NEW YORK CITY — Every person traveling has a different definition for what luxury is, said Omer Acar, CEO of Raffles and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts at Accor.
In a video interview with CoStar News Hotels at the NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum, the executive for the French hotel firm said personalization was the big talking point years ago, but today that’s just a basic requirement.
“When a traveler goes, they want to be recognized, so we say 'It’s not doing more, it’s recognizing more,'” he said. “A luxury traveler wants to be recognized for their needs, for their requirements, and each stay has to be created according to their wish.”
The Fairmont brand has a campaign called “Make Special Happen,” and Raffles has “The Butler Did It,” he said. Along with the guest experience aspect, the campaigns are about the hotel teams creating a culture.
“You can scale many things, but a culture you have to live in it,” he said. “That culture with the spirit of ‘Make Special Happen’ or ‘The Butler Did It,’ by recognizing our guests and making them feel special is very important because today’s traveler, they don’t remember the stay, but they remember how we make them feel. And that’s when we get the return guest because they want to come back and feel the same.”
The luxury hotel space is evolving along with guests’ expectations, Acar said. Fairmont continues to focus on celebrations, and its hotels with large entertainment facilities around the world host a lot of peace conferences, weddings and other celebrations and events. The brand will rely on new technology to keep up with guests’ needs.
“How do we create more immersive events that the guest feels, the attendees feel inspired?” he said about their strategy.
Raffles will focus on looking after its guests and continuing with its personalization strategy, he said. It’s also looking at partnerships and inspirations through new hotels and destinations. The brand recently announced upcoming properties in Lake Como, Italy; Los Cabos, Mexico; and Courchevel in the French Alps.
“These are destinations that our guests, they want to be part of our journey by visiting those destinations,” he said. “We are focusing on that and we are focusing on wellness. We are focusing on food and beverage — even retail, because in luxury you need to create a real ecosystem that’s all very consistent and complement one another so they don’t really compete but they complement one another.”
Acar often says that retailers sell the dream while hospitality delivers those dreams. Connecting with guests by providing them with experiences during their stay is a key focus for Accor. Luxury travel has been resilient this year, even with the crisis in the Middle East as travelers changed their destinations instead of canceling their trips.
In the luxury hotel world, there is a question of value because the room rates keep increasing, he said.
“That’s why we have to constantly work on improving the product, improving the delivery and creating experiences that they will come back for,” he said. “It’s an everyday mission, so it’s more than a destination, I would say it’s a journey.”
Watch the video above or listen to the podcast version for more from Accor's Omer Acar and his thoughts on the luxury hotel space, the growing role of artificial intelligence and the development environment.