UHNWI-specific trends in the International Luxury Hospitality - pioneering role for the hospitality industry

1. Introduction

Kensington & Sharp (KS) moves into the niche activities of International Luxury Hospitality. 

This niche stands in the cross road between the Luxury, Tourism and Hospitality sectors, all dedicated to the market of ultra-high-net-worth-individuals (UHNWI). 

KS perceives that the inherent nature of the UHWNI has been reinforced through the pandemic. Post-COVID19 literature remains generic, but UHWNI proved to have detected new hospitality practices long before the lockdown; they are "trail blazing", early adopters of hospitality practices shown today as “new trends” or “necessary measures”. 

KS expects UHNWI to play some sort of a pioneering role to dictate the next hospitality revolution. KS will publish a series of analysis on the new hospitality guest journey from the perspectives of UHWNI and operators.

2. The new safe hospitality guest journey  

“Quite a few wealthy people are looking for exclusive safe havens in the form of second homes – safety has become a priority for them. But with this purchase, they expect access to established locations often via residency and additional passports as well as access to medical help.” Alistair Brown, CEO of Alistair Brown International Real Estate”

quote from report “WEALTH-X GLOBAL LUXURY OUTLOOK 2020: A WORLD OF CHANGING PREFERENCES”, published in August, 2020.

These last months have bolstered UHNWI specifics in international luxury hospitality.The pandemic has prompted UHWNI to reappraise their priorities, which can be summarized as (i) Safety & Health, (ii) Family & Friends. 

We have reviewed the hospitality guest journey under the rearranged set of preferences. Our objective is to highlight the upcoming indicators to follow in the scope of international luxury hospitality.

We were able to identify the next high level requirements from the UHNWI further to publications recently released, and hotel operator meetings. 

These are as follow:

i. Exclusive retreats as a second home for leisure and business

These remote locations are targeting luxury chalets/residences/estates with para hospitality services.

The client is able to choose access to a dedicated complementary hospitality service (private chef; concierge; cleaning team) or to receive its personal staff.

ii. Long stays in established locations

UHWNI will consider new destinations based on new requirements for intangibles assets. 

Such assets include on-demand healthcare, administrative support for long stays and education.

iii. Touchless travel Experience

UHNWIs seek to reduce the number of Home-To-Hotel touchpoints in order to reduce viral accidental exposures. They are willing to spend more money than usual on trips that also safeguard their family and secure a safe, confident passenger journey.

3. To be continued: 

In our next release, we will focus on the first indicator for a safe touchless travel experience. We identify the Private Jet market as a driving factor. 

We have witnessed the fast expansion of the private aviation firms buying new aircrafts and hiring more pilots, while this pandemic era is one of the worst downturns for aviation since the 2008 economic crisis. 

We hope the ideas in this article stimulate brainstorming and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.