My wife and I are living in the West Village in Manhattan, and adore this neighborhood as of its vast variety of excellent and unique restaurants. We love to dine out, and excellent food and service doesn’t cut it anymore. It takes something more…

The face of wealth and luxury is changing!

For Valentine’s day I decided to leave the Village for once and try something new in Midtown, and we went to the Nerai restaurant. A fairly new place with Greek cuisine. The ambience was nice, the service prompt, knowledgeable and friendly, and the food was excellent! And yet we both felt that something was missing and that we probably wouldn’t come back. The competition is just too good, and this place didn’t manage to make a difference.

Not too long ago I would have been impressed, but something has changed in me… my perception of a luxurious experience has changed. I now understand luxury as something that’s somewhat different, unique and something that I cannot get anywhere else.

How does this translate into luxury hotels? Every luxury brand offers hotels with elegant design, crystal chandeliers, marble floors, and excellent service, what would make you choose one over the other? In the past luxury hotels that offered butler service would stand out, but now many hotels started to offer white-gloved butler service of some sort. So how can you stay relevant as a hotel? How can you still make an impression on your guests?

The answer is simple! We need to understand that luxury is about experiences, and great experiences are not because of marble floors and crystal chandeliers, it’s about employees who not only provide great service, but strive to build an emotional connection with you. It requires you to understand every day at work as a Broadway show. While you have been performing as an actor for many years, it’s still the first show for your guests and you need to be at your best at every single turn. Luxury is not about luxurious products, it’s about a mindset that wants to serve other, about a mindset that wants other to be happy and enjoy what matters most to them.

Working in the luxury industry for years, we are at risk to become complacent, we are at risk to misunderstand why our guests come to us and are willing so spend a fortune for it. It’s all about a being received with a welcoming and sincere smile and being recognized.

Staying relevant means being able to change with the world around you. Years ago our guests would wear expensive suits and dresses, and now the guest occupying your Presidential suite could be wearing shorts and flip-flops. Like it or not, and if you’re changing fast enough someone else will.

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