Is This the Future of Luxury Hotels? This Hotel CEO Weighs In

As a hospitality geek who grew up with a family in the hotel business, the only thing I love as much as checking into a superb hotel is a lively conversation about how the places where we stay on our travels can shape our experiences.

One of the brands I’ve been watching on that front is the Hong Kong-based Langham Hospitality Group, whose flagship hotel is the historic Langham, London—one of Europe’s first hotels with running water, elevators, and air-conditioning in every room when it opened in 1865. Today, the group has 32 operating hotels and more than 40 hotels and residences in operation or development worldwide. It has an ambitious plan to grow that portfolio to 100 properties by 2040. Two of the most anticipated additions will be in Bangkok (2026) and Venice’s Murano Island (2027).

What’s interesting to me about Langham is the way this group is evolving to cater to the next generation of guests. So, a few months ago at the International Luxury Travel Marketplace in Cannes, France (luxury travel’s preeminent annual trade show), Afar’s editor-in-chief Julia Cosgrove and I sat down to talk with Langham CEO Bob van den Oord about the brand’s future, and the future of hotels in general, from the rise of AI to the rise of a new type of traveler.

Over the past year, you’ve been doing a lot of storytelling that focuses on finding joy in everyday moments at your hotels. Can you tell us more?

We’re all about celebrating great architecture, spending time with family and friends, great food and drink, the arts. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We want people to have a good time when they come to our hotels and enjoy themselves. We have since elevated that with what we call the Langham Way. This goes back to last year, when I got a letter from a regular guest of Langham London. Everyone knows him by name, and when he goes to the bar, they know that he likes a Belvedere martini. Last year, he turned to one of our colleagues saying, “What is it about Langham that’s so special?” And that staff member told him, “It’s the Langham Way.” We want our colleagues to be themselves. We want them to tell their stories when they are engaging with our guests. That’s what our training has been focused on, and we’ve got some great feedback from our guests on that.

Where is luxury travel going?

I’m seeing a widening of the luxury landscape from luxury to ultraluxury, and on the other end from luxury to lifestyle luxury. If you think about it, luxury is a different thing for different people, and what my mother thinks of luxury is very different from how a travel journalist might think of it. The beauty of this is that, with the widening of the landscape, it gives opportunities for hotel companies to come up with new products [and] new services and tap into these different markets.

Luxury hotel brands are partnering with fashion and lifestyle brands more these days. Is that trend here to stay?

We do great partnerships, whether it’s a bespoke tea set created in partnership with Porsche on Australia’s Gold Coast or an afternoon tea design masterclass with Jimmy Choo in Jakarta. But you’ve got to be really careful. You’ve got to really stand for your own brand and who you are. I think all these other lifestyle luxury brands are great partnerships, but eventually I think you’re going to see them launch their own hotel products. You already see that success with Bulgari. They do an amazing job and have great hotels.

If you could forecast 10 years from now, what will be different about luxury travel?

I would say that it’s going to be more meaningful—more about enriching your life, your health, your overall wellness, both mentally and physically.

Sustainability and ethical travel are a key part of what we do at Afar. How is sustainability shaping the expectations of your guests today?

The sustainability discussion is not going to go away, and the luxury brands that are able to deliver on their sustainability promises without compromising on their service promises are going to excel in the future. We have a chairman Dr. K.S. Lo who set us a target for a net-zero [environmental impact] by 2045, and we are aiming toward that. The easy wins are taking plastic out of the rooms and coming up with recycling programs. We’re trialing a new AI temperature control system in Hong Kong that reads the number of people in a room, that reads the temperature outside and inside, the weather forecast. And because of that AI model, you can have a more efficient kind of temperature control in your buildings.

The big gains are being made by investments and plans and boilers and MEPS [mechanical, electrical, and plumbing], and that’s what we’re doing. But ultimately, you’re going to need the government on your side. When governments around the world aren’t doing their bit, it becomes a really tough journey.

These days, affluent millennials seem to be the target for a lot of hotel brands. How do you think that generation is changing luxury travel?

I think everyone wants to belong to something—particularly the young. They aspire to align with something they can really identify themselves with. If you look at brands like [sneakers and clothes company] Golden Goose and the way they’ve tapped into that market, that leads me to think that within the hotel offering we currently have, we’re not as adventurous as we could potentially be. But in luxury, I think there’s opportunity there, and we’re certainly brainstorming that.

We just launched a brand called Ying’nFlo, which is going after Gen Z. This is a limited service brand, so it’s not luxury. It’s a bit like your Muji of hotel brands, with beautifully designed rooms but for a very affordable price. Your kids will stay there, where they only spend $50 for a room and they can hang out in what we call the House of Ying’nFlo, a shared space where guests can connect with one another, grab a healthy bite, have informal meetings, or simply enjoy quiet moment. We see that as a great opportunity, particularly in China. They’re also cheaper to build, and more efficient. While that’s not in the luxury landscape, wouldn’t it be great if you could come up with a luxury offering tapping into that market? That market then has to be willing to pay some premium rates, but if you can keep the efficiencies at the right level, then you have a golden formula.

We’re especially excited about The Langham, Venice. Tell us more about this project.

We’re building this gorgeous resort on Murano Island, long revered for its centuries-old tradition of glass making, that sits right on a lagoon. It used to be an old glass factory that we’re reinstating and opening in 2027. During the day, you can go shopping and go to museums before retreating to quieter Murano Island.

Let’s talk about technology and AI. For the hotel industry, do you see AI as a threat, an opportunity, or both?

From a business perspective, if you just look at what’s happening in the medical world and the way they are using AI, it’s phenomenal, and it’s really helping doctors and patients around the world. Now, how can we use that within the service industry? I talked about our AI temperature control system, and we’re piloting an AI technology butler system at The Langham, London, that can talk to you in any language you request. And if we need to get personally involved in that communication, our teams are monitoring that. The way we are using dynamic pricing models in all of our hotels, we’re using AI as well for that. But there’s more coming, and where that’s exactly leading to, I’m not sure. We’re certainly going to experiment with AI-friendly guest rooms. That’s particularly popular in China, and we want to see how we can tap into that, but where is that going to end up? I don’t know. Ultimately, I think people are going to continue looking for great design, quality, great service, [and] great experiences, and for all of that, you’re going to need the human touch.

By Jennifer Flowers