In this letter: luxury has become fast fashion and hospitality may be the only thing that can save its facade.
“Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of an intelligent effort.”
– John Ruskin
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):
Centralize human attention and make witnessing the guest or client the utmost priority
Make sure your employees feel good enough to be able to offer said attention
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