Something I’ve noticed while working with hotels across Australia and South East Asia is how much travel behaviour has shifted over the past decade.
For a long time, the hotel room was the primary product. Everything else — the pool, spa, beach club, rooftop bar — was seen as an amenity attached to the stay. But increasingly, travellers seem to be booking the experience first.
I have spent many years observing luxury resorts, to find that the guests are often of older generations and the amenities largely remain unused during the day. Meanwhile, the nearby towns, Air BnB's, hostels are bustling with young travellers looking for experiences. From my perspective, the travel landscape has changed. Travellers want to visit a property just to spend the day at a beautiful pool, work from a hotel lounge, enjoy a spa, or experience a beach club atmosphere — even if they’re not staying overnight.
It raises an interesting question for the industry:
Are hotels still primarily selling rooms, or are they actually operating experience venues that happen to include rooms?
Curious to hear what others in the travel and hospitality space are seeing.
Are experiences becoming more valuable than the room itself?
The shift makes complete sense when you think about how people actually talk about travel now. Nobody comes home and leads with the thread count. They lead with the thing that happened, the meal, the moment, or even who they met. The room is where they sleep. The experience is why they went.
That said, I would push back slightly on the framing that hotels and experiences are in competition. This is more South and south east Asia rather than Australia but some of the most extraordinary properties that we book for our clients are very much the experience. The stunning Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, for example, where the royal family still occupies a wing of the building. Six Senses Vana, Dehradun a serious wellness destination in the Himalayan foothills for guests who come more for the residential wellness programmes rather than the destination.
What I find working on bespoke journeys across the subcontinent is that the travellers who get the most out of a trip are the ones where someone has thought carefully about both. Getting that calibration right for a specific traveller, their preferred pace, what gets them curious and creative, what they actually want to feel on the last night, is where the craft of journey design sits. :)
Absolutely - the journey is becoming ever more bespoke. The rooms are perhaps marketing to one segment and the experiences to another and in many cases, both. What I notice about many luxury hotels is that there are incredible facilities sat underutilised during the day, where hotels could be tapping into new markets and scaling incremental revenue where the overhead costs already exist.
Hi Franki, I’ve been noticing a similar shift as well.
In my experience, travellers today seem to value the experience of a place far more than the room itself. The stay is still important especially for luxury travellers, but it’s no longer the main highlight of the journey.
Many travellers are now looking to add meaning to their trips; whether that’s through local interactions, food, culture or simply spending time in environments that feel more connected to the destination.
I’ve also seen that when the experience is strong, the room almost becomes secondary. Travellers remember how they felt, who they met and what they discovered much more than the physical space they stayed in.
It does feel like the role of accommodation is slowly shifting from being the centre of the trip to being one part of a larger, more immersive experience.
Hi Sayali - thank you for your comments. I agree, traveller spending is increasing but how they spend is changing. More travellers, particularly those of younger generations are looking to experience more across a destination - often booking multiple places and locations in one trip. In particular, I notice on my travels that hostels and guest houses are at capacity, but it's not they don't have the money to spend - it's just they'd rather spend more on experiences whilst they are there. Perhaps hotels should be considering their day access offering and how they are marketing this to open up revenue avenues within new markets.
Tours, retreats, travel coaching, travel advisor, Journeys & Zen Morocco
Hi Franki,
I collaborate on an experience venue, though quite different from a beach club atmosphere. It's a desert camp in Morocco, and the way we approached it is related to what you are seeing because the goal was always to share Morocco as a living experience, not just a place to sleep.
We never started with the tents. We started with the desert: the silence of the dunes at dawn, the Milky Way overhead, the living culture of the people, and how we could bring guests into that. The accommodation was always in service of the experience. It was about what people need to feel comfortable without overdoing it, because we want to respect the desert and what it teaches about a different way of living. We also recognized that certain things, like en-suite bathrooms, matter to our clients. Not everyone is ready to embrace shared facilities, but they still want the experiences we offer so we built around that reality. It's a different kind of luxury and we are also still evolving to make it better.
In this kind of setting, the room still matters. Not as the product, but as the space to process what just happened. It's the kind of comfort that makes you feel safe. It is all locally designed, nothing like a resort, but genuinely beautiful. Comfortable enough that you can actually stop, breathe, and absorb what you just experienced.
What I've found is that it's a hard sell for a small business as sometimes people don't always understand what we offer. I think it's a model that creates travel that genuinely stays with people. We have clients who come for several days, and others who come just for the day — so the room isn't always part of the equation. But for those who stay, it matters deeply, just probably not in the way it used to.
Wow - your hotel sounds magical! I would love to visit, it really sounds like you are already carefully curating your experiences and catering for multiple market segments by providing bespoke packages and experiences. I think for small businesses, partnering with various booking platforms and agencies to reach an experience-led audience is an essential part of the marketing strategy.
Tours, retreats, travel coaching, travel advisor, Journeys & Zen Morocco
Thank you so much! You're absolutely right about the partnership angle. For a small, remote camp in a less traveled location, being discoverable through the right platforms and agents isn't just helpful, it's essential. Let me know if you're available for a quick call. Would love to learn more.
Hi Franki, this really hits on what we’re seeing with younger travellers: for Gen Z and Millennials, the mindset has shifted from “Where am I staying?” to “What am I experiencing?” The room is just a base, not the main value. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have amplified this, turning travel into something people do and share, not just where they sleep.
From a business perspective, hotels are already becoming experience venues and the demand is clearly there: younger travelers want flexible, memorable moments (pool days, coworking spaces, beach clubs) without committing to an overnight stay.
So it’s less about experiences replacing rooms, and more about experiences becoming the entry point. The real opportunity for younger travellers is that hotels can position themselves as experience hubs, not just places to sleep.
Couldn't have said it better myself, Nicole. It's exactly what i'm seeing across the destinations i'm travelling through. Gen Z have already saved the places they want to visit before visiting the destination. Location isn't everything anymore - but visibility might be. The demand is there - now destinations must reach them before they reach the destination.
Yes, the hotel room is becoming a commodity, however it is still the reference point for that part of the journey. If you can't a room while you're traveling it's not a nice feeling. Just book an awful hotel room and you see how it can bring your trip enjoyment down a notch too. After all, a trip has to be comfortable and relaxing or you're not getting the full benefit of the experience. I've booked local hotel rooms for just a one night addition to a long trip where I enjoyed a nice condo. It can sour your trip. I think the better view is to see the hotel room as part of the package.
I totally agree with your points and have experience the travel exhaustion myself. In practice (and I'm speaking more about younger generations here) if there was a budget for both rooms and experiences - the industry would be at full capacity with full facilities and ancillaries. However, I see the evidence - The hostels are full but so are the beach clubs. The next generation of travellers are clearly choosing to spend on the experiences. Perhaps more hotels should be considering their day access offering. For later in life, they may come back for the relaxed holiday you described - wanting to stay in the room.
I enjoyed this discussion. And this is exactly why so many hotels do focus on the experiences and less on the thread count. We run the Responsible Tourism Awards around the world and we get some incredible entries from hotels who are rooted in their communities, buying local, supporting local entrepreneurs and encouraging visitors to connect locally - from small independent hotels to big hotel groups like Six Senses. And it's also been done well in the past. Look at Village Ways in India - an initiative that started 20 years ago because Manisha Pande the founder saw a need to connect her hotel guests with local villages.
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Comments
Something I’ve noticed while working with hotels across Australia and South East Asia is how much travel behaviour has shifted over the past decade.
For a long time, the hotel room was the primary product. Everything else — the pool, spa, beach club, rooftop bar — was seen as an amenity attached to the stay. But increasingly, travellers seem to be booking the experience first.
I have spent many years observing luxury resorts, to find that the guests are often of older generations and the amenities largely remain unused during the day. Meanwhile, the nearby towns, Air BnB's, hostels are bustling with young travellers looking for experiences. From my perspective, the travel landscape has changed. Travellers want to visit a property just to spend the day at a beautiful pool, work from a hotel lounge, enjoy a spa, or experience a beach club atmosphere — even if they’re not staying overnight.
It raises an interesting question for the industry:
Are hotels still primarily selling rooms, or are they actually operating experience venues that happen to include rooms?
Curious to hear what others in the travel and hospitality space are seeing.
Are experiences becoming more valuable than the room itself?
Hi Franki, interesting observations there.
The shift makes complete sense when you think about how people actually talk about travel now. Nobody comes home and leads with the thread count. They lead with the thing that happened, the meal, the moment, or even who they met. The room is where they sleep. The experience is why they went.
That said, I would push back slightly on the framing that hotels and experiences are in competition. This is more South and south east Asia rather than Australia but some of the most extraordinary properties that we book for our clients are very much the experience. The stunning Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, for example, where the royal family still occupies a wing of the building. Six Senses Vana, Dehradun a serious wellness destination in the Himalayan foothills for guests who come more for the residential wellness programmes rather than the destination.
What I find working on bespoke journeys across the subcontinent is that the travellers who get the most out of a trip are the ones where someone has thought carefully about both. Getting that calibration right for a specific traveller, their preferred pace, what gets them curious and creative, what they actually want to feel on the last night, is where the craft of journey design sits. :)
Absolutely - the journey is becoming ever more bespoke. The rooms are perhaps marketing to one segment and the experiences to another and in many cases, both. What I notice about many luxury hotels is that there are incredible facilities sat underutilised during the day, where hotels could be tapping into new markets and scaling incremental revenue where the overhead costs already exist.
Hi Franki, I’ve been noticing a similar shift as well.
In my experience, travellers today seem to value the experience of a place far more than the room itself. The stay is still important especially for luxury travellers, but it’s no longer the main highlight of the journey.
Many travellers are now looking to add meaning to their trips; whether that’s through local interactions, food, culture or simply spending time in environments that feel more connected to the destination.
I’ve also seen that when the experience is strong, the room almost becomes secondary. Travellers remember how they felt, who they met and what they discovered much more than the physical space they stayed in.
It does feel like the role of accommodation is slowly shifting from being the centre of the trip to being one part of a larger, more immersive experience.
Hi Sayali - thank you for your comments. I agree, traveller spending is increasing but how they spend is changing. More travellers, particularly those of younger generations are looking to experience more across a destination - often booking multiple places and locations in one trip. In particular, I notice on my travels that hostels and guest houses are at capacity, but it's not they don't have the money to spend - it's just they'd rather spend more on experiences whilst they are there. Perhaps hotels should be considering their day access offering and how they are marketing this to open up revenue avenues within new markets.
Hi Franki,
I collaborate on an experience venue, though quite different from a beach club atmosphere. It's a desert camp in Morocco, and the way we approached it is related to what you are seeing because the goal was always to share Morocco as a living experience, not just a place to sleep.
We never started with the tents. We started with the desert: the silence of the dunes at dawn, the Milky Way overhead, the living culture of the people, and how we could bring guests into that. The accommodation was always in service of the experience. It was about what people need to feel comfortable without overdoing it, because we want to respect the desert and what it teaches about a different way of living. We also recognized that certain things, like en-suite bathrooms, matter to our clients. Not everyone is ready to embrace shared facilities, but they still want the experiences we offer so we built around that reality. It's a different kind of luxury and we are also still evolving to make it better.
In this kind of setting, the room still matters. Not as the product, but as the space to process what just happened. It's the kind of comfort that makes you feel safe. It is all locally designed, nothing like a resort, but genuinely beautiful. Comfortable enough that you can actually stop, breathe, and absorb what you just experienced.
What I've found is that it's a hard sell for a small business as sometimes people don't always understand what we offer. I think it's a model that creates travel that genuinely stays with people. We have clients who come for several days, and others who come just for the day — so the room isn't always part of the equation. But for those who stay, it matters deeply, just probably not in the way it used to.
Wow - your hotel sounds magical! I would love to visit, it really sounds like you are already carefully curating your experiences and catering for multiple market segments by providing bespoke packages and experiences. I think for small businesses, partnering with various booking platforms and agencies to reach an experience-led audience is an essential part of the marketing strategy.
Thank you so much! You're absolutely right about the partnership angle. For a small, remote camp in a less traveled location, being discoverable through the right platforms and agents isn't just helpful, it's essential. Let me know if you're available for a quick call. Would love to learn more.
Hi Franki, this really hits on what we’re seeing with younger travellers: for Gen Z and Millennials, the mindset has shifted from “Where am I staying?” to “What am I experiencing?” The room is just a base, not the main value. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have amplified this, turning travel into something people do and share, not just where they sleep.
From a business perspective, hotels are already becoming experience venues and the demand is clearly there: younger travelers want flexible, memorable moments (pool days, coworking spaces, beach clubs) without committing to an overnight stay.
So it’s less about experiences replacing rooms, and more about experiences becoming the entry point.
The real opportunity for younger travellers is that hotels can position themselves as experience hubs, not just places to sleep.
Couldn't have said it better myself, Nicole. It's exactly what i'm seeing across the destinations i'm travelling through. Gen Z have already saved the places they want to visit before visiting the destination. Location isn't everything anymore - but visibility might be. The demand is there - now destinations must reach them before they reach the destination.
Yes, the hotel room is becoming a commodity, however it is still the reference point for that part of the journey. If you can't a room while you're traveling it's not a nice feeling. Just book an awful hotel room and you see how it can bring your trip enjoyment down a notch too. After all, a trip has to be comfortable and relaxing or you're not getting the full benefit of the experience. I've booked local hotel rooms for just a one night addition to a long trip where I enjoyed a nice condo. It can sour your trip. I think the better view is to see the hotel room as part of the package.
I totally agree with your points and have experience the travel exhaustion myself. In practice (and I'm speaking more about younger generations here) if there was a budget for both rooms and experiences - the industry would be at full capacity with full facilities and ancillaries. However, I see the evidence - The hostels are full but so are the beach clubs. The next generation of travellers are clearly choosing to spend on the experiences. Perhaps more hotels should be considering their day access offering. For later in life, they may come back for the relaxed holiday you described - wanting to stay in the room.
I enjoyed this discussion. And this is exactly why so many hotels do focus on the experiences and less on the thread count. We run the Responsible Tourism Awards around the world and we get some incredible entries from hotels who are rooted in their communities, buying local, supporting local entrepreneurs and encouraging visitors to connect locally - from small independent hotels to big hotel groups like Six Senses. And it's also been done well in the past. Look at Village Ways in India - an initiative that started 20 years ago because Manisha Pande the founder saw a need to connect her hotel guests with local villages.