In central London, you’re never more than a stone’s throw away from a hotel that has played host to royalty. As backdrops to culture-defining liaisons and world-shaping events, for the grandest hotels there is an unsurprising tendency to anchor in the stories of yesterday’s famous guests.

There is no doubt that the past stays of these guests signal deep-rooted trust, and an established reputation that has been built and maintained over time.

But the luxury hotels landscape is changing rapidly. With their romantic and sometimes legendary stories, heritage hotels have a natural advantage. The question is, how can they make the most of this advantage to shape a brand that’s both relevant and appealing to the modern luxury traveller?

The changing nature of luxury

As exclusivity becomes more and more elusive, one-of-a-kind experiences that can be looked back on fondly are fast becoming the most appealing luxuries. According to Bain, in 2024 the 5% growth in spend on luxury experiences and activities stands in stark contrast to the 2% decline in spend on luxury products.

Top luxury brands have already recognised this. From Gucci’s osterias to Equinox’s continuous blurring of category lines, those that stand out are able to translate their points of difference to memorable, lived experiences.

The height of luxury no longer means lavish displays of conspicuous consumption. Rather, it’s concerned with how a product or experience makes people feel. Heritage hotels must consider how to meet this expectation.

By relying on stories of the guests of the past, heritage hotels seem to be projecting the status-signalling extravagance that luxury travellers of today are less and less interested in—framing the experience as one of nostalgia-driven prestige rather than one tailored to modern luxury preferences.

What’s more, this approach creates an unspoken gap between those that have stayed before, and those that stay now. They make hotels feel more like museums, encouraging guests to stand in awe of the stories surrounding them rather than making their own.

In the new luxury climate, where intrinsic needs are elevated above extrinsic ones, guests do not want to feel like mere observers of the past. The heritage hotels that cultivate a sense of belonging will be the ones that are best placed to embrace the changing nature of luxury.

Heritage—the perfect creative brief

Against this backdrop, what can heritage hotels do to stay ahead? How can they continue to exploit their most powerful brand assets, their stories, while appealing to a new generation of luxury consumers?

The first step is to understand that history is not heritage. History is a record of what happened. When heritage hotel brands inform their audiences that X guest stayed in Y suite on Z date, they are recounting their history.

Heritage, on the other hand, is more subjective. It is what a brand chooses to share about their history, and the meaning they imbue it with. It is repackaging the past, and it is never neutral. Heritage is designed to be interpretated and reinterpreted in-light of present-day challenges and future hopes or fears.

To be a heritage hotel brand, you have to be prepared to examine and use your history in new and unexpected ways. In many ways, heritage is the perfect creative brief.

Heritage, like the best creative briefs, should provide a framework to work within, offering direction without imposing limits. By guiding focus, it fuels imagination and encourages the exploration of new possibilities. While it serves as a touchstone, its interpretation and expression are not rigid; heritage can and should evolve over time.

That’s what the best heritage brands have done. Chanel, for example, remains connected to Coco Chanel’s legacy without ever feeling constrained by it. The brand interprets Coco’s vision holistically, far beyond the signature tweed and little black dress, to design products and experiences that stand for the empowerment of women with the spirit of rebellious chic. It is this consistent spirit that makes Chanel feel timeless, despite its adaptations.

Heritage hotels can follow suit. They can transcend the limited view of heritage as a history of the significant people they have been associated with and instead harness the original spirit that attracted these same guests to their spaces in the first place. An emotional connection which has endured, but which can be reinterpreted to meet the needs of todays and tomorrow’s travellers—inviting guests to become part of the hotel’s fabric, not simply witnesses to it.

Re-examining the very concept of a heritage hotel is key to unlocking an experience that adapts to the expectations of today’s luxury travellers.

Our guiding question for heritage hotel brands is simple: what is your hotel’s spirit?

Once we uncover it, we can bring it to life.