Researched analysis of luxury hospitality, drawn from financial disclosures, official programme terms and first-hand reporting. We take positions, we show our sources, and we tell you when the arithmetic does not favour us.
The second curtailment in five years. Here's the actual reason, and what it changes for anyone in the 25 to 100 hour range.
Four celebrated hotel names have gone to sea in four years. The financial disclosures of the first mover suggest the category is being built faster than it is being filled.
Four Seasons I charges for dinner. In ultra-luxury cruising that is close to heresy, and it is the most interesting decision anyone in the category has made.
One brand bet on inclusive pricing and scale. The other bet on space and à la carte. Only one of them is currently profitable, and it is not necessarily the one you'd guess.
Three ways to fly privately, at three completely different cost structures and break-even points. Most people choosing between them are comparing the wrong two.
While the branded mega-yacht category struggles to fill cabins, a quieter bet on small-ship expedition cruising is gaining ground. The economics are different, and so is the guest.
Long before hotel brands started building ships, Belmond proved the model on rails and rivers. It is worth understanding as the template the current yacht boom is chasing.
The advice to mention it at check-in is not wrong so much as late. Here is when the hotel actually needs to know, and what realistically happens when it does.
Almost every luxury hotel programme promises an upgrade. Almost none of them promise it in a way you could enforce. Here is how the decision is really made, and which programmes are the exceptions.
They usually do, and we can show the arithmetic. But there are several situations in which booking through an advisor leaves you worse off, and they are rarely mentioned by advisors.
Frequent guest and elite guest are not the same thing at most hotel brands. Here is why loyalty alone rarely earns an upgrade, and why a first-time preferred-partner booking often does.
Hotel brands will hand you a rival's status for free, if you ask the right way. Here is when that trade is worth making and when it wastes a trip's worth of admin.
Two different systems promise the same shortlist of amenities. They are not interchangeable, and picking the wrong one for a given stay is the most common mistake we see.
Hotels sign contracts promising not to undercut certain channels. The promise has more exceptions than travellers assume, and knowing them is worth real money.
A mandatory charge for amenities you may never use, disclosed as late as the law allows. Here is what regulators have actually done about it, and what still works.
Loyalty programmes want redemptions to feel like a discovery. Most of the time the cash rate, or a preferred-partner booking, is simply the better trade.
The credential on the website tells you less than three questions asked before you book. Here is what separates an advisor who adds value from one who is just a booking portal with a name attached.
Nearly every benefit sheet says “for two.” Here is what a solo guest actually receives, and how to ask for the difference back.
Active branded residence projects grew from 764 to roughly 910 in a single year. Here's what's actually driving it.
Most preferred-partner credits are a flat US$100. Shangri-La is one of the few that scales with what you're paying.
Waldorf Astoria, Aman, Auberge, Canyon Ranch and Kimpton picked Fredericksburg at nearly the same time. That's not a coincidence.
Venice's grand dame reopens under Four Seasons management this month. Here's what's genuinely finished, and what to wait for.
Ancient Greek hospitality had a god enforcing it. Four Seasons has a documented founding story, and it isn't quite the one people repeat.
The great names of hospitality increasingly belong to licensors and conglomerates rather than to the people running the building. That should change how much weight a traveller puts on the crest.
All three sit at the top of the market and get compared constantly. They are not selling the same thing, and the difference should decide which one you book.
Four brands, one loyalty programme, four genuinely different hotels. Booking the wrong one for the trip is the most common Marriott mistake we see.
Hilton's top three brands are having its best year on the balance sheet, growing revenue per room faster than the rest of the portfolio. Here is what actually separates them.
Two hotels can fly an identical flag and be run by entirely different companies, one directly employed by the brand, one simply paying for the name. The difference is invisible on the booking page and real at check-in.
A singular property with no chain behind it can outclass any branded hotel in the world, or leave you with no recourse when something goes wrong. Here is the actual trade.
The credit is larger than most preferred-partner programmes offer. That is not an accident, and it says something about how Mandarin Oriental competes.
The average Aman has around 30 rooms and charges more per night than almost anyone in hospitality. Scarcity is not a side effect of that strategy. It is the strategy.
A $3.2 billion acquisition by the world's largest luxury conglomerate could have remade Belmond entirely. Six years on, the actual pattern is narrower and more interesting than that.
One family has controlled Peninsula's parent company for over a century and has deliberately kept the brand small enough to run personally. That restraint is the product.
Book two rooms and the benefits generally apply to both. Book one suite and they usually don't double. Here's how the arithmetic actually works.
The convenience is real. So is the risk that every resort starts to feel like the same resort.
The same room, cancelled the same day, can cost you nothing, one night, or the entire stay, depending purely on which channel you booked through.
Two identical-looking prices on two different websites are not the same reservation. Here is what an OTA booking actually forfeits.
The honest answer depends on which of two very different markets the property is in, and most advice online does not distinguish between them.
“Refundable” and “fully refundable” are not the same word, and the gap between them has cost travellers entire stays. Here is what to check before you enter a card number.