Ultra-personalised service is ideal for Indian celebratory stays at THE SET

The Set, a portfolio of independent, ultra-luxury hotels around the world, is focussed on quality not quantity and will grow its collection carefully, Robin Stangroom, Chief Executive Officer, tells India Outbound in an interview. Stangroom adds that India is one of the key source markets for its hotels and that his priority is to enhance awareness in the Indian market through various channels.

- VARSHA SINGH

What is the USP of The Set?

We are a constellation of the world's most extraordinary independent hotels and we always go into destinations with a strong sense of place. We are there as an overarching brand and a strong commercial support for independent hotels to really thrive on the international stage. In the brand affiliation space we are most definitely one of the new kids on the block and that for us is a real strong point because other options out there in this space have their strengths, but are very large and quite traditional. So, we saw a real opportunity to create something new and provide an offering which is really targetted at the very best independent hotel in each destination. And as we have background of operating hotels ourselves, we know what works really well and what doesn't.

Our strongest point is that we have an uncompromising focus on quality, not quantity. We don't have ambitions to just grow rapidly, we don't even have a target number because I think the moment you start chasing a number, you are in danger of compromising to reach that target. So for us it is only the quality of the portfolio.

We will only accept independent hotels that are really at the top of the game. Alongside that, we are also building a portfolio of noncompeting hotels, so we don't want to have multiple hotels in one destination. We want to have a community of of hotels that really feel aligned because they know they are all at the top of their game in their respective destinations and can really collaborate with each other because ultimately they could be sharing the same customers who are global travellers.

We can always promise that the level of luxury in terms of the product, the service and the experience is going to be right up there. Moreover, you are also guaranteed a very independently spirited experience that is very authentic to the destination and you are going to be dealing with people, not systems.