Jacobs issues candid warning to luxury hotel brands

Speaking at Further East in Bali this week, the former head of Six Senses who is now working with Capella Hotel Group, warned that too many brands have become indistinguishable, and that only those with clear, purpose-driven narratives will survive.

“However good they are, they’re all doing the same thing,” he stated in his onstage conversation with Capella’s Vice President Lifestyle Lexie Rodriguez.

For Jacobs, the fundamentals of “great food, a beautiful building, a really comfortable bed and very good service” are no longer enough to win loyalty. “That’s kind of a given if you want to play in that world,” he pointed out.

What separates leading brands now is story and substance. “The brands that are really chipping away at market share are those with a very clear narrative, a very defining story that perhaps is not going to appeal to everybody – and that’s okay,” he said.

Sustainability as strategy

Jacobs was candid about the industry’s failings on environmental issues. “Sustainability is kind of a bad word,” he said. “We have a horrible reputation in hospitality when it comes to really executing.”

But he insisted the opportunity lies in turning ethics into economics. “Apart from being the right thing to do, it is the commercially right thing to do as well. A lot of these things are win–win, if you present them in a good way.”

At Six Senses, Jacobs pioneered programs such as eliminating single-use plastics and installing visible water purification systems that became guest experiences in themselves. “We bought that plant from back of house to front of house, and we made it a thing,” he said. “Guests were seeing the process… and it became a standard.”

The same ethos is now shaping Capella and its younger sister brand, Patina, as they build a unified sustainability framework.

Community and Wellness as Core Values

Sustainability is among the areas taking on a new importance as today’s traveller seeks connection and contribution, according to Jacobs. “How are [guests] able to contribute and be part of creating a better world?” he asked. Capella and Patina now focus on collaborations with local artists and musicians to build “community-led brands rather than marketing-led ones.”

Wellness too has climbed the agenda in a big way, evolving from an amenity to an expectation since the pandemic. “Who talked about wellness the way everybody is talking about wellness today?” he noted. The next frontier, he said, is longevity and holistic wellbeing.

Looking ahead, he sees hospitality transforming into integrated lifestyle ecosystems, evolving beyond rooms and restaurants to create spaces where hotels, clubs, residences, and communities coexist. “The customer is not a hotel guest,” he said. “The customer is the resident of that environment.”

By Anne Majumdar