In December, New York’s Plaza Hotel temporarily closed its underperforming Palm Court restaurant. In this recession, some luxury hotels are slashing room rates and reducing services in ways that could ultimately affect the quality of your “luxury stay.”
Travel is down all over and in prices categories, of course. But luxury travel has tumbled off the proverbial cliff, and that means airlines and hotels will make fundamental changes in how they price and how they operate. According to IATA, the airline trade group, year-over-year premium-class traffic fell a modest 1.5 percent in August, then began to plummet: down 8 percent in September, 6.9 percent in October, and 11.5 percent in November. “The low point…has not been reached,” IATA economists warned.