Hotels faced a number of hardships as they began reopening in the wake of Covid, including a need to make up for lost revenue, a yo-yoing approach to ongoing restrictions and operating principles, and difficulty recruiting staff, everywhere from entry level to upper management. That was balanced out in part by two huge boons: pent-up consumer demand (travelers were eager to take vacations—and spend big to do so), and an understanding from those consumers that the industry was a bit of a mess and we’d all need to grin and bear it while taking those coveted trips.

Now, several years down the road, there’s a growing sense that much of the hotel scene hasn’t recovered in full. Instead, consumers have been experiencing a steady rise in nightly rates and a prolonged period of decline in standards for service and hospitality.

I travel 365 days a year as a nomadic journalist, so there are always highs and lows, but lately, the lows have been…memorable. There was the swanky, five-star European city hotel inundated with mosquitos, despite the front desk’s assurances otherwise. And the new five-star lake hotel with four-digit room prices and décor reminiscent of an Ikea catalog or college dorm. I started to question what really constitutes “five stars” these days. 

The most jarring experience, though, came during a stay at a five-star boutique hotel along Mexico’s Riviera Maya. Severe food allergies were relayed to the front desk, butler, and kitchen on numerous occasions. After a room service breakfast was delivered, a further call was made back to the kitchen to ensure allergy safety, with the team giving its blessing. Half an hour later, a nervous staff member called back hoping against hope that we didn’t eat the food that she just confirmed as safe, but actually, well, wasn’t. Thankfully, our own suspicions stopped us from eating the meal, but how is it that such a serious blunder, in this case at the risk of a medical emergency, can be made at this level of hotel? “Service is indeed being called into focus across the industry,” says Olivier Lordonnois, Aman’s managing director for the Americas. “At its core, service is about the genuine connection between staff and guests. In a world that is rediscovering the importance of human interaction, I believe we are at a pivotal moment in restoring the art of meaningful hospitality.”

How has the service gotten so bad?

It’s clear that service and hospitality are down across the board, even at five-star properties. But who or what is to blame, and why is the issue so persistent?

“Post-pandemic, there has been a general downturn in service everywhere, and the issue doesn’t lie so much with a change in priority, spend, nor focus on luxury hotels, but rather the post-pandemic labor pool,” says Jack Ezon, founder and CEO of Embark Beyond, a luxury travel company and Virtuoso agency. “Hospitality was not only the hardest hit, but the hardest to come back.”

Even if a hotel hasn’t changed its written objectives on service or staffing, the difference can still be seen and felt immediately. “I’ve detected a drop in enthusiasm, and I believe staffing and training are the two keys to providing a stellar guest experience,” says Jessica Gorman, a luxury travel advisor with Concierge Curated Travel LLC, an independent affiliate of Global Travel Collection. “The devil is in the details, so if your team members don’t have the tools to perform and exceed in their roles, the guest experience suffers.”

While some might feel as if five-stars should be in a superior position thanks to rigorous training programs, talent retention, and overall investment, in some cases, the luxury tier comes back to haunt them. Prices have skyrocketed and yet consumers feel as if they’re getting the short end of the stick. “Exorbitant rates at luxury hotels exacerbate an already compromised hospitality industry,” Ezon says. “Now that demand has cooled, rates set an expectation of a level of luxury that is almost impossible to deliver on in this environment.”

Finding the bright side 

That’s not to say that there’s no such thing as excellent service nowadays. Many independent, family-owned properties continue to shine, and certain brands have been able to maintain their sparkling reputations, with options such as Four Seasons, Park Hyatt, Aman, and Belmond remaining top notch.

Ezon points to an experience at the Bvlgari Milano as one worthy of highlighting thanks to attentive service from the breakfast crew, while the 20-room Villa Passalacqua also delivered a standout experience with the attuned, anticipatory service provided by its team. “It redefines all superlatives,” he says.

For Gorman, it was the personalized greetings and friendly service provided by the Four Seasons Bangkok. “I am a firm believer that the biggest wow for a guest costs the least amount of money,” she says. After working for 13 years with The Ritz-Carlton prior to becoming a travel advisor, she’s also a believer in that brand’s particular approach. “I will always remember an unofficial motto we had in addition to all the standards: ‘Our product is our service.’”

The hallmarks of a true five-star hotel

There’s an enormous gap between a five-star hotel on paper, one that meets the technical requirements regarding amenities, and a true five-star, one that meets the unwritten expectations for fantastic service. This is a customer-first, make-a-difference philosophy to hospitality; it’s anticipatory and designed to surprise and delight the guest.

At the Aman New York, which opened in August 2022 in Manhattan’s historic Crown Building, little memorable moments might include being whisked away from the lobby for a prompt check-in process in your suite, receiving a personalized gift based on your plans in the city, or having an artistic caricature of your visage inserted into a monogrammed luggage tag.

Sure, guests have access to the indulgent, cutting-edge three-story spa and enjoy a killer view from any of its 83 massive, elegant suites. They can secure in-demand spots for a world-class omakase dinner at Nama or a seating at the sultry jazz club. But it’s the bespoke attention and thoughtful add-ons—a fully complimentary minibar, including bottles of Champagne—that make it feel like you don’t need to worry about a thing. That makes the most impact.

“There are several core reasons for our success: we invest deeply in our training programs, and we also give our team the creative freedom to tailor each interaction to the individual, encouraging them to take ownership of each guest experience to ensure our personalized service not only meets but exceeds our guests’ expectations at every touchpoint,” Lordonnois says.

Such a gap between what you might call a faux five-star, and what you might consider a five star-plus or true five-star, is monumental in scope. “Genuine care and comfort and a personalized experience define luxury hospitality,” Gorman says. “The ability to not have to think during a hotel stay; that everything is simply taken care of for you, before you even have to ask.”

The small moments of unforgettable care, the incredible attention to detail, and the savvy anticipation of a need before it transpires are what separate run-of-the-mill hotels from something truly exceptional that you’re bound to book again and again. 

The word “exceptional” comes up a lot in conversation with hotel experts. “Exceptional service, to me, is about meeting the guest exactly where they want to be at that particular moment in time,” Lordonnois says. “It involves the emotional intelligence to attune to subtle shifts in their needs or desires. It is our ambition to put ourselves in our guest’s shoes to anticipate their needs in order to personalize the experience at the level that truly defines exceptional hospitality.”

“The hallmark of exceptional service is measurable in how special you make a guest feel,” Ezon says. “That is obviously subjective, but it usually helps when you can be proactive in anticipating the needs of a guest, focus on solutions, and do something meaningful for them—something that says they are important, you heard them, you understand them.”

After all, there are plenty of stylish Airbnbs travelers can book if aesthetics and comfort were the only aims, and they can save a great deal of money while doing so. But a great hotel is more than the design of its room or lobby, isn’t it? “People pay a premium to stay in a hotel for the service,” Ezon says.

Ezon describes the difference between what he views as the “hardware” of a hotel, its physical presence and style and amenities, and its “software,” everything that’s actually running the show. “It is the soul and the service that you remember,” he says. “They remember a smile. They remember a connection. They don’t remember the silk brocades or chandeliers.”