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Situated at the heart of Rome, Villa Spalleti Trivelli, is a 19^th century private property offering the space and peace of a countryside luxury villa, reveals owner Andrea Spalletti Trivelli.

TT Bureau

Andrea Spalletti Trivelli reveals that the hotel, which largely caters to leisure travellers, is also a part of Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Built in 1901, the property is Trivelli’s family’s villa. “It has been a hotel for the last 10 years and we have tried to keep it as a private house, leaving everything as it was—the furniture, the art collection, to take guests through a journey in time. We try to bring them back to 120 years ago, to the kind of hospitality my great great grandmother would have extended to her guests. We want guests to experience the kind of modern hotel comforts including free Wi-Fi, minibars, wellness centre, rooftop, hot tubs, etc. We want to be an alternative to the five-stars, not a five-star, but on the same level of service,” he says.

Trivelli feels that India is a potential market. He shares, “The India market had agents with clients that were happy to experiment with boutique hotels. They would go past the regular hotel chains. Not only is India a big market with opportunities, but also one which travels frequently to Italy.”

“India was one of the markets I wanted to target. Not only is it a big market with lots of opportunities, but also one which travels frequently to Italy”

Two years ago, the India market contributed to only 2 per cent of the hotel’s business, and now it is up to 4 or 5 per cent. India is the most important market in Asia for the hotel with Australia being second market worldwide. “India among the new markets is way above China and they are very well travelled. They appreciate being in a 14-room hotel, where the service is at the same level as the chain hotel but way more personal,” he says.

In India, they will be targeting for small celebrations and family group travel. “The villa works well for exclusive use, like weddings, multi-generation celebrations, which comes from UK, US and Australia. We want to start pushing that into India,” Trivelli claims.