If luxury was a person, you wouldn’t like them.

A brief look into why luxury hotel brands should be less snooty.

When you think about it, if luxury was to be your friend, you would probably despise them. We all know that ‘someone’ who thinks they are a gift to the world and that by some God-given right, they are better than everyone else. Annoying, isn’t it?

Well, that’s kind of how many luxury hotel brands act. They may come across in advertising as actually caring about potential customers, but at the end of the day if you don’t have the greens, they don’t have time for you.

If you don’t believe me, just think about the last time you were in a nice restaurant or hotel. Picture that dirty smirk or awkward look you got from the host. C’mon, I know it’s happened to you before. The idea that hotels demand a certain level of respect before they’ve even done anything for you is just ridiculous, and the fact that this philosophy trickles down to the bottom is even worse. Just imagine it in the context of a person. Seems a lot more absurd, right?

Think of the giant companies that exist in the world today. Pre-social media, a lot of us never really got to know a brand. Today, we act as if they are our friends. They all have their own personalities and we pick and choose the brands we like as the ones who best represent us.

Now think of luxury hotels. Do they have a personality? Sure, some people might say they stand for class, elegance and sophistication, but is that really a personality? I can’t remember the last time a friend described someone to me as classy and sophisticated. But on the rare occasion that you do hear that, it really doesn’t paint a good picture about that person.

Pardon my rant, but I’ve been doing research on luxury hotel brands recently, trying to come up with fun and inventive ideas for how these brands can better promote themselves online. But, similarly, like all pharmaseutical brands, they are quite boring and hard to do something creative with. My response to this is to look to the future. Increasingly, their clientele is getting younger. In 10-15 years time, many people now in their early twenties will be their target. We have grown to expect transparency from a brand, something that, unfortunately, many luxury hotel brands currently lack.