Luxury Travel & Lifestyle Trends

First it was hotel bed linens, then spa-like bathrooms. Now it seems that hotels are influencing our interior and exterior home décor, design elements that only used to be seen at five star hotels and resorts.

Recently I was a guest speaker at a Preferred Hotel Group conference, and a question on the minds of many was, “Do the affluent use social media?”

Tea is steeped in English tradition, but is becoming a very hot US beverage (could it be that after 200+ years, we’re finally starting to get over that bit of unpleasantness in Boston Harbor?). Tea is becoming the ultimate, affordable, healthy beverage of choice for millions of Americans and, more significantly, a ‘tea lifestyle’ is emerging.

We’re just back from the Hospitality Design Boutique Exposition & Conference in the heart of Miami’s South Beach. Most interesting was a panel “Affordable hotels 2.0- Hybrids, New brands and fresh ideas” where the industry’s latest pioneers (Paul Priestman of Priestmangoode, Micheal Levie of CitizenM hotels, Bill Lanting of Stay Hotels, and Enrique Sarasola of Room Mate hotels) discussed the next generation of hotels, design and the newest consumer.

Does a resort positioning itself as sensual and hip compliment marketing efforts appealing to families? The Fontainebleau Hotel thinks so and top executive, Howard Karawan, points to outstanding sales results over the last two months as the proof that it can be done. In the marketing world, that is no small feat.