The Most Dangerous Word in Hospitality Right Now Is ‘Resilience’
Photo Credit: The entryway of the Kimpton Fitzroy London. Wikimedia Commons / Sethompson17
Skift Take
The industry keeps celebrating its ability to bounce back. That may be the problem.
On Experience
Colin Nagy is a marketing strategist and writes on customer-centric experiences and innovation across the luxury sector, hotels, aviation, and beyond. You can read all of his writing here.A few summers ago, the London hotel scene was running hot. Rooms at established brands were pushing £1,200 a night and newer entrants like Raffles at the OWO were booking up at hefty rates that would have seemed insane five years earlier. There was a quiet confidence among operators that the city's luxury math had permanently changed.
Even then, the signals were there that it wouldn’t last. Too much high-end supply entering the same narrow band, and far too much reliance on a demand mix that drew from a shallow pool of source markets. There was too much confidence that the guest paying £900 a night for a dark suite in Mayfair with a view of a wall would keep showing up.
Now the tone has shifted.
London luxury is not collapsing, but it is clear that operators are sounding the alarms. Geopolitical instability in the Middle East has introduced real uncertainty
