Shangri-La

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=a0Jx2BsWXajo

Interesting....

obscure2k

Thanks for posting this article. Very interesting, indeed.

RichardInSF

I thought many Paris hotels voluntarily downgraded from 4*L to 4* some years back to save on taxes -- without downgrading their accommodation or standard of service.

Incidentally, has anyone on this forum EVER thought that a W hotel was a luxury hotel? Tend to doubt.

vuittonsofstyle

I read something similar, but it only pertained to Starwood, which is hardly surprising. If Aman and Four Seasons were doing it, then I would worry.

Back in the 1990s, The Oriental Bangkok reduced its rates during a recession and it took years for it to get back on top. If you reduce rates, services and downgrade your star rating, you can never get back, IMHO.

Kagehitokiri

noticed this thread, but didnt read it - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...roperties.html

vuittonsofstyle, FS has their great contracts, and i presume aman owners are mostly solid. but there were reports here of FS doing short term restaurant closures, as i mentioned in the quoted post. re not being able to come back after cuts, maybe these kinds of things can be good - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...enovation.html

RichardInSF, yes there are W fans in this forum.

francophile

FS has their own problems at Aviara

TrophyCollector

In a clash with the "Hotel and Gaststaetten Verband"-authority the famous Atlantic Hotel in Hamburg have lost all their stars. The owner (one of the smartest German tycoons) apparently doesn't mind. Understandably he prefers a luxurious bottom-line compared to "winning prestige, but losing money".

Many other hotels - again understandably - have stopped paying LHW the 100k-150k US$ fee for the rather questionable honor of being a "leading hotel of the world".

luxury

I don't find this particularly surprising but I now don't think 4/5 Stars, macarons, diamonds, etc = luxury. If the Venetian can get 5 diamonds and Wynn Tower Suites 5 stars that is not saying much for the rating system. The Venetian or any hotel that large, could not offer the service of a luxury hotel (and I will be able to confirm this in just over 2 weeks time). The Wynn Tower Suites most certainly does not offer luxury service either.

Will I notice if the annual flower budget is cut from $1 million dollars to $250k? Probably and many likely wouldn't.... and would it break my stay -- definitely not.

Kagehitokiri

marketing alliance and management fees are NOT what we are talking about here.

the article was very specific regarding cutting services, in the context of that causing loss of status.

but yes, those statuses are not really valued in this forum.

luxury raises a good example of potentially effective cost savings.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...rges-role.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...6-28-09-a.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...nt-aviara.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...s-flowers.html

Kettering Northants QC

I'd heard that as well.

I recall India having some sort of 5* tax which pushed prices of things into the silly bracket

Kettering Northants QC

"Given the current economic climate, we may allow an individual property to adjust its services to below the agreed star rating,” said Kavanagh. She declined to name any of the hotels..."

Wonderfull I wonder if they will let the customers know before they take our money. Some of these properties will have to be very careful that they don't publicise services they have no intention of delivering - there are reasonable consumer protection laws in some of these countries.

I agree with the belief that cutting services and rates is not necessarily the way to go. If you've stayed at the hotel before you'll come away saying "it isn't as good as it used to be, we'll try somewhere else next time", if you haven't you'll come away saying "Heaven knows why that hotel used to get such good reviews".

For leisure travellers, I'm convinced the way to go is to charge the same and offer extra value so that it doesn't make sense to downgrade. I recall a few years back (in the last recession) Shangri la did a promo through a number of UK travel agents where if you stopped at more than one of their hotels during a holiday they'd upgrade you to club accommodation with privileges.

Shangri-La

If you read the Four Seasons book, Sharpe noted that they didn't slash prices or services during its previous slumps.

A little off-topic, but The Peninsula Hotel chain actually owns their properties, correct? They don't have to deal with property owners.

The question is why stay and pay a premium at a luxury hotel if your not getting thoe full services?

Do you feel that some of the requirements is a little over-the-top?

Room-service customers who order wine by the glass should be presented the bottle as the wine is poured in the room, and bar or lounge customers must be automatically offered “at least two types of premium quality snacks,” according to the guide. If the hotel has a pool, guests arriving for a swim should be escorted to their chairs and offered refreshment.

“If you call the concierge at a five-star hotel, the phone needs to be picked up in half a second,” said Nobles. “To make that happen, you have to have a lot of staff.”

Shangri-La

Sorry I missed that thread (I don't really go into the Starwood forum).

BENLEE

wow..that's strict. I have stayed at many luxury hotels before and have yet to encounter my phone being pick up by the concierge in 1/2 sec. Few seconds if one is lucky.

A true luxury hotel can actually catered and personalized their service to individual guest requirement ( esp repeating guest ) accordingly to their personality and needs.

Stripe

Exactly. Repeat guests -- presumably a hotel's bread and butter -- will notice cutbacks. We noticed small cutbacks during a 2008 visit to the Peninsula, compared to 2007. We haven't been back. Once a hotel like that fails to meet expectations they lose customers, even if the cutbacks allow them to reduce the price a bit. (The chain did redeem itself to us in a visit to the Hong Kong hotel this June.)

Perhaps but it doesn't prevent them risking a cheapening of their brand. See above.

I worry that the highest level of service will simply become unavailable if the global economic slump drags on. Look at air travel. A truly first class experience is now difficult to find no matter what you're willing to pay.