Walk through enough 5-star hotels across India and you'll encounter an extraordinary range of stone. Makrana marble in a Rajasthan palace hotel, black granite in a Chennai business hotel lobby, Green Forest marble imported from Brazil. Each looks different, costs differently, and — critically — requires a different approach to maintenance.
Here's a guide to the most common stone types in Indian luxury hospitality and what each one needs.
Indian Marble
Makrana White
The stone of the Taj Mahal. Makrana is quarried in Rajasthan and is among the finest marbles in the world. It's a dolomitic marble — slightly different in composition from Italian Carrara — which affects how it responds to polishing and chemicals.
Maintenance notes: Makrana is hard for an Indian marble and takes polish well, but it's susceptible to iron staining (orange-brown marks) if water containing iron salts sits on the surface. Regular sealing is essential.
Rajnagar Pink / Multani
Pink and cream marbles from Rajasthan, widely used in heritage-style hotels. Softer than Makrana, with visible veining.
Maintenance notes: More porous than Makrana. Requires more frequent sealing. Takes a good polish but loses it faster in high-traffic areas.
Udaipur Green
A distinctive serpentine marble quarried near Udaipur. Used in feature applications — corridors, walls, pillars.
Maintenance notes: Serpentine (technically not a true marble) responds differently to standard crystallisation products. Requires chemistry specific to serpentine.
Imported Marble
Italian Bianco Carrara
The global benchmark for white marble. Used extensively in luxury hotel bathrooms and spa areas.
Maintenance notes: Relatively consistent composition. Well-documented response to diamond polishing. However, the grade matters — lower-grade Carrara has more veining and is more prone to cracking.
Statuario
The premium Italian marble with bold grey veining on white. Found in statement lobbies.
Maintenance notes: Harder and denser than standard Carrara. Takes an excellent mirror polish. More resistant to etching than softer marbles.
Emperador Dark / Light (Spanish)
Brown marble with cream veining, widely used in South Indian hotel lobbies and bathrooms.
Maintenance notes: Takes polish well. The veining can absorb stains if unsealed. Watch for hairline fractures in the veining lines — these can be stabilised with consolidant.
Granite
Granite is used extensively in South Indian hotels — it's locally quarried, durable, and available in a wide range of colours.
Black Galaxy / Star Galaxy (Andhra Pradesh)
Black granite with gold or silver specks. Extremely popular in Chennai and Bengaluru hotel lobbies.
Maintenance notes: One of the easiest stones to maintain. Very hard, low porosity, resistant to scratching. Takes a good polish. Requires minimal sealing.
Absolute Black (Tamil Nadu)
Fine-grained black granite. Used for floors, countertops, and feature walls.
Maintenance notes: Similar to Black Galaxy. Low maintenance. Susceptible to hard water deposits (white patches) if water is left to dry on the surface.
Kashmir White / White Galaxy
White granite with grey and burgundy specks. Used as an alternative to marble where higher durability is required.
Maintenance notes: Granite is harder than marble and significantly more resistant to etching. However, Kashmir White can have inclusion minerals that are prone to oxidation (rust staining) if left damp.
Limestone
Limestone is softer and more porous than marble or granite. Its use in Indian luxury hotels is typically limited to specific aesthetic applications.
Maintenance notes: Requires the most careful maintenance of common stone types. Very susceptible to acid etching (even condensation from cold drinks can etch). Never use acidic cleaners. Requires frequent sealing — every 6 months minimum in wet areas.
Sandstone
Rajasthani sandstone (Dholpur, Agra Red, Lalitpur) is used extensively in heritage and boutique hotels for its warm, earthy character.
Maintenance notes: Sandstone is porous and requires different care from metamorphic stones like marble and granite. It should not be polished in the conventional sense — consolidation and sealing are the primary maintenance tools. In outdoor applications, a weather-resistant sealer is essential.
The Practical Takeaway
Before planning any maintenance or restoration work on hotel stone, know your stone type. Using the wrong chemicals or polishing sequence on the wrong stone produces results that range from poor (a patchy finish) to irreversible (etching or surface damage that requires full regrinding).
If you're unsure what stone you have, a proper assessment should start there — stone identification before treatment recommendation.
Have stone you can't identify, or floors that haven't responded well to previous maintenance? Request a site visit and we'll assess and advise before any work begins.