Welcome to The Reservation, a tPH letter including long-form analysis and cultural criticism of the hospitality industry and relevant trends.

In this letter: the state of play of hotel merch, we will soon be creating our own objects to take home, and an expert’s view on the most underrated merch products

Dear guest,

I have announced in an earlier edition of this newsletter that I very much appreciate good hotel merch.

By good, I mean visibly high-quality and thoughtfully designed.

Our hospitality experiences are often tied with memories and experiences, whether we’re with loved ones or on an introspective solo-dinner or stay. That’s why I love the idea of being able to immortalize the moment and leave with a piece of memorabilia.

While iconic institutions such as the Ritz have been doing merch seriously for some time now, it now seems that every single establishment, no matter how tiny, has some version of a brand extension offering.

Before we begin, some personal notes on the state of merch

On a recent trip to Paris, it was almost as if every boulangerie, matcha shop, restaurant, hotel, had their own version, which kind of exhausted the concept in my eyes.

I think we are possibly experiencing a collective exhaustion with luxury brand logos and the such, but is the solution to replace them with the signatures of our favorite restaurants and hotels?

I saw someone on here write that hotel merch has become a way of signaling being in-the-know, having been to the ‘right’ places and pledging allegiance to them in the form of a baseball hat or a tote bag.

I own a few hospitality merch items myself. I have a sports set from the Rosewood Asaya Spa (a collaboration with Sporty & Rich), and a t-shirt from a mini tapas bar on a Spanish island. I have attached memories to both, and wear them gladly.

But now with the proliferation, I don’t know what to think. Do I really want a tote bag from a bagel place? Or drink my coffee out of Ralph Lauren mugs?

Maybe it’s just an overall exhaustion with logos. I feel myself gravitating towards timeless design that has no logo on it whatsoever. I want to wear pieces that don’t have names on them.

A trend I’m noticing (and probably everyone else has as well) is brand lighters and matchboxes, the latter of which used to be pretty standard but disappeared for a little bit. Now both are in full swing (correlated with the fact that smoking is back in?).

Logos are a way for us to communicate taste, or a lack thereof. Understated signals, like a cap in the colors of a certain brand are way more attractive to me than, say, one that has a big Aman logo on it, if you know what I mean?

But I guess this also applies to me not wanting to wear a full Gucci monogrammed outfit, or anything else OTT so to say.

Anyway, now we’re done with my musings – let’s enter our very special house guest of the day.

“Everyone wants merch now” – the thoughts of a hotel merch designer

This week, I sat down with Katelyn Powers, a designer, creative, and all-around cool person based in Canada who has an impressive portfolio of brand names under her belt.

In hospitality and wellness, you can see her work under brands such as Ritz-Carlton, Othership, W Hotels, Ennismore, 1 Hotels, Airbnb, and many more.

Many of the items she has designed have become cult favorites, to the point where guests pocket the do not disturb -signs she has created (the small boutique property reacted by ordering plenty of more so that guests are able to continue this habit).

She is the person to speak about this topic.

Everyone wants merch now, but it’s not that easy to get right

More and more hotels and hospitality brands are feeling the pressure to have a merch offering.

According to Katelyn, the instinct is right. Merch is a way of creating a club, of expanding the brand world beyond the physical property and into a guest’s daily life.

“When someone wears your hat on the street or carries your tote to the grocery store, they show that they are part of the club that has visited that place”. But exclusivity is not the only reason people buy into merch. “Sometimes people just want to support and represent their favorite local spot, and buying merch is a good way to do that”.

In any case the pressure to have merch (and end up doing it quickly) and the ability to do merch well are two very, very different things, and most brands fall into the former category.

What hotels get wrong about merch

I asked Katelyn what pattern she sees across properties that get it wrong, and her answer was immediate: not thinking beyond the obvious.

“There’s too little intentionality. Hotels default to the obvious – a cream tote because it’s the default color – without pushing even slightly further.””

“Something as simple as a more considered color choice or an unexpected material can completely transform an object,” she says. “I mean it’s fabric, you have the option to pick any color. I feel like brands are often not thinking big enough”.

When everyone has merch, guests will automatically benchmark one brand’s offering to that of another.

With the proliferation of merch, there will be (and already is) a point of bifurcation where there is the generic stuff that almost falls in the same category as the free stuff you get at conventions, and the good stuff that has thought behind it.

Sometimes the difference between the two is using the company’s existing brand playbook to its full extent. “Brands now often have these incredible playbooks that they have paid a lot of money for, often including these cool small details that the designer rarely sees come to life". All of this, Katelyn says, is gold for creating elevated objects.

Even a tote can be great, but a lack of thought behind any merch item is a problem.

Katelyn also points out that sometimes the hurdle for creating something memorable and worth the resources is that the brand has no dedicated person to handle the project. “You’re often met with a person from the marketing team who does not have the capacity or knowledge to handle a merch project,” she explains.

If the resources are spent and creating merchandise is deemed an important strategic objective, then enough time and budget should be dedicated for it to be executed well.

In my eyes, the equation is pretty simple:

Bad merch → brand image erosion.

Good merch → more revenue and happy guests representing your brand left and right.

Retail could be the missing piece for your property

Katelyn’s ongoing work with Othership, which is the super hip Toronto and NY -based bathhouse and wellness brand, gave her a front-row seat to the power of merch.

Othership has its own small and very aesthetically pleasing retail space that has become a cult favorite. “People love to get something to remember their transformative experience”.

Bathhouse culture and communal wellness experiences are still relatively new in North America, and when people go through something that genuinely shifts how they feel, they want to hold onto it.

“They bring them home and take pictures.”

And Othership’s array of merch doesn’t stop at the more obvious items of a hat and hoodie (which are both SO cute by the way). You can find sauna hats, custom essential oils, wooden body tools, herbal teas, and my favorite, signature incense to transport you right back to the bathing experience.

While I don’t know any specific numbers, it seems that merch has become an important additional revenue stream for Othership. Many hotels now have dedicated retail areas and mini shops that offer physical ways to opt into the property’s fantasy world.

Again, we circle back to the importance of doing merch well. If the products are good and thoughtful, guests will gladly opt in for post-stay immersion and tangible memories.

Scent and uniforms deserve more attention

Not all brand extensions are merch to buy. OS&E (Operating Supplies and Equipment) such as bed linens, towels, bathrobes, and staff uniforms all are touch points that impact the guest experience.

“Staff uniforms are the most visible expression of the brand that guests interact with all day, and are so important”. (Longtime tPH readers will remember that we covered the acute importance of hotel uniforms in an earlier letter).

Below, the most beautiful uniforms Katelyn designed for Othership.

Sometimes, OS&E and merch you can take home overlap. A hotel’s signature scent could also be something a guest can buy and take home in some form, whether it’s a candle or incense.

During our conversation, we even tossed around an idea of a scented bar that can be hung in the wardrobe, that can then be taken home.

Our house guest specifically mentions the power of scent in merch. “It’s psychological, it transports you in a way that no other sense does”.

(Btw, Katelyn told me that an unexpected merch object no one has taken her up on yet is a car air freshener – do it with her before someone else will)

What happens when every place has merch?

This question has been the object of my obsession for days, months, going on years. When everyone has baseball cap and a t-shirt, what’s next?

“We will be co-creating the merch,” Katelyn says.

We know that people yearn for experiences, they want to be offline, they want to literally and figuratively touch grass.

Guests will be expecting deeper personalization, and this could mean programming where they leave with something they helped create. To name a few that Katelyn mentioned: scent blending workshops, incense making, basket weaving, print-making.

This is where everything started making sense to me. I mean, isn’t this just the most hospitality thing merch could do; involve you in the creation? If hospitality is a reciprocal act, why shouldn’t hospitality merch be that too?

Is your mind blown? Mine is

Was this obvious to you all? Or are you just as dizzied by this predicament as I am?

The future of hotel merch is personalization, mirroring the hospitality industry in its entirety. Somehow just imagining notebook making or glass blowing workshops where you create something with branded colors and then take home makes my heart flutter and eyes tear up and feel like I can see into the future.

When anything proliferates, it creates a spectrum of slop – meaning, and we can obviously place the conference landfill adjacent totes on the other end, and a lovingly handmade (by you!) item on the other.

Whew, I hope you enjoyed this emotional journey, I was most certainly on one. If you have a hotel property and want to work with Katelyn (you should), you can find her here for all your design needs.

Extra! 3 hotel merch trends to keep an eye on according to Katelyn

• Artists collaborating with hotels as people want to see the human touch (Katelyn worked on the W Hotels’ collaboration with Paris-based artist Thomas Lélu)

• Consumable or perishable merch, such as branded skincare or beauty products

• Seasonal capsule collections that are limited edition (start building your in-house design team now!)

Now I need to hear from you: what is the absolute best instance of hotel merch you have ever come across?

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Thank you for being here, hope you’re enjoying your stay!

🔑 Emma

I am currently on my way to Switzerland, the birthplace and gold standard of modern hospitality, after which I’m heading to Lake Como. Some reportage will naturally ensue.

Today’s topic is something I’ve been thinking about a lot as fashion brands are increasingly borrowing antics from hospitality.

I find myself yearning for a time when retail was somewhat interesting, and I myself now do most of my shopping vintage and second hand, just because I enjoy the process of scouring for and finding gems way more than the current state of commerce.

Here are some thoughts on why shopping bores me :)

Welcome to The Reservation, a tPH letter including long-form analysis and cultural criticism of the hospitality industry and relevant trends.

In this letter: retail is going experiential, and what it can learn from hospitality to survive.

I think we have all noticed that retail is in trouble, at least in its current incarnation. Saks Global (the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue, ‌Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman) announced its bankruptcy in 2025, and has now risen from the trenches after a complete overhaul and restructuring.

Department stores have lost their luster to consumers, and according to this Forbes article, more stores have closed than opened in the past years.

However, there is a category that warrants individual examination, namely, experiential retail (where hospitality and purchases meet 😊🤝🛍️)

Shopping has been so disappointing lately

On a purely personal level, shopping has become underwhelming, and I would attribute much of this to everything being so available.

Just in recent history, at the start of the 2010s, there were many curiosities (such as Abercrombie sweatpants if you happened to be a Scandinavian teenager) you had to travel overseas to acquire.

Having immediate access to the trend of the moment was still unheard of for most of the world.

While e-commerce has soared and most likely will continue to do so, an undercurrent of more curated retail experiences has emerged.

To me, this change physical retail is undergoing is twofold: firstly, brands are increasingly investing in experiential pop-ups and flagships, and secondly, we are seeing a renaissance of the (fully analog) specialized brick-and-mortar.

✮⋆˙Experiential retail ✮⋆˙

The goal of experiential retail concepts is to create emotional resonance with shoppers, and really viscerally drill down the brand messaging into the storegoer.

For most brands, it has proven to be a gateway to increased omnichannel sales, with uplifts from 15-25 percent up to doubled(!!!) revenue.

This makes sense because if your concept is eye-catching and resonates with shoppers, it will inevitably garner a lot of organic attention through social media and shared experiences.

There’s not one way to do experiential. For instance, Gentle Monster has successfully taken the more tech-ish and visually captivating route with giant robotic statues in-store and spatial design that invites lingering.

Naturally, I am more interested in cases where brands lean into hospitality, and I think you may be too, since you’re here :)

✮⋆˙ Hospitality in retail ✮⋆˙

Mini case study: RH

RH, the renowned and quintessentially American luxury furniture house, opened its first restaurant a decade ago and now runs a portfolio of over 20 locations mostly in North America, but also Paris and the UK.

Guests have reported visiting precisely because of the immersion into the brand’s aesthetic, the culinary experience being entirely secondary. (Although I must say their new Milan menu looks great, thank you to for the tip!)

What an ingenious way to make people lust over the idea of replicating the atmosphere in their own dining room.

✮⋆˙ The pilgrimage purchase ✮⋆˙

Mini case study: Rubirosa’s

Now to the subject matter that pulls my heartstrings, and whispers a promise that I may get to relive the high of gaining the possession of Abercrombie sweatpants at 13 years old: the renaissance of the analog brick-and-mortar.

And when I say analog, I’m referring to retailers rejecting e-commerce and making you plan a trip to become a client. One of these is shirt atelier Rubirosa’s, which welcomes shoppers solely at its shop on Paris’s Left Bank (no webshop to be found).

The founder is Lauren Rubinski, a third-generation shirtmaker and successful jeweler, and I was introduced to her through this Monocle article (another brand that knows experiential retail à la their cafés).

Rubinski’s motivation for not going the DTC/e-commerce route was to get to focus on the human experience, which is something the store aims to achieve through hospitality.

”On arrival [at Rubirosa’s], a staff member in a rollneck and apron offers a warm welcome – a small detail that sets the tone,” writes Monocle.

To me, Rubirosa’s is a promise of a world where only by journeying and delaying gratification can you own a specific piece of artisanship. Is this what luxury is, considering that everything is now exhaustingly accessible?

In what form will retail survive?

Experiential retail is, in many ways, nothing new. Nor are brick-and-mortars, obviously. But just reading about Rubirosa’s and the idea of committing to intentionally creating a certain atmosphere for the shopper in simple ways (I would love to buy a shirt from someone in a rollneck and an apron) makes me feel like something interesting is underway.

Consumers want more than the product itself. They want to feel emotionally attached to the things they purchase and feel like this endless cycle of consumption is meaningful.

To send you off, some honorable mentions of great retail concepts:

• Officine Universelle Buly

• 10 Corso Como

• Liberty London

• The Anya Hindmarch Village

• Monocle

Any retail experiences that have blown your mind lately? What do you foresee for department stores? Are malls dead?

So many questions, I need your thoughts 👇

Leave a comment

Until next time,

🔑 Emma

Welcome to The Reservation, a tPH letter including long-form analysis and cultural criticism of the hospitality industry and relevant trends.

In this letter: A frantic rant about the lack of disciplined critique within the hospitality industry, hotel merch on merch on merch, Sporty & Rich’s genius hotel collab strategy, and why hospitality is the real art and asset.

The fashion industry, undeniably, holds a seat at the cultural table. For many, fashion is equal to culture.

Fashion is surrounded by an infrastructure of attention, spanning from news coverage, worldwide publications, podcasts with millions of listeners, and entire museums that all treat clothing as being worthy of serious intellectual inquiry.

The cultural impact of fashion is nothing I disagree with, because it is true that the way we dress speaks to identity, power, class, desire, belonging.

What is curious to me, however, is that hospitality delivers on all of these facets (and more), but the cultural discussion around it seems to be nonexistent.

In my opinion the hospitality industry has a tendency to reduce itself to operations, demand forecasts, occupancy rates, RevPAR, profit margins, etcetera (as a side note: I cover many of these operational topics for EHL Insights), and not much more.

There is trade press (I do enjoy myself some CoStar and Skift <3) and “top 10 hotels in x” listicles often void of substance.

Mind you, this is an industry that both literally and figuratively constructs spaces where human life happens, as people sleep, eat, gather, grieve, celebrate, and rest; and we only want to talk about the logistics of it all?

Where is the Vogue of hospitality (although some have argued that Vogue also has succumbed to reporting rather than actual cultural fashion criticism)?

Where is the joint hype for a new hotel opening as for a runway show?

There is a vast gulf between what hospitality is (and its significance) and how we talk about it.

Hospitality culture lacks structure (my rant continues)

Obviously, the hospitality industry has not failed commercially, as it has grown into a trillion-dollar global sector1 despite the trying times it faced in the 2020s.

Culturally and philosophically, however, I’m afraid it’s still in its infancy.

The industry has failed to claim its own significance and to produce the language, the criticism, the public discourse that would let people understand what makes a great hotel or restaurant so great.

The fashion industry went from being the ‘rag trade’ to generating endless cultural commentary and becoming a zeitgeist fixture. There are critics, writers, theorists (omg where are the hospitality industry theorists???), curators, and public intellectuals who exist to continuously articulate the context behind garments and collections or designer choices.

While hospitality has fantastic institutions such as EHL (my alma mater) and Cornell producing excellent managers and executives, and industry consultants who can optimize the hell out of a P&L.

But where are the hospitality critics? Not reviewers!!! Critics!!!

Where are the people asking what it means, philosophically, that we’ve built an entire economy around the idea of paying strangers to care for us? What does it say about loneliness, about community, about the failure of domestic life, that the fastest-growing segment of luxury is wellness hospitality?

Is hospitality even critiqueable?

Maybe the issue is that hospitality as a cultural object is harder to criticize.

A garment holds still, is photographable, hung at the met, and it can be argued about for forty years and the thing itself doesn’t change or disappear (even though the world around it naturally does).

But the object of hospitality criticism would be something much more elusive, namely the felt experience (we love phenomenology2 here at tPH) of being hosted, which is private, lived once, and, then, gone; because the product of hospitality is by nature perishable.

Hospitality moments cannot be hung on the wall for everyone to admire, which brings us to the ultimate dilemma of building a public discourse around an art that leaves no artifact. You can’t march concierge down a runway (or… could you?).

(I don’t think this is unsolvable, by the way. I think it’s unsolved, which is a completely different thing).

Walk with me:

What if universities offered hospitality as a humanities subject, not just a management degree? Or imagine a TED talk about the philosophy of room service!!! And even better, what if hospitality brands would convey their values through commissioning artists, funding research, and publishing essays? Hospitality could have the chance to pioneer something amazing and thoroughly anti-anti-intellectualistic.

And the conditions are right, my friend. The wellness boom, the experience economy, the quiet luxury conversation a couple of years back, in my opinion all point to people being hungry for the thinking and values that hospitality could offer.

People are just simply missing the proper language to describe why the best hospitality experience left the impression it did, or why experiences seem to fill some void that luxury goods haven’t been able to.

BUT HERE’S THE TEA!!!!

Earlier this year, Mandarin Oriental announced its collaboration with Sporty & Rich (which has a history of hotel collaborations, including collections with the Carlyle, the Sunset Tower Hotel, and Le Bristol, to name a few), and Frame is on its 5th collection with Ritz Paris.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this is a sign that hospitality is finally entering the zeitgeist, but that fashion is colonizing the cultural capital of hospitality. There! I said it.

Frame is selling the feeling of Ritz Paris, its heritage and sense of being cared for that people associate with the hotel, either targeting brand loyalists or aspirational shoppers who can afford a cashmere sweatshirt but not a stay at the premises.

But the gag is that Sporty & Rich actually needs the hotels more than they need S&R, because without the hotel the old-money-wellness-fantasy is just a font on any other sweatshirt.

The cultural capital is flowing from hospitality to fashion, because the fashion industry has recognized the enormous emotional and cultural power that hospitality holds. The feeling I get is that the hospitality industry is just flattered to be noticed rather than making a claim for that cultural power on its own terms.

Visibility is a gift and a threat

There is a caveat that the fashion industry learnt the hard way: namely, that cultural visibility cuts both ways. The same critics and journalists that elevated fashion to art have also held it accountable for sweatshops, waste, and burning unsold products.

Now that spending and attention alongside it are migrating towards transformative luxury and hospitality, the scrutiny will hit the industry. The brands that underpay and mistreat staff or blatantly greenwash their sustainability claims will hear about it.

The huge opportunity is for the brands that are invested in bettering the industry and being part of the cultural conversation. Where there is integrity, there will be a lot of gain when hospitality finally gets its cultural moment.

Back to hospitality x fashion -gate

Fashion has latched itself onto hospitality because it can smell the cultural charge that it cannot offer by itself.

Let’s take Sporty & Rich that owns a sweatshirt which is lovely and on-trend (I own many pieces, including from their collab with Rosewood’s Asaya spa), and also in theory infinitely manufacturable. Mandarin Oriental, on the other hand, owns the live, rare, never-the-same, iconic, inimitable thing of hosting a person and creating everlasting memories. It cannot be bottled, which makes it the more valuable asset of the two.

Fashion can borrow hospitality’s iconography with the crests and the serif, but it cannot borrow the act3. So the hotel has something inimitable and viscerally human – and what does it do? LICENSES ITS INFINITE AURA TO A FASHION BRAND that has so much more to gain than the hotel.

And if you want the receipts, Sporty & Rich in about eighteen months went from one hotel capsule to a standing arrangement with two of the most prestigious hotel groups on the planet (Oetker and Rosewood), doing repeat collections with the same properties, and the company grew immensely as a result.

The party that gained the most brought the least. Yes the hotels got some margin and maybe a younger customer and walking billboards roaming around the world, but they still took the cheaper half of the trade.

Similarly, the Ritz Paris doesn’t need Frame because it can and in some ways already does build the whole thing by itself on its own terms (the Ritz bear and yellow robes are phenomena in their own right), and fashion can only ever gesture from the outside.

✶ ✶ ✶

And that is, dear guest, the cost of staying quiet. If you won’t theorize yourself, someone else will happily theorize you.

There is much, much more to say about this topic (e.g., hospitality activations of fashion brands, hotels that do amazing in-house merch such as the Bowery) but I have a feeling there’s many interesting conversations around this to have with you all before we do so.

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Stay sporty and rich,

🔑 Emma

In this letter: why people are addicted to Aman, hospitality memes, the ethics of hospitality, and piping hot industry tea.

I recently spoke to a friend who has worked with a certain, ever-so relevant hospitality brand that has built its reputation and cult-ish fandom on, yes, it’s wonderfully designed properties, but also on its incredible service.

That brand is, of course, none other than Aman.

The fast-expanding hospitality group has built an allure of exclusivity and taste (the most overused word of 2026) around its hotel portfolio, that Aman junkies approach with a gotta-catch-‘em-all attitude.

What these brand devotees (foreshadowing) say on Reddit threads and Google reviews about what keeps bringing them back again and again is the service that contributes to an almost magical atmosphere.

You are transported from the ordinary to a carefully orchestrated alternative world order, not of the Eyes Wide Shut kind, but of harmony and stillness.

The soul of Aman

But what makes the service at Aman stand out from any other luxury property out there?

According to my insider friend, the brand has managed to become such a phenomenon because everyone from housekeepers to corporate managers are devoted to the soul or spirit of Aman, something that seems exist beyond the property. A higher power, if you will.

When I hear this, I envision concierge serving guests from a dignified position of being in service of something larger. They become embodiments of the harmony that arises from attention and care, hospes1 in action.

If you think this is woo woo, I grant you your opinion. It does feel almost impossible to articulate this sentiment without relying on the world of abstractions and ideas.

Still, this strikes a very specific chord inside me; one of truth, something close to what the philosophy of hospitality truly means.

The ethics of service

I do happen to believe all great creativity comes from being moved by something larger and creating experiences that go beyond a transactional service touch point.

Service is hugely, immensely undervalued in our society, not least made concrete by the fact that most of care-related labor is produced by women in the private sphere, completely unpaid.

Jobs in hospitality, especially in operations are not generally seen as dignified career paths in and of themselves, and are treated more as transitory work (exhibit a: employee turnover is extremely high in the hospitality industry).

This is a structural issue, comprising of many factors, including that we tend to see those serving us as means-to-an-end to fulfill our needs, rather than human beings who are using their precious time to be of service to us (something Kant would note to be a big no-no).

And it’s not only guests who succumb to this line of thinking, but the hospitality industry itself is a culprit, not paying employees enough, alongside endless cases of general mistreatment and poor management.

I think the mindset of devotion that can make a hotel brand stand out above all others, and that Aman has seemed to master, can only exist when the employees are treated well enough to give a shit. When they are made to feel like their work is one of great dignity and service to a bigger, ethical obligation of being of service to others.

A cautionary tale (and piping hot industry tea!!!🍵)

Many hotel groups are so obsessed with their bottom line and consequently are not happy with how human capital intensive the business is (especially in the luxury segment), flat out complaining about the incurred costs of the salaries of the people that make their product (hospitality) possible.

Spring last year I had the opportunity to meet the area finance director of one of the most iconic hotel brands in the world that, at the time, was a publicly traded company (I will not name names since the company has since gone private and hopefully is changing its strategy going forward).

She presented the financials and growth plans of the group, with an overwhelming amount of properties in the pipeline. Then, she went on to say that the company’s biggest challenge is salaries.

This really did not sit right with me, especially because right after she concluded the presentation, the brand’s bubbly, smiley HR representative gloated about their growing, practically unpaid internship program.

Do not get me wrong, the pressure is understandable, especially for public companies that have to deliver growth and improve results on the quarterly under stakeholder scrutiny.

The options are essentially to either grow revenue or cut costs.

The former happens the quickest through acquisition and expansion, which I think can be a detrimental strategy for an ultra luxury brand. A larger portfolio will almost inevitably bring inconsistency across the portfolio.

The cutting costs route is what leads to the finger pointing to staff expenses.

Neither is a great look for a luxury hotel that’s supposed to be rooted in quality and intentionality, in my opinion.

How to build your own cult and make your staff devoted

Hotels can gain insane and completely deserved advantage by becoming a vessel for something greater; having an ethos that each member of the team can subscribe to and gladly embodies.

However, this is impossible if this philosophy is not made a structural pillar and the employees, who are the ones bringing the vision to life in the day-to-day actually in contact with the guests, do not feel like their work has dignity or grace.

This is absolutely not something you can plaster on, as devotion does not spring from pretty words or motivational quotes in the staff canteen.

Investing in human capital, and caring for the people who care for your guests, is the single most valuable thing you can do in an industry that commodifies human care and attention.

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Send memes,

🔑 Emma

tPH is almost 3 months old, and I feel so at home with how you’re responding and engaging.

It feels like so many of you have felt the way I did, that hospitality media is missing a place where we go a bit deeper than operations and aesthetics, and commune around the deeper themes of human-centricity and connection that predate them.

In addition to this letter, I have the pleasure in working on many other interesting hospitality writing projects, most recently as the editor of EHL’s Psychological Well-Being in Hospitality Report 2026.

It is based on the interviews of nearly 50 hospitality and well-being leaders, including the CEO of Equinox Hotels, the longevity director at Clinique La Prairie, the President of global hotel operations at Four Seasons, and many more.

Read the full report here

While the report includes a plethora of interesting findings, my absolute favorite of the explored themes is the move towards transformational hospitality and its philosophical roots.

Welcome to The Reservation, a tPH letter including long-form analysis and cultural criticism of the hospitality industry and relevant trends.

In this letter: we are moving on from the experience economy, hospitality as transformation, Aristotle, and Hannah Arendt.

From the experience economy to the transformation economy

In 1998, Joseph Pine introduced the concept of the experience economy, which is the idea that the mechanics of business had moved from a focus on goods to a focus on experiences.

This has been largely great news for hospitality, which is by default experiential.

However, this is no reason for the industry to rest on its laurels. The successor concept to the experience economy is already here, introduced by Joe Pine himself: the transformation economy.

The transformation economy argues that consumers are no longer satisfied with staged experiences around the products and experiences they are purchasing. Instead, consumers are now seeking for the things they consume to change them in some way, whether that’s their thoughts, feelings, or entire lives.

So in wellness terms, a hotel may have a bespoke spa or a pillow menu (have any of you seen one of these in real life??), but it does not on its own hold the promise of transformation for the guest.

Is the hospitality industry prepared?

The hospitality industry is still largely stuck in the mindset of the experience economy, thinking that this almost 30-year-old framework still holds. According to one of our interviewees, “If you ask most hoteliers, they still talk about well-being as ‘hey, we have a gym and granola’”.

The sad thing is that the industry has all the potential to become a place of transformation. Currently, the focus is largely on serving the guest’s hedonic needs for rest or pleasure. While these are important, for transformation to occur the guest’s sense of meaning or relation to life must be addressed.

There are properties that pioneer hospitality as transformation. The South African off-grid wilderness retreat Bliss & Stars removes wifi, caffeine, and alcohol from the guest’s vicinity, and programming includes stargazing and somatic practice.

Guests get removed from the endless chase of productivity, and as a result, leave feeling transformed and fully restored. When I had a conversation with the retreat’s co-founder Daria Rasmussen, she mentioned how she continues to be amazed by how the simplest things can have such a profound effect on the human being.

Who knew time off screens, proper meals, community, and nature could be so good for us?

Jokes aside, being put into this situation of silence, stripped from all the everyday crutches can be extremely uncomfortable (before it becomes rewarding), which is not what hospitality usually goes for.

But this discomfort and going back to basics is also exactly how a property like Bliss & Stars can evoke such a deep transformation in its guests.

Hospitality is a reciprocal act

And that’s what hospitality ultimately is, the return to the fundamentals. We all need attention and care to survive.

Even a limited-service automated hotel with minimal staff should ensure that the guest feels seen and cared for through design and amenity choices.

In fact, when it comes to the questions of AI and automation, I think the greatest value and promise of them for hospitality lies in making sure team members can spend less time doing redundant, low-value manual tasks and focus more on connecting with guests.

Because the truth of the matter is, that almost everyone who ends up in the hospitality industry does so because they get a kick out of making others feel good.

This makes sense given that the word hospitality is derived from the Latin hospes, which signifies the reciprocal relationship between host and hosted.

A holistic well-being philosophy

What makes hospitality uniquely positioned to support human well-being is how holistically it can do so.

Aristotle identified eudaimonia as the highest form of human flourishing, which is a continuous condition that arises from an alignment of different human capacities, such as reason, virtue, relationships, purpose, health, and physical fitness.

In philosopher Hannah Arendt’s words

“The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all acts are but different means chosen to arrive at it”

In this sense, the hedonic, pleasure-driven sense of well-being is a prerequisite for reaching eudaimonia. Well-being is inherently plural and interconnected, like Indra’s net, a concept from Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, where reflective droplets mirror each other.

While hospitality can make us feel good, it can also help us be better, which is what the guest now wants.

I think of Aman collaborating with tennis player Novak Djokovic to create performance and detox programming that definitely sells the fantasy of athletic transformation, and longevity clinics such as Clinique la Prairie that orchestrate your health in an optimized environment, equipping guests with the tools they need to implement the transformation in their everyday lives.

In the video, wellness is spoken of as a lifestyle and a personal obligation, implicitly promising Aman junkies that through this “guided reset for body, mind and spirit”, you, too, can transform and master your life.

When sleep, nourishment, environment, connection, and purpose converge, transformation becomes inevitable.

The Psychological Well-being in Hospitality Report is one of the most comprehensive projects I have worked on, and this letter only scratches the surface of all the topics covered.

I would like to hear your thoughts: have you ever experienced feeling transformed by hospitality? This need not be a silent retreat, maybe it was simply someone’s direct attention that changed you 👁️

If you liked this piece, further recommended reading is this letter by and I that touches on similar concepts.

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With my warmest greetings,

🔑 Emma

In this letter: the death of the term boutique, neon sign that says good vibes only, instagrammable interiors are a hate crime, and are independent hotels the future of the industry?

In recent letters I have expressed my love for home-like hotels that invite us to dwell, hotels with unlimited attention to detail, and in general hotels that embody third places.

Coincidentally, many of the hotels that check one or more of these boxes are considered boutique hotels.

Pleasing the modern traveller

Boutique hotels often have max 100-200 rooms, creating a more intimate and exclusive vibe. They need not belong to the luxury segment, and, in fact, many of the best I have encountered would count as limited service.

But even though I could, I’m not here today to go on about why I think boutique hotels embody what I love so much about hospitality. Instead, we are going to look at what is threatening its very core: lifestyle hotels.

Boutique hotels are a fast growing and hugely popular hotel type. In my opinion this is the case because they happen to match many of the very things that guests are currently seeking in their stays. Authenticity is a big one, as well as personalization. The reasons and ways people travel have also changed, and the average guest increasingly resembles a hybrid who is traveling to satisfy both work and play.

Many interesting hotel concepts (not boutique per se) specifically catering to this new type of traveller have emerged in recent history as a result of this shift, such as Bob W and Zoku.

This is why we can’t have nice things

Global hotel chains like Marriott and Accor want in on the fun. A JW Marriott, while it has its own angle and offers standardized predictability, is pretty much the furthest thing imaginable from a bespoke locally-rooted and intimately-sized property; an unfortunate predicament as the demand has shifted so much towards the latter.

The solution for these global players has been to add new concepts to their portfolios (either through acquisitions or creating) that try to emulate what guests love about boutique properties. Enter lifestyle hotels.

There are SO many lifestyle brands now, almost to the point of exhaustion, and everyone is hopping on the bandwagon.

They have been called the next generation of boutique hotels, combining their distinct design charm with global chain prices. The sentiment is… sweet, but what about the execution?

In reality, many of these brands are indistinguishable from one another. This could be attributed to it being a structural feature of global brands to be scalable and replicable.

Also, I would like to note that lifestyle hotels were never really about the place they are located in. A recent study found that consumers expect lifestyle hotels to help them “express personal image” and “enhance social status”… while boutique hotels are more associated with an intimate atmosphere and design that is distinctive to the locale.

Lifestyle hotels are trying to reproduce this authentic feeling of being boutique to the point that the line between the terms has become rather elusive, stretched so thin that it ends up meaning nothing.

More than 50% of travelers in the study couldn’t even define the difference between boutique and lifestyle hotels. This is, of course, useful if you’re a global chain trying to sell something inherently copy-pasteable as something that has real substance and personality.

The lifestyle hotel aesthetic

Exposed brick, millennial pink, those lightbulb industrial lamps, a Love Island villa -adjacent neon sign, and many other quirky design elements.

This design approach is SO consistent across lifestyle brands be it Moxy, Mama Shelter, or Canopy (owned by Marriott, Ennismore/Accor, and Hilton respectively), and it’s definitely not an accident.

These hotels are designed to feel special, unique, hip, authentic… while being operationally as replicable as possible.

I have the ick

The ick, for me, is that authenticity means very little when we are discussing a scalable product designed to capture a specific demographic that needs everything to be instagrammable (does this demographic even exist anymore? I heard people are no longer posting).

Still interestingly, the research I mentioned earlier confirms that the people that do stay at lifestyle hotels are more motivated by self-image (i.e., how the hotel reflects who they want to be seen as) compared to those who stay boutique.

So there still seems to be a demographic for lifestyle hotel concepts that are driven by aesthetics (not to be confused with taste), and to be clear, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. HOWEVER, these brands should not be confused with concepts that have been born out of passion for hospitality and a drive to refresh a stagnant industry.

Oftentimes in the cases where global brands acquire a concept that created organic loyalty and interest around it, the soul of those independent brands gets flattened as the funnel requires them to become easily replicable.

In other words, the very things that travelers want get diluted when chains try to manufacture it at scale.

A Marriott executive once allegedly admitted (behind close doors) that Moxy was their copycat version of citizenM (this was naturally before they acquired the company). At least they’re honest about it!

Not all lifestyle hotels are evil

Not all hotels that could be considered lifestyle give me the ick.

Take Bob W., for instance. You can probably tell by now from the few mentions of the brand on tPH that there is admiration from my side. I feel like they do everything these branded lifestyle hotels set out to do but for real!!!

The locations are actually, by design, locally rooted, in converted office or apartment buildings, with breakfast served at a local café.

Why this is different from a run-of-the-mill lifestyle brand is that there is real point of view and vision that predates the trend.

Again, a disclaimer: global chains are capable of genuine excellence (specifically in the luxury segment with names such as St. Regis or the Ritz) and I’ve had the pleasure to meet many incredible dedicated people behind their portfolio brands that know what they are and do it beautifully.

The scale is not the icky part but rather the flattening and soullessness of it all.

Will there be a reckoning?

If you are operating or developing a hotel, I assure you, “lifestyle” is not something you should chase, coming from a gen-z girly who is probably somewhere on that target segment moodboard.

Instead, your time and money are much better spent by asking what you actually believe about the industry and the modern guest, and make that the guiding principle.

Concepts born this way have much more longevity than jumping on the lifestyle bandwagon for a short-term return horizon.

Now I need to hear your thoughts! Have you come across good lifestyle hotels? What are your icks? Can a lifestyle hotel ever compare to a boutique hotel?

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Ciao ragazzi see you next week,

🔑 Emma

Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce (valued at $97 billion), meditates with spiritual gurus in India and has installed meditation rooms across every Salesforce office, and Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, is into long, silent, and ascetic Vipassana retreats where he eats like a bird and talks to no one.

Silicon Valley fixture Tim Ferriss’ thing is shamanic ceremonies and ayahuasca, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, is also touting the benefits of both meditation retreats and psychedelic ceremonies.

The tech bros, now infamously speaking against introspection, are quite paradoxically all aboard the hallucinogen train. A Google search for “psychedelic-assisted leadership training” returns over a million results.

Welcome to the consciousness revolution (corporate edition).

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The infrastructure of the awakened CEO

The tech bros themselves saw their growing interest in borderline spiritual leadership training as a market gap, which birthed the Costa Rica -based 1heart. This eco-luxury retreat center has hosted over 500 business leaders who are giving raving testimonials, all accompanied by a picture of a C-suite person exuding love for the world.

Alumni include billionaires, World Economic Forum delegates, TED speakers, and NGO founders, with 70% of participants are first timers with ayahuasca, and 80% come via referral from other executives.

Testimonials include:

• “It fundamentally transformed how I related to others nearly overnight.”

• “I felt this oneness. I felt connected to everyone and everything. I felt a lot of love for all the people in my life.”

• "You don't need to be that Goldman Sachs guy who just plays with ones and zeroes. You can be that and, at the same time, have a super expressive, artistic mind."

  

Essentially, if you strip away the hallucinogens and shamanic chanting, these retreats touch on the very basic human needs of presence, human connection, and shedding the impossibly heavy armor of professional identity. The attendees are on the very top of the corporate food chain, and on paper, have all the influence and material security in the world to feel fulfilled.

Yet, they still felt the call of the jungle. Why is that?

We’re transcending the ego, boys

Philosophers have over millennia written about a certain hollowness that seems to be inherent to human life, and different possible cures for it. In the light of these ideas, CEOs being obsessed with unlocking the next realm seems almost consequential.

The traditional view of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has food and shelter at the bottom of the pyramid, with self-actualization as the very last tier to check off.

However, Maslow himself was dissatisfied with his own creation, and before his passing, added another layer: self-transcendence.

Maslow defined self-transcendence as:

The very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos.

In other words, the ultimate goal is to transcend the self through understanding our interconnectedness with others (groundbreaking, I know, especially considering Eastern traditions had been saying this from the beginning of time).

I think this is what the tech bros are chasing at these ayahuasca retreats. They have self-actualized, every lower rung of the hierarchy has been crushed, checks on all boxes from safety to achievement. But it’s not enough, is it.

Only through encountering the face of the other, as Emmanuel Levinas would say, facilitated by a total change of environment and identity (and yes, probably a shaman) did they stop seeing their fellow human beings as resources or metrics to optimize.

Transformative hospitality

Transformative hospitality, where people enter as one person and leave as another, is on the rise.

The options for experiencing corporate enlightenment are only proliferating, with the spiritual wellness segment currently valued at $190 billion, and wellness tourism as a broader category projected to reach $2.4 trillion by 2035.

It’s important to note that in order to be transformative, psychedelics or tantric rituals need not be involved. The truly transformational ingredients, at the end of the day, are immersion and connection.

Here are some properties to earmark to experience transformation (maybe try this before cutting your own bangs!), curated by .

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1. Soltara Healing Center, Costa Rica

This one is included in the enlightened-CEO starter pack. Ayahuasca, ocean air, and just enough infrastructure to make ego dissolution feel like a well-run program. You arrive as a founder, you leave texting your team about “heart-led leadership.”

2. Esalen Institute, Monterey, CA

The original California consciousness lab. Hot springs overlooking the Pacific, somatic workshops, and a lineage of people who have been trying to feel their feelings since the 1960s.

3. SHA Wellness Clinic, Mexico

Where biohacking meets linen robes. Blood panels, macrobiotic cuisine, and bowing down to the gods of optimization. In addition to the Riviera Maya property, the longevity galore is also available in Spain. The staff includes an impressive number of doctors and other specialists to give you the best detox of your life.

4. The Ranch, Malibu, CA

You hike, you sweat, you don’t eat very much, and somewhere around day four it starts feeling like clarity. Obviously the property has an infrared sauna, a regenerative garden, a cold plunge, a body composition analysis device, something called a ‘massage village’, and a ginormous gym.

5. Amanpuri, Thailand

Not explicitly “transformational,” but there is space and service so precise it can reorganize your entire nervous system. One of their signature holistic wellness journeys is called ‘Amanpuri Awakening’, which is so enlightened CEO core.

6. Six Senses Douro Valley, Portugal

Wine country meets wellness narrative (red wine is good for your heart I hear…). Forest bathing, spa rituals, etc. for hardcore dnd. The property’s vegetables are home grown and there’s even a pickle workshop.

7. Sensei Lanai, A Four Seasons Resort, Lanai, Hawaii

Larry Ellison’s version of inner peace with data-driven wellness. You stretch, you sip something herbal, you can do aerial yoga and guided garden walks… probably at some point your body is tricked into behaving differently.

8. Azuma Farm Koiwai, Japan

A slow-living cosplay property in rural Japan, by non other than Adrian Zecha, the founder of Aman. Guests are invtited to step into what could even be described as an ascetic rhythm of land, craft, and stillness, where the primary activity is simply being (but obviously expensively). It also happens to be brand spanking new, officially open in April 2026.

A higher realm of hospitality?

It is rare to find a (luxury) property nowadays without some sort of wellness offering. In fact, it would be an almost outrageous thought for a property to not adress well-being in some sort of way.

But looking at these signals (the enlightened CEOs, the democratization of biohacking and longevity practices with the proliferation of wearable tech and the mainstreamification of health optimization), hospitality is reponisitioning itself towards this demand by offering transformation as opposed to just experience to meet the evolving demands.

And it is, indeed, a repositioning and not a reinvention, as great hotels already are places where strangers attend to you with care and where you are temporarily freed from the machinery of your own life.

🔑 With shamanic greetings,

Emma and Michaela

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As you probably know by now, I am, to my core, a philosopher. I enjoy the intangible, the abstract, and spend much of my time in that realm.

However, there are times, when the other side of me takes precedent. She is from the 80s, a shark in Swiss finance who made it to the top of the food chain.

Today’s edition of The Reservation™ is brought to you by her.

Welcome to The Reservation, a tPH letter including long-form analysis and cultural criticism of the hospitality industry and relevant trends.

In this letter: Wall Street is lusting for asset-heavy businesses, AI is coming for global hotel companies, giving the hospitality industry a facelift.

I believe we are currently living, experiencing some version of the dot com bubble. Software companies have disproportionately dominated portfolios and been the golden children of finance bros.

But the winds of change are blowing, my friend, and the direction is favorable for the hospitality industry 🏳️🏳️🏳️

Financial Times recently wrote that Wall Street is experiencing AI anxiety and thus gravitating towards HALO stocks, standing for Heavy Assets, Low Obsolescence.

Business models that are built on human or digital capital (software, consulting, asset management, etc.) are threatened to be abolished, made obsolete, by AI.

Now, suddenly, after asset-light has been all the rage, markets are repricing companies whose value is derived from physical assets that are expensive (and more importantly impossible for AI to) replicate. The big boy category of power grids, pipelines, utilities, transport infrastructure, and critical machinery.1

Since the start of 2025, Goldman’s basket of capital-intensive HALO stocks has outperformed capital-light stocks by roughly 35%.

Considering this, oh boy do I have the pitch for you.

The “asset-heavy” predicament in hospitality

For the past three decades or so, the prevailing wisdom in hospitality, validated by public market performance, was that owning physical assets was a liability. The hottest companies in the industry went asset-light and became brand houses that get recurring franchising and management fees without the burden of actually owning hotels.

Shareholders loooove the asset-light configuration, because it generates higher margins and predictable cash flows. Marriott and Wyndham have been able to scale their businesses to become the world’s biggest hotel companies with this business model.

But maybe we’re starting to outgrow this view. HALO-bros2 are looking for physical spaces, accumulated expertise, location, design, atmosphere, and all the other stuff that AI cannot replicate.

Furthermore, these large hotel companies turned management and distribution platforms are now officially getting the heebie-jeebies from AI, as it’s threatening what’s left of their value proposition.3

Hotels are the definition of heavy assets with low obsolescence. A well-designed property in a prime location with an expert team with seasoned hospitality professionals. Michelin-starred kitchens, the warmth of a human being remembering your name and how you take your coffee. Call me silly but I don’t think that can be automated any time soon (or ever).4

As if to prove my point, Europe’s oldest hotel company Kempinski just made its first hotel acquisition in 55 years. CEO Barbara Muckermann explicitly described it as a "strategic shift towards an asset-heavier approach”. This is because direct ownership leaves no variable of the guest experience into someone else’s hands, which, at the end of the day, is more of a liability than owning some real estate.

Giving the hospitality industry a facelift

The hospitality industry has spent years feeling insecure about its “old economy” status, seen as slow to innovate and even dusty.

Tech companies were celebrated for being asset-light, scalable, and disruptive, the prom queens and kings, hotels were seen as slow, capital-intensive, and unsexy. The companies that managed to make hospitality more tech were rewarded.

But the logic is different now, and being hard to replicate is now where the value is at. The characteristics that made hospitality seem outdated such as physical presence and the impossibility of scaling a feeling are exactly what makes the industry in my opinion more resilient against AI disruption.

Hospitality did not need to become more like tech! The world has seen enough tech bros.

How to attract HALO-bros™ 101

If the HALO thesis outlined above holds, the implications for hospitality are significant.

Here’s how to make sure your hotel business fits the bill

1. Change how you position physical assets. They shouldn’t be (solely) framed as cost centers or liabilities. The building and its location and distinct design are the very reason you cannot be disrupted, thus desirable. You’re welcome.

2. A knowledgeable human team is your most unreplicable asset, which is why you should invest in staff, and their training, and wellbeing. This way they can deliver hospitality properly, and its the hardest asset you can have.

3. We should unsubscribe from asset-light orthodoxy or, at the very least, reexamine its premises. The franchise model has clear financial advantages but physical ownership should not be treated as inherently inferior - because it isn’t! In a HALO world, owning your own hotel might just be the smartest thing you can do.

4. Stop apologizing for the industry! Hospitality is built on human care, physical spaces, and experience that are impossible to replicate with machines. That’s the value proposition and I think it’s time to make it sexy.

I hope this edition of the Reservation did two things, them being 1) instilled some confidence in our industry (we are not slow to innovate, we are ✨HALO✨) and 2) did justice to my hotel finance studies.

I would love to hear your thoughts! Especially if I have any HALO-bros in the audience.

🔑 Emma

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at the time of writing this letter, there are already over a hundred people checked in to tPH, which means it will soon outgrow its boutique status. How bittersweet!

But please, stay and enjoy this fresh-out-the-oven edition of The Reservation.

Welcome to The Reservation, a tPH letter including long-form analysis and cultural criticism of the hospitality industry and relevant trends.

In this letter: why embodying a third space is the perfect strategic move for hotels (and a step-by-step).

At the beginning of 2025, the New York Times asked, ’where have all the third places gone?’.

Third places are indeed disappearing, as much of the time we used to spend connecting has been replaced with (doom)scrolling. The physical places where connecting with friends and strangers alike used to happen have been optimized away, as they were taking space from more profitable uses of square meterage.

What is a third place?

A third place, a term coined in the 1980s by sociologist Ray Oldenburg, is somewhere beyond home and work, where you are not tied to the responsibilities or identity of either. They are signified by their welcoming of both strangers and regulars; environments, where community thrives through conversation and presence.

Perhaps my favorite feature of third places is that they are signified by playfulness. According to Oldenburg, it is precisely the element of playfulness that distinguishes a third place from the laborious chores of home and work.

Us human beings are built for community. As these contexts have become rarer, there is a yearning that I think hotels should lean into, as they have the ability to provide a (third) place for community to emerge.

Here’s why I think hotels are the ultimate third place.

1. Treat everyone like a VIP

Do you know what I think the marker of a really great hotel is? That they treat every person who steps into the building as if they are occupying the most expensive suite on the property (this also applies to restaurants, retail stores, cafés… anywhere where you are given service). This is because when hospitality is good, it doesn’t matter who you are.

I have fond memories of spending an early spring day at the lobby café of Gstaad Palace. We were not staying at the hotel since we were only visiting for the day, but not once did my group and I feel out of place.

We ordered coffee on coffee and fries and more coffee, and I felt like I belonged in the scene, just like everyone else.

An especially charming image I recall is my friends and I engaged in a game of UNO with around ten teenage private school boys seated at the table next to us in their Loro Piana polos (oh to be 15 again).

Now imagine this had gone differently. Instead of being warmly welcomed, picture being ushered out, made to feel less-than a guest. While it’s an unpleasant predicament, it’s also strategically unwise for the hotel.

When a hotel manages to become a place to reside and belong not only for the guest but also the surrounding community, to those passing by, to whomever, it can build loyalty and rapport (and ancillary revenue streams!!!) on a level not reserved to more exclusionary properties.

Sooo in other words (and the strategic takeaway for you industry people): A tell-tale sign that a hotel has become a third space is when locals have found their way in and embrace the property as an extension of their lifestyle.

A special kudos to those hotels that have a wellness club so good (e.g., including a gym) that people in the area get a membership (like this St. George situation in Helsinki).

2. Offer immersion

When you are not at work or home, it’s almost as if you can be someone else.

Hospitality often offers escapism, and many of the best hotels make you feel like you are in another existence altogether, and allow you to exist out of your ordinary context.

For instance, a remote Aman sells silence and ritual, which our society today is largely devoid of. Chateau Marmont, on the other hand, sells the feeling that you may bump into someone interesting (I think this feeling of curated connections is what SoHo House tried to achieve but seems to have issues sustaining on the long term).1

A great limited-service example (because we love good hospitality no matter the segment) is Bob W., that lets guests cosplay locals by – instead of offering breakfast in-house – partnering with local cafés. This way guests naturally branch out in the environment in an entirely different and more immersive way.

Hotels that manage to build a distinct atmosphere that promises something out of the ordinary have guests leaving more fulfilled; and perhaps even changed on some level.

3. Invest in the unreasonable

Playfulness and unreasonableness should be the rule, because what would be more extraordinary than play?

When I think of playfulness, going the extra mile, and pure, unadulterated fun, I think of hotels where the bellboys still wear traditional uniforms, or you are greeted by an usher in a top hat who always calls you madame/sir.

Or even better, staff remember your name and notice details about you. I don’t know how creepy you’ll find this, but once a very esteemed gentleman working as hotel security (at the most exciting Europe hotel opening last year), had seen me doing a silly dance to my sister in the hallway on the CCTV.

He later saw me in the lobby and complimented my dance moves (I personally found this charming! Because why yes thank you sir my dance moves are really good).

More fun and play from the guest perspective ensue when you are able to execute your personal hotel rituals. A staple of mine is to order a chicken caesar salad and a dessert from room service, followed by requesting a wakeup call from concierge with the response being ”gladly, madame” (as you can see, being called madame is very important to me).

The last example, too unreasonable not to share: I remember this one instagram post from circa 2014, when the photos were still square and algorithm was a math term.

Someone (I cannot remember who, but probably someone notable considering the following) had arrived at the Carlyle, only to find their initials embroidered on the pillowcase. This is something the hotel offers its VIPs to this day.

Are you kidding me!!!!!!!! The impact of that is not small, considering I still lend brain power to this gesture of absolutely beyond-the-mark hospitality that did not even happen to me (one day).

In his book Unreasonable Hospitality, Will Guidara explains how his team made creating these memorable moments the very core of their restaurant business, with the humble result of being named the best restaurant in the world. If that’s not enough reason for you to invest some thought into whimsy, then I don’t know what is.

So take it from me (and Will), surprise your guests. Do something silly and unprecedented that will not only stick with them but with whomever they happen to share it with as an anecdote.

So you want to become a third place?

I strongly believe that hotels that are successful embody the concept of a third place will create unprecedented loyalty and become phenomena in their own right.

The demand is strong, and it only takes hotels leaning into their fundamentals for something wonderful (and lucrative) to emerge.

The blueprint, in short, is:

1. Treat everyone like a VIP

2. Offer immersion

3. Invest in the unreasonable

It is, in a way, the very point of hospitality to allow a guest to exist differently for a while. At its best, they are transported to a world of elevation, connection, and whimsical fun.

I cannot think of an industry more suited to create such a universe than hospitality (which is why I love it here so much).

Thank you for reading tPH. I’m grateful to have drawn in a bunch of people who enjoy overthinking hospitality as much as I do.

Yours truly,

🔑 Emma

I’m a hospitality strategist and writer with a philosophy degree I refuse to let go to waste. You can find me on LinkedIn.

Welcome to The Reservation, a tPH letter including long-form analysis and cultural criticism of the hospitality industry and relevant trends.

In this letter: luxury has become fast fashion and hospitality may be the only thing that can save its facade.

It was a post-pilates Saturday morning, when my friend Rebecca and I discussed how luxury goods are dying a public and painstaking death.

The industry increasingly resembles fast fashion. Rapid expansion has led to oversaturation, brands have continued to rely on price increases to maintain top-line performance, while repeatedly disappointing their clients in terms of quality and ethics.

Up to 40% of luxury goods were sold on discount in 2025, resulting in a 15-year low in industry margins (ouch).

There is a collective disillusionment as the gap between the fantasy being sold and what you actually get keeps widening. And this goes beyond the wealthy, as consumers across all tax brackets are getting sick of stuff, of overconsumption, and constant overstimulation.

Discretionary spending has shifted towards travel and wellness. Swiss private bank Julius Bär notes that:

“Affluent consumers in many regions are increasingly choosing luxury experiences instead of purchasing premium products, underlining that the growth of the experience economy can be at the expense of the luxury goods sector”.

This is skewed causality. I think it is precisely because luxury goods have in many ways become such a sloppy letdown that people are turning to experiences, where the value is immediate and demonstrable.

What cannot be replaced

In an age of ultra-connectivity and AI slop, where people are starved of genuine attention and third places to make connections, I believe human care will only become more valuable.

We have already seen this with brands including Loewe and Hermès demonstrating human craftsmanship in their marketing.

But I think the industry that has the chance to be the epitome of human care and attention, is hospitality. The very essence of the value proposition is that you are cared for and witnessed. Raffles recently leaned into this with their The Butler Did It campaign, highlighting the “accomplished savoir faire” of their service staff.

This is especially the case in luxury hospitality, where personalized service, i.e., having your preferences be witnessed by another human being and consequently having them catered for, will in my opinion become even more valuable and coveted.

Hospitality is a witnessed presence, and human touch and attention are becoming the ultimate luxury differentiator. It cannot be truly replaced nor degraded.

For many, time is the most valuable thing. Conveying to a guest that time has been invested in them through attention and care is what makes great hospitality what it is.

Will anything beat someone anticipating your needs, working to meet you as a human being?

The takeaways (a.k.a the section to look forward to in the Reservation)

The point of today’s letter, in a nutshell, is that hotels and hospitality should center themselves around witnessing and attention.

This should absolutely not be the mission of luxury hotels alone. The philosophy of hospitality can likewise exist in a limited-service hotel (or any service business for that matter but we’ll get to that in the future).

Conversely, this essence can be completely absent in a full-service luxury hotel buzzing with an impeccable staff-to-guest ratio. Hotels raising rates without differentiation while mistreating employees is just as embarrassing as luxury brands producing bags in sweatshops and selling them at 90% margins.

So voilà, the blueprint to success (or how not to become bracketed with Zara):

1. Centralize human attention and make witnessing the guest or client the utmost priority

2. Make sure your employees feel good enough to be able to offer said attention

3. Steps 1 and 2 apply to you regardless of star rating or segment or industry. No excuses.

The hospitality industry is currently being offered the mantle long held by the luxury goods industry. To be deserving of it requires a commitment to quality and the demonstration of genuine human care placed on the guest or client.

You have just witnessed a birth

How have you enjoyed your stay so far? You just made it to the end of the very first edition of the Philosophy of Hospitality (tPH between us friends ;))

The industry is undergoing a great shift, and I want to be part of documenting and starting the conversation around it. This is especially given that there are still very few representatives of younger generations entering the industry who are voicing their opinions.

Hospitality is less like an industry and more a tradition with a dizzyingly long history. That is cultural capital that is impossible to replicate and something that will immensely appreciate in value as the world continues to become more automated, distracted, and impersonal.

Thanks for being here,

🔑 Emma