Small Luxury Hotels of the World has an approach to India that looks nothing like the expansion playbook of major hotel chains. After re-entering the country last year, SLH has grown its footprint from five to 12 hotels. And the company says it’s not in a hurry to add more.
“We don’t usually sign like the big box brands… it’s very individualized, the way that we pick our hotels,” said Mark Wong, SLH’s senior vice president for Asia Pacific, on a recent trip to India. Every property is inspected by him or his development team. No blanket agreements, no mass signings.
With a global portfolio of 650 hotels, 150 of them in Asia Pacific, SLH sits in the niche corner of hospitality where room counts hover around 50 and the entire pitch is built on being small, personal and rooted in place. Greater China is now its biggest cluster in the region at 32 hotels, followed by Thailand and Japan.
The Lesser
