Small Hotels, Big Experiences
Given the economic downturn globally, luxury hospitality business faces a lot of challenges. Paul Kerr, CEO, Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH), speaks about the challenges being faced and the solutions to them.
What is your immediate short-term goal for India?
Currently, we have 14 properties in India. We are proud that our portfolio here ranges from a selection of small family-owned resorts set in working coffee plantations to cutting-edge design hotels, country houses and luxury safari tents. One of our strengths is the diversity and geographic spread of our hotels. We also believe that India holds the potential to become one of our top source markets worldwide within the next five years based on the current growth rate. We want to ensure that we are targetting the best of hotels in each destination with a strict criterion and rigorous inspection programme. We don’t add hotels for the sake of growth – our reputation depends on the quality of each and every hotel in our portfolio.
Increasing our portfolio of hotels in India will also help us in building brand awareness in the domestic market and will showcase the calibre of our properties across the world. Over the next 12 months, we are hoping to increase our footprints by adding properties in key cities including Delhi and Mumbai.
Where does SLH assessment stand, related to India’s offering of hospitality products and services?
Given the economic downturn globally, luxury hospitality business faces a lot of challenges. However, the luxury market is very resilient; in fact, SLH has grown its revenues consistently over the last two years. The market is very competitive and innovation is the key which will be the winning differentiator.
SLH is constantly innovating their offerings to attract more business. I think in some specific cases, India is ahead in the luxury market as far as hospitality offerings go.
Indian hospitality is short of 1,88,000 rooms to meet market requirement and expects an investment of US$ 4.5 billion by the end of next five years or so. In such a scene, in which segment would SLH like to concentrate and bet its expertise on?
SLH properties represent a single standard of excellence across all properties, but each property is independently owned. We do not look into buying assets or owning properties. Having the SLH brand attached to a property is a great way for an independent hotel to instantly get recognition in the international market place.
Where do you see the role of travel agents and tour operators?
We believe travel agents will remain an important source of reservation. On the site, we also offer special travel agent rates and a special commission rate to travel agents worldwide. If travel agents do not use the SLH website as their preferred channel and are still wedded to the global distributions systems such as Saber and Amadeus then they can access using the GDS code LX for luxury.
How is SLH performing in terms of bookings?
By being part of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, a hotel’s visibility and profile will be enhanced. Their revenue will be maximised and their independence preserved. There are many advantages of being SLH members, however, the most important one is that all SLH hotels get access to our 1,60,000 Club Members globally, who are signed up to our guest loyalty programme.
Any new promotional angle SLH has come up with to reach more unique Indian properties?
We are constantly on the look out for unique luxury properties across India that can join our family. We have a very strict selection and inspection process – only five per cent of the hotels which apply are accepted into the brand. Some of the other hotel brands will accept properties straight away without any checks or clear selection criteria. This is not in the best interest of their guests.
SLH is all about small hotels and big experiences. The average size of our hotels is 50 rooms and this allows us to offer the highest levels of personalised service. Some of the other hotel brands have an average of 200 rooms at each property.