Taj's Alternative Experiment

Luxury Travel News

The Skift New Luxury column is our weekly column focused on the business of selling luxury travel, the people and companies creating and selling experiences, emerging trends, and the changing consumer habits around the sector.

It's always interesting when a hospitality company moves out of its lane and tries something different.

At the start of March, India's Taj Hotels will begin taking bookings for its new brand, Amã Trails & Stays.

It's not the luxury chain's first foray into alternative accommodations, but it seems to be much more serious this time around with plans for 100 properties by the end of 2020. Taj won't be giving up on hotels, but these days all hospitality companies need to offer something different.

For feedback or news tips, reach out via email at pw@skift.com or tweet me @paddywhyte.

— Patrick Whyte, Europe Editor

6 Looks at Luxury

Taj Hotels to Enter Homesharing With New Amã Brand: On March 1, Taj Hotels will start taking bookings for its official foray into homesharing with its new brand, Amã, with nine bungalows. It’s further proof of the Skift Megatrend that in hospitality, “everything is converging.”

Accor Rebrands and Launches New Loyalty Program to Catch Its Peers: Accor’s Sebastien Bazin seems to be less keen about acquisitions these days. Instead, he is looking at Accor internally and aims to fix the chain’s rather dismal loyalty program. Sports, dining, and entertainment are key experiences that the new loyalty program will address.

How Luxury Hospitality Can Use Technology to Stay Human: Trends in travel are never mutually exclusive. We take a look at a new report out of Switzerland to examine how the biggest trends in hospitality overlap and how they impact the luxury sector.

Australian Travel Advisors Find That Luxury Clients Still Care About Price: Survey findings about a healthy luxury travel market in Australia demonstrate significant and lucrative opportunities for travel advisors who can meet clients’ lofty expectations while still delivering value.

Wellness Represents Big Opportunity for Hyatt: Latest Skift Research: Arguably, no one else in the hospitality industry has made wellness as much of a priority and focus as Hyatt has. Our latest research suggests there’s a lot of opportunity for the company to tap into this quickly growing segment to drive increased customer loyalty.

More U.S. Snowbirds Are Favoring Resorts Over Timeshares: Forget the timeshare condo. There’s a new, cold-weather version of “summering” abroad, if you have the money: five-star resort properties that are close to the equator.

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Skift Europe Editor Patrick Whyte [pw@skift.com] curates the New Luxury newsletter. Skift emails the newsletter every Tuesday.

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