I guess in my experience of travelling the answer to this one is not as straight forward as it may seem. After all, the definition I guess depends on your budget. For example; what I would deem to be
luxury is likely to be quite different to a Russian Oligarch as our lifestyle and disposable income, and therefore our
luxury experiences we are measuring “luxury” against are not one of the same.
This aside, there does seem to be a problem with the "over playing" of this definition with the rise of independent travel business such as our own, and are probably skewing the lines significantly as a consequence. In a competitive market this is probably to be expected as each new and existing operator seeks to gain advantage, and adding the luxury badge four or five years ago was probably such then (and in most cases reflected a luxury offering), where as now it seems to have become the must have definition (earned or otherwise). The sad thing here is that luxury is probably used on 3 star chalets and to be fair to owners why not, as probably by now clients are starting to think that if it doesn't say luxury, it probably isn't even 3 star!
Hopefully by now, and assuming you are still reading, you will of got the point and as such I'll come to mine. With the over use of this term, I kind of get the feeling that more and more we need some form of regulation or marker to steer us in terms of the ratings, as is the case in the hotelier industries. More cost you may scream, but hopefully not an unreasonable one, and if in doing so it would provide a real marker for our clients to assess and make informed decisions in respect of the “luxury” label, is that a bad thing? For the owners, it might also address some of the spurious claims that can damage our industry, as well as incentivizing owners to continuously improve standards. The latter I believe has already happened through competitive forces, we just now need to recognize the fact that we have and move it on again!
In the five years we have been running our luxury chalet we have found that probably the most important element is service which in our view is primarily about the people involved with our business. I genuinely believe that unless you really are passionate about getting it right, and have an inner desire to continuously find new ways to do things better, then the chances of you delivering a luxury chalet holiday are somewhat remote. I guess as an accountant and having worked as a change consultant the desire to continuously move the bar is inherent, and this helps in the way that year on year we strive, and find things to do that little better.
when we recruit our staff we are looking for strong individuals who can effectively make quick decisions and have a real desire to please and provide service over and above the norm. Each year we fine tune the selection process to ensure we make the right choices, and in addition, provide the structure, through enabling controls, checks and systems to be empowered and measured, client feedback being important, to deliver a high quality and exceptional service.
