It is a way of sharing a part of our culture and our family with our guests.
Dinner on the Rooftop
We also wanted to make the rooftop an important part of the House of Amer experience.
A traditional dinner under the Jaipur sky, surrounded by the historic landscape of Amer, creates a very different experience from dining inside a conventional restaurant.
Our rooftop dining experience allows guests to enjoy traditional food while taking in views of the heritage surroundings and the historic forts and hills of Amer.
It became another way of connecting food, architecture, history and atmosphere.
More Than History — An Experience
As the property evolved, we realised that guests wanted different ways to experience Amer and Jaipur.
So we continued adding experiences.
We introduced night jeep safaris, allowing guests to see Jaipur and its historic landmarks from a completely different perspective.
We introduced rooftop yoga, where guests can begin their morning surrounded by the Aravalli landscape and the heritage atmosphere of Amer.
We also developed hiking experiences, allowing travellers to explore the natural side of the region.
The philosophy behind all these experiences remains the same:
Don’t just visit Jaipur. Experience it.
Why House of Amer Exists
Looking back, House of Amer was never created simply because we wanted to open a hotel.
It started with an old family home.
It started with my fascination with its history.
It started with the location, the architecture and the feeling that this beautiful property deserved another chapter in its story.
The restoration was our attempt to preserve that story while making the house comfortable for a new generation of travellers.
And then we realised that preserving a building alone wasn’t enough.
If we wanted people to truly appreciate Amer, they needed to walk through it, understand it, taste its food, meet its people and experience its traditions.
That became the larger vision behind House of Amer.
House of Amer Today
Today, House of Amer is a heritage boutique stay in the historic heart of Amer, Jaipur, welcoming travellers who want to experience more than a conventional hotel stay.
The property remains closely connected to its origins as a family home, while the experiences around it have grown into an important part of what we offer.
From heritage walks and cultural experiences to traditional cooking sessions, rooftop dining, yoga, hiking and night safaris, every experience is designed around one central idea:
Let travellers experience the real character of Amer.
We believe that the greatest luxury isn’t always something new.
Sometimes, it is the opportunity to stay somewhere old, understand its story and become part of that story for a little while.
A Personal Journey
For me, House of Amer remains deeply personal.
I still remember visiting my aunt at the property when it was simply an old family home. I remember looking at the house and its surroundings and imagining what it could become.
There were sketches.
There were plans.
There were difficult decisions.
There was a nine-month restoration.
And there was a lot of uncertainty.
But today, when I see travellers from different parts of India and from around the world walking through Amer, enjoying a traditional meal on our rooftop, learning to cook Rajasthani food, joining a heritage walk or simply sitting in the old house and taking in its atmosphere, I feel that the original idea has come full circle.
House of Amer is not just a place to stay. It is a place to experience history, culture and the living heritage of Amer.
And perhaps most importantly, it is an old family home that has been given a new life — while still being allowed to remain what it always was at heart.
A piece of historic Amer.
About the Founder
Rajyavardhan Singh is the Founder of House of Amer, a heritage boutique stay in Amer, Jaipur. Inspired by the history and architecture of his family’s heritage property, Rajyavardhan Singh conceptualised and led the restoration of the property, transforming the historic family home into a heritage hospitality experience focused on Amer’s history, culture, food and traditions.
His vision for House of Amer goes beyond accommodation — it is to help travellers discover and experience the heritage of Amer through immersive cultural experiences, heritage walks, traditional cooking, rooftop dining, yoga, hiking and other curated experiences.