SCOOP

Luxury Hotels -- OK For Now

From everything that I've been reading, it seems that nationally, our luxury hotels are holding their own occupancy wise with no sign of a downturn, yet. The theory is that the demand for high-end properties is not as affected by the economy as other hotel categories. Supposedly, affluent people or those traveling on business are a bit insulated from the general trends.

On the other hand, in this cooling economy, guest expectations are more acute. People feel they deserve some value in with their luxury. They want everything they are paying for. They are using everything they can and in the case of toiletries/amenities when they don't use them on property, they're taking them home.

A trend in high-end hotels is personalization -- everything from making the properties and rooms less stuffy and formal to keeping a dossier on personal preferences. The theory is that in addition to attracting those big spending baby boomers, they'll also reach those travelers in their 30's (and even 20's) who travel a lot and want a hipper sophisticated and more individualized environment.

Experts say that the luxury market is somewhat exempt from the sliding economy, but can't predict how long this will last.

So, what are you doing South Florida to adjust to the economy?