Hyatt's Luxury Chief Says Personalization Is Over. Here Is What Replaces It.

Tamara Lohan, named Hyatt's global brand leader for luxury late last year, says the company is moving "away from personalization to what we're terming anticipatory service" - reading a guest well enough to act before a request is made. She laid out the thinking in an interview with Travel Weekly published September 7, after six months visiting properties across the portfolio.

Lohan oversees Park Hyatt, Alila, Miraval and The Unbound Collection. She co-founded the boutique booking platform Mr and Mrs Smith, which Hyatt acquired in 2023 for roughly $66 million. Her diagnosis of what she inherited is blunt: Hyatt's centralized operating model left its luxury brands short on the storytelling and attention they needed.

Three Park Hyatts in Mexico in a year

The openings back up the ambition. Park Hyatt Cabo del Sol opened in Los Cabos at the start of the year, and two more Mexican properties follow in December - one in the Riviera Maya and one in Mexico City. A Vancouver hotel converts to Park Hyatt next year, and a Park Hyatt in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, opens early in 2027.

Alila gets a brand refresh and an awareness campaign next year. The brand started in Asia and is still best known there, with properties like Alila Villas Uluwatu and Alila Ubud anchoring it; Lohan wants more of it in Europe and the Americas.

One detail worth noting for anyone tracking how luxury food and beverage is changing: Lohan says the spread of GLP-1 drugs is already reshaping menus. If a guest eats less and drinks one glass of wine instead of three, every plate and pour has to justify itself - and sharing formats let people take what they actually want without anyone feeling awkward about it.