Is The Future Of Travel Really The Three-Star Hotel?
Like Hollywood, travel is a glamor industry. Pictures of people on sunny beaches, partying on Las Vegas pool decks, clinking glasses aboard cruise ships or splashing in crystal-clear waters from Bali to Bermuda are designed to do only thing: sell travel and experiences.
Hollywood helps sell tourism too. There’s a reason why people long to walk where their favorite characters did, whether it’s an isolated peninsula in Spain where “Game of Thrones” was filmed, or fancy hotels where the women of” Sex and the City” frolicked. HBO’s "White Lotus” will no doubt drive tourists to its first and second season locations of Hawaii and Sicily.
But there is a large gap between the expansive, expensive picture the travel industry likes to paint, and the reality. In a perceptive article in The Street, “The Future of Travel is a Three-Star Hotel”, writer Veronika Bondarenkonov writes that for many properties, the goal is attracting influencers and making "world's most expensive hotel" roundups.
She added that a “Las Vegas resort that normally charges around $200 a night created a 19,000-square-foot suite with 12 beds, 25 televisions, a basketball court and an on-call butler for $150,000.” It was created for a TV show, of course, but you can still rent it—or dream about it.
But the reality of what kind of hotel stays are growing is quite different. Bondarenkonov waded through Expedia Group (EXPE) 2023 Traveler Value Index and gleaned that demand for three-star hotels is up more than 20% between 2021 and 2022. She notes it’s not a post-COVID rejection of materialistic flash, but the state of people’s finances.
While most non-Covidians are ready to go on for their travel dreams, financial reality can get in the way. According to Bondarenkonov, hotel prices have risen by 12% from 2021, and as much as 50% in certain popular destinations. That’s not to mention airline (and gas) prices to get there.
