Small Inn and Bed and Breakfast Industry Articles

6 March 2008

Fashion hotels are part of a rapid expansion in the market for luxury branded consumer products. According to Verdict Research, global expenditure on these goods has grown by 31% over the past five years to reach $263 billion in 2007. Verdict expects the growth rate to accelerate over the next few years to reach $450 billion by 2012, boosted by high demand from the emerging economies.

Since the pioneering Palazzo Versace opened its doors on Australia’s Gold Coast at the beginning of the current decade, the impetus for fashion hotels has come from the retailers themselves.

Way of life
As the luxury goods market grows increasingly competitive, the major fashion labels seek new ways to innovate and reinforce their brand strength. In today’s ‘experience economy’ luxury goods are promoted as part of a broader aspirational lifestyle, encompassing all aspects of work and leisure.

Luxury consumers are invited to buy not only the product, but the way of life associated with the product: they can aspire not only to wear the brand, but to eat it, drink it, walk it, talk it, feel it… and even sleep in it. For luxury goods retailers, fashion hotels demonstrate that the luxury brand is strong enough to expand beyond its traditional space, and offer a new way of engendering loyalty to the ‘mother brand’.

These hotels can open up new revenue streams, channels to market and opportunities for cross-selling. Products are available for purchase from the hotel catalogue so that guests can take the lifestyle back home with them when they check out at the end of their stay. A luxury retailer can sell a diamond ring to a couple and send them away on honeymoon to one of its own hotels.