All-inclusive properties are shaking off their reputation for being cheap and cheerful thanks to a new brand of customer while hospitality brands rethink the proposition.
Speaking at the 2025 R&R Hospitality Forum in Athens, Greece, Hyatt Hotels director of development for southern Europe Carlos Paredes Fernandez said many all inclusives are now more focused on value orchestration and gross operating profit margins than cost containment.
He added that the changes have been driven by a new type of customer that wants to be in control of the experience in a high-end hotel while taking it for granted that all the necessities are taken care of as a matter of course.
This change in consumer need has occurred as hoteliers realise that the all-inclusive model not only provides operating efficiencies but a predictable net operating income which is proving vital in today’s uncertain world.
Finally, Fernandez said brands have also realised that an all-inclusive properties offer the opportunity to create a bespoke package for each customer such as a wellness package that meets the today’s demands for a personalised service.
He added: “The all inclusive has quietly become the most resilient, the most efficient and sometimes unfortunately the most misunderstood engine for resort performance.”
AI is everywhere
Meanwhile, Rosanna Wang, the COO, CEO and co-founder of AI hospitality company Aristara said the technology is no longer an option in today’s hospitality industry.
She added: “It's not about replacing humans; it's about how humans have already changed. So Gen Z, millennials, even business travellers, we are now more fluent texting on our phones than picking up a phone and calling the front desk.”
With this in mind, the company has created an AI concierge that can be linked with the hotel’s information base in order to answer questions and handle enquiries in more than 50 different languages.
And in allowing it to handle a multitude of guest enquiries, Wang is confident that hotels will see the satisfaction scores rise as the technology takes care of problems the hotel didn’t even know existed.
She said: “The real point is hotels lose revenue and guest satisfaction not because they don’t care, but because guests avoid friction, they avoid awkwardness and they avoid misunderstanding.”
Service focused
It is this focus on service that has driven the success of ultra luxury villa specialist Bright Blue Villas which has a portfolio of 320 villas in 18 Greek destinations having launched 10 years ago.
CEO Natasha Martsekis said: “What stands us apart is that we have a very holistic approach to clients. We are a totally vertical villa operator.
“I would like to say we’re practically a DMC in disguise and we offer the whole service from the moment the client arrives – the whole range of villa services and we protect the whole client villa experience.”
She added that the market for villas is also being driven by bleisure travellers looking for somewhere to base themselves in the shoulder season as they seek somewhere exotic to work from home.
Martsekis said the clients are just as demanding at this time of year, adding: “You might think it’s easy to find a villa with a tennis court in Paros. Well it’s not; it’s not as easy as you think.”
Laura Westmacott said she was more focused on helping sell holidays in villas than finding them thanks to her roles as founder and managing director of Mercury Communications.
She said one of the most effective ways of doing this is through collaborating with other luxury brands from the world of fashion or art in order to attract new customers and get access to more customer databases.
“We’re selling a lifestyle actually, not just a property,” Westmacott said. “It’s really all about the raw emotion that we’re trying to create with your end audience.”
Staying sustainable
Meanwhile, Just a Drop business development manager Emily Eekelschot explained to delegates how the water hygiene and sanitation charity can drive change in businesses with minimal disruption.
She said: “Many businesses assume sustainability means costly projects like solar panels or electric fleets but some of the most powerful initiatives can cost next to nothing whilst generating real savings and impact.”
Eekelschot said some of the most basic schemes are the most effective, citing the example of the eco housekeeping initiative which is available to guests staying in participating properties.
If a guest decides to forego the standard cleaning service, then the property will pay a pound or a euro to the charity while also rewarding the customer however it sees fit.
Having trialled the scheme with the PPHE Hotel Group in 2022, it rolled it out to 19 properties in the UK, Italy and Holland and it has now been credited with 350,000 room nights opting out of a daily clean with a beneficial impact for 60,000 people.
In addition, its towel reuse scheme saves around 15 litres of water per towel while Radisson Hotel Group makes a donation to the charity for every 50 towels saved from a wash.