Years ago, when I was handling PR for a luxury hotel group, I suggested to a high-profile guest the sort of experience people assume will appeal to someone who can afford anything: a boat trip, Champagne, the sea in front of them. The response was polite indifference. Not out of snobbery, but because they could find that experience at any five-star hotel by the sea and had already done it a hundred times. Everything changed when I made a different suggestion: something rooted in the destination, slightly adventurous, the kind of experience they could return home and describe as their own memory rather than a service they had bought.
That is what actually changes in luxury hotel PR. It is not the vocabulary. It is the standard, and the bar rises in three areas a guest may never see but a journalist notices immediately: whether the experience is genuinely distinctive and impossible to replicate, whether the hotel knows how to protect it through discretion, and whether everything — service, materials, people and story — holds together. The role of PR is to make those qualities legible to the media without flattening them into brochure copy. At this level, adjectives do very little.
Luxury is not opulence. It is an experience no one else can replicate
One of the most common mistakes I see, even at excellent properties, is believing that luxury is proved through abundance. The marble, the Champagne, the larger suite. But people accustomed to luxury read that abundance as the baseline, not as a point of difference. What can still move someone who can afford almost anything is going home with a memory they could not have bought elsewhere, feeling part of something, understanding where they really were.
The same is true for the media. A luxury travel editor does not need another story about a candlelit spa and an infinity pool; they have seen a thousand. They need something they have not covered before. The word I keep in front of me is distinctiveness, and that need not mean an expensive initiative.
Here is the kind of thinking I mean. If the kitchen works with an exceptional, little-known seasonal ingredient, could its properties inform a spa treatment rather than remain only on the plate? Or: how well do we really know the people and projects around us? Is there a local initiative that could become an experience available only to our guests? In a city such as Rome or Florence, is there a privately owned palazzo that normally remains closed, whose owners might open it for one visit? These are examples, not formulas. But they show where the story sits in luxury: not in the service itself, but in the angle no other property can credibly own. It is the same principle behind why an independent hotel should not communicate like a chain, taken to its highest level. I have written separately about what makes a hotel interesting to journalists; the point here is narrower, because in luxury that threshold is the rule rather than the exception.
What a luxury hotel chooses not to communicate: discretion
There is a part of luxury best demonstrated by saying nothing, and it is also where hotels most often get things wrong. It concerns guests who do not want to become content.
When a celebrity or another high-profile guest stays at a property — unless there is a separate, openly agreed commercial collaboration — the stay should remain completely private. A genuine luxury hotel does not invite a famous name so it can shout about them everywhere. It looks after them so well, and so discreetly, that they go home and mention the experience within their own circle, where a private recommendation can carry enormous weight. The “a celebrity stayed with us” line feels dated and, more importantly, cheap: it makes the property look suddenly dazzled by the guest’s fame. It does not strengthen the positioning; it weakens it. Let other people do the talking.
This is a distinction that matters as much as visibility in luxury: knowing where useful exposure ends and reputational damage begins. Not every piece of coverage is good coverage. Sometimes protecting the story, or the privacy of the person living it, is worth more than one additional article.
A luxury media stay is measured in personalisation, not spend
A hosted media stay does not become luxurious because of what it cost, but because of how carefully it was shaped around the individual. The difference between a successful press stay and one that was merely expensive is almost entirely there.
Before a journalist arrives, it is possible to understand a great deal about them: what music they listen to, what they eat, what genuinely interests them. Having the music they love waiting in the room; amenities chosen with their tastes in mind; a welcome of food and drink already suited to their dietary needs. These are small gestures and often cost very little, but they tell the recipient that someone has paid real attention rather than handing them the same package as everyone else. That is precisely what the journalist later carries into the story.
There is, however, one rule I learned the hard way and that allows no exceptions at luxury level: every experience a journalist will try should already have been tested by the hotel team. I have sent journalists into activities that had never been properly road-tested, and the problems surfaced at the worst possible moment, in front of the very people there to write about them. A new experience needs to be trialled by the team before it is placed in the hands of the person who will describe it. I have written more generally about when to start hotel PR before an opening and how a press trip fits into that process. At luxury level, I would add only this: if it has not been tested and refined, it is not ready to be offered to a journalist.
In luxury hospitality, consistency is everything
At luxury level, one inconsistent detail says more than a thousand press releases. A guest, and even more so a journalist, notices the distance between what was promised and what was delivered. That distance becomes the story, even when it was never the story you hoped they would tell.
That is why consistency is not simply a reputational concern; it is a way of working. PR cannot operate in isolation. What I communicate must align with what marketing, social media and operations are doing, and every department needs to move in the same direction, with the same messages, at the same time. A launch in which reception does not know what the media have been told, or social channels say something different from the press release, is immediately felt. Part of my work, before I approach a journalist, is to get every department onto the same page.
Consistency begins with the product itself. If the experience cannot withstand the scrutiny of the person there to report on it, no strategy will rescue it: the press does not conceal weaknesses, it magnifies them. I have written about when a hospitality property is not yet ready for PR and what should be checked first. At luxury level, that bar is simply higher.
How I tell in seconds whether a hotel can sustain a luxury positioning
There is one signal I can read before I even visit a property: I look at its website and social channels for a few seconds. Tone of voice, choice of imagery and video, graphic design, brand identity — after years inside luxury hospitality, that digital shop window already tells me a great deal. Luxury should make me dream, transport me and make me want to be there. If the presentation feels bland, non-committal and interchangeable with a thousand others, we are already starting from the wrong place. Not because the potential is absent, but because the property has not yet decided what it is.
It is not a verdict, only a first signal, which I then verify in person. But it is rare for a property genuinely ready to operate at luxury level to present itself anonymously. How you show yourself is already part of the product.
Does an independent luxury hotel need a large PR agency?
Not necessarily, and it is a question I want to answer without hedging. Hiring a large agency can seem like the obvious move when luxury is involved: the resources, the markets, the reputation. For certain needs, it genuinely is. But luxury standards and agency size are not the same thing, and confusing them can be expensive.
I learned those standards from the inside: as PR Manager for Splendido, Splendido Mare and Bagni Fiore in Portofino for Belmond, and before that as Marketing & PR Specialist at Aleph Rome Hotel, a five-star luxury hotel managed by Hilton. That is where I saw what journalists at this level actually look for, how a hosted stay is built to match the promise of a brand, and how much of the work — the relationship, the tailored experience — is ultimately carried by one person. Today I bring that discipline to independent hotels and work directly on each project.
This is not theory. I handled Moyseion in Matera directly and on my own: in twelve months, it secured 114 pieces of coverage, 78% of them focused entirely on the property, across twelve countries, including a first-person report in The Guardian and a 9/10 review in The Telegraph. I built the international coverage over time, market by market, rather than through one global launch on a single day. That is where the line sits: when a project needs several teams working in parallel, simultaneous launches across many markets with a local presence, or the management of a complex crisis on several fronts, an agency remains the right choice. It would be dishonest to claim otherwise. But an independent luxury hotel or small group does not automatically need all of that machinery. It needs senior expertise, direct access and continuity. I have written separately about when a PR agency or consultant is the better fit and what a hotel press office fee actually covers. My point here is specific to luxury: the standard does not depend on the size of the organisation doing the work. It depends on who is doing it, and how.
Luxury is communicated through restraint
In luxury, communication is often an exercise in subtraction. You choose the experience no one else offers instead of the abundance everyone offers. You protect discretion rather than chase noise. You make every detail consistent instead of leaning on adjectives. It is precision work, and precision does not depend on the size of the organisation doing it.
If you represent an independent luxury hotel or a small group and want a senior PR partner working directly on the project — close to ownership, the product and the journalists — we can talk. I take on only a few accounts at a time, because direct involvement is the point of the model. You can also explore my PR and media relations services.
Frequently asked questions
What actually changes in luxury hotel PR?
The standard rises in areas the public may never see: the distinctiveness of the experience, the discretion with which it is protected, and the consistency between product, service and story. Adjectives matter less than ever; what matters is what can be demonstrated. The role of PR is to make those qualities legible to the media without turning them into promotional copy.
Does an independent luxury hotel need a large PR agency?
Not always. A large agency is useful when several teams are required at once, many markets need to launch simultaneously or a complex crisis must be managed across different fronts. An independent hotel or small group often needs something more focused: senior expertise and direct access, delivered to the same international standards without the structure of a large organisation.
Should a hotel publicise a celebrity stay?
Usually not. Unless there is an agreed commercial collaboration, a high-profile guest should be looked after in complete privacy. “A celebrity stayed with us” messaging tends to weaken a luxury positioning rather than strengthen it. At this level, it is more valuable when other people do the talking.
How do luxury hotels earn media coverage?
With a story those publications have not already covered a thousand times, photography and materials that meet their standards, genuine access to people and experiences, and consistent execution. No PR professional can guarantee publication: coverage is earned, and the editorial decision always remains with the publication.
When is a luxury hotel not ready for PR?
When the experience cannot yet withstand a journalist’s scrutiny, or when the way the property presents itself — its website, imagery and tone — feels anonymous or inconsistent. In those cases, the product and brand identity need attention first. The press magnifies weaknesses; it does not hide them.
