Sustainable luxury in urban hotels: an investigation on four luxury branded hotels in Hong Kong

Abstract

Luxury implies indulgence, hedonic pleasure and access to resources in abundance. Sustainable development, on the other hand, encourages modifying human behaviour towards a lower rate of resource consumption. For years these two concepts were regarding as contradicting, so much so that they were rarely mentioned within the same sentence of any kind. However, this view has been undergoing a dramatic turnaround ever since the dawn of the new millennium, and a new expression was conceived - sustainable luxury. This phenomenon has a complex and far-reaching mission and has been gaining momentum in recent years. My qualitative study aims to find out whether sustainable luxury is achievable in real-life businesses, particularly for hotel operations. It is firstly reviewed as an emerging concept through literature and desktop research. Next, its practicality is investigated on four luxury branded hotels in Hong Kong. It is found that sustainable luxury is currently a popular de facto expression used by the luxury sector to describe the attitude and effort towards integrating sustainability in the design and production of luxury products and services. Although it was yet to be established academically as a concept, a cornerstone report “Deeper Luxury” produced by World Wide Fund (WWF) in 2009 promulgates an overarching principle that the luxury sector has the duty to edit and influence consumer’s consumption choice and behaviour. A holistic action plan specifically tailored at the luxury sector is provided in this report and it is adopted as the assessment framework for my investigation. Details are construed to suit hotel operations and a set of scoring criteria is developed to facilitate a structured assessment. My investigation reveals a stark contrast that at present, sustainable luxury in urban luxury branded hotels is practical at the ‘back of the house’ areas while limitation lies in the areas related to the ‘front of the house.’ Engaging customers is found to be the single biggest challenge while both innovation and external collaboration are proven to be valuable means for the subject matter. Coordinating effort with the corporate office is also essential. The owner could either be the key driver or barrier for sustainable luxury. Furthermore, external infrastructure and support is vital. The study brings to my conclusion that the overriding factor for sustainable luxury to be achievable in real-life businesses is the existence of the right mindset, a mindset that believes in the co-existence of luxury and sustainability.