Luxury Hotelier - November 2007 - (Page 4)

4| Editor’s Letter Experience is priceless W e take great pleasure in planning and producing Luxury Hotel ier . Our goal of launching a magazine for and about luxury hotel owners, operators and developers has been greeted with enthusiastic applause by the hotel community, and we’re looking forward to addressing more key issues and profiling the movers and shakers of the high-end lodging world as 2008 unfolds. We have been quite pleased as we thoughtfully plotted the first two issues of LUXURY HOTELIER. While there have been a few fires to put out, the most dramatic and satisfying aspect has been the spontaneity of the interviewees. In the premiere issue in September, we found an underlying theme that luxury is all about service. Similarly, as we were editing pages and sending them to the printer for this issue, we quickly realized that a subtle theme throughout the 76 pages is enhancing the guest experience. While some of the mentions of developing custom experiences at luxury hotels are completely by design, many of them are not. Before interviewing subjects for articles, our editors and writers are given some guidelines about how we envision the final product. However, we stress that because we want to be an educational and informational tool for the luxury hotel segment, flexibility is our friendliest ally. You can imagine our delight as content began unfolding with the custom experience theme. If that’s a topic of interest to you, please be sure to note the following articles that specifically address this cornerstone of successful luxury hotels: Ross Klein, Starwood’s president and chief experience officer, walks us through the goals of his three brands (page 8). In our cover story about Paul McManus of The Leading Hotels of the World, he talks about putting himself in the customers’ shoes to deliver consistent experiences (page 18). The Deliver section draws a correlation between wellness programs and personal experiences (page 42). Our Protocols story is all about how luxury properties around the world create experiences to make their guests feel like a local resident (page 46). The Indulge section explores how some properties have turned their guests’ love of coffee and tea into a business proposition. There are other references to custom experiences throughout this issue, and we hope you are able to take something meaningful from them. In the meantime, we will continue to bring you issues that affect every aspect of a hotel that caters to discerning guests. If you like, or don’t like, what you see, send me a message at jhigley@questex.com. I’m eager to hear feedback and ideas that will make LUXURY HOTELIER stronger. Our mission is similar to the mission of many hotels: To become the preferred choice of our target audience by offering readers an experience they can get from no other source. LUXURY HOTELIER managing editor Stephanie Ricca sat down with Paul McManus at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in New York City for this issue’s Personalities profile. They discussed everything from brand protection to baseball. JEFF HIGLEY Editorial Director Luxury Hotelier | November 2007 | www.LuxuryHotelier.com http://www.LuxuryHotelier.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Luxury Hotelier - November 2007

Luxury Hotelier - November 2007 Contents Editor's Letter Publisher's Letter Inform: News and Notes Network: People Personalities: Traditional Innovator Insight: Smith Travel Research / The Bench Insight: Ypartnership Properties: A Front-Row Seat to Moscow Properties: Northern Star Inspire: Outdoor Showers Deliver: Wellness and Fitness Protocols: The Real Deal Insight: Cornell University Innovate: In-Room Technology Development: Global Project Pipeline Indulge: Coffee and Tea Insight: Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne Connect: Regional Marketing Update: IH/M&RS Luxury Product Collection Dossier: Davide Bertilaccio of The Rocco Forte Collection’s Le Richemond

Luxury Hotelier - November 2007

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