Business of Experience Perspective - Kumar Roushan, Senior GM – Development & Pre-opening.

Q: How much of an experience is about what happens and how much is about how the guest feels? At Lords Hotels and Resorts, we believe the experience is ultimately about how the guest feels. The room, the food, the service and the amenities are important, but they are ultimately the building blocks of the experience. What guests remember is whether they felt welcomed, understood, cared for and comfortable.

A beautifully designed room may impress a guest, but a team member remembering their preference or going the extra mile at the right moment can create a far stronger memory. We would say the experience is perhaps 40% what happens and 60% how it makes the guest feel. The real art of hospitality lies in turning functional moments into emotional ones.

Q: What will guests expect from hospitality experiences five years from now that they don't necessarily expect today? We see growing expectations around wellness, sustainability, local immersion and flexibility. Guests will want to experience the destination rather than simply stay in a hotel within it. At the same time, they will value authenticity more than excessive luxury. Five years from now, the differentiator may not be how much a hotel offers, but how intelligently and meaningfully it brings those offerings together for each guest.

Q: Where should technology disappear completely from the guest experience? Technology should disappear wherever it creates friction rather than removing it. Guests shouldn't have to think about the technology behind a smooth check-in, a well-managed room request or a personalised recommendation.

The best technology in hospitality is often the technology guests don't notice. It should enable our teams to be more responsive and give guests greater choice, rather than replace genuine human interaction. At Lords, we see technology as an enabler, not the experience itself. The moment a guest is thinking about the system instead of enjoying their stay, the technology has become too visible.

Q: How do you create experiences that feel unique to a destination rather than transferable from one hotel to another? The starting point has to be the destination itself. A hotel should not simply bring its standardised experience to a location; it should understand what makes that location special and allow those characteristics to influence the guest journey.

That could come through local cuisine, regional traditions, design, storytelling, people, art or recommendations that take guests beyond the property. For Lords Hotels and Resorts, the objective is to maintain the consistency of our hospitality standards while allowing each destination to have its own personality. Consistency should build trust; locality should create memory.

Q: Should guests pay separately for experiences, or should they be built into the overall proposition? There is a place for both. Some experiences are valuable precisely because they are curated as part of the overall stay and make the guest feel that they are receiving more than just a room. These should be woven naturally into the proposition wherever possible.

At the same time, specialised or highly personalised experiences can be offered as additional choices. The important thing is that the guest should never feel that every meaningful moment has a price attached to it. Hospitality is about creating value beyond the transaction. The best approach is to build a strong core experience and then give guests the freedom to personalise it further.

Q: What is one mistake hospitality businesses make when trying too hard to 'design' an experience? The most powerful hospitality moments are spontaneous—a thoughtful gesture, a conversation with a team member, a local recommendation or simply noticing what a guest needs before they ask. Experience design should create the conditions for those moments to happen, not dictate every moment.

The biggest mistake is trying to make every moment extraordinary. When an experience becomes overly scripted or deliberately orchestrated, it can lose the spontaneity and authenticity that make hospitality truly special. At Lords Hotels and Resorts, we believe the role of hospitality is not to dictate how a moment should unfold, but to create the right setting for memorable moments to happen naturally. Sometimes, the most lasting memories are the ones that were never planned.