A Sign of the Times: When a “Luxury Resort” is Not a Luxury Resort
For months we’ve been seeing and hearing from tourism clients that their guests are increasingly cautious of the term “luxury” and the stigma being affixed to it. Specifically, both individuals and companies are shying away from creating any potential perception that they’re enjoying a degree of lavishness for fear of backlash.
Following is an article on this very topic that appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal, and sheds more light on the current – and hopefully temporary – trend away from “luxury” language.
Don’t Use the R-Word: Hotels Find Trick to Business Bookings
by Kris Hudson
To attract business conferences in these tough times, some luxury resort hotels have resorted to a sort of strategy of last resort: They’re dropping the very word “resort” from their names.
The Ballantyne Resort in Charlotte, N.C., changed its name during the summer to the Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge after several corporate clients indicated it would have a better chance of landing their business if it weren’t called a resort. Same for the Westin Stonebriar near Dallas, formerly the Westin Stonebriar Hotel & Resort. Ditto the Renaissance Orlando at Sea World, no longer the Renaissance Orlando Resort at Sea World.
Other than the name-dropping, little else has changed. The bedsheets at the Ballantyne remain Egyptian cotton, and guests still can book an appointment at the spa. Guests at the Westin Stonebriar still can get a tee time for the property’s Tom Fazio-designed golf course. And those at the Loews Lake Las Vegas—a resort no more—aren’t deprived of the property’s “white-sand beach” on the lake nor master sushi chef Osamu “Fuji” Fujita’s culinary creations.
“It doesn’t change who we are,” Renaissance Orlando sales director Gary Dybul said. “But there’s no reason to put roadblocks in the way” of landing conferences.
That such trivial compromises are needed to salvage business is a sign of the times for luxury hotels and resorts. The industry is in the throes of its worst downturn since the Great Depression, with occupancy at historic lows and many properties facing foreclosure. Resorts must also contend with public backlash against the conferences they host.
The resort stigma was stoked by widespread outcry late in 2008 about a $400,000 sales retreat that American International Group Inc. planned to host at the St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point, Calif. Facing scorching criticism, AIG, the recipient of $180 billion in taxpayer assistance, canceled the event. The 400-room St. Regis couldn’t recover from the bad publicity and was foreclosed upon by one of its lenders, Citigroup Inc.
Hoteliers call the resulting fallout the AIG effect. Politicians railed against companies—especially those that got federal aid—meeting at resorts in live-it-up locales like Las Vegas. In turn, companies and government agencies revised travel policies to discourage, if not prohibit, resort stays. Particularly sensitive to the backlash were financial companies, government agencies and medical companies—those that do business with the government or have millions of customers to answer to.
Read the rest of the article here
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