Last month, Laura Corrigan, SVP of Marketing & Communications at The Agency, traveled to Vail, Colorado, as a guest of The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) for the 2026 LHW Summit, hosted at Sonnenalp Hotel around the launch of Explore: The Leading Hotels of the World — the third volume in LHW’s book series with Phaidon, Monacelli, and The Slowdown.

Beyond the book itself, the Summit offered a real-time look at where LHW sees the industry moving: toward travel that’s more intentional, more active, and more tied to the people and places behind each stay — echoing the latest issue of The Agency Magazine, which dives into what today’s travelers are actually seeking (see page 23).

“Around the world, travelers are seeking journeys that feel meaningful, transformative, and connected to place. We’re seeing this reflected in our own business, with bookings to remote and rural destinations up more than 10% year over year.”

 Lauren Alba
Vice President of Global Marketing & Communications, LHW

The Trend: Exploration Over Checklist Travel

Explore follows Design (2024) and Culture (2025), and according to Lauren Alba, LHW’s Vice President of Global Marketing & Communications, it reflects a shift already showing up in the numbers. 

“Around the world, travelers are seeking journeys that feel meaningful, transformative, and connected to place,” Alba says. “We’re seeing this reflected in our own business, with bookings to remote and rural destinations up more than 10% year over year.”

For LHW, she notes, exploration isn’t about checking places off a list — it’s about how independent hotels use deep local knowledge and a personal touch to open the door to a destination. The 80-plus properties in Explore trace that shift across the portfolio, from stargazing in Chile’s Atacama Desert to a Bavarian-style basecamp in Vail.

Bürgenstock Hotel & Alpine Spa, Switzerland
Photo: © Bürgenstock Hotels Nayara Alto Atacama, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Katikies Kirini, Santorini, Greece

Spencer Bailey, the series’ editor-in-chief, frames it as an evolution across all three books. “Design was really about helping readers see LHW differently — the physical environments that shape a stay,” he says. “Culture broadened that lens considerably, asking what makes a hotel culturally significant.”

Explore, he says, marks another shift: from what a hotel is to what a hotel makes possible. “The emphasis shifted from the destination itself to the adventures, discoveries, encounters, and even transformations that happen because you’re there.” The book leans further into first-person reporting and introduces three destination inserts — Hawaii, Sicily, and Thailand — built around “Day Trip” itineraries that push guests beyond the property gates.

The Trend: Independent, Family-Led Hospitality as the Differentiator

A second theme ran through both the book and the Summit conversation: In a landscape of increasingly interchangeable luxury, LHW’s independent, often family-run properties are becoming its clearest point of difference. 

Sonnenalp Hotel, owned by the Faessler family since 1979 and now in its fourth and fifth generation of leadership, served as a working example. “Sonnenalp Hotel was a fitting host for the Summit because it brings the spirit of Explore to life in a very family-oriented and tangible way,” Alba says. “I hope [guests] saw that LHW hotels are not interchangeable luxury properties. They are individual expressions of their destinations, shaped by the people who own, operate, and care for them.”

Bailey, who grew up in Colorado, put it in personal terms. “What surprised me was discovering something completely new: this authentic pocket of Bavaria nestled within [Vail],” he says. “I was struck by how genuinely personal everything at Sonnenalp Hotel felt — from Rosana Faessler’s careful attention to every detail of the interiors, to the staff members who’ve worked there for decades, to the guests who’ve returned hundreds or even thousands of nights.” As he writes in the book, “It quickly becomes clear that the Sonnenalp isn’t simply in or of Vail; in a profound sense, it is Vail.”

Sonnenalp Hotel, Vail, Colorado
Photo: Trent Davis Bailey A Fitting Backdrop for The Agency

As a brokerage built around access to the world’s most distinctive properties and the people behind them, the throughline of the Summit felt familiar. The best hospitality stories, like the best real estate stories, are ultimately about place — what makes somewhere singular, and who has spent decades getting the details right.

We’re grateful to the LHW team for the invitation, and look forward to continuing the conversation with LHW as Explore makes its way into the world.