Definition of a Luxury Hotel™

Principle

A luxury hotel is not defined by tariff, star rating or marketing category. It is defined by the sustained coincidence of excellence across five interdependent pillars.

Institutional Definition

A luxury hotel is a hospitality property that demonstrates enduring, evidence-based excellence in property, service, experience and operation, and which occupies a position of significance within its market.

The Five Pillars

• Property Excellence — architecture, design, condition and physical distinction.
• Service Excellence — the disciplined, individuated care of guests.
• Experiential Excellence — the memorability and singularity of the guest experience.
• Operational Excellence — the professionalism, standards and stewardship of management.
• Market Significance — the property's stature within its market and its comparability with peer institutions.

Scope

• Qualification for inclusion within the Luxury Hotel Brokers database.
• Eligibility for Institutional Property Records™.
• Eligibility for the Global Luxury Hotel Excellence Awards™.
• Eligibility for institutional benchmarking.
• Qualification for comparative research.
• Future amendments to the institutional definition of luxury hospitality.

Exclusions

This standard does not determine:

• Market value
• Investment attractiveness
• Commercial success
• Financial performance
• Guest satisfaction

Related Methodologies

The above are governed by separate LHB methodologies, including LHB-STD-008 (Qualification) and LHB-STD-009 (Ecosystem).