The iconic and popular view of luxury hospitality includes a five star service, modern amenities and facilities, and a unique experience. But alongside these high end expectations, more and more companies and hotels are seeking to encompass wellness into their guest offering, using nature and the natural environment to define an experience which is both luxuriously enjoyable and simplistically steeped in the world around us.
So, how can hotels and other companies in the hospitality industry use the natural environment to inform and influence their guest experiences?
The term ‘biophilic’ is one used across the design and architecture industry to describe a design which is heavily influenced and underpinned by nature. It means incorporating nature into every aspect of the design – the luxury element comes in how companies and hotels use that natural influence to create something unique and exciting.
Lifting hospitality to new heights
One perfect example of using the natural environment to raise the standards of luxury hospitality is to bring nature to the top of nature’s finest design – the trees. Forest hotels and luxury treehouses are becoming increasingly popular all over the world, with businesses using the promise of uninterrupted views and up-close wildlife experiences to drive guests to indulge in their treetop stays.
Most of the treetop stays currently available use the materials supplied by the surrounding environment – providing a finish which fits perfectly into the trees and becomes camouflaged for optimum privacy.
Luxury hospitality that floats
Like the Adharia luxury floating suites which are now available for water-based and local-to-water hotels all over the world, hospitality which floats is an idea which started with the five star cruise ship experience and has gradually expanded into something more intimate and coveted. With each suite offering guests their own private slice of the water, whether it be a lake, reservoir or slow moving river, the opportunity to experience wildlife and nature from the very heart of the water is a luxury experience which looks set to continue up the ladder of high end hospitality offerings.
To compliment this experience, floating suite experiences offer a modern interior with high quality technologies and functional amenities, designed to upgrade the stay to a premium level and utilize materials supplied by the natural environment. Not only does this make for a sleek finish which is in line with popular contemporary and modern styling, but it also creates an atmospheric and immersive stay.
Turning harsh environments into something beautiful
Harsh environments are some of the most popular destinations in the world, thanks to their unrelenting surroundings and the challenge associated with conquering them. Incorporating a luxury hospitality experience into a harsh environment is a feat of engineering which is attractive for its unique status and untouched beauty – with prime examples including rainforest and jungle retreats, and ice hotels located in the heart of arctic environments.
Celebrating outdoor nature on the inside
When a hospitality company does not have the luxury of incredible and unique natural surroundings, another way of bringing their luxury hotel to life in the natural environment is by bringing the outside in. From an abundance of outdoor plants, to entire rooms built around tree trunks, innovative solutions for bringing natural light into a room, and luscious living walls, the influence of nature on an inside space can immediately create a clean and high-end retreat type experience – which looks great and embodies a focus on wellness.
And of course, whether or not the surroundings are particularly unique or not, a room with a view is always considered more of a luxurious experience than one without.