Skift Take
Luxury hospitality is no longer defined by marble bathrooms and turndown service. To compete and appeal to today's luxury guest, hotels have to be a lot smarter and more thoughtful than ever before.
Whether or not the luxury travel industry is willing to admit it, the sector finds itself at a pivotal crossroads.
The traditional mainstays of luxury hospitality are no longer as valued as they once were, and a new way of thinking about it has emerged, making it harder than ever to know what luxury really is, and how to deliver it to guests."I think the luxury segment is facing some really unprecedented challenges," said Bjorn Hanson, clinical professor at the NYU Jonathan M. Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism.
Hanson pointed to the diminished role of concierges and turndown service as examples of how much luxury has changed.
"What's happened to concierges? Does a 28-year-old want to rely on a concierge to tell him what he'd like for dinner tonight?," Hanson asked. "With social media and other forms of gathering information and using something like Yelp, younger travelers are looking for things with social media awareness.
"The selection process is different from going to a hotel where you traditionally have an older gentleman concierge and you're getting his view on what's a great place to go. The concierge has changed in what it does; now it's more about making a reservation if there's an availability issue. The value of a concierge is not what it once was to many travelers."
Then there's turndown service, which is colliding with privacy concerns, he said.
"As it becomes optional for more guests, it's less expensive for hotels to offer. But we've eliminated another one of those distinctions that define a luxury hotel. Many of the things and services that were highly valued at luxury hotels before are just not as needed anymore. We keep taking away what defines luxury."
It's becoming tougher for luxury hoteliers to deliver a clear value proposition to guests — a reason to choose to stay in their hotels over an upper upscale, upscale, or a limited-service hotel, or even an Airbnb. So, what can they do to compete, and how are they choosing to define what "new luxury" means?
Skift spoke to hotel executives at the International Luxury Travel Market last month in Cannes, France to ask how they are defining luxury, a
