Barefoot Billionaire

The inspiring true story of a young boy from India who went on to own the very hotels he once worked in as a waiter

In 1971, Surinder Arora stepped off a plane at Heathrow, a thirteen-year-old boy with limited English who was sent from the Punjab to find a future in a country so far from home. He had to learn a new language and discover shocking truths about his own family – all while working twice as hard as anyone else to prove his worth.

He never imagined that decades later, he would own the very skyline he first saw from the airplane window. From his early days as a waiter at the Penta hotel and trading on the Blackbushe market stalls to building a billion-pound empire, Surinder's journey is a masterclass in grit and Plan B thinking. Navigating the racial tensions of 1970s Britain, the 2008 financial crash and personal tragedy, he turned a struggle for survival into a legacy of hospitality.

Candid and inspiring, this is the definitive story of how one man conquered the high-stakes world of aviation hospitality.