Knowledge Graph Ontology Standard™

I. Purpose

The Knowledge Graph Ontology Standard™ establishes the constitutional architecture governing every entity, relationship, identifier, citation, confidence level, version and editorial contribution contained within the Luxury Hotel Knowledge Graph™. Every future report, methodology, publication, index, Intelligence Record™, award, database entry and editorial publication shall ultimately derive from, or contribute to, this ontology. The Luxury Hotel Knowledge Graph™ is intended to become the definitive institutional knowledge model of the global luxury hospitality industry, enabling every report, publication, standard, advisory engagement and future analytical system produced by Luxury Hotel Brokers to be derived from a single, governed body of knowledge.

II. Scope

This Standard governs the structure, semantics and stewardship of all knowledge held within the Luxury Hotel Knowledge Graph™. It applies to every entity recorded by the Institution, every relationship asserted between such entities, every identifier issued, every citation attached, and every editorial contribution made through institutional publications. It is binding upon all divisions of the Luxury Hotel Brokers Research Institute™ and upon all systems that read from or write to the Graph.

III. Institutional Principles

• Knowledge before commerce.
• Evidence before opinion.
• Standards before rankings.
• Methodology before conclusions.
• Stewardship before scale.
• Long-term trust before short-term revenue.
• Institutions outlive founders.
• Every new component shall make Luxury Hotel Brokers more useful, more trustworthy, more citable and more enduring than it was before.

IV. Entity Types

The Knowledge Graph recognises the following canonical entity classes. The taxonomy is authoritative; new classes may be introduced only by formal revision to this Standard.

• Luxury Hotels
• Luxury Resorts
• Branded Residences
• Luxury Cruise Ships
• Cruise Lines
• Hotel Brands
• Owners
• Operators
• Management Companies
• Developers
• Architectural Practices
• Interior Designers
• Hospitality Consultants
• People
• Destinations
• Countries
• Cities
• Regions
• Awards
• Award Categories
• Transactions
• Investment Funds
• Family Offices
• Institutional Investors
• Research Reports
• Methodologies
• Institutional Standards
• Foundational Documents
• Publications
• Journals
• Media Organisations
• Industry Associations
• Universities
• Hospitality Schools
• Conferences
• Events
• Government Organisations
• Regulatory Bodies
• Hospitality Technologies
• Luxury Brands
• Wellness Brands
• Restaurants
• Golf Courses
• Spas
• Private Clubs
• Historic Properties
• Protected Buildings
• Collections

V. Relationship Types

Relationships are typed, directional, dated and, where applicable, evidence-bearing. Every relationship shall record: subject entity, predicate, object entity, effective period, source citation and confidence level. The canonical predicate set is:

• owns
• operates
• manages
• developed_by
• designed_by
• interior_designed_by
• located_in
• part_of
• subsidiary_of
• acquired_by
• sold_to
• awarded
• published_by
• references
• cites
• implements
• supersedes
• superseded_by
• related_to
• contains
• member_of
• hosts
• partner_of
• managed_under
• licensed_by
• opened
• closed
• renovated
• rebranded_as
• formerly_known_as
• adjacent_to
• within_destination
• within_region

VI. Persistent Identifiers

Every entity within the Knowledge Graph shall be issued a persistent institutional identifier. Identifiers are permanent, never reused, never reassigned, and never recycled. Deprecated entities retain their identifier and are marked deprecated with a redirect record. Identifier prefixes indicate entity class.

• LHB-HOT-000001 — Luxury Hotels
• LHB-RES-000001 — Luxury Resorts
• LHB-BRD-000001 — Hotel Brands
• LHB-OWN-000001 — Owners
• LHB-OPR-000001 — Operators
• LHB-DES-000001 — Destinations
• LHB-RPT-2026-001 — Research Reports (year-scoped)
• LHB-STD-011 — Institutional Standards
• LHB-DOC-001 — Foundational Documents

VII. Naming Standards

• Canonical name — the single authoritative display name.
• Aliases — alternative names in current use.
• Historic names — prior names, dated to the period of use.
• Translations — names in other languages, with script noted.
• Preferred display name — the form used across institutional publications.
• Sorting name — the form used for alphabetical ordering.
• Abbreviations — recognised short forms.
• Trademark treatment — trademark, service mark and registered mark handling, in accordance with LHB-STD-004.

VIII. Evidence & Provenance

• Confidence Levels — every fact carries an institutional confidence level (high, medium, low, or indicative) in accordance with LHB-STD-001 and LHB-STD-003.
• Source hierarchy — primary institutional sources rank above secondary and tertiary sources.
• Citation requirements — every asserted fact shall be traceable to a cited source under LHB-STD-003.
• Evidence requirements — high-confidence facts require corroborating evidence from at least two independent sources.
• Conflicting evidence — recorded transparently, with the Institution's editorial resolution.
• Unknown values — recorded as unknown, never inferred silently.
• Estimated values — recorded as estimates with methodology cited.
• Historic values — retained with their effective period; never overwritten.

IX. Version Control

• Entity revisions — every material change to an entity is recorded as a new revision.
• Relationship revisions — relationships are versioned; historic relationships are retained.
• Merge history — where entities are merged, both identifiers are preserved and the merge recorded.
• Deprecation — deprecated entities remain accessible, marked, and dated.
• Redirect policy — deprecated identifiers redirect to their successor without breaking existing citations.
• Change log — a permanent, timestamped record of every material change.
• Editorial attribution — every contribution is attributed to a named editor of the Institute.

X. Governance

• Editorial approval — required for all substantive additions to the Graph.
• Research approval — required for the publication of new entity classes, relationship predicates or identifier prefixes.
• Correction procedures — governed by LHB-STD-002 and the Corrections policy.
• Appeals — a formal right of appeal is provided to subjects of Graph entries.
• Institutional oversight — exercised by the Luxury Hotel Brokers Research Institute™ under the editorial independence provisions of LHB-DOC-004.
• Publication lifecycle — Draft, Under Review, Approved, Published, Superseded, Archived.

XI. Future Extensions

This ontology is intended to evolve through formal revisions while maintaining backwards compatibility wherever practical. Extensions to the entity taxonomy, relationship model or identifier system shall be proposed as institutional directives, reviewed by the Research Institute, and adopted only upon publication of a revised version of this Standard. Prior versions remain permanently accessible; existing identifiers and citations remain valid.

Architectural Principle

• The ontology governs the database. The database does not govern the ontology.
• The ontology governs every report.
• Every report enriches the Knowledge Graph.
• The Knowledge Graph enriches future reports.
• Together, these form a permanent institutional knowledge cycle.