This year, Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) — an exclusive community of independently minded hotels that offers luxurious, unique stays around the world — is celebrating a record-breaking revenue increase of 9% in 2024 and an all-time high in hotel signings. In fact, the brand welcomed 80 new additions last year, and already has seven more planned for 2025.
Following the brand’s landmark year, we sat down with Richard Hyde, chief operating officer for SLH, to speak about the company’s record growth and what’s in store for 2025.
Richard Hyde, chief operating officer for Small Luxury Hotels
Credit: 2025 Small Luxury Hotels of the World
Small Luxury Hotels had a milestone year in 2024 — what do you think contributed to that success?
Since the end of the [COVID-19] lockdown, we’ve seen a huge increase in travel to our hotels. People don’t want to stay home; they want to stay in a small, intimate hotel away from the larger crowds. SLH hotels are perfect for this privacy. We’ve also added about 120 new hotels over the last two years, so people have a lot more choices with SLH.
People don't want to stay home; they want to stay in a small, intimate hotel away from the larger crowds.
Among the 80 new additions that came online in 2024, what are some of the standouts that advisors should know about?
We have a new hotel in Austria called Eriro, which is just underneath the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany. It combines a hotel and a spa and meets our highest sustainability standards. Kozmo Hotel Suites & Spa is a lovely hotel located right in the center of Budapest. Budapest is one of the top 10 search terms on our website, so it’s hugely popular.
We’ve added the new Agora Hotel in Cyprus, which has been developed by the couple behind [culinary brand] Joe and the Juice. Copenhagen, one of our top locations, has now added the Park Lane hotel.
We’ve also just added three safari experiences in Tanzania.
The lobby of Park Lane hotel
Credit: 2025 Small Luxury Hotels of the WorldAs you grow the portfolio, how do you decide what properties are a good fit?
We’re one of the few companies where we do what we say in our brand name, Small Luxury Hotels of the World. The hotel has to be small, it needs to be luxurious and it needs to be around the world. We look at quality, size, luxury and independence when adding to our portfolio.
We have a maximum size of 200 [rooms], but the average size is now less than 48 rooms per hotel and dropping. This is a reflection of what people want: smaller boutique experiences.
Every hotel also has to pass a luxury quality inspection every year to ensure that it meets our standards. When we add a new hotel, we make sure there’s a chance they will pass that inspection.
SLH will have even more new properties in 2025 — what are some of the upcoming highlights?
We have the Levantine Hill Hotel in the Yarra Valley in Victoria, Australia. Yarra Valley is a wine region. We’re getting quite a few wine hotels based in vineyards, very much focused on wine and spa.
Laguna Coast Resort, a hotel in Naxos, Greece, has 21 rooms and is very sustainable. We have the Goethe Hotel in Rome, which goes live in February with about 40 rooms. Rome is hugely popular with Americans.
Philip Plein, who is a quirky German designer, is opening a hotel in Milan called The Plein Hotel next month. It has 13 rooms and an amazing restaurant, as well. It’s visible on our website now. This hotel demonstrates our brand in terms of [having] a really quirky interior.
The reception of The Plein Hotel
Credit: 2025 Small Luxury Hotels of the WorldWhat makes SLH a standout partner for travel advisors?
Travel advisors account for 80% of our business. We know what we’re doing and how to navigate their needs. We have a very strong, well-known GDS code for travel advisors when they make a booking.
Travel advisors account for 80% of our business. We know what we're doing and how to navigate their needs.
We’ve also launched a travel advisor hub on SLH.com. More and more people are working from home, so not everyone has access to the GDS. On our hub, you can register as a travel advisor and get special deals. You can sign up for our Within program, and you can also put your IATA number or TIDS number and get your commissions. All the rates are fully commissionable. There’s also an option to book net rates.
We also have our own VIP voice advisors; over 50% of our bookings are from voice advisors. So, if you’ve got a complicated, multigenerational booking, you’ve got somebody to talk to rather than sending an email or trying to book online. Instead, you have one of our own people who is very knowledgeable to help you with your booking.
Is there anything else you’d like to draw advisors’ attention to?
Our collections. We have our Considerate Collection, which contains 70 hotels that have to pass very strict standards for sustainability. Sustainability is a growing requirement for our customers, [who are asking] “Is the hotel sustainable? Does it have a no single-use-plastic policy?” This is something we’re working hard to meet.
We also have our Finest Collection, which we launched a few months ago, that features our very best hotels in terms of facilities and locations. These hotels are almost like a destination in themselves. We have 21 of those and we’re growing the collection slowly. It includes only the top hotels in our portfolio.
And finally, we’re currently working on our Wellbeing Collection. For this collection, we’re looking at all aspects of wellbeing, from the mind to the soul to the body. Whether it’s a spiritual retreat in Bhutan or a more traditional spa retreat in Bali or the Caribbean, we look at the whole wellness experience. Wellbeing is a hot topic right now, so we think this collection resonates with a lot of people.
And a subsection of this collection focuses on people’s desire to be unplugged. In this unplugged collection, guests are not allowed to use their mobile phones or laptops in a community setting. This ability to unplug from the modern world and relax is another big aspect of the collection that we think will resonate with a lot of people.
