152 - What is the future of Luxury
The death of luxury is greatly exaggerated. Loyalty programs, what people want. New AI tools, leveling up again.
Hello,
Was at a conference this week. It was meant to be amazing, but unfortunately it wasn’t. I listened to some discussions on luxury, lot’s of people projecting - there’s nothing wrong with opinions. But they should be clearly pre-faced with “I believe” or “I think”. Also a legacy media CEO was asking for people to spend more money with them as they are a trusted source and AI would use them more. So many questions with that.
Best, Martin
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Loyalty Programs and Hotel Choice
A global survey reveals that 87% of travelers prefer hotels with loyalty programs, with “generosity” being the most valued attribute. So, as I’ve commented many times before, these aren’t loyalty programs but rewards programs. The main thing members want is rewards.
HOTEL LOYALTY TRENDS
About me: I'm a fractional CMO for large travel technology companies helping turn them into industry leaders. I'm also the co-founder of 10minutes.news a hotel news media that is unsensational, factual and keeps hoteliers updated on the industry. Blue Oceans in Luxury
For those who don’t know “red oceans” = intense competition and “blue oceans” = untapped innovation. To escape market saturation, brands are looking toward longevity, biohacking, craftsmanship and the underserved wealth of the “Silver” demographic. Interesting mini analysis. More in my column.
LUXURY BLUE OCEAN
onefinestay’s Luxury Move
Consolidating their focus on bigger locations with longer stays. From a cost point of view it makes send, same cost to acquire customer higher returns. But a less-but-better strategy is great especially in the luxury space.
LUXURY RENTAL STRATEGY
The Agentic AI Skills
Florian Montag says that you can’t adopt “agentic AI” if your team doesn’t have the skills to manage it. The whole premise with AI was that it would just be natural language. Reality is we’re not there yet. But I’m not sure if that is a habit problem or training problem. In any case I agree we need to stop viewing AI training as an IT cost and start seeing it as a core operational necessity.
AI SKILLS GAP
Demand for Personalized ads
A lot of discussions about hyper-personalization with AI. I’m not really convinced that this is the way. It is a really cool gimmick and can help close the last part of the deal. To help a customer project themselves in the product. But I don’t know that customers are really needing it.
DEMAND FOR PERSONALIZATION
Hotels as Social Clubs
There is a trend of hotels converting underutilized ballrooms into members-only social spaces for local residents. By blending traditional hospitality with the exclusivity of a social club. It’s a smart way to solve the “dead space” problem while building a community around the location. I love that hotels are getting creative to use that space with more local activity. Bazin had a vision for that at Accor once, maybe it was just too early.
HOTEL SOCIAL CLUBS
OpenAI’s New Stuff
OpenAI released a bunch of new stuff this week. One item was a tracking pixel. Which means they’re going to be able to measure conversions on ads. I would be curious how this impacts hotel search when we get there. The biggest release was their new Image generator that can now manage text and seems way more capable (see image below). New Agentic tool. Privacy anonymizing tool. Clearly playing catch-up with Claude. So we we all need to switch now?
CHATGPT AD TRACKING. AGENTS. IMAGES
Claude’s New Stuff
Speaking of new AI tools. Claude introduced Claude Design last week. Which is kind of like a design co-worker to create items like powerpoints and keep them on-brand. The speed at which new tools come out is impressive. My advice is keep trying out the new tools, but don’t replace your workflows yet.
NICE VIDEO
Hotel Design as the Difference
A long time ago I wrote that a hotel has 3 differentiators: Location, Comfort and Price. A hotel who is great at all three doesn’t need marketing but likely doesn’t exist. The job of hotel marketer is to identify which of the three the hotel excels at and position the hotel properly. Many are subjective. Even location isn’t just a matter of meters and feet. Great to see some are using comfort more than location.
HOTEL DESIGN
Retail and Hospitality
Luxury brands are moving into hotels and social clubs to maintain relevance. But luxury retail and hotels have been courting each other for decades. Remember those glass display cases in the luxury hotels? Still there is more to do here, better experiences. Sometimes less empty, sometimes less full. Somehow buying in a hotel never feels like a good deal.
RETAIL HOSPITALITY SHIFT
Optimizing FAQs for AI Search
Hoteliers are beginning to optimize their website FAQs specifically for LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude. The goal is to ensure that when a family asks an AI for a “family-friendly hotel in X,” your property is the one that gets cited. This is a quick win for SEO: being the most readable source for an AI. It’s a simple but effective strategy that every hotel should be looking at right now. Instead of making a lot of random FAQs - analyze all the comments of your happiest customers and get ideas from there. Also the least happy ones so you can ensure you’re not listed for those items.
AI SEARCH OPTIMIZATION
Opinion
No, Luxury Is Not Dying
At a conference this week a familiar narrative making the rounds again. Luxury is dying. People do not want things anymore. They want experiences, purpose, sustainability. It sounds good. It feels right. It is also, at least in its strongest form, not supported by what people actually do when money is on the table.
If the shift were as dramatic as some claim, we would not see waitlists stretching months or years for high-end watches. We would not see handbags priced at 40,000 euros quietly disappear from inventory. We would not see private aviation expanding at the pace it is.
At the core, luxury has at the introductory level always been about signaling success. That does not disappear because people say they care about the environment or experiences. Humans like visible proof of status, a trophy. That instinct is old and remarkably stable.
What has changed is the format of the trophy. It used to be primarily physical. You bought something, you owned it, you displayed it. Now we can display the trophy in more ways than just wearing it. Social media has turned visibility into a constant performance. The object is still important, but the photo, the moment, the shareable proof has become just as valuable.
This creates an interesting dynamic. Experiences have become a form of luxury signaling, but they do not replace objects. They complement them. A rare watch on the wrist and a photo from an exclusive location serve the same function. They tell a story about who you are and where you sit in the hierarchy.
Where I do think the conference narrative touches something real is in the speed of the cycle. Social platforms compress time. Trends move faster. What felt new for five years now feels old in one. That has consequences. Consumers get bored more quickly. Brands have to respond.
This is where luxury is actually evolving. Not by abandoning products, but by increasing variation, frequency, and storytelling. More frequent updates. A hotel that was exclusive needs more reasons for people to come back and show new reasons to show that one has been there.
So no, luxury is not dying. I don’t think it is shrinking. If anything, it needs to move faster. The demand for status symbols remains intact, as more people succeed and move up the ladder they’ll need more of these trophies. What is changing is the cadence. Faster cycles, more options, and a tighter link between ownership and visibility.
The interesting question is not whether people want things or experiences. It is how brands will manage a world where both are required, and where the window to feel relevant keeps getting shorter. Which is great for craftsmanship. But then luxury has always been about superior craftsmanship.
• France’s Cultural Road Signs - Link
• The inspiration Benchmark for hospitality - Link⁺
• Unlocking Unstructured Data - Link
• Unilever’s Influencer Machine - Link
Did you know: The word "luxury" comes from the Latin word "luxuria," meaning "excess" or "extravagance." It entered English in the Middle Ages and originally meant "extravagant living" or "sensual pleasure." Over time, it started to mean something expensive and pleasurable that is not necessary. Defined using Lomar Dictionary⁺