The following conversation with Liv originally appeared on Hertelier in July 2021. It has been lightly edited for clarity. We spoke with Liv about what should be on the radar as hotel operations reshape themselves in a post-pandemic world.
Tell us about your first job, as a butler at the St. Regis in New York.
While I was at Cornell my plan had been to move to the Far East after college, drawn by the reputation of the service there. That changed when an opportunity came up to join the inaugural class of butlers at the legendary St. Regis. The hotel was reopening after a major renovation, and the operators at the time, ITT/Sheraton, had sent their senior team to Asia to study. Just thirty butlers were hired from around the world. As a new graduate, I was one of the youngest.
How were you trained, and what did you learn?
We were taught by Ivor Spencer, a master butler from England. The work was practical – how to welcome a guest, how to pack and unpack, how to run a bath, how to address people, how to respect a private space. There is a great deal of fine etiquette around all of these processes. We also learned in-room food service, proper tea service, and worked closely with housekeeping at every step. It was the right grounding in what exceptional hotel service looks like in the most intimate of settings.
I was a butler for only a year, but the experience confirmed something I have carried with me ever since: that what we do, in the end, is care for people – however they need it. It informed the way I later ran hotels and gave me real empathy for every role across an operation.
No wild stories – though I did once stand in for a guest who wanted to practise proposing marriage to his girlfriend. Suffice to say, I have been proposed to a great deal.
From there you moved to Asia, first with Dusit, then Aman.
Yes. I spent three years at Dusit in Corporate Operations, then joined Aman as Front Office Manager at The Strand in Myanmar in 1996. Strangely, on the same day, I had two offers in front of me – The Strand, and a place at graduate school at Harvard. The choice was easy. Aman offered me the chance to see the world, and I never looked back.
Aman was the first hotel brand to bring an informal style to luxury, and the company was growing quickly. From The Strand I was sent to assist with openings – Indonesia, Wyoming, Tahiti, Morocco – spending up to six months at each property. In 2000 I went to Amanpuri in Phuket and oversaw the opening of the first Aman spa. From there I became General Manager of Amandari in Bali, where I stayed for seven years. I loved the personal nature of Aman; I would sometimes welcome guests with my daughter in my arms.
The breadth of those projects gave me a real education in delivering a brand at every guest touchpoint. It is also where I became serious about wellness as something that lives across the whole hotel, not just the spa. That is still what I love doing today – looking at a hotel as a whole and asking how brand and operation can work together to become something quite distinct.
What we do, in the end, is care for people – however they need it.
What does the future of wellness look like in luxury hospitality?
Personal wellbeing is no longer something a brand can ignore. A focus on wellness has to reach beyond the spa and into design, technology, sustainability, operations and food. Hotels can keep pace with that momentum and, more interestingly, can introduce guests to new ways of looking after themselves at every moment of the day. They can become places of genuine education and experience – ways of feeling well that last well beyond a massage or a smoothie.
What trends do you see taking shape?
Design. Those who carry holistic wellness into their lives are also attentive to the spaces that support it. We have all spent more time in our homes than ever before, and we have grown alert to what makes us feel well – lighting, fabrics, air, the layout of furniture. Sensory experience will come more to the front. Art, light, colour, the soundscape of a place. In a recent project for Beaverbrook we created a colour-saturated spa using the stained glass of Brian Clarke. The space is now a real part of the spa experience, not a backdrop.
Technology. AI and personalised metrics will allow guests to make lasting changes to their daily habits. In the past, a guest might come for a retreat to drop a few kilos and revert to old habits at home. Now we can extend that experience, not only improving the immediate stay but supporting the bonds that build loyalty.
Bringing nature in. Like many people I leaned heavily on daily walks for my sanity through the past year. Greenery, freshness and the outside world matter to us, and I see those elements becoming part of the fundamental design of a hotel – courtyards with heavy planting, living walls, the boundaries between inside and out softening.
Sustainability. The pandemic taught us that we do not live in isolation: what happens in one place affects every other. As an industry we have to be more deliberate in the way we create, design and build. There are now ways of making sustainability simple and considered. Bottled water is a small example – why don’t more hotels have their own bottling plants? At Six Senses Shaharut, a four-year project, that and several other initiatives were built into the operation. Six Senses are taking a real position on this, and our guests are increasingly asking us to do the same.
Wellness that goes deeper than the surface. Today there is more interest in immune support, vitamin shots, lymphatic drainage – treatments that affect resilience. But guests are also addressing larger questions: sleep, gut health, overall wellbeing. The gut contains seventy percent of our immune cells, so digestive health cannot be separated from mood, allergies, or chronic conditions. In a post-pandemic environment, where resilience is on every guest’s mind, the appetite is for a more holistic approach.
A closing thought?
I keep coming back to the same one. The thing that will never go out of fashion in our business is caring for people. That is what we do. Whether you are a butler or a general manager, if your purpose is to give your guest the best possible time, you are doing the work. As an industry we should be wary of fads and over-marketing. People need proper food, sleep, movement, and to feel cared for – we have always known how to provide all of that. The next stage that matters, to me, is finding ways to do it better, more personally, for each guest.