TravelDailyNews: What is your policy to strengthen your policy worldwide?

Iain Ainsworth: Our policy targets in the quality of our products, in the service, the strict selection criteria that we follow for someone to become a member in the Design Hotels. Currently we accepted one hotel from eleven applications that we had. We believe that the way to expand our brand is by the services, assistance and the standard quality that we offer.

TDN: What are the main obstacles – benefits of expanding your brand?

I.A.: The main obstacles for Design Hotels are that are too many not good looking hotels around the world. I think one of the key obstacles is that a lot of people in the hotel design are trying to be modern but this is not design, there has to be a true concept. You have to give an aspiration to the architect. We give strong emphasis on the quality and these things can only be done by working in the area, knowing the properties and promote the local product. The obstacle is that we have too many applications from modern hotels who think that they have the design concept and I think the problem is to find the right place and city and of course where do we need another hotel. But this varies because in Barcelona we have ten hotels now and in other cities like Amsterdam we are still scouting for the right partners. Nobody has yet created the criteria to help expand the brand in that city. The benefits lie down in that we bring a new different concept in our partners around the globe in which the quality is ensured. When we expand in new cities obviously we expand our portfolio.

TDN: Which destinations have more dynamic potentials?

I.A.: At the moment we see Greece to have a good potential for us and the European cities as well. But I have to say that we see people to want more spa treatments not only in Asia but in Europe as well. People want spa experience and Asia is very suitable for that because it has land, many areas which are undeveloped and that gives many opportunities for us. We believe that India, Thailand is a great market for us and especially India in which there are many architects who study in Europe and return to the country and introduce the new trends in the region. Russia is also a key development area for us in Europe and in Asia we consider China and Vietnam as booming markets with great potential for us.

TDN: How did the terrorist attacks affect your brand?

I.A.: Initially we saw an impact but to tell you the truth our travelers are independent and well – educated travelers so the impact had been very limited. We only saw a small problem in London and in Bali where the last bombings occurred but it didn’t really affect our brand.

TDN: How are you planning to expand in the next decade?

I.A.: We will continue to expand in big cities. We haven’t a city plan for next ten years but we will advance our design concept in a short term period and we will expand in smaller concepts which will include more experienced hotels with adding values services and facilities. Expansion really is going to be come through the programme that we have with over a million clients and the careful selection of the hotels around the globe.