Six shifts are reshaping the field: luxury defined by experience rather than possessions, the blurring of hotel and home, wellness moving to the center of the offer, regenerative operations, a workforce with different expectations, and AI. The craft underneath all of them, attentive people serving people, does not change.
The merger of luxury, hospitality and the culinary arts is no longer a prediction. Industry gatherings now seat hotel groups, fashion houses moving into hospitality and three-Michelin-starred chefs on the same panels, and the conversation has moved on to what gets built next and at what standard. In the closing chapter of the book I set out six shifts that the people I interviewed were already living through, and I argue that the fundamentals the rest of the book describes are exactly what will still matter once the surroundings have changed.
The first shift is that luxury is now defined by what the guest experiences and feels rather than by what they own. The guest can still afford a fine room. What they struggle to find is an hour of undivided attention. The second is the erosion of the line between hotel and home: branded residences and chef signed properties are producing categories the trade press is still trying to name. The third is wellness. Six Senses, Aman, COMO, Lanserhof and others have built propositions around medical grade wellness, sleep and longevity, and a guest segment has emerged that will pay materially more for properties that deliver the substance rather than a spa as an amenity. The kitchens are absorbing the same change on the plate.
“I always emphasize the importance of food safety in relation to the health of our diners.” Kwong Wai Keung, chef, T’ang Court at The Langham, Hong Kong
The fourth shift is sustainability moving past the marketing story and toward regeneration, operations that restore the ecosystems they work within. The fifth is the workforce. The under thirty cohort entering the field wants predictable schedules, mental health support, clear progression and a life outside the property, and the operators who built their kitchens on older assumptions are either redesigning the operation or watching talent leave. The sixth is AI, which will keep narrowing the categories of work that require a human while raising the value of the roles that remain.
On forecasts, the people I interviewed have earned some credibility. Brian Gullbrants, then president of Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, told me years before it was obvious that smartphone and mobile technology must be incorporated into the overall service experience. That advice is now so basic nobody writes it down. Krister Svensson’s WhatsApp butler at The St. Regis Bangkok became the pocket concierge standard. Sjefke Jansen predicted a virtual vacation that has still not arrived. Across all of these conversations, the hoteliers and chefs called the channel shifts almost exactly and never once predicted that the substance of the work would change. It has not.
“A true luxury offering cannot be achieved if cost cutting is the norm. Success can only come from investing in people, new product offerings and new service ideas.” Kai Speth, then general manager of The Reverie Saigon
That is the working assumption I would hand to anyone entering the field now. The technologies will change, the categories will change and the economic structures will change. What the work asks of the person doing it has not changed in decades. Hire for character. Develop the team and defend them under pressure. Walk the floor. Stand at the pass. Notice the guest in front of you. A leader who internalizes those disciplines will be ready for whatever configuration the industry produces next, because every version of the business is still a human being directing unforced attention toward another human being, daily, for years.
Chapter 14, The Future of Luxury and Craft, takes each of the six shifts in turn, from experiential luxury and branded residences to wellness, regeneration, the next generation workforce and the coming decade of AI, and closes on what endures.