Is It Luxury? Or Basic Bitch Luxury? Volume 2

Because the stupidity is never-ending.

We have a number of new subscribers to this newsletter (welcome!), so it feels like a good time to re-introduce ourselves. Since 2011, we (the “Pavia and Jeralyn” in the byline) have been running the editorial travel website and boutique creative service company Fathom, known for its narrative-driven travel guides, curated recommendations, personal travel advice, and award-winning travel books. We launched the Way to Go newsletter two years ago as a place to play around with our reporting formats (we write things in the emails that we wouldn’t write on the Fathom website) and also to get in front of a new audience. (Plus, our background is in newsletters, which makes this a come-full-circle thing for us.) Our work is 100-percent human-powered and non-algorithmic, and we’re discovered almost entirely via word of mouth. If you like what you see, please share it with friends.

ICYMI, here are some things you might like:

• Our industry-beloved Best New Hotel Preview for 2026.

• Our directory of cool U.S. motels.

• We write trends stories, hot takes, and mood boards.

• Our Fathom Favorites city guides guarantee a great time.

Now for today’s post.

An example of what we never want to see. Photo by Arifin Salleh / Unsplash.

Around this time last year, we wrote about the concept of Basic Bitch Luxury, our term for the “special” touches, amenities, and features in so-called “luxury” hotels that have become so commonplace they no longer feel special or luxurious. Like decorating with Assouline books, merchandising toilet paper, overly complicating the lighting schemes. The article touched a nerve — turns out many travelers and colleagues in the travel industry share our frustrations.

Well, some hospitality endeavors still have those basic bitch qualities. Not so surprisingly, we have a few more things we would love never to have to see again.

Displays Designed to Be Instagrammed
For the love of god, it’s 2026. Enough with the fake flower installations and the angel wings painted on the wall.

Coasting Entirely on Nostalgia
The black and white photos of the hotel’s heyday are cool. But when the in-room tech is dated, the food is mid, the lighting is terrible, and the nightly price is high, it’s like the hotel is begging to be relegated to history.

Parking Fancy Sports Cars in Front of the Hotel
If it’s a Ferrari, Maserati, Lambo, or Rolls, it should be hidden in the garage. (If it’s red or yellow, it should be parked in another city.) If you want to place a cool car in the hotel driveway, stick to something vintage and not too flashy.

Blandmaxxing in action. Photos, clockwise from top: Aalo Lens / Unsplash; courtesy of Anthology; courtesy of Elcielo.

Replicating Bland Design Details
High-end hotel blandmaxxing is everywhere. This beige-ification of boutique hotels reminds us of the generic modernism apartment reno trend (shiplap, open-kitchen, beige and gray palette) filling the screens on Zillow. There are some positive elements (i.e.: the lighting is agreeable and live plants feel good), but what we’re seeing is essentially an expensive copy and paste job, where even we can’t tell the difference between a rendering and the real thing and Barcelona looks like Nashville looks like Toronto.

Overcharging for “Luxury” Ingredients
We recently sat down at a bar at a Mexican resort where the big offering was two margaritas topped with 24-karat flecks — for $143. Congratulations, you spent a lot of money to shit gold. See also: shaving truffles onto a burger, dropping caviar onto a tater tot. Just — no.

Making Hotel Guests Feel Like Second-Class Citizens
We get it: You have a cool bar and an impossible rez restaurant. But guests paying hard-earned cash to stay in your hotel shouldn’t have to battle past a line of yahoos to score a drink or secure a table.

Same-Old Big-Ticket Restaurants
Speaking of, do you know what the world definitely does not need? Another Major Food Group or Ducasse restaurant. If you’re a big global hotel company, you have the money and the clout — and furthermore you should have the courage! — to elevate a fresh local talent instead of relying on an over-exposed chain that’s better left in Vegas.

Sustainable but Only on the Surface
You’ve taken time to make a sign informing us to reuse our towels, but you have not invested in energy-efficient appliances, solar offsets, or recycling. One token ecofriendly cover in a sea of wasteful practices adds insult to injury.

Referencing Local Culture in a Hollow Way
“Colonial charm” in Asia. Spa treatments “inspired” by but not actually utilizing local traditions, like a “beer bath” in the Czech Republic or golf massage (using golf balls) in Ireland. (These are real examples.)

Overusing the Word “Luxury”
We’ve been saying this for years now, but what the hell does this word even mean? Luxury for one person may be 50 pillows on a 500-thread-count-sheet California king bed. Luxury for the next person is not seeing anyone staring into their cell phone.

Got a Basic Bitch we missed? Tell us about it in the comments.