Luxury hospitality has always been about understanding changing expectations. But increasingly, the question is no longer what guests want from a restaurant. It is how they want to feel.

That was the starting point of a recent breakfast conversation hosted at Palm HQ, where a group of luxury restaurateurs, hospitality leaders, and designers came together to discuss the future of hospitality experiences. The session was led by Sophie Maxwell Brown, who shared insights into the evolving expectations of luxury consumers and how those shifts are reshaping hospitality.

The question on the table was deceptively simple:

What does your highest-spending guest actually want?

The answer revealed a broader shift taking place across the industry.

Wellness is Changing Hospitality

For years, wellness was treated as a niche offering. It existed in dedicated retreats, specialist hospitality concepts, and premium spa experiences.

Today, that distinction has largely disappeared.

For many guests, wellness is no longer something they actively pursue. It is a baseline expectation that influences how they choose destinations, restaurants, hotels, and experiences.

This doesn't mean every hospitality concept needs a wellness positioning. But it does mean every hospitality brand needs to understand how its environment contributes to wellbeing.

The most successful hospitality experiences are increasingly designed around how people feel before they think.

The Role of Sensory Design

When discussing wellness in hospitality, conversations often focus on menus, ingredients, or services. Yet some of the most influential factors are rarely visible.

As Ruud Belmans described during the session, hospitality experiences are shaped by what could be called sensory memory: the emotional imprint a space leaves behind.

Guests may not consciously notice temperature, acoustics, air quality, lighting, materials, or spatial rhythm. Yet these elements significantly influence how a place is perceived and remembered.

A restaurant is never experienced through food alone.

The atmosphere of a space, the way sound travels through a room, the quality of natural light, the tactility of materials, and the overall sense of comfort all contribute to the experience.

These details form the invisible infrastructure of hospitality.

Designing for Emotion, Not Just Function

This idea was illustrated through a project from the WeWantMore archives, shared by Fabian van Dijk.

For HIX London in 2022, we developed an experimental bar made from mycelium (a material grown from fungal root structures. The project explored themes of regeneration, circularity, and material innovation).

Today, the installation continues to evolve naturally within the Royal Botanic Garden.

What made the project particularly interesting was not simply the material itself, but the response it generated. Guests were drawn to its unexpected texture, softness, and tactile quality. It became a conversation piece. A moment of curiosity. An experience that people remembered.

In many ways, it demonstrated a broader truth about hospitality design.

People rarely remember every detail of a space. They remember how a place made them feel.

Hospitality in a Digital World

As more of our lives become digital, hospitality plays a different role than it once did.

Restaurants, bars, hotels, and gathering spaces increasingly function as places of genuine presence. They offer something digital environments cannot: physical connection, shared experiences, and moments of attention.

In this context, luxury is no longer defined solely by exclusivity or service. It is increasingly defined by the quality of experience.

The ability to create environments where people can slow down, connect, and fully inhabit the moment has become a competitive advantage.

As Ruud Belmans framed it during the discussion, hospitality has a responsibility to help guests be in the now.

What Luxury Guests Want Today

The future of hospitality may not be shaped by bigger gestures or more elaborate experiences.

Instead, it may depend on a deeper understanding of what people truly value: comfort, connection, atmosphere, authenticity, and emotional resonance.

For hospitality brands, this creates an opportunity.

By considering not only what guests see, but also what they hear, touch, sense, and remember, brands can create experiences that extend beyond a meal, a stay, or a visit.

Because ultimately, the most memorable hospitality experiences are not the ones people simply consume.

They are the ones they carry with them long after they leave.

Thank you to Palm for hosting us, and to all the guests who joined the discussion!