The Set Collection is a modern brand affiliation company whose goal is to champion independent luxury hotels around the world. They often say that they are trying to curate a constellation of the world’s most extraordinary independent hotels, located in destinations that have a very strong sense of place.
As a British company with a very global mindset headquartered in London, they have 17 member hotels across the UK, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean. We caught up with CEO, Robin Stangroom who is discussing the new properties in the Middle East, as well as the luxury traveller needs in the region.
“For us, it’s about careful, measured selective growth, not about just growing for growth’s sake. We spend a lot of time really getting to know not just the hotel, but the people running them, the owners and whether they share the same collaborative mindset.”
Membership-based models are evolving rapidly in hospitality. What are owners increasingly looking for from a collection like The Set, beyond distribution and brand association?
I think with the positioning of our hotels versus the other independent hotels in their markets, we do a lot around storytelling. It’s not purely transactional with us like some brands out there. Some examples include:
- Communication to our customers. We never focus on promotions, or 3 for 2s or things like that. It’s all about storytelling and not just bringing the hotel, but also the destination to life and very experiential.
- Our hotels are also relying on us for that global sales presence, which we have. We have a real strong team around the world in all of the key regions that are out there promoting these hotels. And again, that’s security of knowing you’re the only hotel they’re promoting in that destination. It’s really appealing to our member hotels.
- The marketing and the distribution. We do a lot on the marketing side like brand partnerships, and various campaigns with global publications, and distribution. We go beyond the kind of standard distribution that you’d expect to have with GDS code and Resnexus partnership.
- We also have a strong loyalty offering as well. We have a partnership with GHA Global Hotel Alliance, and The Set DISCOVERY loyalty program which reaches around 3,500,000 members around the world. It’s also quite exciting for the consumer because they’re able to use their tier benefits and earn and redeem points, not just for set hotels, but around 50 other independent brands as well.
Those are a few examples, but even the partnerships that we work we’re able to do some quite creative things which are valuable not just to us as a brand, but also to our individual member hotels. Aston Martin is one of our brand partners and we do a curated calendar of activities with them throughout the year. It could be driving experiences for our guests, behind the scenes factory tours for example.
I think we do a really good job of covering all of the basics in terms of distribution, loyalty, and all of those things, but we also elevate it with the more experiential and emotional touch points as well across all of those areas.
For some of your international properties, in terms of tailoring and personalising experiences that appeal to travellers from the Middle East. Are there any distinct experiences, modifications, or themes that have arisen at property hotels?
I think one thing we notice, not just with the Middle East market but globally, is that the luxury traveller is much more focused today on the experience they’re going to have rather than the kind of hard products, or the bricks and mortar, or the handbag they’re going to purchase. It’s all about the emotion and the feel.
I think, a younger traveller from the Middle East is looking much more now for those emotional touch points and really getting under the skin of a destination and learning about its history or what experiences are out to do. So I think we lean really nicely to that.
Here’s an example of a recent trip I had in Asia. We’ve got the Nay Palad in the Philippines, which is a real culinary haven. You’re surrounded by hundreds or thousands of acres of mangroves, jungle and a private beach and they don’t have an official restaurant, except to have breakfast. They don’t have menus either. The chef comes to see you personally every day, understands your wants and desires and curates a menu for you around that. Every meal is served somewhere different. When I visited, one night I had dinner in a tree house, the next night on a pagoda in the middle of the ocean, the next night on a private beach.
It’s all about curating that kind of ultra-personalised experience that leans so nicely to the modern luxury traveller, including the Middle East’s clientele today.
That sounds like a really special experience! Luxury is no stranger in the Middle East market, but the independent hotel market is not as mature as other regions. Looking at the Middle East’s independent hotel landscape, what do you see changing, and what are the growth opportunities?
I think there is a huge opportunity for independent hotels in the region. The region is quite saturated with chains. There’s some incredible hotels within those, but, in order for asset owners to be able to differentiate moving forward, they are going to want to start looking at some of the independent, smaller brands, as an entry point. It just aligns so well with what the actual luxury traveller is looking for today. They’re not looking for standardisation wherever they go in the world. They’re looking for something that really throws them into the surroundings and gives them that true sense of place. So we see that as a huge opportunity.
The GCC market is becoming so much more now than just luxury resorts. Just look at the growth of the sporting tournaments, the cultural events, the exhibitions, there is so much more happening there, but it’s attracting the international market. Those kinds of events that are being curated are designed largely to promote the traditions and the heritage of the destination. That’s where we as independent hotels can support quite nicely.
I think Chedi is a great example of that. The Middle East has always been a strategically very important market for us. It delivers great business into our international member hotels. Chedi felt like a really good option to have some great properties there.
So we’re very happy to be announcing four properties:
- The Chedi Muscat, Oman
- The Chedi Katara, Doha, Qatar
- The Chedi Hegra, Alula, Saudi Arabia
- The Chedi Al Bait, Sharjah, UAE
The Chedi name is quite iconic, but what we liked most is that they are true to their destination. You don’t feel like you’re walking into the same Chedi anywhere in the world. Each one has such a strong sense of place and character, which we just think celebrates the region so well and also fits in nicely with the events that we mentioned.
Boots on the ground we have Kirk McDonald, who is our Director of Sales for the Middle East, and based in Dubai. He’s lived there for over 15 years so he’s got strong relationships with the travel trade out there and is constantly moving around in the key locations and elevating The Set as a brand identity, and the stories of our independent hotels.
Another example of how we support the region is holding annual appreciation weeks. Every year we invite the top 10-15 bookers from the Middle East region to one of our hotels. We did this for the first year in London last year, and Mykonos this year. We host them for 3-4 nights and get them out to experience the destination, and really foster deeper relationships.
We also have a preferred partner program, The Set By Invitation where we offer a lot of benefits, get greater commissions, and we believe in meaningful relationships. We think this is such a personal touch to be remembered far longer than a quick office meeting during a sales road show or something like that.
So, why these four properties in the Middle East?
They all have some real heritage and stories with each one. Alula, of course, is a destination that is being talked about a lot, but Chedi Hegra is right in the ancient archaeological site and has been designed so the hotel architecture is integrating the old mud brick buildings and railways stations going back to 1907. It’s part of the hotel, rather than being replaced which is beautiful storytelling. Meanwhile, The Chedi Al Bait has a lot of focus on educating about the destination.
We’re really excited by all of the properties joining and we’re already discussing how we can do some exciting partnerships together between them which is something we’re quite big on.
Bringing a cluster of four hotels together is a strong move in the region, what is the vision or intention for the next five years from The Set? Where is the brand headed?
The US is internationally our biggest market so I would expect to have some properties there in the not so distant future. But for us, it’s not about ticking boxes to say the bricks and mortar are great, the pillows are soft and comfy. We don’t have a checklist at all.
When we’re assessing a hotel, it’s more about the feeling and the relationship with the people running the property and whether it’s a good fit. Quite often it may be a stunning hotel, but we actually say, you know, this isn’t right for The Set in terms of where we’re going. Because it doesn’t feel like there’s a match
There’s a lot to come, and I would say, my vision really is not about numbers or how many hotels. It’s that I want The Set to be seen as in the future by the end consumer. Ultimately a consumer doesn’t really care whether you’re owned or managed or franchised or affiliated. That’s not something that even crosses their mind when they’re choosing a hotel.
I wouldn’t want us to be compared to other brand affiliations, but I’d actually want us to be compared to some of the hard brands out there because we are able to give that real promise. In the Middle East, it’s so true with travel advisors that it’s very much based on trust. It’s the trust for that individual as to where you should stay when you’re visiting somewhere. And that’s the kind of ethos we’re trying to build The Set with as well.
It’s kind of like a recommendation from your closest friend. I say, it’s not just about the hard materials, but about the emotion that you’ll feel when you stay and a service that actually makes you feel like the only guest in that hotel, not like you’re on a conveyor belt. So, that’s really where I see us going.
Sustainability and purposeful luxury are no longer optional talking points, but they can be buzzwords. How do you see independent luxury hotels realistically embedding these principles without compromising commercial priorities?
It’s a really good question and definitely not a simple one to answer. It’s so complex to make sure you’re doing the right things as well, not just the things that look good. I don’t believe there’s much of a compromise, and I think the two can coexist quite nicely, but we do spend a lot of time in our discovery phase with hotels that join us in understanding what they do in that perspective.
And it’s not just about sustainability to us, it’s also about how they’re contributing to their immediate local community and environment. Being in affiliation, we are not managing these hotels and that very thing makes us strong, the fact we’re not going in there telling them ‘you must do this and that’.
This does make it a bit more challenging in one sense, but in another it’s an even greater opportunity to tell individual stories of what all our hotels are doing rather than blanket statements. Our hotels have beautiful stories, including on the sustainability side because they are really embedded in their local community. With the Chedi properties we talked about, it’s all about promoting local heritage, culture, and respecting the past.
So there’s some beautiful stories there about how they are training the community and supporting them and we’re very proud of that. But for us, it’s not so much about having some kind of corporate policies on sustainability and it’s actually about telling the stories of everything our independent hotels are doing.
When you personally check into a luxury hotel, what’s the first thing you subconsciously notice that tells you whether the stay is going to be exceptional?
I think for me, I’m very lucky that I travel a lot and I’ve stayed in some incredible hotels and it’s just a given for me now that it’s going to be an impressive lobby and it’s going to be a comfy bed and the view is going to be reflective for the destination I’m in.
The thing that really stands out is the people. It’s the warmth and the welcome that you receive. The curiosity of the team as well. Like, how much do I really want to get to know you as a person and how much do I see you as an individual and a valued guest rather than just a number or a name on an arrival list?
I think if you get that bit right, you will be very very special, and this is where independent hotels have the advantage because they’re not having to follow global policies and procedures.
I recently stayed at The Upper House in Hong Kong which is on the 50 best hotels in the world list, and beautifully designed. But the service, the attentiveness, and the proactiveness of the team really caught me out. They are listening and learning about you constantly. I only have to mention that my son is into dinosaurs, and they would have something for my son related to that, and it’s things like that that stay with you forever.
A big thank you to Mr Robin Stangroom, CEO of The Set Collection, for not only sharing about The Set’s four new hotels in the Middle East but the actionable insights for independent hotels in the region, and his experience on luxury travellers in the GCC.
