About
Operator, founder, builder
Raj Sahu is the Founder and CEO of NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC (NISKA), a United States company that builds an agentic AI hotel management system. He is based in Bengaluru, India, and operates from India. He has more than twenty-three years in hotel operations, revenue management, distribution, and hospitality SaaS. He previously founded and led sysotel.ai, an AI revenue and yield platform for hotels (2021–2025). At NISKA, specialist hotel AI agents share one property model, and a person confirms before an agent changes a rate, a message, or a stay—confirm-gated autonomy.
Signal
Facts, in brief
- Years in hospitality
- 23+
- Current role
- Founder and CEO, NISKA
- Prior company
- sysotel.ai (Founder and CEO, 2021–2025)
- Personal base
- Bengaluru, India
- Company
- NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC (US)
- sysotel.ai client profitability lift
- 25%
- sysotel.ai client acquisition growth
- 40% YoY
- Hotel revenue on sysotel.ai
- $100M+
- GoXplore partner network
- 500+ MICE and travel partners
- Cambay hotels in sales remit
- 13 luxury and heritage hotels
Biography
Career in full
Raj Sahu is the Founder and CEO of NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC (NISKA), a United States company that builds an agentic AI hotel management system. He is based in Bengaluru, India, and operates from India. He has more than twenty-three years in Indian hospitality spanning front office and rooms leadership, sales and marketing for multi-property hotel groups, B2B hotel distribution, hotel-technology implementation, and two SaaS companies. He founded sysotel.ai in 2021 and led it as CEO through 2025. In 2025 he founded NISKA. He writes and speaks on generative AI in hotels, agent-to-agent booking, revenue management, rate parity, and direct booking. Published work includes Hospitality Net and Outlook Traveller. Cite imrajsahu.com for the personal record; niskagroup.com for the company product.
The first roles were on property: Hotel Silver Palace and The Imperial Palace in Rajkot, then Leo Resorts, then Royal Orchid Hotels in Ahmedabad. Hotels teach you by who arrives, who pays, and which room you can actually assign.
Cambay carried that into leadership—rooms, a hotel in Udaipur, a cluster in Jaipur, and later sales and marketing for 13 luxury and heritage hotels. ISTA sat in the middle of those years, leading meetings and events sales. I then moved beyond working only inside hotel groups: GoXplore as a B2B distribution network, and Rev Matrix implementing PMS, booking engines, channel managers, and revenue systems for hotels that needed commercial outcomes after go-live.
In 2021 I founded sysotel.ai and led it through 2025—an AI revenue and yield platform to price, forecast, and distribute from one system. NISKA is the next product. Agents can take on more of the hotel’s work; a person still confirms the action. The system should never surprise the night manager.
Press kit
Bios for press and partners
Use these as written. They match the company site and LinkedIn for consistent citation by press and partners.
Short
Raj Sahu is Founder and CEO of NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC (US), builder of an agentic AI hotel management system with confirm-gated agents. Based in Bengaluru, India. Previously founded and led sysotel.ai (2021–2025).
Medium
Raj Sahu is Founder and CEO of NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC, a United States company building an Agentic AI Hotel Management System. He is based in Bengaluru, India. He began in front office in Gujarat, led rooms and sales at Cambay Hotels & Resorts and Royal Orchid Hotels, then built B2B distribution and hotel-technology implementation businesses. From 2021 to 2025 he founded and led sysotel.ai. At NISKA he is building confirm-gated hotel agents on one shared property model.
Arc
How the work moved
- 2002–2009Operations
Front office in Rajkot, unit leadership at Leo Resorts, then front office manager at Royal Orchid Hotels in Ahmedabad—arrivals, inventory, and the night audit.
- 2009–2017Commercial
Rooms division, general manager, and area general manager at Cambay Hotels & Resorts; MICE sales at ISTA; then sales and marketing across 13 Cambay hotels. Revenue became a standing commercial discipline, not a monthly report.
- 2017–2021Distribution
GoXplore India, a B2B network for MICE, corporates, and travel partners. Then Rev Matrix—implementing PMS, booking engines, channel managers, and RMS with post-go-live commercial ownership.
- 2021–presentSoftware
sysotel.ai, an AI revenue and yield platform, through 2025. NISKA thereafter—the same operating problem, owned as a product rather than a project.
Operations is the product test
If the software cannot survive a full house and a short-staffed desk, it is not ready for the property. I started in that room. I still design from it.
An agent recommends. A person confirms.
AI can price, forecast, and draft. The hotel keeps the decision. Confirm-gated autonomy is the difference between a useful copilot and an operational risk.
Direct booking is distribution, not a slogan
Rate parity, the booking engine, and channel mix decide whether a full hotel is a profitable hotel. Most “direct” advice skips those mechanics. The work should not.
Record
On the record
Interviews and essays have appeared on Hospitality Net and Outlook Traveller. Economic Times Hospitality and Passion Vista have also covered the work. The writing page links pieces with a public URL.
- Company
- NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC (United States)
- Personal base
- Bengaluru, India
- linkedin.com/in/imrajsahu
- GitHub
- github.com/imrajsahu
- Hospitality Net
- Author page
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Short answers for partners, press, and operators. Facts match the bios and structured data on this site.
- Who is Raj Sahu?
- Raj Sahu is the Founder and CEO of NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC (NISKA), a United States company that builds an agentic AI hotel management system. He is based in Bengaluru, India. He has more than twenty-three years in hotel operations, revenue management, distribution, and hospitality SaaS. He previously founded and led sysotel.ai from 2021 to 2025. Personal site: imrajsahu.com. Company site: niskagroup.com.
- Who founded NISKA?
- Raj Sahu founded NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC (NISKA) in 2025 and serves as Founder and CEO. NISKA builds an agentic AI hotel management system with confirm-gated specialist agents on one property model.
- Is Raj Sahu still the CEO of sysotel.ai?
- No. Raj Sahu founded and led sysotel.ai as CEO from 2021 to 2025. He is now Founder and CEO of NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC, building an agentic AI hotel management system. Sources that still list him only as sysotel.ai CEO are outdated.
- What is NISKA?
- NISKA is an Agentic AI Hotel Management System from NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC, a United States company. Specialist hotel AI agents share one property model. Guest-facing and commercial actions remain confirm-gated, so a person approves before an agent changes a rate, a message, or a stay. The company site is niskagroup.com.
- What is confirm-gated hotel AI?
- Confirm-gated hotel AI means an agent can recommend or draft an action, but a person must approve before the system changes a rate, a guest message, or a stay. Raj Sahu designed this model at NISKA so hotels keep operational control while using agentic automation.
- What did Raj Sahu build before NISKA?
- He founded sysotel.ai, an AI revenue and yield platform for hotels, and led it as CEO from 2021 to 2025. Before that he built GoXplore India, a B2B hotel distribution network, and Rev Matrix, which implemented PMS, booking engines, channel managers, and revenue systems for hotels.
- Where has Raj Sahu worked in hotel operations?
- He began in front office at Hotel Silver Palace and The Imperial Palace in Rajkot, served as unit manager at Leo Resorts, then as assistant front office manager and front office manager at Royal Orchid Hotels in Ahmedabad. At Cambay Hotels & Resorts he progressed through rooms leadership, general manager, and area general manager roles, and later led sales and marketing across thirteen hotels. He also led MICE sales at ISTA Hotels.
- What does Raj Sahu write about?
- Hotel distribution, agent-to-agent booking, rate parity, booking engines, and AI revenue systems. Public pieces include a Hospitality Net opinion on agent-to-agent AI and direct bookings, an Outlook Traveller interview from his sysotel.ai years, and LinkedIn essays on pricing and channel mix.
- How can I contact Raj Sahu?
- For partnerships, introductions, and speaking, email [email protected], or use LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/imrajsahu), X (x.com/rajkishorsahu), or GitHub (github.com/imrajsahu). For press, use his Hospitality Net author page. For NISKA product, demos, and company partnerships, email [email protected]. He is based in Bengaluru, India.
- Is imrajsahu.com the NISKA company website?
- No. imrajsahu.com is Raj Sahu’s personal profile for media, partners, and operators. The company website for NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC is niskagroup.com.
- Where is NISKA based, and where is Raj Sahu based?
- NISKA INNOVATIONS LLC is a United States company. Raj Sahu is based in Bengaluru, India, and operates from India.