Greetings from the motherland of modern hospitality – Switzerland.

I always feel extra inspired when I’m here, not least because this is where I got my hospitality education.

This week's Lobby is about legacy, and what happens when hospitality is inherited, borrowed, or reborn. A restaurateur's son, an AI company, and a 93-year-old Finnish sanatorium walk into a bar…

Welcome to The Lobby_, a roundup of what’s happening in hospitality, served with a point of view.

In this letter: a hospitality legend’s son is opening a restaurant, AI goes corporate wellness, and a new era of hospitality diplomacy.

• Keith McNally's 22-year-old son is opening his first restaurant. George McNally is the son of the man behind NYC restaurant institutions such as Balthazar, Pastis, and Minetta Tavern. He is now opening Faux in Tribeca this summer, which is a French-inspired restaurant slash nightclub. I read his father’s biography I Regret Almost Everything, which I found excellent (although gruesome in some ways), where he details the wins and woes of creating legendary NYC F&B destinations and living the life of an all-around hospitality legend.

  I’m truly excited to experience George’s vision in person and see how the next generation of hospitality fares. Read more.

• Midjourney is opening a spa and I ironically think there’s nothing that could attest more to the power of hospitality. In case you missed it, Midjourney is an AI company best known for image generation, and they are now pivoting into wellness, or more precisely, bathing.

  Midjourney Medical (which is what this branch will be called) will build a spa in San Francisco's Union Square that will include hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges, and… full-body ultrasonic scanners hidden inside the pools! (yes that’s the catch). The process is the following: you step onto a golden platform, descend into warm water, whereafter 500,000 tiny transducers map your entire body in 60 seconds.

  The scan is in one way a side effect of the guest’s spa visit, but at the same time, the company’s incentive into going into wellness business in the first place. Their ambition is to have 50,000 scanners worldwide and a billion scans per month by 2031 (very apocalyptic if you ask me). Bryan Johnson, lover of AI and the self-proclaimed king of living forever was at the launch event.

  

  To me, Midjourney is using hospitality as their Trojan horse for data collection, which in many ways reflects the Meta glasses conversation going on right now.

  At the same time, all of this goes to show how much potential there is in hospitality and wellness that other industries are very eager to harness. had some excellent things to say about it here.

• Hospitality diplomacy is so back!!! And my evidence is that the legendary Finnish architect Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium is becoming Finland’s answer to Camp David (the US President's retreat for international diplomacy). The Norwegian design firm Snøhetta has unveiled a masterplan to transform the Paimio Sanatorium, which is Alvar and Aino Aalto's 1933 functionalist masterpiece (originally a tuberculosis treatment centre).

  It shall become a luxury wellness resort and diplomatic retreat, where the prior patient rooms are hotel suites that feature Aalto-designed ceramic basins and all. And if you know Aalto, you know that everything has a function.

  Case in point is the Paimio chair that has a place for your arms to ameliorate correct breathing (see below).

  It almost goes without saying that there are saunas (with direct forest access), and it’s conceptualized to become the background for healing diplomacy.

  The property is awaiting its UNESCO World Heritage designation decision, and they are also on a lookout for premium hotel operators (calling the tPH network!).

  Why I love this project, and why I think it’s the perfect lovechild of wellness and hospitality, is that the building was designed to heal people through architecture and natural light, fresh air, and closeness to nature.

  I’m near-certain that coolcations in the Nordics will be the hit of next summer following the extreme heatwaves in Europe this time around, so seeing these heritage-oozing projects come to life feels like perfect timing. See you all in Finland next summer! Read more about the project here.

  

What I’m reading, watching, or listening to; hospitality-related or not. Consider it a peek into what’s influencing my thinking.

I’m deep in summer mode, and I hope you, dear guest, are too.

I’ve been doing crossword puzzles and letting my mind float elsewhere than hospitality. Which is obviously happening in a hospitality setting. The irony!

Still, I think you must read this conversation between and I about wellness and hospitality, regarding the well-being in hospitality report that I edited. I think you’ll love it if you are interested/believe in/understand the connection between employee wellbeing and guest experience in hospitality.

Sierra Blake, MPS, LADC

The Psychology of Wellbeing

Get in, we’re doing a deep dive! The bathhouse market is maturing and it has emerged as a distinct category. It is not a spa, not an amenity, but has nestled itself into the world of hospitality. The experience itself is the offering…

Read more

a month ago · 6 likes · 10 comments · Sierra Blake, MPS, LADC and Emma Näpänkangas

A hotel that has been on my radar.

In a couple of months I’m heading to Southern California, which is the promised land of healing vortexes and wellness hospitality (which also means that great and never-seen-before tPH reportage is coming up).

One of the properties on my radar is Estancia La Jolla, which is a ranch-esque stay (it’s a former equestrian estate) in the already anti-inflammatory setting of the seaside community.

I’m ready to soak up the healing waters of La Jolla. But first, Lago di Como and the rest of the summer in Finland.

That’s all for this edition of The Lobby. I’m so happy you’re here and hope you’re enjoying your summer as much as I am!

As always, my messages are open, so if you’d ever feel like chatting hospitality, wellness, philosophy, or the world, you know where to find me.

🔑 Emma

𖤓 ｡𖦹°‧ ⋆☀︎. Happy midsummer! 𖤓 ｡𖦹°‧ ⋆☀︎.

I’m reporting to you from the North of Finland, and the midsummer here looks like sauna, 24 hours of sunlight, and family time. It’s the best.

It’s been a while since I shared my thoughts on industry news and trends here on tPH (I’ve been deep in a whimsical medieval rabbit hole), but fear not, I have not forgotten about my industry peeps. The theme of today’s mini edition is H₂O – let’s dive in! 🫧🫧

Also, if you missed it, I shared my thoughts on Finnish hospitality in (if you are a hospitality person who has not yet ventured into the spa(aaaaah) world, you’re missing out).

Welcome to The Lobby_, a roundup of what’s happening in hospitality, served with a point of view.

In this letter: hospitality yacht business is hit with hard winds, the rejuvenation of a legacy wellness hospitality brand, and how can hotels capitalize on the growing sauna phenomenon.

• The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is not hitting its sales targets, and this could mean trouble for the hospitality on water market. As we know and have previously discussed, one hotel brand after another have jumped on the yachting bandwagon, with Four Seasons and Orient Express having launched theirs this spring (we have Aman and Waldorf Astoria following suit very soon).

  The Ritz-Carlton, who essentially started the trend of giving a facelift to the traditional cruise in 2022 when its first yacht set sail, is now reportedly struggling financially, having accumulated nearly $700 million in losses since the company’s inception in 2017. Occupancy targets have not been reached (50% vs. projected 90%), and the marketing budget is absolutely leaking with the spend at $100 million per year.

  While Marriott owns Ritz-Carlton the brand, the yacht business is purely a licensing deal, which means few repercussions to Marriott, aside from damage to the brand’s reputation. I’m very curious to see if other brands are able to pull off yachting, as it is by nature extremely capital-intensive. also wrote about the topic here.

• Soneva just rebranded from barefoot luxury to bare luxury one year into private equity (KSL Capital) ownership. The Maldives-based ultra-luxury resort group pioneered the concept of barefoot luxury in 1995 (which back then meant something like shoes off, toes in sand) has announced an evolution of its founding philosophy under new CEO Neil Gallagher who was brought in after KSL acquired majority ownership. The new approach is based on the removal excess and focus on serving ‘Just What Matters’, which is Soneva’s language for wilderness and presence. It’s easy for companies to say that they care about connection and stripped down luxury as a marketing claim, but when chatting with Rhea Saran, the company’s global director of communications, she assured that this philosophy is embedded into each building block of the brand.

  Presence and connection, for instance, manifest in that staff are not given strict scripts to abide by, but encouraged to lead with their personality and curiosity towards the guest. Soneva was one of the OG wellness hospitality brands, and I’m super excited to see how this new chapter unfolds and how the new philosophy translates to guests and brand devotees.

• Sauna is becoming mainstream, but can hotels do it the right way? I just attended the World Sauna Forum in Jyväskylä, Finland (basically my home turf), and the international appetite for authentic(!!!) sauna was palpable. Some numbers: the global sauna and spa market hit $4.2 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $5.4 billion by 2030. While third spaces are generally diminishing, urban sauna clubs and next-gen bathing houses are popping up from New York to Toronto. Aufguss ceremonies are also a big deal, where trained sauna masters use towel work and scents and choreography to turn the sauna experience into a performance. [My friend from has written an excellent piece on the role aufguss is playing in building sauna culture in the US – and she’s a trained aufguss master herself!!!

  

  

  The emergence of communal sauna culture outside the Nordics where it has been commonplace for forever is not surprising. Third places in general are diminishing, and people are yearning for places to socialize outside of bars and restaurants, and the longevity/biohacking/health-maxxing boom is also driving people to sauna. In other words, the stars are aligned, and the demand is huge, but I don’t think most hotels are taking the opportunity seriously (if I encounter one more ‘Finnish sauna’ where you’re not allowed to throw water on the stove I’m OUT).

  Any property that invests in proper sauna experiences (infrared doesn’t count) has my pledge 🫴🏻

  I would obviously like to hear from you: what’s your relationship to sauna in the context of hotels? Do you wish for one during your stays? If not, is it because you most likely would get disappointed when met with one?

  Leave a comment

Sharing what I’m reading, watching, or listening to; hospitality-related or not.

── ⋆⋅𖤓⋅⋆ ──The tPH Summer Reads Guide ── ⋆⋅𖤓⋅⋆ ──

Summer is fiction season for me. I exclusively want to read fantastical stories and get swept away to other planets (Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir) or times (Son of Nobody by Yann Martel).

Right now I’m gathering inspiration for my hospitality-related projects from anywhere else than hospitality. I often feel that what’s about hospitality specifically is kind of an echo chamber, which is why venturing outward has been much more fruitful to me lately. If you need summer book recs, here are a few of my favorites (all fiction!):

• Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami

• Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto

• Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

• The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

• Summer Book by Tove Jansson

• The Secret History by Donna Tartt

• Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig

Reading fiction was also my go-to strategy to break a rut when I was studying philosophy at university and spent my days neck-deep in ancient texts. Somehow the inspiration that may have seemed irrelevant at surface level always made it back around into my work.

A hotel that has been on my radar.

If you thought my medieval-phase was over already, you thought wrong!!!

My current dream stay Castel Badia in the Dolomites still has one of its feet in the dark ages.

The building itself is from the 11th century, but the level of comfort and luxury is not.

I’m afraid to visit because I don’t know how they would be able to remove me from the premises. It’s just tooooo good.

With magical midsummer greetings,

🔑 Emma

I am in awe of the way in which you have made tPH your own. Like in a hotel, you are here for a myriad of reasons, some to relax, some to get down to some serious work. Everything is welcome and appreciated.

Since the last edition of the Lobby, we have had some incredible collaborations, on service recovery, enlightened CEOs, and details that elevate a hotel.

In the meanwhile, lots of interesting things have happened in the hospitality scene, not least of them being the more extravagant than ever edition of Watches & Wonders in Geneva. As a special treat, this letter includes the inside scoop of the event.

Enjoy!

(Note for email readers: This post is longer than what displays well in email. For the full reading experience, please view it on the website version.)

Welcome to The Lobby_, a roundup of what’s happening in hospitality, served with a point of view.

In this letter (by far the longest and juiciest edition so far): Met Gala hotel politics, the inside scoop on Watches and Wonders 2026, a very hospitality Milan design week, and all things Coachella.

• The Met Gala happened, and the getting ready in the hotel room spiel is getting more relevant by the year. 60 celebrities this year got ready at The Mark this week, with the rest staying at properties the likes of the Carlyle and the Lowell, as well as the Surrey, which is now the cool place to stay (thank you to my sources @Mila Stolk and @Seriesandthings for pointing this out). The managing director of the property, which is a Corinthia hotel, told People that the hotel has understood how important the hours leading up to the gala are, and now intentionally focuses on “supporting preparation, creativity, and storytelling”.

  Why precisely these hotels are the go-tos for the Gala attendees is largely logistical, as the proximity to the stairs of the Met is convenient. But I would love to see fashion houses choosing the property based on their alignment in storytelling and aesthetics, intentionally using the hotel as an extension of the brand’s world.

  Whether the fashion houses are paying rack rate or the hotels are cutting deals for the exposure they’re getting, no one knows (if you do know please share with the class!). But the economics are nonetheless fascinating, and these hotels are reaping the benefits of the cultural capital that comes from being associated with fashion’s big night.

• Coachella generated $870 million in media impact value in one weekend, all propelled by the art of hospitality. The festival has essentially turned into a content-churning machine, and the numbers of the 2026 edition are staggering. As 250,000 people headed for the desert, hotel rates in Palm Springs went up by 62%. Music aside, what caught my attention (and many others’, sparking conversation about the ’rich’ and ’poor’ sides of Coachella) was the world-building and brand activations that were again very hospitality-based.

  Rhode had touch-up rooms and claw machines, YSL Beauty had a multi-sensory drive-through with burgers, Camp Poosh had massages and a lakeside beach club, and Marc Jacobs orchestrated its eyewear launch with Tao Group Hospitality, a partnership that is going to continue beyond Coachella. The latter makes me especially happy, because while hospitality is an extremely important part of these activations and the cultural capital they generate (and increasingly so), rarely does a hospitality brand get accredited in this way.

  🚨Prediction alert (you heard it here first)🚨: Hospitality brands will become more and more visible in festivals like Coachella. Currently it’s very F&B-focused, but I think strategically savvy hotel brands will get in the game. Imagine if we saw a Janu (Aman’s more social sister brand) activation? (And yes, I know that Soho House hosted its own pop-up on the premises, but the members’ club is arguably not currently in the books of cool.)

• Fashion brands opened restaurants left and right at Milan Design Week. Marimekko revealed Osteria Fiori di Marimekko with aperitivo bites by Helsinki chef Maud Saddok, jasmine-infused drinks from the garden, bocce tournaments, limited-edition espresso cups… I loved it. Staff obviously wore the brand’s newest floral prints. Meanwhile, Marni took over Pasticceria Cucchi which is a legendary 1930s Milanese café for a three-month residency, where they redesigned everything from the sugar packets to the milk jugs to the staff uniforms. Wallpaper* called it “brand immersion at its finest.”

  This is further confirmation on the rising trend of world-building for fashion brands, and hospitality being part of it is becoming standard.

• Watches and Wonders just wrapped its biggest edition yet, and hospitality was évidemment the real star. Nearly 60,000 visitors, 50,000 hotel nights in Geneva, and an interesting demographic with a quarter of ticket buyers being under 25. For the Lobby’s first-ever House Guest section, I asked communications strategist and branding enthusiast Baina Eliseeva to tell us what she saw on the ground and the special inside scoop for hospitality people.

According to my Watches and Wonders insider Baina, hospitality has taken center stage at the event, especially at this year’s rendition which was bigger and better than ever.

”Inside Jaeger-LeCoultre’s ‘Valley of Inventions’ booth, I noticed clients trying on novelties at Le Chalet itself, where two-Michelin-star Swiss chef Gilles Varone was serving a cheese dégustation in an alpine-inspired setting built around the dairy heritage of the Vallée de Joux, JLC’s birthplace. Watch in hand, cheese on the palate, at the same table.

JLC had hinted at this in 2025 with the 1931 Café by chocolatier Mathieu Davoine, tucked inside a booth themed around the Reverso‘s polo origins. Four experimental chocolate creations echoed the watch’s Art Deco heritage. Open to public visitors, unusual for a programme of that quality, which normally stays behind the press-and-VIP curtain.

This year, the fair caught up. The Wake Up! Café by Michelin-starred chef Danny Khezzar opened inside Palexpo, and the event extended beyond its walls with a curated restaurant guide via TheFork and an evening Montreux Jazz Club pop-up on the lakefront.”

Baina points out that this same effect is happening in fashion. ”Prada’s Marchesi, Louis Vuitton’s cafés, Tiffany’s Blue Box Café, and others. Luxury is converging on the same idea. A watch catalogue tells you the specs, but a cheese dégustation reveals what to expect once you are inside the brand’s universe.”

The overarching pattern at W&W was that brands are investing into worldbuilding and staging experiences.

”Audemars Piguet, back at the event for the first time in six years opened the House of Wonders, which was more of an exhibition than a booth. TAG Heuer leaned full motorsport, with an F1 car and Steve McQueen’s Porsche 917 parked inside.”

With the conjoined history of watchmaking and timekeeping, sports have an ever-growing presence at Watches & Wonders 🏎️🏎️🏎️

”Last year, they had an Oracle Red Bull Racing simulator for clients to test their lap times, but this year there was a dedicated corner that told the Monaco’s story. Since taking over as F1’s official timekeeper in 2025, the brand reports a 15% jump in boutique footfall and 20% growth in F1 collection sales, and the space is clearly designed to keep that momentum going.”

Overall, the event is a giant case study in experiential retail. Baina mentioned Ulysse Nardin’s very freaky two-metre kinetic sculpture. ”Visually it recalled Gentle Monster’s flagships, where kinetic heads have become a signature. But Gentle Monster’s heads are anonymous while Ulysse Nardin’s had Ludwig Oechslin’s face, the watchmaker who designed the Freak in 2001, a watch so radical it had no dial, no hands, and no crown.”

”Hermès was the most theatrical. Artist Jean-Simon Roch designed a wooden automaton of ropes, pulleys, and counterweights, with movement woven into the architecture itself.”

The main takeaway for brands according to Baina: ”when every competitor has a beautiful product, the space around it becomes the differentiator”.

Preach! I could not agree more with Baina’s sentiment. Hopefully next year we can also have tPH reporting from the ground. Stay tuned!

What I'm reading, watching, or listening to; hospitality-related or not. Consider it a peek into what's influencing my thinking.

As some of you may know, I have a degree in global and comparative philosophy, which happened in my life before hospitality. During my studies I delved into (in addition to the Western philosophical canon) African, Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Indian philosophical traditions.

While I decided not to pursue philosophy further academically (for now), I never stopped researching the topics that interest me, one of them being old Buddhist traditions. Right now, I’m brushing up my knowledge on the chakra system by reading Wheels of Life by Dr. Anodea Judith.

I got very inspired, hence I’m cooking up something fun for tPH.

A hotel that has been on my radar.

Guys, did you really think I was not going to mention the announcement of the Texas Aman? Amansanu is set to open in 2027 with standalone villas, and naturally, branded residences (it seems to be standard now).

I saw someone mention that there will be full-fledged horse stables. I am ready to finally fulfill my cowgirl dreams.

That’s all for this edition of The Lobby. I truly appreciate your presence.

🔑 Emma

I’m making it a point to begin these letters with the chit chat you would expect when entering the lobby of the grand hotel of the internet that is tPH. How has your stay been so far? Can I bring you something to drink?

The previous edition of The Lobby sparked interesting conversation, and it makes me véry glad to be your cultural concierge. Alas, have a seat and enjoy the following curation of hospitality trends and news.

Welcome to The Lobby_, a roundup of what’s happening in hospitality, served with a point of view.

In this letter: LVMHs death drop, fashion is losing its footing in terms of cultural capital, the timing of Demna’s new Gucci campaign, American diner romanticism, and Nobu’s aggressive venture into branded residences.

• Fashion giant LVMH experiences worst quarter on record. The company’s stock in Q1 fell 28%, something that the company did not experience even under the 2008 financial crisis. CEO Bernard Arnault consequently has a wallet that’s approximately $55.4 billion lighter. If the luxury industry hadn’t felt panic thus far, these results are sure to spark some, as LVMH is kind of treated as the indicator for the temperature of luxury as a whole. Other, converging factors such as supply chain disruptions and consumer spending tightening or migrating elsewhere are not ameliorating the situation. That said, we have just very recently witnessed what has been dubbed the creative director musical chairs, where many of the industry’s legacy maisons appointed a new conductor for the show – and quite possibly, the eventual effects of these refreshments may not yet have manifested.

• Considering the above, it probably goes without saying that the cultural monopoly of fashion is declining as other categories have become significantly hotter. Highsnobiety’s new report mentions ”getting on the guest list for the latest restaurant or bar opening” and ”staying at the hottest IYKYK hotel” as the in-the-know signals of today, as opposed to owning the it bag of the season. We also got some fun stats such as 86% of respondents think being friends with the chef at the hottest restaurant in town is a green flag, as opposed to 14% thinking the same about someone who shows up to dinner with the latest item from a luxury fashion house. In other words, luxury fashion has lost its signaling power, and the reasons are many: Gen Z appreciates everyday items as signals, and the price hikes of luxury goods are oftentimes not backed by substance.

  Another interesting point worth highlighting is that food and beverages have historically already had their signaling power (think caviar and champagne), but the effect is now extending to $20 dollar Erewhon smoothies and imported French butter (I’m looking at my sister who brought home air-vacuumed seaweed butter from Paris). Considering all of this and the disillusionment with luxury houses, the timing of Demna’s new Gucci campaign that is monogrammed to the gods is interesting.

  Still, if we only look at the luxury industry in a silo, the editorial nods at 90s trashy chic and stars Kate Moss - yet another nail in the coffin of the clean girl interested in sleek aesthetics. tPH’s inaugural post dives a bit deeper into why I think hospitality is inheriting the mantle from luxury goods as the ultimate cultural signifier.

• American diner romanticism is on the rise. The Financial Times recently ran a story about the resurgence of the classic American diner. Due to rising operation costs and inflation, many of these institutions have been forced to close down. But like FT stated, it’s not because no one cares for pancakes with bacon and maple syrup anymore (I know I do!). In fact, McKinsey reported that especially GenZ is into sit-down restaurants over other kinds of food experiences. Food quality and portion size are named as the biggest disappointments people face when eating at restaurants, and we all know that the classic American diner does not skimp on portion sizes!

  I think leaning into romanticism and reinventing beloved concepts is a thing we will continue to see across the hospitality industry. Perhaps we’ll see more traditional hotel uniforms or a rebranding of the cigar lounge now that we have buried the clean girl?

• Nobu bets big on branded residences with the pipeline of new properties extending from Mexico to… Manchester? In fact, Nobu is one of the fastest-expanding brands in the space when it comes to non-hotel brands. Also the Manchester plans are real, which is so interesting to me – Nobu is embracing a market that is not traditionally stamped as luxurious.

  Many of these projects are not standalone and will be connected to upcoming Nobu hotels. I have to be honest - I’m still puzzled by the branded residences boom, and I keep wondering a) who are the people living in them and b) what happens to brand perception when the realities of a new build hit? I personally am a fan of the brand, and serendipiously met Chef Nobu himself at his Milan restaurant. And did you know that Robert de Niro is a partner and apparently the aesthetic brain behind Nobu hospitality? Very interesting.

  However, while we know that branded residences can be a great move for brands in the short term (the price premiums are ridiculously high), I think the risk crumbling paint or lackluster amenities can pose to brand perception in the long term needs to be factored in. There is a way to do it well, but how many manage to?

  We are moving away from ultra-polished picture-perfect aesthetics signified by the clean girl. New (but old) classic diners are popping up, and I think even more nostalgic concepts will make their resurgence. Brands that did not have their origins in hotels are betting hard on hospitality, and this is not a surprise considering how the cultural capital of a smoothie can now exceed that of a designer handbag.

  

Sharing what I’m reading, watching, or listening to; hospitality-related or not.

As we all know, hospitality does not just exist in the institutions of hotels and restaurants, but also (and maybe primarily so) in the home. And the unequivocal queen of building an atmosphere and hosting is Martha Stewart. I was around 10 years old when my mom got me a book with a compiled array of Martha’s crafts.

Mila of enlightened me to the existence of the Martha Stewart documentary on Netflix, and it was fantastic. Less about her hosting skills, the focus of the film is on how she has been able reinvent herself again and again in the face of adversity. I love her and long live Martha Stewart.

A hotel that has been on my radar.

My sister-in-law recently told me she booked a two-week meditation and yoga retreat in Thailand. She explained that visiting the country properly has been one of those things that just keeps calling her and she has no clue why, so she finally decided to bite the bullet.

This conversation reminded me that I have my own unfinished business in Thailand, namely, that I need to visit the RAKxa Wellness Clinic.

Avid fans of this Bangkok property include supermodel Jourdan Dunn, and no wonder – RAKxa runs an intense af array of ultra-personalized wellness programs for any purpose, wether you want to detox, live forever, get snatched, or all of the above.

As the wellness and longevity travel economy is becoming an ever-hotter topic, I think the appropriate thing to do would be to fly over and do some tPH coverage. (RAKxa also runs a spa in Florence, maybe I should check that out first during my trip to Italy this summer? Eep!).

That’s all for this edition of The Lobby. Thanks for stopping by.

🔑 Emma

I have been going to lymphatic drainage yoga twice a week, and let me tell you, it gets the juices flowing. Here I present to you my thoughts about current industry (adjacent) news that were revealed to me in savasana.

Welcome to The Lobby_, a roundup of what’s happening in hospitality, served with a point of view.

In this letter: engineering is out tastemaking is in, more fashion entrants into hospitality, spot the difference Noma/Hell’s Kitchen, and the Hollywood stamp of approval on hospitality being the last luxury.

• Snapchat CEO says marketing will be more important than engineering. We have moved to a level of maturation with AI that I can personally fw. As a storyteller, a writer, (and a philosopher, if you will), I feel validated by Evan Spiegel’s recent declaration that now that AI (instead of a roomful of super smart people) can build anything, the best story is what will move the needle going forward. We have heard a similar sentiment from OpenAI's Greg Brockman, who said that taste is now the ultimate differentiator. All of this is great news for hospitality, or rather, potentially great news that can only be realized with investing into narrative and emotional resonance and atmosphere that are so intrinsic to the industry. His exact words here.

• Cult brand Chrome Hearts enters hospitality. The luxury label known for emo silver work and trashing the hotel room energy (and just to be clear, we are a fan of this at tPH) has acquired the Surfrider Hotel in Malibu. The design is bespoke and true to the brand, incorporating silver hardware and the brand’s own furniture. I love when so many of my intuitions just keep manifesting. We’re seeing fashion continuing to bet on hospitality, and not just legacy maisons, but what the cool kids are wearing!!! I’m so proud I could shed a tear. Moreover, we have some experiential retail going on with an in-hotel private boutique selling exclusive pieces only available to guests.

  

• Oscars gift bags this year were hospitality galore. This year’s Oscars nominee gift bags were valued at $346,000, of which physical items made up $6,000. The rest is luxury villa stays in Costa Rica, Ibiza, and Finnish Lapland (shoutout to Hideout Villas), a ten-day wellness reset in Sri Lanka, and to my amusement, liposuction and a custom prenuptial agreement. This means that $200,000 of the bag’s value is hospitality experiences. I can tell you two things 1) I need to get nominated at the Oscars pronto 2) the scale tipping so heavily into experiences over products tells us a lot about what is seen as valuable in 2026. Mind you, the recipients are A-list celebrities and the most luxe thing they can be offered is the cultural capital brought about by niche hospitality experiences.

  

• Noma’s René Redzepi exposed for years of physical abuse. The New York Times just published an investigation interviewing 35 former Noma employees documenting physical and verbal abuse by founding chef René Redzepi from 2009 to 2017. One gory story involved Redzepi ordering his entire kitchen staff outside during a dinner rush to witness him assault a sous-chef. The news involve one of the world’s most celebrated restaurants, essentially the poster child for culinary innovation, and has sparked interesting conversations on restaurant-stack (read this, this, and this).

  Hospitality is starting to get more cultural visibility. We have had hit shows like the Bear and White Lotus. But cultural visibility does not come without accountability. When hospitality enters the zeitgeist, there will be scrutiny and questioning. This is good, and consider me sat.

  I wanted to hear the thoughts of my friend who has worked as a chef at Michelin-starred restaurants, and here’s what he said:

  

  What bamboozled me to the core is what he mentioned about the now-deleted comments on Noma’s page where some people are essentially justifying the abuse that takes place in high-end kitchens. One comment said:

  “I feel like a lot of people in the comments have never worked in kitchens, and if they have, not at the level noma used to operate. If you did you would see that all of those actions and decisions made noma what it is. The work is relentless. You need to be strong, mentally and physically. You need to be dedicated. This is the choice you make when being the best, and I respect it.”

  Like my friend said, the sentiment is far from ideal, but at least we have arrived at some collective awareness.

In short, there are many signals from unprecedented directions pointing to hospitality, be it restaurants or hotels, becoming recognized for the cultural capital the industry carries.

That said, with more awareness comes difficult but very necessary conversations. The hospitality industry is for instance notorious for high employee turnover rates, and hopefully, some deserved public scrutiny will finally instigate some real change.

Phewww that was a bit heavy. I think we need to wind down by the nightstand.

Sharing what I'm reading, watching, or listening to; hospitality-related or not.

In the last edition of the Lobby, I did a roundup of my some hospitality literature that I have on my to-be-read list. But I have taken a little detour to familiarize myself with Rick Rubin’s work. Rubin has worked with (and this is not an exaggeration) everyone in the music industry, from Paul McCartney to Jay-Z.

His 2023 book titled The Creative Act is a collection of his musings about creativity, how it’s innate to being human, how we are not really owners of our ideas but vessels for a greater force that is the actual source of everything we create.

So I have highlighted the hell out of this book because I feel like it’s so metaphorical to hospitality. You know how great service can feel almost magical, creating an atmosphere of its own? I think that happens when hospitality professionals tap into a source larger than themselves; they are in service of something greater than this one person alone.

If you have read the book I would love to hear your thoughts.

A hotel that has been on my radar.

I’ve been on an NYC boutique hotel rampage, as I’m doing research for a Q3 press trip. If you haven’t heard of the Bowery Hotel, you’re welcome.

More exclusive coverage coming later this year, but I couldn’t help but to already lean into the vibes.

That’s all for this edition of The Lobby. Thanks for stopping by.

🔑 Emma

the time has come for the first edition of tPH’s hospitality news roundup. In these letters, I share the industry knowledge that has piqued my curiosity as well as other topics of interest.

My goal is to not only relay the information but to add a fresh point of view courtesy of yours truly.

Let’s dive in!

Welcome to The Lobby_, a roundup of what’s happening in hospitality, served with a point of view.

In this letter: Soho House goes private (again), Louis Vuitton says no to hotels, Marriott and Hilton prepare for their AI villain arc, and Aman sets sail.

• Soho House has been taken private after a five-year, not-so wildly successful stint on the stock market. The share price towards the end was significantly below its IPO valuation. The $2.7 billion deal almost fell through but was saved by a last-minute alternative financing of $200 million. One investor is none other than Ashton Kutcher. The private members club has never been profitable despite a growing number of members, and the question remains if the model lends itself to turning a profit to begin with. More members reduces the core value prop of a curated community. I will be following the company under its new private ownership closely to see if they have noticed an opportunity for a turnaround that at least I have missed. Read more here, here and here.

  

• There will not be a Louis Vuitton hotel after all. Mr. Arnault himself came out to say that “Vuitton’s not going to go into the hotel business”. The speculation has been abundant, but the LVMH CEO assures that the brand wants to retain its focus and not diversify. Too bad I SWOT analyzed the hypothetical property for EHL Insights literally a week before Arnault squashed the rumors and my LinkedIn still seems to be flooded with people who are convinced that the hotel is, in fact, happening. While there may not be an actual LV hotel, the brand’s stores have leaned into the aesthetic lately. Immersive retail galore!

• Marriott and Hilton are getting scared AF about AI. As we know, direct bookings are very important for hotels, as other booking channels such as OTAs can get very expensive and squeeze margins into oblivion. Now some activity has been sniffed in the legal teams of global chains regarding the risks AI could pose for the companies’ cost of sales. While AI is not charging commissions for bookings made through the platform (yet), it does have the potential to become an OTA final boss making Booking.com and Expedia look like Bowser Jr. in contrast.

• Serene and silent at sea? Aman is one of the latest luxury hospitality brands to set sail. Loyal to its core, the marketing edge seems to be a) exclusivity with the boat only hosting 47 suites, and b) the unparalleled level of service the brand is known for. The vessel is named Amangati (surely, they must soon run out of names to put after Aman), and its itinerary traces the shores of the Mediterranean. The design SCREAMS whispers Aman. A Reddit user articulated what I didn’t dare to: “tbh I would spend the money on a smaller boat for a private charter rather than spend so much for a glorified cruise ship. Who is this even for?”. But the increasing amount of brands rushing into this space, including the Orient Express, there must be serious trust in the model. And please, I would love my skepticism to be proved wrong!

The overarching theme seems to be legacy brands figuring out what they want to be (and whether they can afford to stay as they are). More on that soon. But first, what’s on my nightstand!

A new section! Here I'll share what I'm reading, watching, or listening to; hospitality-related or not. Consider it a peek into what's shaping my thinking.

I’m currently reading Setting the Table by Danny Meyer. I’m slowly but surely working my way through the must reads of hospitality literature (which I feel like there are not that many of? Please correct me if I’m wrong!!!).

After finishing the cult classic Unreasonable Hospitality, I moved on to the adjacent work by Meyer, the former boss of Will Guidara and the brain behind the gift to the world that is Shake Shack (among other very esteemed and iconic dining establishments of his).

I love reading hospitality leaders’ accounts of their successes and failures and what they think makes human care so important.

Other works on my list include:

• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

• Hospitality Vibes by Maggie Chen

• Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy by Isadore Sharp

• Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans

• The New Gold Standard by Joseph a Michelli

• Excellence Wins by Horst Schulzs

Any favorites of yours that I missed? Let me know!

A hotel that has been on my radar.

The premium global affairs and lifestyle magazine Monocle is opening a townhouse in collaboration with Zürich’s iconic boutique hotel Widder, taking a step deeper into hospitality following their successful concept cafés.

The magazine’s ethos of curation and quality lends itself beautiful to lived space that’s filled with bespoke furniture from brands such as Moebe and Olaio. The radio is naturally turned to the wavelengths of Monocle radio and guests enjoy daily housekeeping, round the clock concierge and private dining experiences. Read more.

That’s all for this edition of The Lobby. Thanks for stopping by.

🔑 Emma