Reimagining luxury for the next generation of travellers

The challenge

A fast-growing hotel group, that prides itself on being a leader in luxury, faced a pivotal moment. Its ambitious seven-year international expansion programme was forcing the strategy team to reimagine luxury and how it must evolve for the next generation of high-value travellers.

Crucially, the team knew insights from within hospitality alone wouldn't be enough. They needed to explore luxury outside their industry, and understand where brand activity and innovation in adjacent categories could help them innovate for the evolving desires of affluent consumers.

Cross-category luxury research and strategic provocation

We delivered more than consumer insights research: our report, presentation and workshop provided a comprehensive, bespoke explanation of the emerging tensions in luxury consumer expectations.

Our approach blended macro trend analysis with deep cultural research, drawing on global examples from new and niche brands as well as international luxury players across fashion, retail, automotive, interiors, wellness, technology and beyond. This didn’t just demonstrate how luxury is evolving, it inspired the brand teams by linking products, spaces, services and experiences directly to their strategic objectives and key consumer targets.

We identified future scenarios for each of the hotel group's luxury brands, helping the client understand not just understand what is changing, but also why.

Facilitated workshop: from insight to action

Using our insights as the foundation, our facilitated workshop enabled the client team to map these findings against their brands and territories, translating opportunities into strategic directions for hospitality touchpoints, programming, experience principles and brand behaviours.

Beginning with a shared vision of the future guest – and an urgent understanding of the expectations these guests would bring from brand interactions outside hospitality – we led the team to create an immediately actionable roadmap. This included identifying where their existing data and insights could better inform their strategic plans.

The global brand director reflected: “It was inspiring but also efficient. Having Stylus there increased the quality and effectiveness of our collaboration. And it was fun, in a mind-stretching way! It showed us what future hospitality could look like and reignited our desire to be leaders for years to come.”