Jonathan Kleeman

Dzmitry - stock.adobe.com The hospitality sector’s loudest voices are currently consumed by immediate operational volatility. There are endless leadership conversations picking apart the impacts of inflation, increased taxes and the ever-rising cost of talent, treating them as the primary villains of the hospitality sector. Yet this fixation ignores an older and more permanent structural weakness: the traditional commercial lease.

Rawpixel.com - stock.adobe.com We’re living through an odd moment where dining rooms can look busy, but the old safety net of “starters, sides, dessert, another bottle?” doesn’t always show up. You can feel it on the floor. Guests aren’t ordering less because they’re skint or miserable. A lot of them are ordering less because they’re full. And if your business is built on “a few extras,” that shift hits the P&L fast. Hospitality loves to write behavioral change off as a phase. Dry January.

We are living through an epidemic of “vibes.” You see it everywhere in the hospitality sector: the generic neon signage, the obligatory plant wall and the algorithm-curated playlist drifting through the lobby. It is worth saying explicitly: there is a difference between a true cultural experience and a dressed-up marketing gimmick. I’ve seen plenty of hotel packages tack on a themed cocktail and a Spotify playlist and call it “immersive.” It isn’t. Worse, it’s a turn-off.