Chad Batka
Ian Schrager is credited with creating the boutique hotel.
- Industries from retail to hospitality and travel are struggling to keep up with consumers' evolving views on luxury, as people gravitate toward spending their money on authentic experiences rather than lavish material goods.
- Ian Schrager, the legendary hotelier credited with creating the boutique hotel, says luxury in 2019 is "totally different than what my parents thought luxury was."
- For Schrager, luxury today is about great service, unique experiences, and feeling good about yourself.
What does luxury mean in 2019?
It's a question that global industries, from retail to travel, have struggled with as the public moves away from traditional ideas of luxury, choosing unique experiences over sheer opulence and investing in habits and lifestyle choices rather than material goods.
Not many people have their fingers on the pulse of modern luxury more than Ian Schrager, the legendary hotelier behind brands like EDITION and PUBLIC.
Schrager, who also cofounded Studio 54, the New York City nightclub known for its wild star-studded parties in the 1970s and early '80s, says the whole notion of luxury has changed.
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Today, luxury is "not about wearing a big brand on your sweater," Schrager told Business Insider. "It's really about being involved in a unique experience and one that makes you feel really good about yourself and really comfortable. I think that's totally different than what my parents thought luxury was."
He says his newest hotel, the New York EDITION in Times Square, isn't about design.
"It's about how it makes somebody feel when they're in here," he said. "That they feel good, that they've been treated respectfully and with courtesy ... You actually feel comfortable and warm being here. That, to me, is true luxury."
That's not to say that luxury hotels shouldn't pay attention to aesthetics.
"The fact that it looks good makes a good hotel great, but it doesn't make a great hotel," Schrager said. "What makes a great hotel is great service."
Not too long ago, the most luxurious hotel rooms might have been spacious suites with gold walls and ornate furniture.
But today, many hotels are instead going for "lean luxury," as Business Insider's Lina Batarags previously reported. These hotels, designed with clean lines and minimalist décor that looks good on Instagram, are meant to be "far more functional and user-experience-oriented than a standard grand hotel room," Quartzy's Rosie Spinks wrote.
This evolving view of luxury extends well beyond the hotel business. Another industry cashing in on the idea of making yourself feel good as the ultimate luxury is the booming wellness business.
"Wellness is increasingly regarded as a modern embodiment of luxury, and accordingly, an array of spas and studios offering treatments like cryofacials, weeklong retreats, and vitamin IV drips are delivering those experiences," Batarags wrote for Business Insider.
And then there's the restaurant world, where diners are becoming less interested in the stuffiness and "fancy trappings" of traditional fine dining and more attracted to informality, fun, and authenticity, as Business Insider's Hillary Hoffower reported.