Navigating a career in high-end hospitality

Prestigious brands, glamorous locations, amazing career opportunities… There are so many reasons why careers in the luxury hospitality sector are so enthusiastically sought-after by young talents studying at Glion and elsewhere.

Maybe this is your dream destination too? If so, or even if you’re just curious about premium hospitality as a career destination, I hope in this article I can provide you with some useful insights into what it takes to get into – and then thrive within – high-end hospitality. Plus I’ll also take a look at the broader luxury sector, which the most prestigious

What makes luxury, luxury?

What is the definition of luxury? Put simply, there is no single answer to that question, thanks to the incredible variety that exists between our needs and desires as human beings.

For some of us, luxury is as simple as breakfast in bed; for others it’s the luxury of time spent with family and friends away from work or other commitments. For the more ‘traditional’ luxury customers it’s a bit of sparkle and ‘bling’ – a rare and expensive product from a renowned brand.

What is a universal truth is that luxury is not the everyday. If you have the ability to eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant every evening—that isn’t luxury, no matter how good, or expensive, the meals are. Genuine luxury has a rarity, a barrier to entry, that puts it in the realm of the extraordinary.

It’s also true that the notion of luxury is evolving from where it was 10 or 15 years ago. Today, consumer tastes are shifting from luxury in the shape of material things towards luxury in the form of incredible experiences which make people feel special and uniquely privileged.

If anything, this trend has been supercharged by social media channels such as Instagram and TikTok, where people love to share photographs of themselves in amazing places or doing amazing things.

This is, of course, music to the ears of luxury hotel operators, private yacht charter companies, bespoke travel consultancies, and all the other players within the ever-expanding experience economy.

It also provides additional context to one of the more eye-catching recent trends in high-end hotels: the arrival into the sector of brands more associated with the luxury fashion industry, such as Bulgari and Armani, as well as the international luxury houses such as LVMH.

Even for physical luxury goods such as watches, the product is now more tightly wrapped in the ethos of the experience. For example, entering many high-end watch boutiques today is more akin to walking through the doors of a private members’ club. It’s an authentic hospitality experience, complete with a complimentary cocktail or glass of Champagne in many cases. No wonder the luxury retail industry has been so keen to poach employees from the hospitality sector in recent years!

Why choose a career in luxury hospitality?

Why should an ambitious individual like you be targeting luxury careers as your hospitality employment playground? And where should you be directing your efforts to get hired?

There are several answers to the first question, but in these uncertain times perhaps the most important answer is that it’s a profession with a solid future. The wider luxury industry is known for being recession-proof, and when you couple that with our innate desire to travel and experience new things, then luxury hotels and resorts will only grow in number while also becoming more diverse in the experiences they offer.

Another factor to consider is that luxury hospitality is the perfect career choice if you are a ‘people person’; and especially if you find joy in making others happy. The ability to deliver happiness at a person-to-person level is a major attraction to many who work in hospitality, and not just at the luxury end of the spectrum.

This also protects the business of hospitality from being overwhelmed by technology, and especially artificial intelligence (AI). There’s little doubt that technology can support the customer service ethos (for example through customer relationship management (CRM) systems); but a machine cannot come close to replacing genuine face-to-face interactions, or the added value we can bring through creating unique and personalized experiences.

Last but not least, there’s a lot of personal prestige in working for a luxury fashion brand like Louis Vuitton; and the same is true for top luxury hotel brands like Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons, Peninsula, and others.

That latter point is also pertinent to the second question on where to target your efforts to find your dream role. My answer is the same as that which I give to Glion students; and it’s to make sure you fit with the brand. Ideally, make sure it’s a brand you are genuinely passionate about, and of which you’re either a customer or would be if money were no object.

Getting a luxury career – where to start?

I may be biased, but I’d say the best place to start your career in luxury and/or hospitality is at Glion! That may sound flippant, but there’s serious logic behind it, because when I talk to the luxury brands we partner with, they all tell me that they are looking for people who understand what luxury is all about. They want individuals who have an appreciation for luxury that allows them to see beyond the notions of privilege and to appreciate some of the purer definitions of luxury which I quoted at the start of this piece.

Such notions are at the core of our DNA as a school. However, even if you choose a different institution, or try and get into the industry without a specialized education, there are some ‘table stakes’ you’ll need when it comes to skills and behaviors. I’ll cover these in the next section.

Navigating a career in luxury hospitality

Here I’m going to break down the skills and attributes that will help you navigate a successful career in high-end hospitality.

At the top of my list are the soft skills – problem solving, empathy, teamwork, communication, and so on. A major contributing factor in great service is anticipation combined with emotional intelligence and good interpersonal skills. Can you anticipate a guest’s needs and adapt accordingly? Are they here for a special occasion? What’s their favorite welcome drink? Do they look tired after a long flight, and just want to get to their room as speedily as possible?

In luxury hotels especially, you’ll have more personal license to deliver complimentary treats and unique client experiences without having to consult with line managers first. For those who like this additional responsibility it’s a real perk of the job, since it’s a form of empowerment; making you feel trusted in a way that you won’t always find within a more mass-market brand.

Another vital attribute to learn is humility. Being able to listen and be humble is extremely important, especially at the outset of your career where you’ll invariably find yourself in entry-level positions (even manager-in-training (MIT) programs for graduates tend to start people on the ‘shop floor’). Humility is not something that comes to us naturally, and it’s one of the reasons our Bachelor’s degree work placements begin with a stint in an operational role. Learning by doing!

For a global business like hospitality, cultural intelligence and adaptability are also extremely useful soft skills to possess. In a typical international hotel or resort your guests could literally be arriving from anywhere, and while nobody could be expected to learn the intricacies of every culture, there is an onus upon you to be respectful and to try and commit some of the most important cultural characteristics to your memory bank. Here, too, language abilities can be useful. At Glion, we offer language classes as elective courses, and I’d say on average our students speak two or three languages with reasonable fluency.

The final soft skill I want to mention is creativity – or what I prefer to call the ability to conjure the unexpected. I already mentioned the additional freedom to delight a guest that you’ll enjoy working within luxury hospitality; and this is your chance to catch the eye of your manager or the general manager (GM). It really does work, too: I’ve seen guest comments praising a student on internship for providing an unexpected moment, which have been passed on to me by the hotel GM.

Hard skills needed for a career in luxury hospitality

What about the hard skills, also referred to as technical skills? Business acumen, strategic thinking, and so on. It’s a tough old world out there, and to be the best you do need a mixture of hard and soft skills. It’s why courses on financial accounting, data analysis, revenue management, corporate finance and similar topics are integrated into the academic portion of our hospitality Bachelor’s degree.

That said, the technical skills you’ll need to develop will vary considerably depending on the career path you choose. For example, if you wish to work as a luxury brand manager you will have to understand branding and marketing strategies, trend forecasting and other related disciplines. A lot of these practical insights you will pick up on the job – how well you do so will be reflected in the speed of your career progression.

What are some of the career paths available in luxury hospitality?

On the topic of career success, let’s look at some of the paths to pursue for a luxury hospitality professional.
The obvious choices are 5* hotels and high-end restaurants. However, as the worlds of luxury and hospitality increasingly converge, you’ll have opportunities in retail, in private travel, but also the VIP elements in sports.

In the latter case, there are certain sports – Formula 1, golf, showjumping, yachting – which are playgrounds for luxury brands and VIP experiences. It’s a massive global marketplace, and one where exquisite hospitality skills are hard currency.

And, as I already mentioned, with the lines increasingly blurring between the worlds of luxury goods and luxury hospitality it’s opening up incredible opportunities to work at what we call the “luxury-hospitality crossroads” – for example, without straying beyond the LVMH group it would be possible to spend part of your career in luxury fashion brands with Louis Vuitton and part in luxury hotels at Cheval Blanc. If luxury is your passion, that’s a pretty exciting prospect!

How to advance your career in the luxury hospitality business?

I wish I had the perfect answer to this question! What I would say is that one secret to success is never to be satisfied with where you are in your career. Always look to progress, to develop, and to learn more. The world is evolving ever more quickly and, as a young person, you will have to evolve with it.

In just the past few years we’ve seen the Covid pandemic usher in huge changes to the way we live, work, and look after ourselves. We can see this in the rise of health & wellness as a personal goal, and in our industry that’s meant a rapid growth in spa and wellness facilities, alongside a movement towards healthier cuisine with often locally-sourced, farm-to-table ingredients.

The same is true for the inexorable rise in demand for personalized experiences.

If you wish to plot a leadership career in high-end hospitality, it’s imperative that you stay ahead of these industry trends and others.

That’s why this is such an exciting world to get into; because there is so much potential to develop. Luxury customers are always looking for new ideas, enabling them to be among the first to experience something. We see this with brand collaborations such as Louis Vuitton and Supreme or Omega and Swatch, which sparked frenzies when the product lines went on sale.

If luxury brand management is your dream career destination, there’s arguably never been more opportunity to make your mark.

I would also emphasize the value of building your professional network, which you should be looking to accomplish at every step of your career, including during your degree program. This is also why studying at an industry-focused business school like Glion can be so beneficial, as it gives you access to a global alumni community that can be an incredible source of advice, friendship and job opportunities.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly of all, make sure you’re in a place where you can fall in love with what you do. For most of us, a working career is four decades or more. You simply cannot last the distance if you don’t find enjoyment and inspiration in getting up in the morning to do your job.

That’s really the secret to navigating a career in high-end hospitality: to have the passion that puts a smile on your face every time you step out to deliver amazing client experiences.