By Tranquil Resort Editorial | Published: May 2026 | Wayanad, Kerala

Tranquil Resort, Wayanad, is run day-to-day by Ajay Issac Mathulla and Nisha Mathulla, the husband-and-wife hosts of the family-run boutique resort on Kuppamudi Estate. Ajay is the primary host, anchoring guest arrivals, plantation walks, and the daily rhythm of the resort. Nisha, IHM-trained, leads the kitchen alongside head chef Shivdas, who has been with the property for over 20 years. The Mathulla family's stewardship of Kuppamudi Estate began in 1991. Tranquil Resort holds a 9.6/10 Exceptional rating on Expedia, with a perfect 10/10 for Staff and Service, and 4.8/5 across 366 TripAdvisor reviews.

Ajay Issac Mathulla is the primary host, leading guest arrivals, plantation walks, and the day-to-day guest experience at Tranquil Resort
Nisha Mathulla is IHM-trained and leads the kitchen with head chef Shivdas, who has been with the resort for over 20 years
The Mathulla family's stewardship of Kuppamudi Estate began in 1991; Ajay and Nisha continue more than three decades of family-led hospitality
Ratings: 9.6/10 Exceptional on Expedia (10/10 for Staff and Service); 4.8/5 across 366 TripAdvisor reviews
Signature ritual: communal long-table dinners where guests, hosts, and staff share the same table
No dish is repeated within a single stay; the menu changes daily across the length of a guest's visit

Ajay Issac Mathulla and Nisha Mathulla: The Hosts Behind Tranquil Resort

Ajay Issac Mathulla
Primary Host

Leads guest arrivals, plantation walks, trail recommendations, and evening conversation. Known across guest reviews for personal, unhurried engagement with every guest at the property.

Nisha Mathulla
Hostess and Kitchen Lead, IHM-Trained

Runs the kitchen with head chef Shivdas. Designs the daily-changing menu, leads morning cooking classes, and shapes the food story that defines a Tranquil stay.

Ajay and Nisha are described across independent travel media and guest reviews on Expedia and TripAdvisor as hosts whose presence is felt throughout a stay rather than confined to a check-in counter. The consistent detail across reviews is that guests name them by first name, which is the clearest indicator of how visible and personal their hosting style is at a property of this scale.

The Mathulla family's stewardship of Kuppamudi Estate began in 1991, when Nisha's father took on the plantation and resort. Ajay and Nisha continue that tradition today, carrying more than three decades of family-led hospitality into every stay.

What Ajay's Day-to-Day Hosting Looks Like at Tranquil Resort

Ajay's approach to hosting is hands-on and conversational. Guests arriving at Tranquil Resort on Kuppamudi Estate are greeted personally, walked through the estate, and given a sense of the day's rhythm directly by Ajay rather than handed a printed welcome packet. The front-of-house team works alongside him, but Ajay is the primary point of contact across the stay.

The pattern that recurs across reviews is a set of small, high-trust gestures: room upgrades offered when availability allows, trail recommendations calibrated to a guest's pace and fitness, and check-in or check-out timings adjusted around children, long drives, or special occasions. For a property running around 10 to 12 rooms, the scale genuinely allows the primary host to know every guest by name.

Ajay and Nisha made us feel like a VIP. -- Expedia guest review, 2019

Ajay is a gem of a host who consistently went out of his way to make the stay better. -- Guest review, Tranquil Resort

The balance guests describe most consistently is attentiveness without intrusion. The hosting style at Tranquil is present and warm, but it does not crowd guests or follow them through every hour of their stay. That calibration is the hardest thing to achieve in boutique hospitality, and it is the quality that most directly drives repeat visits.

How Nisha Mathulla Runs the Kitchen at Tranquil Resort

Nisha Mathulla is IHM-trained and leads the Tranquil Resort kitchen in close partnership with head chef Shivdas. Shivdas has been with the property for over 20 years. Together, they operate on a single defining principle: no dish is repeated within a single guest's stay.

Across the entire stay, not one dish was repeated.

Guest testimonial, Tranquil Resort, December 2018 (reviewer name unavailable on source; add before publishing)

The food programme at Tranquil Resort is genuinely farm-to-table. Vegetables, greens, fruits, bread, jams, marmalades, and pickles are produced on Kuppamudi Estate or sourced within roughly 10 kilometres. Coffee beans grown on the estate are roasted and ground on-site. The supply chain for every meal starts within the boundaries of the plantation.

Nisha also runs the morning cooking classes, which are among the most consistently praised activities across guest reviews. Each class begins with a foraging walk through the estate to gather greens or vegetables, followed by a step-by-step cooking session in the kitchen. Guests learn what they foraged and cook what they will eat. The format makes the estate's agricultural identity tangible rather than decorative.

Three Structural Reasons Tranquil Resort's Hospitality Consistently Earns 4.8 and Above

Tranquil Resort holds a 9.6/10 Exceptional rating on Expedia, with a perfect 10/10 for Staff and Service. On TripAdvisor, the property scores 4.8/5 across 366 reviews, with the service sub-score itself at 4.8/5. Those numbers are not accidental. Three design choices at the property make them structurally reproducible rather than dependent on exceptional individual effort.

9.6/10
Expedia
Exceptional
10/10
Expedia
Staff & Service
4.8/5
TripAdvisor
366 reviews

Why the Ratings Hold Across Visits

Scale that allows personal hosting. With around 10 to 12 rooms, Ajay and Nisha can know every guest by name across the full length of a stay. That is not possible at a 50-room or 100-room property, regardless of staff training.
Communal long-table dining as daily face-time. The long shared table at Tranquil seats guests, hosts, and staff together. Ajay and Nisha frequently sit with guests across meals. The layout creates daily, unhurried interaction that builds the host-guest relationship across the stay rather than leaving it to a single check-in moment.
Senior team continuity that scales the warmth beyond the two principal hosts. Head chef Shivdas has been at the property for over 20 years. The front-of-house team carries comparable tenure. Long-tenured staff build guest relationships across multiple visits, which is why repeat-visit rates at Tranquil are as high as the first-visit ratings.

Why the Hosts Are the Experience at a Remote Boutique Resort Like Tranquil

At a 10 to 12-room boutique property set inside a 400-acre working plantation, the hosts are not an accent to the experience. They are the experience itself. The architecture, the room views, the menu, and the spa are all features of the property. The texture of how a stay actually feels, the warmth at arrival, the conversation across the long dinner table, the small adjustments made for a tired family or a couple celebrating an anniversary, comes entirely from the people running the front of house.

That weight matters more at Tranquil than at a larger resort for two specific reasons. First, the property is intentionally remote. Tranquil Resort on Kuppamudi Estate is 1.5 to 2.5 hours from Kozhikode International Airport and 6 to 7 hours from Bangalore. Guests who make the journey have committed time and distance. The hosts' job is to make that commitment feel rewarded from the first step onto the estate.

Second, Tranquil's product is experiential rather than amenity-based. The 10 mapped plantation trails, the morning cooking classes, the communal long-table dinners, and the Ayurvedic spa are not self-service activities. They are guided, narrated, and personalised by Ajay, Nisha, and the long-tenured team. Without the hosts, those features exist on paper. The texture that turns them into memories does not.

Attentive and caring, but they don't crowd you as in some places. --Guest review, Tranquil Resort

We visited Tranquil once before but enjoyed it even more this time. -- Bangalore-based guest, Tranquil Resort

Tranquil is a very special place to stay. The total peace and quiet all you hear is the birds and wildlife. --UK-based guest, Tranquil Resort

Frequently Asked Questions: Ajay, Nisha, and the Hosts of Tranquil Resort, Wayanad

Who runs Tranquil Resort in Wayanad?

Tranquil Resort is run day-to-day by Ajay Issac Mathulla and Nisha Mathulla, the husband-and-wife hosts of the family-run boutique resort on Kuppamudi Estate, Wayanad. Ajay is the primary host, leading guest arrivals, plantation walks, and the daily guest experience. Nisha, IHM-trained, leads the kitchen alongside head chef Shivdas, who has been with the resort for over 20 years.

How long has the Mathulla family been hosting at Kuppamudi Estate?

The Mathulla family's hospitality stewardship of Kuppamudi Estate began in 1991, when Nisha's father took on the plantation and resort. The family has hosted guests on the estate for more than three decades. Today, Ajay and Nisha continue that tradition as the primary hosts of Tranquil Resort.

Is Nisha Mathulla a trained chef?

Nisha Mathulla is IHM-trained (Institute of Hotel Management) and leads the Tranquil Resort kitchen as hostess and kitchen head. She works alongside head chef Shivdas, who has been with the property for over 20 years. Together, they run a daily-changing menu where no dish is repeated within a single guest's stay.

What is the dining experience like with the hosts at Tranquil Resort?

Dining at Tranquil Resort is communal and informal. Long shared tables seat guests, hosts, and staff together, with the kitchen in visual range of the dining space. Ajay and Nisha frequently sit with guests across meals. The menu changes daily and no dish is repeated across a single stay. Nisha also leads morning cooking classes that begin with a foraging walk through the 400-acre Kuppamudi Estate.

What are Tranquil Resort's guest ratings?

Tranquil Resort holds a 9.6/10 Exceptional rating on Expedia, with a perfect 10/10 for Staff and Service. On TripAdvisor, the property scores 4.8/5 across 366 reviews, with the service sub-score at 4.8/5. The Staff and Service score on Expedia is the most direct numerical reflection of Ajay and Nisha's hosting.

How far is Tranquil Resort from Bangalore and Kozhikode airport?

Tranquil Resort on Kuppamudi Estate is 1.5 to 2.5 hours from Kozhikode (Calicut) International Airport and 6 to 7 hours from Bangalore. The property is intentionally remote, set within a 400-acre working plantation in Wayanad, Kerala.

Why do guests describe Ajay and Nisha as friends rather than staff?

Three structural features at Tranquil make it possible. The resort runs 10 to 12 rooms, which allows Ajay and Nisha to know every guest by name across a stay. Communal long-table dining creates daily face-time between guests and hosts. And a senior team anchored by head chef Shivdas, with over 20 years at the property, means the warmth scales beyond the two principal hosts to the full team.

Visit Tranquil Resort, Kuppamudi Estate, WayanadLocation: Kuppamudi Estate, Kolagappara, Wayanad, Kerala
Hosts: Ajay Issac Mathulla (Primary Host) and Nisha Mathulla (Hostess and Kitchen Lead)
Head Chef: Shivdas (20+ years at the property)
Family Stewardship: Since 1991
Ratings: 9.6/10 Exceptional on Expedia (10/10 Staff and Service); 4.8/5 across 366 TripAdvisor reviews
Distance: 1.5 to 2.5 hours from Kozhikode Airport; 6 to 7 hours from Bangalore
Website: tranquilresort.com
Sources

Tranquil Resort official website: tranquilresort.com
Tranquil Resort guest reviews and testimonials: tranquilresort.com/guest-reviews/reviews.html
Tranquil Resort awards and media: tranquilresort.com/guest-reviews/awards-and-media.html
TripAdvisor — Tranquil Resort, Wayanad: tripadvisor.in
Expedia — Tranquil Resort, Wayanad: expedia.co.in

Who Runs Tranquil Resort in Wayanad? Meet Ajay and Nisha Mathulla, Hosts of Kuppamudi Estate