Travel Trends with Dan Christian
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Travel Trends with Dan Christian
Special Hospitality Series: Forbes Travel Guide’s Expansion with ATELIER CX & BOND CO.LAB
Welcome back to episode 8 of our 10-part Special Hospitality Series in collaboration with Forbes Travel Guide! This week, we continue our "Leaders Behind the Stars" spotlight with two groundbreaking announcements from CEO Hermann Elger, shared at The Summit in Monaco.
First, Hermann revealed ATELIER CX, a pioneering consulting studio dedicated to reshaping the customer experience for brands worldwide. Helmed by Silvia Nauta, a luxury hospitality executive with over 20 years of experience, ATELIER CX is poised to revolutionize how brands design and deliver exceptional customer journeys.
We also hear from Alyssa Bushey of BOND CO.LAB, a unique platform fostering impactful collaborations between luxury hotels and ultra-luxury consumer brands. Together, these partnerships are redefining how service providers meet the expectations of modern travelers.
One recurring theme emerged from our conversations with Silvia and Alyssa that challenges traditional hospitality norms: "Take care of your team, and they’ll take care of your guests." This human-centered philosophy resonates deeply in today's landscape, showcasing how internal team bonds and external partnerships are key to creating unparalleled experiences.
For a new generation of luxury consumers, including experience-driven millennials and Gen Z, these innovative approaches deliver the kind of personalized, memorable moments that define true five-star hospitality.
New episodes drop every Thursday! Stay tuned as we feature industry leaders across the globe—from Beverly Hills to the Seychelles.
The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. Season 5 In Progress.
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I actually don't agree with the fact that the general manager's main job is to take care of their customers. Their main job is to take care of the team. If that team will walk on fire for you, they will take care of your guests. Recently I read a study that Google sort of went out and asked their team how do you measure success for yourself? Because they were almost overwhelmed with the amount of KPIs that they had. And the leaders came back and said you know, did we meet our goals? The mid-management said what is our relationship to the owners? The team members all said the culture.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome back to season two of our special hospitality series in partnership with our friends at Forbes Travel Guide. As you've heard over the last seven episodes of Hello everyone, and welcome back to season two of our special hospitality series in partnership with our friends at Forbes Travel Guide. As you've heard, over the last seven episodes of this special 10-part series, the focus has been on the leaders behind the stars. We've heard from many exceptional hotel general managers from around the world that have earned their five-star rankings or are on their journey to or, as we saw with Malcolm in our first episode, someone who's been on that journey for 10 years and is determined to maintain that status, given all the benefit they see from the partnership with Forbes Travel Guide. Now, one of the other exciting developments at the summit in Monaco was listening to Herman Elger, the CEO of Forbes Travel Guide, announce a few big reveals, and two of them are going to be the focus of today's conversation Atelier CX and Bonn CoLab.
Speaker 2:I was thrilled to see both of these featured on stage, because there clearly is such a perfect fit with the Forbes Travel Guide brand, and today we're going to feature two incredible leaders that are at the forefront of these projects. First we're going to speak to Sylvia Nata, who heads up Atelier CX, which is a consulting studio dedicated to mapping the customer experience journey, and they work with brands worldwide. They actually work beyond just travel. They're in fashion and retail and aviation and private clubs and really what their focus is weaving the art of service excellence into company culture. And I'm really keen for you to hear this conversation with Sylvia because her background is so impressive and highly relevant to this area of expertise. She has more than 20 years of experience in luxury hospitality and a decade specifically leading the learning and development at Forbes Travel Guide, so she really is an expert on crafting exceptional customer experiences. And then we're going to welcome Alyssa Bushy into the conversation, who heads up Bond CoLab, where she's going to share a number of insights on the launch of Bond CoLab.
Speaker 2:I was so excited to see a number of them on stage, but I don't want to steal any of her thunder because when I looked at some of the hotels and the luxury brand partnerships, I was like that is a perfect fit, and so they are clearly looking to expand these partnerships and opportunities through Bond CoLab and I'm. There's some amazing partnerships to highlight and I think this is, in many ways, the future of retail for these luxury brands that are actually here at the conference as well, and we're going to be speaking to a couple of them in our final episode. So today this is episode eight of our special 10 part series, and don't forget that we post clips and highlights of all these conversations on our social channels, both at Forbes Travel Guide and at Travel Trends Podcast on LinkedIn and Instagram, so be sure to check us out there, and I look forward now to welcoming in Sylvia and then Alyssa into the conversation. But welcome, sylvia. So great to have you on this special hospitality series.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me on, Dan. We're so excited to be launching Atelier CX specifically at this conference.
Speaker 2:For sure, and your background you've been with Forbes over 10 years is that right?
Speaker 1:I have been with Forbes Travel Guide for 10 years. I am a hospitality girl at heart, having worked with Four Seasons, mandarin Oriental, the Breakers, palm Beach, etc. So it's really a highlight to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, and obviously they've picked someone from the inside to run this new division, which is really exciting. So tell us a little bit about what Atelier CX is.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Atelier CX's mission is to weave customer experience excellence into company cultures and what we found over really the last seven to eight years. I'm passionately called within Forbes Travel Guide Special Ops because whenever we have a highly customized project outside our traditional ratings environment meaning I work with any brand or company outside the hotel, restaurant, spa or cruise line and what we do is we provide consulting services and help them derive a service culture that sort of mirrors that five-star environment and really get to know them to be able to assist them with providing service excellence to their clients, patients, consumers, because we are in so many fields.
Speaker 2:That's exciting. So tell us why. Now for bringing this to life, especially given I mean, I think it's really exciting because I think there's so much potential here. But yeah, how did this come about for 2025?
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well. As you know, Herman is a big visionary, our CEO, and as we continue to grow and evolve and work with the likes of Genesis Motor Canada, who's actually here, meaning that we're working with the automotive industry, We've done work with Xcaret Parks, which is an amusement park. We've worked with high-end luxury retail Hermes and the likes, it became really relevant and important that we identified ourselves and stood independently as a brand so that we could really have a wider reach. As to how is it that we can, you know, really make a name for ourselves in that market where we saw such a big need to be able to support that customer service experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really fascinating. You kindly share with me the 10 key tips for revitalizing your service culture, and a number of them really resonated with me. I mean from something more simple about moving beyond the nine to five, but more importantly, things about, you know, moving away from command and control, dismantling rigid hierarchies and cutting through bureaucracy. And I think you know a lot of large organizations are here and there's a lot of large organizations that are in the hospitality space, and I think those are important things for them to consider. You also have like upgrading outdated technology, which for sure is an issue across our industry. But tell us a little bit about more, I guess about the philosophy of this and the tips and then how you guys actually work with organizations to assist them in improving their customer service and culture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you for that question. You know, what's really interesting is on our side of the business, the companies we work for. There's no rating here at the end of it, so we're not going after a rating. These companies have to be deeply committed into investing not only on the physical products or the car or the yacht or the private jet, but in the people side of it. I often joke and say you know great, you're going to spend $500 million on the renovation. How much of that are you giving to the people? Because they're the ones that are going to make the difference sort of what we heard earlier today in a lot of the panels of the symposium.
Speaker 1:When we look at service cultures, we have really found that you know the key drivers. Looking at what today's generation is expecting from the workplace and I think it's almost societal to an extent is they want authentic leadership. They want to have an impact in what it is that they're doing every single day. They want great leaders, but you don't have to be a perfect leader. They also want a leader that says you know, I don't have the answer or we don't have. You know, all the right answers are the time where we made a mistake. They also want that psychological safety at the workplace, to be able to have an idea and raise their hand and say, hey, have we thought about this? Let's collaborate together. So a lot of these 10 tips and I'll be sharing some of this in my discovery session leader today here at the summit is about how do you weave that service excellence into your experience.
Speaker 1:I actually don't agree with the fact that the general manager's main job is to take care of their customers. Their main job is to take care of the team. If that team will walk on fire for you, they will take care of your guests. Recently I read a study that Google sort of went out and measured the success. You know asked their team how do you measure success for yourself? Because they were almost overwhelmed with the amount of KPIs that they had. And the leaders came back and said you know, did we meet our goals? The mid-management said what is our relationship to the owners? The team members all said the culture. Do I like to come to work every single day? That's how they measured success and I think that's an overarching sort of theme that we're seeing. That can be carried over from the hospitality industry and a lot of these entities that we work with are really investing tremendous amounts of money. We heard from Delta today in the people side of things. Which will, you know, deliver those results?
Speaker 2:Fascinating. That's really interesting. I think there's a few things there that you said that stood out for me and I guess this is where you know Forbes Travel Guide is well known for the five-star rating system, but many of the GMs that I've had the privilege to meet last year in Vegas and here in Monaco they've highlighted exactly what you described. Almost everyone to a T will say team first and that's obviously why they are a three-star general, as I refer to in certain instances where you've got your five-star for the restaurant, for the spa and for the hotel, of course.
Speaker 2:And Mark Langevin, who is the general manager in Grand Cayman and I saw him last night and he was one of the three-star generals I got a chance to interview and he was one of the first people that said to me that it's all about the team and it's to exactly your point. And I was like trying to pick up on what are these consistent elements of these leaders and why they've elevated this position and why they've been able to maintain that position is because they are highly respected by their colleagues and their team members. So it's interesting that you point that out. It's not about the general manager being focused on the guest experience. They're the ones that has to set the standard for their team to follow so that they can deliver on that amazing customer service. So, anyway, this is really fascinating. I'm glad we're having this conversation.
Speaker 1:Tell us where you're headed over the next year as you launch this division and how you see it growing and evolving, having been part of the architecture of that. But really, how is it that we expand into different industries able to have wider range? Our mission, as I said, was to provide service excellence and consulting and advisory assistance to any company that really wants to put service at the forefront and is really committed in doing so. We, of course, work very closely with the academy that's part of Forbes Travel Guide in the training piece, and we even implement quality assessments. We can come in and do mystery inspections. We're doing them now in the commercial space, the residential space, like I mentioned, the amusement parks, et cetera. So it's been a great adventure for us, and even for you know, some of our evaluations team to be able to venture outside of our traditional hotel, restaurant, spa and cruises and work with so many dynamic industries that really are looking for that secret sauce right in the five star environment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. Tell everyone what you're going to be talking about in the discovery session coming up, because I was attending a few yesterday and I found them really fascinating. So tell us a bit about what the discovery sessions are for the listeners that are obviously don't have the privilege to be here, and some of the things you're going to be talking about.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Well, we're actually going to be talking about some of the elements that we talked about. It's developing a cult-like culture. So all about how is it that you derive and develop a service culture within your organization. We've had an opportunity to peek behind the curtain with a lot of these companies that we've worked with and have some really great advice as to how is it that you can take back some of these elements and tools to drive your leadership to really model the behavior that they're looking for. You know, as I mentioned, it starts with that purposeful value system and not only focusing on results or financial results, but looking at how is it that we model the behaviors that we expect from our team to be able to derive the service excellence model.
Speaker 2:Well, that's great. Now I'm sure we've inspired many people from this conversation to learn more about Atelier CX, so tell everyone a little bit more about how they can find out more information about the organization, connect with yourself and partner with you in 2025 and beyond.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. We do have our own LinkedIn page, atelier CX. You can find us on LinkedIn. We have our own web page, ateliercxcom, and you can reach out to any of the current contacts that you already have within Forbes Travel Guide. Our partner services team have been great supporters and you can either leave us an inquiry or reach out to me directly.
Speaker 2:Fantastic, sylvia. It was great to meet you. I'm glad we had this opportunity to speak. I'm really excited to regroup a year from now in 2026, wherever we are, and to see where you've gotten to over the next year. But I know it's going to be. There's a bright future ahead and it's a really exciting time. So I wish you the best of luck over the next year and I look forward to keeping in touch.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much Dan.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much to Sylvia for sharing all those valuable insights on everything that's happening at Atelier CX. Now I have the privilege to welcome Alyssa into the conversation to talk about Bond CoLab. Welcome, Alyssa. Great to have you on this special hospitality series.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Dan. I'm thrilled to be here. This is fantastic. Where are you based? So I'm based in the United States, I'm based in Florida, and I have had the pleasure of working with Forbes Travel Guide now for a little over a year, helping them as we are looking to forge new brands, develop new ideas for them, finding other ways that we can cater to the luxury consumer and really elevate the hospitality industry.
Speaker 2:Very cool. Now I heard about your initiative on the first day, which is really exciting. It's called Bonco, is that right? So tell us what is Bonco Lab?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. In speaking with Herman Elger, the founder or the CEO of Forbes Travel Guide, we started chatting about how there was this opportunity within the travel and travel industry and the hospitality space that it's. It's now extending beyond the physical hotel. The consumer is seeking their ultimate experience, and especially with a rising demographic of Gen Z and millennials that are looking for that experience-driven experience, collaborations are something that they're seeking highly, and so we decided why don't we set up an agency that can offer this as a service for hospitality professionals, that can offer this as a service for hospitality professionals, and so we developed Bond, and it's to seamlessly help them partner with whether it's people or product companies or production companies or purpose-driven causes and find ways that we're innovating for them and helping them take this to market.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very cool. Now I love the name. First off, I don't think many of our listeners know this, but my mother's maiden name is Bond. Fantastic and my brother's name is James no. Oh, my goodness he always wished that they didn't change it, and so when I saw Bond Co and I'm genuinely a huge fan of the James Bond franchise and series yes, yes, yes and of the James Bond franchise and series.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes. And so tell us, how did you come up with the name and is there any connection, if you will, to the legendary Bond figure?
Speaker 3:Well, it was convenient that we were having the summit in Monaco this year, so it was a perfect place to launch this, and, out of the names that my team developed, that was the one that rose to the top, and so Herman and I talked about. We were like we love this. It instantly tells you what we are helping people do and we're helping them bond. We're helping them create a new brand and a new synergy in between the two companies. Very cool, yes.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about some of those examples, so tell us about some of the collaborations.
Speaker 2:I saw some of the acknowledgements at the beginning. There was a couple of awards that went out for collaborations between luxury brands and luxury hospitality, which truly is a perfect fit. It's almost like when you go through the airport and it is really a boutique to connect you to these brands. It's not necessarily just about what they're purchasing on site, like Tumi Luggage. I know Bugatti and some of these high-end brands which are clearly here in Monaco, but they're trying to connect with high-end hospitality, absolutely. They have a captive audience of luxury consumers, ultra-high net worth individuals that can learn more about their brands in a setting where they are on holiday and they're like. So it's a perfect synergy. So, yes, I love the concept for Bond Co, but yeah, tell us a little bit more some of the partnerships you've established.
Speaker 3:I think a good example of this is one of the companies, or two of the companies, we recognized yesterday, which is Ritz Paris and Frame, which is a fashion company based out of Southern California, and this is such a fascinating collaboration, as Ritz Paris obviously known to be established, polished, highest pedigree, fantastic hotel. And then Frame is this hip, cool, very high end, but more casual brand, and so when you blended their consumer bases? First of all, we always look at it from four different perspectives. Is it something that will drive media attention? Is that what they're looking for? Is it something that they can reach a broader audience with that? In this case, that was most definitely one of the goals with it is how are we tapping into each other's audiences and exposing them to it? Sometimes it's just offering a new guest experience. We just want something new and fresh for our consumer, which Ritz Paris definitely wanted out of this too.
Speaker 3:And then the last one is often people want to collaborate to just show a cost lift off of their operation, so they don't want to compromise their experience in a hotel such as. We still want to offer a luxury skin care product by the pool, but our P&L really no longer supports us being able to do that in volume, right, and so we'd like to partner with a high-end skincare brand that could provide that for us, and they love the access to the consumer directly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, it makes total sense. The other one that you recognized yesterday and I said to my colleague that was sitting next to me I'm like there's a perfect partnership was Louis Vuitton and the Atlantis in Dubai.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:So tell us a bit more about that partnership and what you did there.
Speaker 3:That one's fabulous. So this was when we were so proud to recognize that they created these unbelievable installations, that larger than life, these Vivienne's and I can't even recall all of the names right now but these beautiful sculptures across the property, that just helped. Well, it was for the one year anniversary, though, and I think so often we think, oh, we'll just celebrate this because it's about us. It's about us, oh, one year. We are excited to celebrate all about us. That is OK as a news point and a media driving point, and that is OK as a news point and a media driving point, but what makes it so much more impactful is if you can say it's one year and come and see this unbelievable art installation, and that is what that collaboration offered.
Speaker 3:So the next year is ripe with opportunity, even just here, because we really just launched it here. We've we have already been doing things behind the scenes and have a ton of partnerships in the background, but yeah, and we've established some more since we've been here. I think the first step that we're doing with each of these companies, though, is having an innovation session and making sure that we understand from them really what is their primary goal. I always say you have to decide up front if you want to make money or you want to make noise, but you can't decide. You want both right out of the gates, and so we're doing an innovation session with them first and then digging into those people, products, productions, potentially, or purpose-driven causes that will help support that goal.
Speaker 2:Very cool, that's exciting.
Speaker 3:It's very exciting. Does that mean more travel for you? It means a lot more travel. I think yes, so we may see each other on the road quite a bit. Yes, so a lot more travel and also making sure. The biggest thing with this, too, is I know just I worked. I worked on the property side or in the corporate side for many years, and often collaborations are very reactive. You pick up the phone, someone says they want to collaborate with you. You have a high end product and you think, oh, it's not going to hurt my brand. Sure, we'll give it a shot, but is it actually achieving your goal as well? And that's where that's where we're coming in as an agency to say help, let us help you and guide you through this process to make sure that we're setting up mindful collaborations that will also drive results.
Speaker 2:Very interesting.
Speaker 3:So, yes, and so, how many of these do you want to try and do each year Is the ambition I mean infinite no truthfully to be, to be bespoke about it, to be mindful about it and to be just very curated with it. I think it is going to take a minute to figure out how we're scaling. No, kidding Because out of the floodgates.
Speaker 2:we're getting so much interest that yes, so many of these incredible partners and suppliers, certainly here. That's one of the things that stood out to me last year. Speaking to Felipe Arnaldo from Frette on this series. You also, our listeners, will hear from Mark Friedland.
Speaker 3:Oh great.
Speaker 2:And so you've got this like the incredible community of really high-end suppliers that are tapped into the Forbes Travel Guide Network. Absolutely, it only makes sense that they would want to take it one step further and partner with the actual high-end hotels and these general managers.
Speaker 3:So it's a perfect synergy.
Speaker 2:That's why I wonder how many you're going to do? One a month.
Speaker 3:Well, hopefully more than that, and because we want to make sure we're this is something that we're looking to service our community with a much greater thing that can help all of them. But I will say, some of the most interesting collaborations, too, are the ones that are unexpected. So a lot of these. Again, no one would have assumed frame based in Southern California, it was not an on the nose partnership with with Ritz Paris Like oh no, they are Southern California and high in Paris and how do those connect? However, it's the fact that it was unexpected that made it work too, and that's what we're seeing with so many of the—I mean, there are great examples across so many different industries that I follow.
Speaker 3:The fashion industry does a lot, but Adidas is a good example. So Adidas partnered with Lego to launch an entirely new children's shoe brand—or children's shoe line. Yeah, and it was fantastic because they put little marks on the bottom that look like Legos, and so children walk across the playground and they're making little Legos on the ground Right, and it sold out like that. Both Tiffany and Nike did an interesting partnership and it was the beautiful Tiffany box and you opened it and it's a pair of Nikes and, yeah, on the resale market. They're going for three to five thousand dollars for for a pair of ties shoes so, and it seems to be um like supreme was a good example as well right yes
Speaker 2:a lot of high-end partnerships yes, and it almost seemed like that was the one that sort of set the standard for many companies that opened them to this opportunity, and it seems to be unique to the high end, for whatever reason that I mean these collaborations. They work best with two high end brands that come together to cross over their audiences and to grow reach on both sides. So it's always interesting about trying to find that brand synergy and I guess ask that question given the examples you've just shared, how do you identify that perfect fit, Right?
Speaker 3:I think it is through. It's through one determining what their goal is first of all, is it really that you want broader audience or is it that you want new audience? And I say that because for 25 years now, I think Target, the mainstream retailer in the US has partnered with very high end.
Speaker 3:That's why, they're called Target. Target. Yeah With luxury brands, though, such as Diane von Furstenberg and oh gosh, lily Pulitzer, they did a line Michael Graves was one of the first ones so they partnered there to bring those brands to an approachable level. So that's an example of broader audience, not or a new audience, not broader in their one niche new audience not broader in their one niche, and so those are the ones.
Speaker 3:I find fascinating too that I think a lot of our consumers are looking at how do we make sure we're relevant, timely and staying ahead of the trends with our new yeah, the next generation of luxury consumer coming down the pipe?
Speaker 2:Amazing, amazing. So I'm sure we've inspired a lot of people listening to this that are very intrigued with this concept. So please, alyssa, tell us how our listeners can get in touch with you or as a team, to work on a partnership.
Speaker 3:Please just check out bondcolabcom all one word B-O-N-D-C-O-L-A-Bcom and please reach out to us. We would love to help you and start setting up some really customized programs with you.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic. It's wonderful to see Forbes Travel Guide going from strength to strength. I mean I had the privilege of being there in Vegas last year and being here in Monaco seeing the international audience this year.
Speaker 2:I mean it's many new faces and many people I've had a chance to speak to that it's their first time coming to Forbes Travel Guide, because obviously it's the first big event and they're proud to be the first travel agency in Australia or the first media partner in Dubai, and so a lot of people. It's not only their first, but they're also just starting to understand and appreciate the value of this powerful brand.
Speaker 3:It's a wonderful company and the leadership Herman has provided, the growth, the innovation and creativity that he has brought to the company too, to help them find new ways to again serve this wonderful community of people that that are seeking more and would highlight it, these collaborations which obviously frame in the Ritz, paris and Louis Vuitton and the Atlantis the Royal, and it was one of the highlights of yesterday's event.
Speaker 2:That was the announcement, so congratulations.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Thank you, that's very kind.
Speaker 2:No for sure. I'm thrilled that this is all coming together and I'm sure it's going to be a great success and we'll have a chance to revisit this next year to hear about what all happened in 2025.
Speaker 3:So a real pleasure to meet you, alyssa. Likewise, dan, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much to Alyssa and Sylvia for joining us on this special hospitality series in partnership with our friends at Forbes Travel Guide. I'm going to be so excited to see their progress when we regroup again in Monaco for the next summit in February 2026. Wishing you both all the best for the next year ahead. It's very exciting and bright for you both, and clearly we wanted to include you in this series because you are definitely rising stars and leaders behind the stars, and actually rising stars is one of the other initiatives that Forbes Travel Guide has underway.
Speaker 2:And next week's episode we're going to be featuring Scott Campbell from the Hammock Beach Golf Resort in Augustine, florida. It's an extraordinary place within America the oldest city in America. And then we're also going to speak to Jeff, who runs the Meadowood in Napa Valley. So we're headed to Napa, california and Florida for episode nine. And then we have several leaders to wrap up our conversations in episode 10, including a few of the luxury suppliers that you heard us talking about over the course of this series. So a lot to look forward to, but please make sure that you are registered on the streaming platform of your choice for new episodes as they go out every Thursday, and don't forget to check out both at Forbes Travel Guide and at Travel Trends Podcast for clips and highlights on our social channels. Until next time, safe travels.
