Mary Gostelow is editor-at-large of WOW.travel, the online magazine of kiwicollection.com.

As someone who has flown pretty much every airline and stayed at hotels around the world, is there anything you’re still waiting to see from a luxury travel brand?

I want a luxury brand not to say to me, “I’m your butler.” I dread that. What I really want from a brand is an ‘invisible wife.’ I want someone who can do all those little things that happen when you’re travelling.

For instance, I bought a new pair of trousers along Robson Street in Vancouver and the pockets were all stitched up. I had to ask my hotel concierge to bring me a pair of scissors, which meant waiting around for them, and then I’m sitting there picking them myself. I want a luxury brand to be able to do that. I want a luxury brand to send me a simple e-mail two days ahead of my trip saying, “What can we do for you?”

You’ve said that hotels should teach their staff “thoughtfulness” instead of “service.” What do you mean by that?

You might want to ask somebody at Fairmont; they are doing an amazing thing at the moment. I was at their new property at Boston’s Battery Wharf, where they get the most amazing TripAdvisor ratings. They don’t have any concierges. Instead, every staff member is trained and empowered to act as an unofficial concierge for any guest. Now that’s thoughtfulness.

I experienced the same thing on an Oberoi ship on the Nile. Every staff member was so alert but not in an intrusive way. They just noticed, and then quietly did. I took a day trip down into the tombs and a staff member noticed a little spot on my leg that was beginning to bleed. I hadn’t even noticed it. He quickly ran after me and asked if he could put a Band-Aid on it. When I got back to our cabin there was a supply of new Band-Aids for me.

They also have a beautiful breakfast buffet. On the first day of the cruise I helped myself to various fruits – put in certain places on the plate ­– and a big portion of yogurt. The following morning a waiter with a big smile presented me with an exact replica of what I’d helped myself to the previous day! Now, this is the Oberoi school of thoughtfulness, which is interpreting body language and thinking ahead without making a song and dance of it.

Is there such a thing as brand loyalty these days? Should there be?

This is where we have a big difference between the airline world and the hotel world. It makes sense to work toward one airline’s loyalty program and get its benefits.

Hotel groups just don’t get it, frankly. Hardly anyone is loyal to a brand. They’re loyal to a particular hotel in a particular destination. Most Transumers have dozens or more hotel cards. They just have to remember to take the hotel card with them.

I am totally loyal to my Porsche wheelie bag because I only ever travel hand baggage and my Porsche wheelie is just the perfect size and I love it.

What are some of the challenges of your lifestyle? How do you maintain some semblance of routine when you’re away from home 300 days a year?

It’s essential to keep your body in tune with where you are and how you are feeling. I always exercise as close to a flight taking off as I can and as soon after arriving as I can. I do not go to bed. I go to a gym. I always swim at Heathrow before I fly out. If worst comes to worst I just find some stairs to run up and down, which I remember doing in Minneapolis in the snow. I also like to be vegetarian when I’m flying and immediately after I land.

I believe in getting to airports early because I don’t like stress. I have never yet missed a flight but I nearly have and I don’t want that situation again. I’d rather have extra time at the airport because I can always work there.

If you’re an ultimate Transumer you have to be in control of your body and in control of your life. You can’t expect travel agents to do it all for you. You certainly can’t expect airlines or even concierges to do everything for you. It’s easier and safer to do things yourself.

How has the world of luxury travel changed since you started doing this and what are you most excited for in the future?

The biggest change is the demise of bell men. It was only a decade ago when no one carried around their own suitcase. Now it’s perfectly acceptable that you take your own wheelie and look after it yourself.

We’re getting toward the last frontier: the perfect coffee. It’s now becoming the norm that every luxury property should have not just a Mr. Coffee but either a Nespresso machine or a FrancisFrancis! coffee maker. I’m looking forward to guaranteed fantastic coffee in every room.

I’m looking forward to the day when the purveyor realizes that it’s not about how much money you spend. It’s about getting the best.

Blank Check-Out

Challenge While the rest of the world moves 24/7, most hotels still cling to a dated 19- or 20-hour day concept with rigid check-in and -out times and nightly rates that penalize the fast-moving transumer.

Spark Top hotels, like GHM’s The Setai in Miami, The Peninsula in Beverly Hills and Raffles hotels have offered the courtesy of flexible in and out times; many more offer late check-out – for a fee. Airport hotels can learn from the “by the minute” practices of long-distance and cellular companies and charge guests for the number of hours they stay. By-the-hour business models like the Yotel capsule accommodations at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports and MetroNaps sleep pods at YVR in Vancouver show that the demand exists for something between a full-night hotel stay and snoozing on an airport lounge bench. The Fairmont hotel within YVR in Vancouver also offers short-term nap rates for stays in “Quiet Zone” rooms that offer comfy respite for connecting travellers.

Outlet Shopping

Challenge The frequent business traveller can develop rug burn from crawling under hotel desks in search of enough outlets for charging multiple devices.

Spark Hotels need to start by installing more, and more accessible, power outlets. Rooms geared to business travellers should showcase the latest in docking and charging stations. The devices could be placed in rooms through partnerships (with tech brands like Monster or Belkin, or design-conscious brands like Lessiv or Bedford). They could even become a potential for-sale item (think: the pre-WiFi internet cable) as part of in-room boutique offerings. Better yet, make the device solar (like iSun or Solio models) and make it an integral part of the desk design – but off the hotel’s power grid.

Savings and Loan

Challenge Attempts to travel light can be easily foiled by just one or two tasks that require more than your smartphone or PDA – not to mention what happens when that device doesn’t work well, or economically, overseas.

Spark In-room and loaner iPods are already common at boutique hotels; loaner cell phones should be de rigueur at business hotels (Fifteen Beacon in Boston has them), along with hotel switchboard call-forwarding to your temporary local number. Extend the service to having hotels provide loaner laptops, the way that Air Canada and IBM did on some flights a few years ago. It’s an opportunity to partner with brands that want to expose travellers to their latest and greatest technology.

Brand Muscle

Challenge An indoor fitness centre, no matter how well appointed, is never as good for you as getting out of the hotel and exploring a new locale.

Spark Hotel programs providing route maps and stylish loaner bicycles (like Jorg & Olif city bikes at Opus Hotel in Vancouver, Bianchi Nyala cycles at Four Seasons Marunouchi in Tokyo and BMW models at Fairmont) prove that this trend has legs. The Wynn Las Vegas has top Callaway loaner clubs for its golfers; Four Seasons Whistler will outfit you in Prada or Spyder ski gear. How long will it be before a savvy retailer opens something like Nike’s innovative Runner’s Lounges in a hotel near Central Park or Hyde Park, along with a retail store specializing in sporting goods for people on the go?

Scentology

Challenge A hotel room just can’t quite feel like home when canary-coloured shampoo and watery body lotion are the standard amenities.

Spark In a world where travel restrictions on liquids and gels mean bringing your own full grooming kit isn’t possible, more hotels are adopting top-end creature comforts: just witness what in-room placement with Four Seasons has done for L’Occitane en Provence’s Aromachologie Volumizing Shampoo and Repairing Conditioner, now a cult favourite product that L’Occitane sells as part of a popular travel set. Recognizing that scent creates powerful memories, hotel groups from Shangri-La (with its exclusive Essence of Shangri-La scent) to Starwood (which has unique “scent logos” for each of its brands, from Sheraton to St. Regis) are creating custom fragrances. The Intercontinental Montelucia in Scottsdale went local and unique, using the essence of a rare night-blooming cactus for the signature Joyambrosia scent for its spa. But One&Only Palmilla won my heart with the most personal touches of all: local agave-rich suds and a bespoke sewing kit with hand-wound thread to match the colours in my wardrobe.

In the hotel industry “the box” is insider jargon for a typical room. Which makes it especially apropos and exciting for transumers to imagine more hoteliers thinking outside of it.

As director of partnerships for Fairmont hotels and resorts, you’ve joined forces with a variety of brands – from Adidas and Aveda, to Lexus and Napa Valley Vintners. Can you talk about some of the mutual benefits of these partnerships?

Our partnerships fall into three categories: the environment, food and beverage, and health and wellness. Adidas and BMW fit nicely under health and wellness. So what Adidas gets is brand exposure at every one of our properties globally through a variety of ways.

If you are a Fairmont President’s Club member, in the top two tiers, you can have your apparel size and shoe size on your profile and every time you stay with us you can have Adidas apparel and footwear delivered to your room. Adidas provides us with great pricing. We purchase the Adidas apparel. They get some great market research and our customers are very happy.

BMW is our exclusive car partner in Canada. Later this year we’re rolling out the new X5 Diesels as our official courtesy cars at our Canadian properties. But in order to highlight BMW’s green positioning as well as ours, we thought providing all of our Fairmont hotels in Canada with BMW bicycles was a great way for our guests to stay healthy and also see the local surroundings. That’s just an extra surprise and delight for our guests.

Transumers love buying things that enhance their experience, but I imagine they also see hotels as a kind of sanctuary from the 24/7 hustle and bustle of consumer life. How do you make sure guests don’t feel barraged or overwhelmed by brand partnerships and promotions?

We have opt-in-permission marketing rules that we adhere to fanatically and that ensure we are not bothering our guests with these partnerships and promotions. A lot of them are tied to our Fairmont President’s Club and the co-branded materials that we produce are subtle. But if you look to classic CRM (customer relationship management) strategies, every program we launch is deeply rooted in what our guests tell us they want.

So our belief is, if you have a very subtle piece of paper that’s in the check-in slip when someone picks up their key, and it’s something you know that is consistent with the psychographics of your guest, they’re not going to feel offended. I think guests feel offended when they’re getting barraged by marketing messages that mean nothing to them.

So it’s about providing content that is useful and not just advertorial?

Yes. It’s providing content in context.

Fairmont has been a leader in environmental policies and partnerships since 1990. Now that hotel greening campaigns have gone mainstream, how do you demonstrate to guests that you’re not just “greenwashing” to cut costs? How do you go beyond those “please re-use your towel” cards to show that sustainability is not just a marketing buzzword but an integral part of your brand?

We’ve been focused on this for 20 years, so we have some pretty innovative things like our rooftop herb gardens and our bees that produce fresh honey for our guests to enjoy at breakfast. And we also mandate that we source locally and, wherever possible, organic. We feel very passionate about this. We do not have a huge laundry list of global food suppliers so that when you sit down at the hotel restaurant 99 percent of ingredients on the menu are coming from one of the top five food conglomerates.

Do you think you’ve led your guests onto the local food bandwagon, or are you simply responding to customer demand?

We had such a head start but consumers have really caught up. That movie Food Inc. is striking a chord with a lot more people than you would think. A lot more people are starting to become very, very concerned about what’s in their food. So in some ways we are meeting expectations of our guests, and in some ways I think we may be ahead of the curve and we might be introducing a new way of eating to some customers.

Fairmont is known for its iconic, historic properties. How do you incorporate cutting-edge technology into a centuries-old shell without ruining the effect?

It’s really hard and really expensive. It is something that our global tech team is very focused on. Absolutely our guests need to be connected. A huge number of our guests are Blackberry users – it’s a disproportionate amount of Blackberries at our hotels. And so we have to accommodate that. It’s constant upgrades. It’s finding creative ways to use wireless technology. The guest does not care that they’re in a beautiful iconic property if they can’t check their e-mail.

As the traditional magazine industry struggles to retain its footing in the Internet age, custom publications like Fairmont Magazine [published by Spafax, Sparksheet’s publisher] are weathering the storm quite well. I know your father was the publisher of Flare magazine for many years. As someone who grew up around magazines, do you think branded content can save print media?

Our research shows that the people spending the most time with our magazine are the highest tier Fairmont President’s Club members and the most affluent. The content in the magazine is an opportunity for them to explore a brand that they feel very strongly about, that they already connect with. So again it’s about content in context. The magazines that really provide value to readers will thrive even when others are struggling.

We feel that in the intimacy of our hotel rooms there is a good opportunity for our guests and a good opportunity for us. People have a lot of time, more time perhaps than they do at home to pick up a magazine. And so it’s an opportunity for guests to explore relevant content, and for us to strengthen our bond with customers.