Two weekends ago, FreshBed joined the annual European Hotel Managers Association as a Privileged Supporting Partner and spent an inspiring weekend in Noordwijk with Hotel Managers from 4 and 5 star hotels across Europe. This year’s theme ‘Disruptors in Luxury Hospitality’.

After such a thought-provoking weekend with passionate industry professionals, I have been pondering the future of hospitality and the roles that disruption and innovation will play in this industry.

As it stands now, we are shaping a new luxury hospitality industry together, creating an all-encompassing experience that emphasises guest health, wellness and vitality above all else.  The world is demanding more from our guests and stress levels are increasing. These demands mean that we must provide a top-class 24/7 experience so that in turn our guests can perform at their very best.

But we are also shaping how our guests view the luxury hospitality industry.  A hotel is no longer a place where one stops on their way to a destination- more and more it is the destination.  It is the place where guests can expect these essential needs to be met.

So what was “luxury” is now becoming “essential” for our guests.  But when the definition of “luxury” is an indulgence…what then becomes the new luxury?

This is where innovation is key.

It is our role to shape the new luxury hospitality, to each take a look at our role in the guest journey and predict what the new luxury will be.

At FreshBed we can look back say that passion, curiosity and research were the factors in driving our own innovation.

FreshBed evolved from a curiosity around sleep, passion for sleep, and the desire to improve something that is so human and natural, but also vitally important to our performance and success.  This was supported by hours of scientific research on the science of sleep.

We constantly questioned ourselves:

“How can we make this experience better?”

“What can be improved?”

“What’s missing?”

And over the years, this constant pushing of boundaries, the innovating, the questioning…eventually it led us to a solution- something never done before- something that I hope will change how we view sleep and the bed industry as a whole.

And so, I encourage you all to do the same: keep that curiosity alive, let it be a driving force in your business.

Always push yourself, your services, your staff, and your guests’ needs to the edge and beyond.

It is up to us to define the new luxury hospitality.

I can’t wait to see what you all come up with.

Barry van Doornewaard
CEO, FreshBed