The Lobby 005

A steamy midsummer special

Dear guest,

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 S.P.A. (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. The Upgrade | Anne Marie 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 Sarah Spoto from Badii Talk: Thermal Bathing and Sauna Culture 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!!!

  

  Kotiharjun sauna

  

  Storfinnhova Gård

  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?

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.

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With magical midsummer greetings,

🔑 Emma