Pimalai Resort & Spa Zeavola
Sail Away with Small Luxury Hotels of the World
TM
For Paul Kerr, CEO of the luxury hotel brand Small Luxury So if you spend your working hours in luxury hotels what
Hotels of the World (SLH) and chartered accountant, do you do for a holiday? You take up sailing!
experiencing the world at an average rate of seven knots
makes a welcome respite from the break-neck pace of "I discovered sailing eight years ago and I find it such a
running a highly successful global hotel brand. liberating experience. I love to travel, yet I don't really like
schedules or airports. With sailing there are no queues,
To an outsider, the life of Paul Kerr appears like a permanent no delays and no lost baggage and I suppose the only
holiday. Flying around the world, staying at the world's most schedule is that determined by gravity, the tide."
exclusive resorts, tucking into Michelin–star dinners and
being treated like royalty sounds like a job most people “For me the enduring appeal of a sailing holiday is that
would kill for. Paul admits that he is very fortunate: "I always there is something timeless about making a journey by
tell my children, most people like 20% of their job and hate means of just the wind and the sea; the days feel much
the other 80%. Luckily for me, I am now at a stage where longer and afford a greater opportunity just to think and to
I love it 80% of the time". However, such reward doesn't relax which is something hard to find the time for. This is
come without a lot of hard work and it hasn't always been why you'll never catch me on a gin-palace in Monaco!
plain-sailing.
“Our last family holiday was to Thailand and we sailed from
"When I first took over SLH in 1991 there were 75 hotels Phuket to Langkawi stopping off at some of the truly
in the brand, today we stand at 500 hotels in over 75 outstanding SLH properties along the way. It was a fantastic
countries. The growth of the brand has been due to a experience. We started off at Aleenta Resort and Spa Phuket.
number of factors: the increase in demand for the small, It sits on the edge of Pilai Beach, a long stretch of pristine
independent boutique hotel, the advent of low air fares and white sand. The sunsets are amazing and the hotel is very
the unbridled success of the internet as a reference and tranquil, so perfect for easing you in to "holiday-mode".
research source as well as a direct booking channel.
However, most importantly it has been due to a tremendous The next day Paul and his family set sail for Ko Racha Yai,
amount of effort and I still remember the nights toiling away an island 15 miles south of Phuket, where another SLH
until 3am, smoking cigarette after cigarette and hoping that hotel, The Racha, is located. The island is popular with
it would all come together. It has, of course, also been down divers who come for the spectacular crystal-clear waters,
to the fact that I am lucky enough to have a very talented hard coral forests and varied tropical fish. Ko Racha Yai
crew; pardon the pun." literally means "big king island" and in Paul's eyes it is
definitely "a king of resorts".
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