Rethinking luxury during a wellness-forward renaissance in hospitality
Someone recently asked me, "What is luxury?" Luxury as described by many can be best summed up as Indefinite. Let’s narrow it down to hotels. To me luxury means worry-free! It means that when I buy something, every detail has been checked and if necessary re-checked on my behalf. Luxury comes to a halt when I have to search for it.
For instance, When the hotel’s F&B manager stops at the dinner table and asks me “Is there anything more we can do during your stay with us?” and I reply “yes, I need a late check-out the day-after tomorrow”, only to be told “ I’m sure our front desk staff will do their best if you just let them know”. That’s when my kind of luxury gets squashed. In terms of luxury, I should trust the employee will tell the appropriate department and/or handle the request him/herself (and follow up with me). And see if there is anything further I need. That to me is luxury.
To my wife, who is a nature-lover and loves to walk around a hotel that has an extensive ecological environment, been told by the hotel receptionist to walk “In that direction to spot birds and see lovely scenery” is no winner. Providing her a complimentary guide book or some literature and a pair of binoculars to learn about the nearby surroundings is her kind of luxury. A Hotel that does just that is truly luxurious and will get her vote any day!
From an etymological perspective, the word luxury comes from the Latin “luxus” which means superabundance, excess in the way of life or a display of wealth aimed at satisfying desires that transcend real needs. It was about catering to the affluent who wanted to flaunt their wealth. We see this in profusion in the traditional era of hospitality, where luxury was about the hotel’s bar with several hundred different scotch whiskeys and a knowledgeable bartender. It was about hotels fashioned with upscale amenities from lavish architecture and expensive furnishings and exotic ingredients and foods. Some hotels even boasted that the air has been carefully selected to entice guests to embrace the full experience and pleasure of what the hotel has to offer. Yes, there will always be a demand for luxury of that sort, but going forward, luxury to the majority of people, is looking and feeling different from what it was yesteryear.
If ‘old luxury’ was about belonging, and ‘new luxury’ about being, then luxury in a post-COVID-19 world is all about doing. Demand for healthy, organic products has never been higher. People want to live longer, healthier lives. With the shift from knowledge to understanding, there is a growing demand for the impact only achieved by complete lifestyle transformation. Today, an equally significant standard has emerged that cannot be ignored. For many guests, what makes a hotel or resort a desirable destination is its commitment to health, wellbeing and sustainability – things that are already a rapidly growing preoccupation.
At The Alpina Hotel in Gstaad, a town in Bern in southwestern Switzerland, breakfast includes the ‘Life Cuisine’ menu, designed using fresh, seasonal and nutritionally balanced ingredients. It provides a full range of culinary options for those wishing to make smart and healthy food choices, including avocado toast, matcha, protein shakes in branded shakers, and granola protein bars, neatly aligned besides Mediterranean, vegetarian and vegan diets. Even guests, who have intolerance towards gluten and dairy, will discover a satisfactory selection to choose from. There is no signage proclaiming “clean eating” — just thoughtful offerings that assume the guest values energy, clarity, and health as much as comfort.
This signals a broader shift: the younger, premium traveler is unimpressed by alcohol-heavy expressions of luxury. The more a property leans on liquor as its defining indulgence, the more outdated it appears. The new luxury traveler still drinks, but differently — with intention, moderation, and a preference for performance over excess.
Yet, many hotel buffets still feel stuck in 2010. Pastries and sugary juices dominate breakfast buffets. The minibars remains stocked with alcoholic and carbonated drinks such as cola.
The Sri Lanka hospitality sector has an opportunity to be a game- changer. For instance, our Island has a range of traditional herbal porridges that has been cherished for generations. It is prepared using a blend of liquid extraction from medicinally valued, hand-picked, fresh green leafy herbs such as gotukola, iramusu, karapincha leaves, kale, etc, and cooked with red raw rice and coconut milk. Truly, they are the most rejuvenating porridges to start the day. A thoughtfully curated mini- bar with a freshly pressed seasonal fruit juice, a plant protein sachet, or a hydration booster could easily set a hotel apart.
The coronavirus pandemic and a period of economic hardship is just what we needed to get all of us to refocus our attention on what is really important to our guests and as an industry, redefine luxuries that work in today's world. Staying safe has interlocked itself with a spiritual emotion leaning towards well-being. The acceleration of client behaviours and new concerns of safety and hygiene will feature foremost in hotels.
Ilzaf Keefahs is a freelance writer who enjoys focusing on hospitality related matters that he is passionate about, and likes to share his views with hoteliers and customers alike. He delves into the heart of hospitality to figure out both customer service and consumer trends that impact the industry
|
|
|
|
