arlflyer

As a younger person - me neither. The brand attracts a self-perpetuating party crowd and I tend to avoid it at all costs.


I consider JW, and Conrad for that matter, to be luxury business hotels in most markets. Significantly upmarket of your standard full-service hotel, but their core customer is still generally a business traveler (with the exception of the resort properties really). LC is interesting - on one hand there isn't really a defined brand standard, but on the other hand that same fact means that each property really has to stand on its own virtues rather than riding the coattails of a brand name as some of us see RCs doing. They get a ton of exposure and feed from being part of the MR network of course, but no customer is going to jump and say "I'm staying there, it's an LC!" the way that some do with RC or W for example.

kaizen7

Bold : Agree completely.

I dont see the example as bad. In fact I really think that kind of service is indeed a great service.
Many hotels claim they provide personalised service yet showering guests with meaningless fluffs.

4 of my favorite hotels are : Raffles Singapore, St Regis Bali, Suiran Kyoto, and Al Maha Dubai.
The similarity among these hotels are the ability of their staff to recognise my needs and/or anticipate my needs.

Simple act of remembering guests preference from previous day is already great, to be able to remember guests preference from previous stays is amazing.
And that is what the staff at these 4 hotels did.

kaizen7

For me W is a nightclubs that happen to rent out rooms.

And for The Luxury Collections Hotel, somehow I find LC does lack of brand standard but it makes them unique and the staff seems to have more freedom in term of how they provide the service.
And also I find that LC hotels provide consistently very good service for me.
Cant really say about St Regis and RC as my experience with them is vary too greatly between hotels within these brands.

I believe if there StR, LC, and RC hotels in my destination, I wouldn't hesitate to choose LC.

Kacee

Another thing I really appreciate is when management pays attention to what's going on and follows up to make sure the guest is satisfied.

At Langham NYC recently, I rejected the first room assignment because it was adjacent to the elevator. After settling into my new room, I received a call from a manager who wanted to confirm I was satisfied with the new room. Similarly, my most recent stay at SGS, there was a problem with the internet sign-on which took several calls to resolve. Shortly afterwards, I received a cute chocolate "wrench" and a note from a front desk manager apologizing for the problem and thanking me for my patience.

JBord

Yeah, just meant that the Mexican all-inclusives are a completely different experience, intentionally, from true luxury hotels. If I thought it was a totally terrible example, I wouldn't have posted it .

First, I agree it's amazing when they remember your previous stay preferences, that happens rarely to me. Even one Marriott property (which I actually like), that I stay at about 6-7 times per year usually doesn't even say "welcome back" at check in. Doesn't bother me, but I do find it interesting.

Second, it's probably a sign of a good CRM system, but more importantly, good discipline around using that system both for input and reference. I suspect most Marriott hotels have some type of CRM, even at the property level (besides the corporate system which houses preferences, etc.). But I also suspect most aren't using them in a way that helps them provide exceptional customer service.