Luxury travellers’ preferences are constantly evolving, but many hotels are failing to keep pace because the people controlling renovation budgets and capital expenditure are not listening closely enough to those who know guests best: travel advisors. At the same time, an explosion of luxury hotel brands means there’s too much noise around what they stand for and the quality of individual properties.
Those were among the key themes debated during a panel discussion at the NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum where luxury hotel executives and leading travel advisors examined how hotels can continue innovating while maintaining relevance with increasingly discerning guests.
“The people on this panel are paid to understand luxury brands, and yet, I think that if we were now to do a quiz, none of us can really list all of the luxury hotel brands that have launched in the last year,” said Kempinski Group CEO Barbara Muckermann. “If we can’t figure it out, how can we expect consumers to understand?”
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Luxury Travel Advisor.
