RO TRENDS NESS DECISIONS ORMING LUXURY
In an improving global economy , it should be the best of times for luxury hotel brands . Room and occupancy rates have rebounded nicely since the financial crisis froze travel and discretionary spending . But changing macro-trends could threaten to kill the party by transforming the expectations and spending habits of affluent travelers .
While some hoteliers are adapting nicely to the macro-trends evolving the travel experience , others are locked in legacy and unwilling to embrace the major cultural shifts impacting every corner of the industry . What are those shifts ?
MACRO-TREND 1 :
BIG , BUT SMALL
It ’ s a cruel irony . The very thing that made luxury brands appealing is now a potential threat . Consumers today wish to distance themselves from the established , the corporate , the cold and commoditized , yet still identify with the security iconic brands extend — a paradox to be sure . The trick is to open some space between the experience and the brand . Using the brand to assure , while simultaneously disintermediating it in order to remain relevant .
Smaller , niche-focused concepts and boutiques are one way to overcome the shadow of the brand in a world seeking differentiated experiences . Canopy by Hilton in Reykjavik , Washington D . C . and Portland , Ore . offer a wonderful example of how global brands can assume a more human scale that fits an affluent traveler ’ s idealized self . A stay at Canopy brings a guest in contact with the community , a sense that they are an authentic part of the urban fiber and not just a contribution to the bottom line . It ’ s in scale , in the neighborhood and in tune with the new global reality of Big , but Small .
MACRO-TREND 2 :
THE NEW LOCAL
Let ’ s be real . There ’ s nothing new about local . What started at Chez Panisse in Berkeley in the 1970s is now a worldwide phenomenon . What ’ s new , though , is the extent to which community must be recreated and embedded into every touch point of the brand , not just the artisan goat cheese in a charcuterie platter . Instead , what is required is a fundamental understanding of community and how to make that experience available to guests . It includes not just local artwork hanging on walls , but actually welcoming in the local art community , the weird and the wonderful , to meet guests , explain
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