Four Seasons tips

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, October 31. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Guests at a Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills can now access in-room concierge via hologram.

Four Seasons plans to expand its high-end hotels and resorts portfolio with a luxury 222-guest cruise ship.

Four Seasons revealed on Tuesday the first itineraries for its new brand, Four Seasons Yachts. The hospitality company also shared the first renderings of its maiden vessel, which it has yet to name.

Partly-owned by one of the richest Saudi royals in the world, Four Seasons is on its way to becoming one of the most dominant luxury hotel chains in the country.

Four Seasons New York Downtown has introduced a new in-room shopping experience that will allow guests to shop the Hotel’s most sought-after retail items from the comfort of their rooms. 

Toronto hotel brand Four Seasons is likely to announce its own resort and standalone villa project in United Arab Emirate’s (UAE) Ras Al Khaimah. The proposed super-luxury resort is currently going through its master planning stages and has already found a plot of land “very close” to the $3.9 billion Wynn integrated resort opening in 2027.

A new exhibition featuring sustainable art will be opening at the Four Seasons Hotel Abu Dhabi at Al Maryah Island, thanks to a new collaboration between the hotel, Artbooth Gallery, and a local artist. 

It’s been a year since Four Seasons brought on new CEO and president Alejandro Reynal and rolled out a new marketing campaign. So I wanted to check in on the luxury hotel and resort powerhouse.

A dry “underwater” hologram experience featuring numerous sea creatures has opened at Four Seasons Resort Landaa Giraavaru.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has named a new regional president: Adrian Messerli is now president of hotel operations for the EMEA region. He succeeds Simon Casson, who held the role since 2016 and announced his departure from the group earlier in the year for a to-be-confirmed new opportunity.

Conventional hotel design doesn’t merely get left at the tent flap at Naviva, Four Seasons’ first luxury tented resort in the Americas. It gets tossed to the side with a metaphorical journey that begins by entering via a cocoon-inspired bamboo bridge spanning a deep forest ravine.

Red Roof, Motel 6, and Extended Stay have all implemented software to reduce the need for workers. 

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, December 1. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

The adage “If you build it, they will come” has multiple meanings for Cory Carlson, regional marketing director at Four Seasons Resort and Residences Jackson Hole. 

The Four Seasons wants to convey how its staff goes above and beyond the call of duty to entertain guests in its Based on a True Stay campaign.

Bulgari Hotels & Resorts opened its eighth hotel on April 4, the Bulgari Hotel Tokyo.

As I sit with general managers and hoteliers around the world, there is a common lament: hiring. At the luxury level, a new crop of talent that lives and breathes the industry is difficult to find. The perception in the job market is that jobs in hotels or hospitality are an easy way to get yelled at our abused by feral guests, and laid off at a moment’s notice when conditions turn. 

Saudi Arabia has the largest hotel construction activity in the Middle East and Africa region, followed by United Arab Emirates, according to hotel research firm STR. Saudi Arabia topped the regional list with 42,033 hotel rooms, followed by United Arab Emirates with 22,324 rooms, as per March 2023 pipeline data report from STR. Most of the region’s pipeline activity is focused in the Middle East, STR said. In March, around 119,505 rooms were under construction in the Middle East and Africa, which is down 6 percent compared to March 2022. STR further noted that each of the four world regions — Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and the Americas — showed a year-over-year decline in hotel construction activity, with Asia Pacific coming closest to its 2022 comparable. However, the picture is more positive for the Middle East and Africa. The region has 45,529 rooms in the “final planning stage,” up 20 percent year-on-year, while the rooms in the “planning stage” have gone up to 84,116, an increase of 21.2 percent year-on-year.

Dubai welcomed 4.67 million international overnight visitors in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 3.97 million tourists during the same period in 2022, according to the latest data published by the Department of Economy and Tourism. This marks a 17 percent year-on-year growth and the city’s best first quarter performance since the pandemic. The number of visitors in in the first quarter was just two percentage points short of pre-pandemic volume of 4.75 million tourists that arrived in Dubai in the first three months of 2019. Dubai’s traditional source markets in its key regions continued to perform strongly during the first quarter of the year. The Gulf as well as the Middle East and Northern Africa region collectively contributed 29 percent of total volumes, while Western Europe accounted for 22 percent of tourism arrivals, and South Asia accounted for 16 percent of total international visitation. “The tourism sector is not only the strongest pillars of our economy but also a key enabler of Dubai’s distinctive role in the world as a bridge between markets, cultures and regions,” said Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai and chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai. The crown prince said Dubai would continue to introduce new initiatives to achieve its goal of becoming the world’s best place to live, visit, work and invest in. “The first quarter has set us off on a very strong trajectory for the year and is driving us closer towards realizing the vision of making Dubai the most visited and re-visited destination,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, director general of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism.

I can’t imagine ever tiring of infinity pools, Michelin-starred restaurants, and staff answering my every whim. But from a business perspective, it seems you truly can get too much of a good thing in ultra-luxury hotels and resorts.In the ultra-luxury segment — think names like Aman, Four Seasons, 1Hotel, One&Only, Park Hyatt, Peninsula, Raffles, The Ritz-Carlton, and Six Senses — it can be a mistake to grow a brand’s footprint too fast or widely. After all, luxury is partly about scarcity.