At AAHOACON26 in Philadelphia, Hasmukh (HP) Rama received the AAHOA Charitable Foundation Outreach Award, recognizing a lifetime of service, generosity, and community impact through hospitality. The award honors individuals whose leadership reflects a clear commitment to service, opportunity, and community.
A Legacy Built Through Service
HP Rama, founder of Auro Hotels and a founding Chairman of AAHOA, has spent decades using hospitality as a platform to support people beyond hotel walls. His work reflects the same values that helped shape AAHOA: entrepreneurship, opportunity, family, and responsibility to others.
For more than two decades, Rama and his family have invested in education. Beginning in 1998, the Rama family established scholarships to help students pursue higher education and career growth, especially those seeking futures in hospitality. Since then, more than 800 students have received over $1.4 million in scholarship support.
Expanding Opportunity Through Education
That commitment continued in 2025 with the Rama Legacy Scholarship, a $2 million endowment created for the children of Auro associates. The scholarship reflects Rama’s belief that when hospitality invests in its people and their families, it strengthens the communities they call home.
His support for education also extends beyond the United States. In 2011, Rama founded Auro University in India to expand access to higher education for underserved students. Across these efforts, his focus has remained consistent: creating pathways that help people move forward with dignity and support.
Service Woven Into Hospitality
Rama’s outreach also reaches the local communities where Auro Hotels operates. Long-standing scholarship support for the children of first responders, including families connected to the Greenville City Fire Department, reflects his respect for those who serve and protect others.
Through Auro Hotels’ O.N.E. initiative, service is also part of the company culture. The program dedicates resources, space, and paid employee time toward community service, helping team members take part in meaningful outreach where they live and work.
A Message of Giving
In his acceptance speech, Rama accepted the award humbly on behalf of his family, the Auro Hotels team, and everyone who has walked beside them. He reflected on his family’s own experience of receiving help when they came to this country, sharing that people opened doors for them when they needed support.
He also encouraged others to give what they can, in whatever form they can, reminding the audience that the impact of giving will outlast material accomplishments.
The AAHOA Charitable Foundation congratulates HP Rama on receiving the AAHOA Charitable Foundation Outreach Award and honors his lasting example of service, leadership, and generosity.