CAN WE THINK ABOUT HOTELS IN A COMPLETELY NEW WAY?

CONVERGING LIFE EXPERIENCES

As I grow older, and in pursuit of a simpler way of living, previously disparate parts of my life are coming together. Much of this centres on the things that drive us forward. With these personal experiences increasingly influencing my approach to working with hotels.

I think about the young adults I sponsor in Kolkata. The connection I have with them, their families and community. Made meaningful, in part, by the simplest of interactions.

Making chapatis together, crouched on the ground around a simple wooden board. Rolling pin in hand, expectant and with a warm heart.

I think about my holidays. The flash-in-a-pan friendship with our guide during a day’s hike up Table Mountain. The tacos on the veranda, at a winery with the owner and his family in Napa Valley.

I think about the work trips, the far away folks I’ve met in bars whilst conducting research for projects. The clients who have become friends, or at least close acquaintances for the time we spent working together.

In Mallorca, I chuckle as I begin to forge a sense of community in the village we now call home. The supermarket staff responding warmly to awful attempts to speak Spanish, let alone Catalan.

And in London, I relished the half an hour spent engaged in deep conversation with a cabbie. Our views differed greatly, but for that brief time they bought us together in divergent discussions. Underpinned by empathy and mutual respect.

What unites these wide and varied life experiences is their inherent simplicity, and the right frame of mind to appreciate them. An eye into someone else’s world, their views on life, and the places they call home.

PEAK INNOVATION? OR TIME FOR A NEW MODEL?

For too long travel - and the hotels and lodgings that facilitate it - has led to a tacit exploitation of sorts. Not often by intention, but frequently by default.

We seek to experience, but too often do so through our own lens. In environments created to please us. Mollycoddle us. With a veneer over what life and culture is really like in the places we visit.

The pretence of community is a well-trodden path. Urban hotel lobbies are replete with the local cool kids. Rooms are adorned with artwork from neighbourhood creatives. Coffee is served from that place down the road.

We talk about engagement. About local relevance. We visit galleries, cafés, restaurants and parks. Take pictures. Buy mementos.

But what is our interaction really? How do we connect - in the truest sense of the word - with the people and places that surround us? Often, I don’t think we do.

What’s the real benefit above and beyond commercial and reputational upsides? Are we really moving things forward and achieving a lasting, positive impact? Or are we taking away more than we’re leaving behind?

In the context of exotic or rural locations, the divide is even more apparent. Sure, we book that food tour, that winery visit, that guided hike or that architecture walk. But in our search for more, do we end up connecting less?

We talk a lot about ‘trends’ and ‘consumer behaviour’ in my world. All well and good. But really, what is it thatwe’re saying?

Have we reached peak innovation? Are we at a place where we seek out marginal points of difference within a tunnel vision of what hotels should be? Giving people what they think they want, and ignoring what’s really needed.

HOTELS AS AGENTS OF CHANGE

Drawing on the totality of life experiences, bestowed with moments of introspective reflection, an alternate future begins to come into view. Maybe not fully formed ideas, rather emergent opportunities to do things differently. To travel differently.

This might start with asking ourselves the right questions. Not simply thinking about what a hotel needs to do for its guests, but what it needs to do for its surrounding community, land and environment.

How do we make that better and then bring people to visit who contribute positively to that mission?

Could this be where true innovation lies? Not only by design, but by necessity and with a heartfelt desire to take responsibility for the future health of these places.

REGENERATIVE GROWTH

The world isn’t going to stop travelling. And neither are hotels going to stop opening to facilitate this.

But maybe by looking at opportunities from a completely different perspective, we can truly connect with the places and people we visit, and come away with better lived experiences. Buoyed by the knowledge that we’ve contributed something good. That the hotels we chose to stay with are really making a difference.

We can talk about purpose, innovation and community as much as we like. But few of us really achieve what we set out to.

A future travel hospitality sector that seeks to change this, that thinks about how we really move the sector on and bring people and places on the journey with us, is one that I can definitely get behind.

HOW CAN I HELP?

Whether you’re new to hospitality, an independent operator, a global brand or a developer, I collaborate with people just like you to create brands and concepts that move our industry forward.

Working with a network of talented collaborators, we specialise in projects that seek to achieve a meaningful impact in destination locations.

If you’d like to discuss how we can bring your bold vision to life, or give your existing business a completely new point of view, please book a call with me here.

Ed

FROM TARGET AUDIENCE TO TARGET IMPACT