New Concepts for Luxury Hospitality

Luxury hospitality needs new ideas, differentiation, but most of all a purpose.

Apart from all the independently run properties, there are more than 1,600 luxury and ultra-luxury hotels and resorts available worldwide, owned by 38 international brands and groups, with a well-filled property pipeline of more than 650. Accor alone will launch 70 new luxury properties under two completely new brands,?Orient Express?and?Emblems.?

In a recent?article by Colin Nagy?he aptly described the faded mystique of luxury hospitality where flower arrangements, fluffy bath robes and “boring 40,000-foot narratives about ‘re-connection’ and other empty, lofty promises” simply don’t cut it anymore.

In 2010, five of the world’s largest hotel operators—Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Accor, Hyatt—owned 48 different hotel brands. By 2021, this number has grown to 125 brands that are arguable not very much different from each other.?

“More hotel brands – really?”, asked blogger and hospitality consultant?Daniel Lesser in 2017,?after analyzing 81 new brands. He diagnosed these brands to have “failed to carve out a distinct identity, an omission that becomes concrete when you step inside their properties”, most of them being generic with nearly identical slogans, ingredients, and profiles. "Spray-on brands", he called them.

With the pandemic, a changed travel landscape, high demand for talents and a challenged work environment, the hospitality industry needs new ideas, new concepts, and new experiences. Brands as well as independent properties need strong differentiation. People—no matter if they work at the hotel or stay there as a guest—need to have a true purpose.?

“Luxury is completely being rebooted“, Colin Nagy writes. “Properties and brands that have a heartbeat, have a purpose and have a bit more soul have the ability to win share from some of the big, established brands who have lost their way.”

Hoteliers now need to compete for fewer travelers, retain, hire, and train new staff, optimize operations and need to remain?competitive in a completely changed tourism landscape. This is particularly challenging for independent properties and small hotel groups that do not have the resources of a large corporate operator.?

RVS Hospitality dedicates its expertise and bespoke services of concepts, branding, consulting, training, and white-label management solutions to luxury hotels, resorts, and residential projects worldwide by providing individually composed teams of consultants for each assignment.

With 250+ years of combined international luxury hospitality experience from working with brands and properties like Cheval Blanc, Belmond, The World - Residences at Sea, The Royal Mansour Marrakech or The Nautilus Maldives, RVS Hospitality's unique team of experts vows to enable purposeful luxury hospitality experiences.

Find out more: www.rvshospitality.com.