When Fantasy Meets the Bill
When Reality Overtakes the Fantasy: A Quietly Amused Look at Luxury Hotels in 2025 Luxury, we are told, has never been stronger.
The Wall Street Journal declares that wealthy travelers are “splurging on luxury hotels like never before,” with room rates soaring to record highs and ultra-luxury becoming the engine that keeps the industry thriving.
A lovely narrative.
A comforting one.
And—as anyone who has worked in a real hotel for longer than three days will tell you—only half the story.
Because for every $2,600 Parisian suite being booked by an exuberant American investment manager celebrating the newest stock rally, there is another, quieter truth playing out in the back corridors and linen rooms of “normal” luxury hotels: the truth of an industry operating on increasingly thin emotional margins, clinging to the illusion that price equals experience.
