Avani Hotels just launched a global book club across 15 properties with curated reading lists and author events, calling it a redefinition of luxury travel. The last time I saw a brand redefine luxury with a furniture arrangement, it was a fireplace lobby renovation that nobody used past week two.
Marriott just wrapped a three-city sales blitz across China to push nine luxury Maldives resorts to 106 travel agents. The question isn't whether Chinese travelers are coming back to the Maldives... it's what this roadshow reveals about where Marriott's real growth anxiety lives.
A single appointment at a Maldives resort reveals the growing gap between luxury F&B ambition and the technology infrastructure nobody's building to support it.
