By Shelley Hodges, Senior Director of Account Management for the Luxury Segment at Avendra. Published in Luxury Hoteliers Magazine.

New trends in luxury travel are requiring hoteliers to purchase guest comforts and conveniences unique to each destination; A Procurement Services Provider can leverage supplier relationships to source specialized products more easily.

For today’s luxury travelers, lavish hotel accommodations aren’t enough. Discerning guests want to peel back the layers of a destination to find authentic experiences. For operators, that means delivering personalized stays that guests won’t find anywhere else, and filling those stays with localized food and beverage items and one-of-a-kind amenities that truly elevate the experience. It’s this heightened level of personalization that separates one luxury destination from the next.

According to the Top Trends in Hospitality 2019 report, “one of the biggest challenges facing luxury brands is becoming and staying relevant for a new generation of clients.” The study predicts that consumers under 35 will account for more than half of the global personal luxury goods in the market by 2025. Meanwhile, Chinese consumers, who currently account for one third of the global personal luxury goods market, are expected to make up nearly half of this market by 2025.

In speaking with Barak Hirschowitz, president of the International Luxury Hotel Assn., at the ILHA Inspire Summit, he had this to say about the future of the luxury hotel segment: “Luxury hoteliers have an exciting opportunity today to reinvent themselves and market to the cultures and buying preferences of a diverse global travel community. That means engaging with and attracting younger Gen Y and Gen Z travelers and fusing cultural trends with the hotel’s food-and-beverage offering by purchasing the types of amenities and creating the kinds of personalized menus and services programs that target this demographic.

Luxury travelers don’t want to just have a meal in the hotel restaurant; they want to have a dining experience in a restaurant that just happens to be in a hotel. Strategic purchasing is making this type of transformation possible, and it’s playing an important role in personalizing the guest experience. The most successful luxury properties today are those that source products designed to build meaningful relationships with these next generation travelers across multiple touchpoints at the hotel. It’s a new day and an exciting time to be in the luxury hotel business.”