Forget five-star ratings and marble lobbies. It’s not the amenities that make properties worth talking about – it’s the charisma. Too often, hoteliers looking to differentiate their properties look to interior design or amenities. Things they can touch, things guests can touch – the factors that make sense on a spreadsheet. The flaw in this playbook is that it’s rarely the interior design guests grow tired of. It’s everything else.
A space can be both aesthetically perfect and psychologically boring. A lobby, no matter how well-designed, is nothing but a beautiful waiting room if guests find nothing to take notice of. And the truth that many hoteliers ignore is that every lobby, amenity, and menu at the luxury level is, by nature, world-class, expensive, and beautiful.
A 2025 study found that the average traveler visits 38 property websites before booking. To stand out in a sea of beautiful spaces, hoteliers need to look beyond aesthetics. They need to find their charisma.
The Charisma Factor
Think of an incredibly attractive person. Chances are, it’s not just their appearance that appeals – it’s the energy, or the spark. Personality is an important factor in attractiveness, moving someone past “pretty” to unforgettable. A property, done well, can spark that same feeling.
The how and why boil down to emotions. A 2020 study found that meaningful places stimulated the areas of the brain tied to emotional processing, emotional appraisal, and memory. Put simply, places become memorable when they connect with guests emotionally.
According to Lukas Cabalka, co-founder and chief creative at Something New Creative, the real value of a hotel in tomorrow’s hospitality market is its emotional aura. Through his work crafting emotion-led experiences to strengthen revenue performance, he has found that hoteliers often neglect emotional value for fear of its invisibility.
“Emotions can be difficult to justify on a spreadsheet, which makes them frightening for some hoteliers,” he said. “The truth is that emotions are the driving force behind every factor on a spreadsheet. What increases dwell time, or makes someone want to buy a product? The feeling they have at that moment.”
Research shows that ninety per cent of decision-making comes from emotions – without them, forming decisions wouldn’t just be difficult, it would be nearly impossible. The opportunity for hoteliers, Cabalka explained, is leveraging the psychological, subconscious power of emotion to create charisma, personality, and charm in a property.
Psychology tells us that ninety per cent of decision-making comes from emotions—without them, forming decisions wouldn’t just be difficult, it would be nearly impossible. The opportunity for hoteliers, Cabalka explains, is leveraging the psychological, subconscious power of emotion to create charisma, personality, and charm in a property.
To Build Personality, Get Emotional
To pull it off, hoteliers need to stop shying away from the value of fun, excitement, and playfulness. According to Cabalka, it’s not about literal games or programming – it’s about creating moments that excite in places guests don’t expect.
Multisensory environments are the key. Soundscapes, signature scents, playful or intriguing lighting – they’re useful, attention-catching shifts that don’t require renovation but have the impact of a full brand overhaul. Scientifically, they’re neurologically substantial, creating subconscious connections between properties and guests.
Add emotions, and a property becomes biologically unforgettable. Sounds and scents can raise excitement and anticipation before dinner, while kinetic art pieces in the lobby capture attention the moment guests enter. The combination of sensory stimulation, emotional priming, and spatial choreography becomes a property’s charisma engine, creating personality beyond the looks.
This is where design shifts from something guests look at to something they feel. A charismatic property cues surprise throughout the stay: a moment of tension built into lighting as guests move between zones, a scent transition that immediately associates with the lobby, a sound signature that subtly evolves throughout a three-course meal. These choices act as emotional anchors—hard to name, harder to forget.
Charisma isn’t built through one grand gesture. It’s built through many micro-moments of intrigue, contrast, and atmosphere, all stacked to form a property’s emotional aura. Done with intention, these elements transform a hotel from a place to stay into a place worth talking about.
Finding Uniqueness
The hospitality landscape is more competitive than ever, and forgettability has become one of the industry’s greatest threats. Guests can find beautiful rooms and world-class amenities anywhere, but what drives true uniqueness is charisma: the emotional pull that makes a property feel singular.
Charisma is no longer a luxury. It’s a differentiator, a revenue engine, and, increasingly, a necessity. The hotels that succeed in the next decade won’t win because they looked the best online. They’ll win because they’ll have personality, charisma, and charm—even if the guests can’t exactly pinpoint why.
That’s the power of emotional design. It’s invisible, often overlooked, and ultimately, the difference between a stay and a trip worth remembering.
