Insights

Boutique hotels are at the forefront of innovation by pushing boundaries, setting trends, and creating memorable experiences in comparison to larger brands that struggle to replicate. This spirit of innovation at boutique properties will continue in 2025 by driving changes in both demand side and supply side. The demand side trends include AI-driven personalization, transformative and customized wellness experience that align with personal health goals, hyper-personalization, hyper-local, hyper-seasonal F&B offerings, membership-driven hospitality and preference for independent hotels either newly built or renovated. On the supply side, while AI will reshape operations and marketing, employee education and development cannot be overlooked due to the human connection that boutique hospitality is known for. Frances Kiradjian Founder/CEO of Boutique & Luxury Lodging Association (BLLA) reports following trends;

Personalization or hyper personalization are buzz words flooding many current articles. Personalization simply means departure from one-size-fits-all approach to delivering bespoke moments that resonate with each guest. However, one should dismiss the misconception that personalization is exclusively technological. It is no doubt a human concept where technology and automation can be enablers for hotels to tailor interactions to guests online.

Performance measurement is a must for any organization but tracking the right metrics matters. It seems that the old metrics used by the hotels are being replaced by new generation of hospitality metrics due to the influence of technology. Mews report (Jan, 2025) suggests thought provoking new metrics for the hotels to track.

Based on the survey of 800 affluent travelers across six countries: the UK, US, France, China, UAE, and Saudi Arabia by International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM), one-size-fits-all spa retreats seem obsolete as striking 84% of affluent individuals are expecting wellness services to be transformative and tailored to their unique health goals.

Wellness has become a buzzword and ‘wellness-secondary travel’ category is on the rise. This segment is defined as “travelers who are visiting a destination for a purpose other than wellness but they still want to remain healthy while going about their business”. These customers take ‘health is wealth’ phrase seriously and are willing to pay a premium for quality sleep.

Secondary cities are in competition with major cities for group meetings due to the rising demand for affordable, accessible, and authentic experiences. This trend favors Sri Lanka to promote Secondary cities for MICE segments. Based on the assessment of growing popularity of the Secondary cities using 5As framework by Mike Schugt of Teneo Hospitality Group, the Brand P expresses the way forward for Sri Lanka.