By: William Jones

For more than a decade, home-share platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo have been framed as an existential threat to hotels. They offer space, flexibility, and the feeling of living like a local. They also suggest something harder to define: control. Guests believe they can curate their stay on their own terms, without the perceived formality of a hotel.

Robert Reitknecht has watched that narrative take hold from inside the industry. An award-winning hotelier and the founder of HospitalityRenu, Reitknecht does not dismiss home-shares. He understands why travelers choose them. But he is equally clear about where hotels still hold an advantage, one that technology and scale may not replicate.

“Hotels tend to excel on trust,” he says. “And trust is built through consistency.”

The Hidden Cost of Inconsistency

The core weakness of the home-share model, Reitknecht argues, is not quality. It is variability. Each stay is dependent on a different host, a different standard, a different interpretation of hospitality. One property may exceed expectations. The next may quietly disappoint.

That inconsistency introduces friction before a guest even arrives. Will the space look like the photos? Will the check-in instructions work? Will someone answer if something goes wrong?

Luxury travelers, in particular, are not looking to gamble. They want certainty. They want to know what they are walking into and how they will be treated once they arrive.

Hotels, when operated well, may remove that uncertainty. A guest may not know the exact room layout, but they know the experience will likely meet a certain bar. That predictability creates what Reitknecht calls the “know, like, and trust” effect.

“When guests trust you, they stop evaluating every interaction,” he explains. “They relax. And that’s where loyalty can begin.”

Redefining Luxury Beyond Amenities

In conversations about competition, hotels often default to amenities. Pools. Spas. Restaurants. But Reitknecht believes this misses the point. Luxury, as guests experience it, is not about excess. It is about attentiveness without intrusion.

He describes luxury service as a series of subtle, almost invisible touchpoints. The experience is designed to feel effortless and unintrusive, so the guest never notices how often they were thoughtfully supported. They might remember a single moment of being acknowledged, but behind the scenes, dozens of quiet decisions shaped the stay or dining experience. True luxury is not about how much is done for the guest, but how seamlessly it is done without ever interrupting their sense of ease.

“In a true luxury experience, a guest might feel touched once,” Reitknecht says. “But in reality, they were touched thirty-plus times in small, positive ways.”

Those moments are quiet. A room is ready a few minutes early. A preference is remembered without being repeated. A staff member notices when not to interrupt. None of this feels scripted. All of it feels intentional.

Home-shares may struggle to deliver this because they are built on a single interaction model. A handoff. A transaction. A stay. Hotels, by contrast, are designed around continuity.

Anticipation as a Competitive Advantage

The strongest hotel experiences do not respond to requests. They anticipate them.

Reitknecht refers to these moments as “anticipatory delights,” small surprises that fulfill an unstated need. They are rarely expensive. They are almost always memorable.

One story he often shares involves a guest searching for jelly beans at a luxury property where Reitknecht was working hands-on with the team. The hotel had run out of its usual supply. Instead of offering an apology, Reitknecht left the property, drove to a local store, purchased a premium brand of jelly beans, and delivered them to the guest’s room with a handwritten note.

The result was disproportionate to the effort. The guest later wrote that it was one of the most memorable hotel experiences they had ever had. They became, in Reitknecht’s words, “a promoter for life.”

“That had nothing to do with technology,” he says. “That was about listening.”

Home-shares, by design, might not scale anticipation. Hotels can, but only if their people are trained to notice and empowered to act.

Why Process Still Matters

This kind of service is often misunderstood as spontaneous or personality-driven. Reitknecht disagrees. Behind every effortless moment is structure.

Through HospitalityRenu’s Service Refresh Framework™, he works elbow-to-elbow with hotel teams to align people, process, and technology. The goal is not rigid scripts, but clarity. Staff should know what excellence looks like and feel confident delivering it in their own way.

Many hotels, he notes, underestimate how much inconsistency exists inside their own operations. Staff turnover, unclear expectations, and fragmented systems quietly erode the guest experience. When that happens, hotels may begin to resemble the very unpredictability guests are trying to avoid.

“Service gaps don’t announce themselves,” Reitknecht says. “They show up as missed opportunities.”

The Emotional Difference Guests Remember

Ultimately, the competition between hotels and home shares is not about price or square footage. It is about how guests want to feel.

Travelers choosing boutique and luxury hotels are often seeking emotional safety as much as comfort. They want to be recognized without being watched. Supported without being managed. Known without being cataloged.

That emotional intelligence is still human. Technology can assist. Data can inform. But reading the room, sensing when to engage, and knowing when to step back remains the work of people.

“Guests don’t remember platforms,” Reitknecht says. “They remember moments.”

The Path Forward for Hotels

As home-shares continue to evolve, Reitknecht believes hotels should stop trying to imitate them. Competing on sameness is a losing strategy. The opportunity lies in leaning into what hotels already do best.

Consistency. Anticipation. Human connection delivered with restraint.

Hotels that invest in their teams, simplify their systems, and design experiences around trust rather than novelty will continue to outperform. Not because they offer more, but because they understand more.

In a crowded market of options, certainty can become a luxury. And for guests who value feeling seen without needing to ask, hotels still hold the edge.

For hotel owners and operators looking to strengthen that edge, Reitknecht’s work moves beyond theory and into daily practice. To explore how a refreshed, human-centered approach to service can turn guests into lifelong advocates, visit https://www.hospitalityrenu.com.