The Phoenix Ritz-Carlton is a 20-year-old institution favored by business travelers to the Arizona capital. Like every other hotel these days, managers were seeking every possible efficiency. To that end, they sent a staff member knowledgeable about spirits into the liquor cabinet to clean it up, eliminate "dead" stock, come up with promotions, etc.
To everyone's surprise, the staffer uncovered a valuable bottle of a rare Courvoisier L'Esprit cognac that is just one of 2,000 such bottles in the world. It might well have been there since the hotel opened.
Management decided to make the discovery known by sending out a press release and offering a 1-ounce serving for $500, thinking collectors and connoisseurs might be attracted. The important element, as told to us by Jennifer Blackmon, the hotel's longtime director of sales and marketing: 50% of any proceeds would go to a local soup kitchen which is one of the hotel's regular charities.
The Luxury Collection has more than 69 hotels in almost 30 countries, among them some of the world's finest: Hotel Danieli in Venice, Hotel Imperial in Vienna and a number of the venerable CIGA hotels.
St. Regis, with the iconic New York property as its standard, is growing rapidly - aiming for 19 locations by end of the year. The brand leans toward superb restaurants, butler service and a residential feel. New properties are on tap in the U.S., Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.
Here are the highlights of our chat with Paul James:
Luxury brands in this climate tend to be focused on the
authenticity of the brand. Where did it come from? Who are its core
customers and what do they do?
The journey for Luxury
Collection and St. Regis is to come back and spend time looking at what
the brands are. Luxury Collection is unique in being a collection where
each hotel is an architectural masterpiece or otherwise uniquely
special because it is a hacienda or a palace. They all celebrate their
locations. We are going back to that core. These are hotels embedded in
their cultures; they are the authorities on their destinations.
Why Upscale Travel Agents Offer The Lowest Distribution Cost
For Luxury Suppliers
And Other Lessons For the Recession
From the President of Virtuoso
Here are some highlights from our recent talk with Ms. Jones:
On The Value of a Travel Professional:
"What a true professional offers is not only expertise in a product or destination but the fact that they manage a personal relationship with a client. It's the holistic view of a travel professional that enables them to manage that relationship. As a result I actually believe that working with a travel professional offers a lower cost of distribution because, rather than blanket the affluent marketplace with a message you can go to people who can interpret your message and your information for the right client."
"A powerful advantage a travel professional brings is the power of retention, the continuing value of a client that was brought to a supplier by an advisor. What would be best is a sharing of business intelligence between advisor and supplier that leads to reciprocal loyalty."
Luxury Hotel operators at the NYU International Hospitality Investment Conference talk about how they're coping with the downturn, why luxury remains a "dirty word" and why they expect the segment to come back stronger than ever.
Luxury seemed much on the minds of delegates and speakers at the 31st Annual NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, held early this month at the Waldorf-Astoria. Attendance was down about 20% (better than organizers expected) and many seemed intent on seeking silver linings.
See highlights under these topic headers:
The Dirty Word Dilemma and Will Luxury Come Back as It Was?
Melissa Bradley, who runs Indagare, the online travel community, and who is among the most impressive thinkers in the arena of travel for the affluent, has tuned into a new phenomenon and summed it up succinctly and powerfully in a recent essay called Now The Negotiator. In summary, Bradley says that a new type of affluent consumer has emerged, who she dubs the negocionado (negotiator) "and who is growing stronger by the day." The Negotiator is a product of the economic downturn, which has precipitated massive consumer disorientation as travelers seek to negotiate the new luxury landscape.
Here are the highlights of Bradley's thesis:
The cultural landscape has been profoundly altered by the depth of this economic downturn. The country has gone from "luxury fatigue to luxury rage" as the very things that people clamored for a year ago now turn them off. What people value is being radically reevaluated.
Massive consumer disorientation has forced people to react. Some have become paralyzed, others seeking to compensate for past sins by "dong good."
But there is another category - The Negocianado, who Bradley describes as "a connoisseur of wine, cigars and cars who has always paid full price. But now with his bonus abolished and portfolio plummeting, he's "decided to take retail personally."
That can mean several things:
Haggling with a salesperson or company over expensive items
Bragging about getting great deals
What is the best way for the luxury supplier to respond?
A little quieter, yes. With sensible adjectives like authentic, natural, affordable, even "simplistic and humble," as Jeff Weinstein, Editor of Hotels Magazine puts it. Indeed, he adds, "..opulence may be going on a much needed vacation."
You will notice, however, that important travel brands defining themserlves as "Luxury"-Small Luxury Hotels, Luxury Link, Starwood's Luxury Collection, and Luxury Travel 360, of course---have no intention of changing the name plates on the door.
I, for one, see affluent consumers simply refining the descriptors to reflect what really counts: the best of service, a caring attitude, and the assurance of a level of comfort and mostly quiet ambience that continues to enrich the travel experience. We are, I believe, simply ‘turning down the noise" to a level that suits a less exuberant mood everywhere in the world. When I am told I can get "luxury accommodations for less", that takes nothing away from my feeling of enjoying a special reward.
We may well be moving to a healthier time in travel, where more and more aspiring middle class and mildly affluent people will be sharing experiences of life long dreams that they will live over and over again.
So, as I leave for our annual summer sabbatical-no newsletter issues until September-I am confident that Fall will bring better news and less wringing of hands over the future of the New Luxury-a better place for all.
The headline said "Guilt trip; Luxury travelers are toning it down, keeping it quiet or canceling vacations to avoid flaunting wealth in hard times". The story in March 6 USA Today was by Jayne Clark, who ‘carried it off' in splendid style. Here's the saucy essence, followed by the link to the full treatment.
"In a time when posh has become a four-letter word, forget about keeping up with the Joneses. It's more socially expedient to stay down with them. Economic turmoil is giving luxury a bad name, it seems, and not just among the private-jet set, either. The desire to tone down consumption is affecting how some Americans vacation -- or at least how they say they vacation." Much of the anecdotal material in this USA Today piece comes from travel agents -worth the trip.
