Luxury Travel & Lifestyle Trends

In today’s age of information overload, the battle for companies, brands and PR professionals to get their ‘messages’ noticed, understood and retained is greater than ever before. And we’ve always been a strong advocate of using pictures to enhance reports, articles, news releases and presentations. When words, images and color are used together correctly – they can be a very persuasive communication mix.

Co-branding in the hospitality industry has existed in one form or other for a while, not only as a competitive differentiator, but to also benefit from the other brands overall image or “luxury halo” as we like to call it. More recently, co-branding with gyms is yet another way for hotels to differentiate. Hotels are seeing more and more travelers, especially business travelers, where the gym is often the deciding factor.

So how can hoteliers make the most of QR codes? With some creativity and careful planning, hotels can create a QR campaign that could enhance the guest experience, improve search engine rankings and make you stand out above the competition.

Roses are the oldest source of perfume. Ancient Sanskrit documents mention rose oil, which is the strongest form of this scent, and in the Iliad, Homer relates how Aphrodite rubbed Hector’s dead body with rose oil.

The guest directory of Berlin’s Minilofts, an apartment hotel owned by two architects, gets my vote for one of the best I’ve ever seen….and used. Written by the hotel manager, who works part time at the English language magazine for Berlin, the 18 page guide is comprehensive and perfectly geared towards its guests, which Minilofts describes as “international guests….(with) an independent streak and a fascination with culture.”

It’s a very effective strategic alliance, offering serious benefits for both partners: it’s become Berlin’s latest hotspot and an ideal outpost to launch Moët’s newest product, reaching out and connecting with Moët’s ideal demographic, and creates a buzz around Hotel Adlon. This is a great example of a strategic alliance for complementary product lines.

All-inclusive resorts have mostly been reserved for sunny beach locales. Until now. The Four Seasons Denver just announced its first inclusive package, more than hinting that if its popular, this could be the first of many offered at Four Seasons worldwide.

Among its many attributes, social media is global. Luxe car builder Porsche USA is taking advantage of this in its new “Engineered for Magic. Everyday” campaign. Here, American misperceptions of German sports cars are challenged by everyday owner stories of running mundane errands in their Porsches. This expands Porsche’s value proposition through words and images of owners themselves.

Movies, songs and MTV first made “get real” and “keeping it real” street buzzwords in the distant ‘90s. Now, the same notion of getting real perfectly describes what consumers want this decade. Impatient, short of time and technically savvy, today’s affluent spenders are accustomed getting what they want, when and where they want it.

Want your product or service talked about? even around negative buzz? A New York Times magazine article entitled “Good News, Bad News” cited the results of a Stanford University research project, which concluded that a crucial factor is how familiar the brand or product was before the negative publicity.