LOS ANGELES—Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association (BLLA) successfully closed its 2016 Annual Leadership Symposium held at the new Luskin Conference Center last Wednesday October 26. The three-day event embraced industry leaders and successors worldwide encompassing boutique hoteliers and industry’s most sought-after vendors and media partners. The conference debuted the first-ever collaborative educational day together with UCLA Extension with a program aimed to cultivate the exclusive, authentic boutique and lifestyle industry, and also announced the winners of the annual BLLA industry awards.
With discussions from over 75 speakers, the conference revealed key industry trends and industry predications for the year ahead. Additionally, BLLA partnered with CBRE to create a standout official report for the world’s upscale boutique and lifestyle space providing an in-depth industry analysis and key statistics through 2017. This backed up many of the panel discussions that furthered the industry growth and performance, especially in the Airbnb segment, ensuring boutique hotels are performing at ever-increasing occupancy levels, with record-high gross operating profits to be achieved through 2017. Nashville, Los Angeles and Louisville are predicted to be the three top expanding markets at current.
Modern day wellness and eco and the Five Senses for Hotel Design were hot topics discussed at the conference and labeled as emerging trends and essential for the industry, providing an analysis of the necessities needed within the market today. Authentic experiences are a must for guests, and hoteliers are taking strategic approaches to ensure the industry is growing to the needs of their target consumers and staying ahead of industry competitors such as Airbnb.
“It was an honor to welcome some incredible speakers to this year’s annual leadership conference. We are continuously connecting industry leaders to discerning travelers and experts worldwide and pride ourselves as being the official association for the boutique and lifestyle hospitality space”, said BLLA Founder and CEO Frances Kiradjian. “This year we added something to our conference that is an industry first—we provided a scholar program in partnership with UCLA to encourage education within the boutique and lifestyle space which proved an utter success”.
During the symposium, BLLA hosted a jubilant awards gala at The Beverly Hills Hotel, honoring some of the most admired talent across the hospitality industry. The 2016 Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association Award recipients are;
