Luxury retailers are seeing some softening in demand, but what about luxury travel? Radha Arora, President of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts joins Yahoo Finance Live to weigh in on luxury travel trends and the current state of the hospitality sector. In general, Arora notes “good news” for the hospitality sector— stating that Rosewood is having a “banner year.” Top travel destinations for luxury travel, according to Arora, are Hong Hong, Paris, and London, though that's likely due to business travel. Arora says many travelers staying with them are looking for more “immersive experiences” and longer periods of lodging.

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Video Transcript

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JULIE HYMAN: The travel boom is still going strong. That's the main takeaway from earnings from America's biggest airlines this week. But the same cannot be said for the state of luxury necessarily, with companies like LVMH dropping around 25% since may. So what does this mean for luxury travel ahead of the holiday season?

One company that combines the two worlds is Rosewood Hotels and Resorts. And the president joins us now, Radha Arora. Thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it. So just give us some color here into what kind of demand you're seeing right now, particularly when we look at the state of travel, on the one hand, that seems to be holding up, but some chinks in the armor, one could say, for luxury demand, at least demand for luxury goods.

RADHA ARORA: Well, first of all, thank you for having me. I'm happy to report, actually, it's good news from this camp of Rosewood or this camp of hospitality community. We are having a banner year, 20% up on previous year. And beyond that, the flurry toward the end of the year is just-- it's amazing.

We're seeing that through the festive period Thanksgiving, Christmas. It's busy, booming as ever. And in fact, so much so that it's actually 30% up on 2019. And the image that you see at the moment, Rosewood Kona Village just opened about a couple of months ago. And it's one of those destinations where people are wanting to go to. It's been closed for a number of years.

And so, yes, we're very fortunate that we've opened some amazing destinations. And these new destinations are being heralded by our customers.

JOSH LIPTON: And Radha, what are the top travel destinations right now? You mentioned one there, but what are some others? What are the properties people are making a beeline to?

RADHA ARORA: So I would say currently, believe it or not, Hong Kong is 6% to 8% growth on previous years. So that's enormous for us. Paris, I will say, is having a banner year, probably the best year ever since we reopened Rosewood Hotel de Crillon back in 2017.

And London, again, surprisingly, when people talk about Brexit and this, that, and the other, has having another banner year. And I think that's probably because, you know, business travel is beginning to travel. And of course, the leisure traveler continues to travel. And beyond that, the resort destinations will always be those favorite destinations by families and friends as multigenerational families.

JULIE HYMAN: Radha, I'm curious as well, obviously, these are catering to high-net worth individuals. They are luxury properties. What are some of the top amenities that travelers are looking for right now? And has that changed since pre-pandemic?

RADHA ARORA: Yes, absolutely. What we have seen is the traveler today, as you said, individual affluent traveler, high-net worth individuals, they're looking for immersive experiences. They're taking their families. They're taking their friends. They're taking the time to really create a program for themselves for a long duration, longer duration than previously.

So whereas, previously people would go for three, four, five nights, probably do their extended stay. They'll do some business. They'll take their families with them. So they're traveling differently. And they're looking for value adds. And value-- by value adds, I mean an immersive experience and taking the families to these destinations where they want to be part of the local communities as well and not just going to stay in a hotel and go and shop.

JOSH LIPTON: And Radha, I'm interested in these branded residences you also offer here. Who is that for, Radha? And what's demand like right now?

RADHA ARORA: Yeah. So as I said, you know, people are traveling together, friends, families. They don't necessarily want to split them-- split each other up and stay in different parts of the hotel in different rooms and different suites. So what they want to do is go and stay in residences, where they're under one umbrella, one roof, and get that, you know, full-on Rosewood experience.

And we provide a similar experience as we do in a hotel rooms, as we do in Rosewood residences, but you have your own personal butler, who will take care of your every need. And we find that this is really-- it's a trend that's continuing-- is going to continue to stay. It's a new norm, where people will travel together and want larger accommodations.

JULIE HYMAN: And is that something that they purchase? Or is that still working-- you know, is there a monthly fee, for example, to stay in those kinds of residences?

RADHA ARORA: No, it's actually it's something that you purchased. So many of our developments, like Rosewood Mayakoba, Rosewood Las Ventanas, Rosewood Carlyle, you know, they have residences part of the feature of the property. So when the suites are all sold out, they can, you know, extend themselves into the residences. So the residences are available for them to actually to stay in.

And what happens is once they've stayed in those residences, they'll want to come back and keep coming back, because, as I said, you're not just in a typical hotel room. And so you can just rent them.

JOSH LIPTON: Radha Arora, thank you so much for joining us, Radha. I really appreciate it.

RADHA ARORA: Thanks for having me.