LONDON—After 25 years, Small Luxury Hotels of the World is about to head in a different direction, charted by Filip Boyen, who became CEO for the affiliation group last month.
“This company has been very brand-focused, and that is why the brand is quite well-known. It is my intention, however, to make [this]well-known brand loved and more desirable,” said the executive.
Boyen joined SLH this past summer as managing director for its management arm, Hill, Goodridge & Associates, before being tapped for the CEO position. He succeeds Paul Kerr, who led the company from 1991 and took it from 70 member hotels in 11 countries to 520 hotels in 82 countries before selling it last year to the Shamoon Family, which owns and operates luxury hotels, including the iconic Marbella Club Hotel and Puente Romano Beach Resort & Spa in Marbella, Spain.
“The new owners are totally committed to the success of the brand, and they are investing a lot of money over the next five years to make sure the brand awareness continues to grow. At the same time, I feel very strongly the brand is the hotels; without the hotels, there would be no brand. Therefore, as a company, we need to get much more hotel-focused,” said Boyen.
SLH offers a platform for small, independent hotels that includes providing sales services, marketing, public relations, e-commerce, e-marketing, social media support and distribution.
“What I’m trying to change is the approach we take as a service company. Our purpose in life is to create value for hotels. Value comes in different ways,” he noted. “We have been very general in terms of our support for the hotels. For example, we have six-villa lodges in New Zealand; we have beautiful beach resorts in the Maldives; we have city-center hotels in New York; and country-house hotels in France and England. Those different types of hotels need different types of approaches in terms of support. Sales, marketing and PR activities need to be much more focused on the type of hotels, and the ultimate aim is to connect the right clients with the right type of hotels,” said the CEO.
In October, Boyen led his first international SLH conference, which drew about 200 member owners/hoteliers to Marbella, and outlined his plans, which, he indicated, were met with enthusiasm. “I addressed the specific problems they had brought to me,” said Boyen. “They all felt a new surge of energy and felt we are really addressing their challenges…they are action people; they want things to happen.”
For example, a new logo was created that Boyen considers more contemporary and modern with a tagline that touts SLH as independently minded. “The idea is we link independently spirited travelers with independently minded hotels,” he said.
Regarding expansion, Boyen said growth for him is “all about quality, not so much about quantity. I will be much stricter. If hotels do not comply with our quality standards, we will make the tough decisions and, ultimately, remove them because quality is credibility. I feel very strongly that the consumer, and the travel trade deserves and demands a consistent level of excellence across the portfolio.”
Boyen is well attuned to delivering quality. Prior to SLH, he served as COO and SVP of Belmond, where he was instrumental in implementing guest-satisfaction measurement and monitoring programs. Now, he is implementing a program for SLH that includes a Mystery Inspector program.
“We have our own inspection company, and we have just recruited another 25 inspectors. As of 2016, I want one inspection per hotel, per year. Before, there was one inspection every two years. I do not think that’s enough. I think we need to monitor quality much closer, and we need to make sure our member hotels understand that we are very, very seriously committed to quality standards,” said Boyen.
While growth for growth’s sake is not the CEO’s objective, he is aware of the market gaps that exist for SLH, which competes with the likes of Leading Hotels of the World, Preferred Hotels of the World and Relais & Châteaux, as well as boutique/lifestyle player Design Hotels.
“Obviously, in markets like London, Paris and New York, we feel we are very well-represented, but we have no hotels in Chicago, no hotels in San Francisco, no hotels in San Diego; there is definitely work to do,” he said.
Two thirds of SLH bookings come through travel agencies and North America represents 51% of that.
Also on his radar is South America, where Boyen worked in Peru for seven years for Belmond. “We have one hotel (Campo Bahia in Santo Andre) in Brazil; that’s a huge market, especially Rio. We’re also looking to improve our sales representation and open an office in São Paulo,” he said.
“And, Asia still has a lot of room for improvement. Our people there are looking at mainland cities in China, like Shanghai. We also only have one hotel in Russia [in St. Petersburg]. I know that the situation is not good in Russia, but this is possibly the time to do it [add properties],” said Boyen, indicating the same applies to the Middle East.
“There are a lot of holes in the map that we need to fill but, again, it is not about quantity, it’s about quality. We need to be absolutely sure that the hotels we add to the portfolio are of the right caliber and standards, and that we can add value to these hotels,” he said. “We know that there’s a world of opportunities out there for us…we haven’t even scratched the surface.”