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The Luxury of Attention: What the World's Greatest Hoteliers and Chefs Know About Leadership
Eighty conversations with the world's finest hoteliers and Michelin-starred chefs, distilled into a single leadership discipline: attention. For readers of Unreasonable Hospitality and Setting the Table.
“A master class in leadership, persistence, and creativity, with lessons that reach far beyond the realm of hospitality.” - Hubert Joly, former CEO of Best Buy
The Luxury of Attention shows how the world's finest hoteliers and chefs turn attention into leadership, and leadership into experiences people never forget. Their edge is not budget or brand. It is a way of noticing that any leader can practice, and that modern life is steadily training out of us.
This book is for anyone who wants to create extraordinary experiences, lead people at a higher level, and understand what separates the very best from everyone else. It is especially relevant for leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, and professionals in luxury hospitality, travel, restaurants, and other service-driven businesses, but its lessons reach far beyond those industries. Whether you are building a company, leading a team, serving clients, shaping a culture, pursuing a higher standard, or simply looking for ways to stand out in an increasingly transactional world, this book offers enduring lessons in leadership, creativity, and the disciplined art of paying attention to what people need.
The lessons come from leaders behind Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris, The Savoy in London, The Plaza in New York, Four Seasons Florence, Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, and Rosewood Hong Kong, and from chefs including Eric Ripert, José Andrés, Joan Roca, Virgilio Martínez, Ana Roš, the late Anthony Bourdain, and many more from both worlds.
Organized into three parts and fourteen chapters, The Luxury of Attention follows the journey from becoming a leader to mastering the craft and confronting what comes next. Becoming explores calling, apprenticeship, and earning the right to build a team. Mastering the Craft examines creativity, the pursuit of perfection, the human touch, anticipating what people need, and recovering when anticipation fails. What Comes Next turns to technology, resilience, and the future of both crafts.
Running through it all is a simple idea: attention is a competitive advantage, a leadership discipline, and an increasingly rare form of human connection.
“Hospitality at its best has always been a school for wisdom, and The Luxury of Attention is the most thorough syllabus I've read.” - Chip Conley, former Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, Airbnb
“A master class in leadership, persistence, and creativity, with lessons that reach far beyond the realm of hospitality.” - Hubert Joly, former CEO of Best Buy
The Luxury of Attention shows how the world's finest hoteliers and chefs turn attention into leadership, and leadership into experiences people never forget. Their edge is not budget or brand. It is a way of noticing that any leader can practice, and that modern life is steadily training out of us.
This book is for anyone who wants to create extraordinary experiences, lead people at a higher level, and understand what separates the very best from everyone else. It is especially relevant for leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, and professionals in luxury hospitality, travel, restaurants, and other service-driven businesses, but its lessons reach far beyond those industries. Whether you are building a company, leading a team, serving clients, shaping a culture, pursuing a higher standard, or simply looking for ways to stand out in an increasingly transactional world, this book offers enduring lessons in leadership, creativity, and the disciplined art of paying attention to what people need.
The lessons come from leaders behind Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris, The Savoy in London, The Plaza in New York, Four Seasons Florence, Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, and Rosewood Hong Kong, and from chefs including Eric Ripert, José Andrés, Joan Roca, Virgilio Martínez, Ana Roš, the late Anthony Bourdain, and many more from both worlds.
Organized into three parts and fourteen chapters, The Luxury of Attention follows the journey from becoming a leader to mastering the craft and confronting what comes next. Becoming explores calling, apprenticeship, and earning the right to build a team. Mastering the Craft examines creativity, the pursuit of perfection, the human touch, anticipating what people need, and recovering when anticipation fails. What Comes Next turns to technology, resilience, and the future of both crafts.
Running through it all is a simple idea: attention is a competitive advantage, a leadership discipline, and an increasingly rare form of human connection.
“Hospitality at its best has always been a school for wisdom, and The Luxury of Attention is the most thorough syllabus I've read.” - Chip Conley, former Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, Airbnb
236 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2026
About the author
Rahim B. Kanani
4 books8 followersRahim B. Kanani is a global authority on leadership and management in luxury hospitality, and has interviewed hundreds of luxury hoteliers and award-winning chefs from around the world, work that has led to three books on the leadership disciplines of the world's finest operators. He has also interviewed more than 600 of the world's foremost executives and innovators throughout his career for major media across business, politics, the arts, and more — including Justin Trudeau, Tony Blair, Jeff Skoll, Michael Bloomberg, Alicia Keys, Madonna, James Cameron, José Andrés, and the late Anthony Bourdain.
Rahim’s new book, The Luxury of Attention: What the World’s Greatest Hoteliers and Chefs Know About Leadership (August 15, 2026), draws on eighty of those first-person interviews to reveal how the people behind Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Le Bernardin, and El Celler de Can Roca lead teams, hold standards, and deliver experiences guests remember for decades. Learn more at theluxuryofattention.com.
Rahim’s first book, A Wealth of Insight: The World's Best Luxury Hoteliers on Leadership, Management, and the Future of 5-Star Hospitality (2018), profiles more than 35 of the world's best luxury hoteliers on exactly what it takes to lead and manage some of the most legendary hotels and resorts. The book was hailed by top hospitality schools including Cornell, UNLV, Les Roches and others as required reading for all current and future luxury hoteliers. “A Wealth of Insight should be on the coffee table of every hotelier and gifted to every hospitality student upon graduation,” lauded Professor Tony Simons of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration.
Rahim’s second book, A Wealth of Insight: The World’s Best Chefs on Creativity, Leadership and Perfection (2019), profiles nearly 45 of the world’s best chefs who have collectively amassed nearly 100 Michelin stars, and who regularly appear atop the World's 50 Best Restaurants, La Liste, James Beard and other international rankings and awards. Together, they represent some of the most revered and legendary restaurants on earth. Five-time winner of the World’s Best Restaurant Chef Ferran Adrià of elBulli contributes the foreword, praising A Wealth of Insight as the "first-ever comprehensive and authentic exploration of originality in contemporary cuisine, and a true world atlas of creativity and innovation of the 21st century kitchen."
Rahim’s new book, The Luxury of Attention: What the World’s Greatest Hoteliers and Chefs Know About Leadership (August 15, 2026), draws on eighty of those first-person interviews to reveal how the people behind Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Le Bernardin, and El Celler de Can Roca lead teams, hold standards, and deliver experiences guests remember for decades. Learn more at theluxuryofattention.com.
Rahim’s first book, A Wealth of Insight: The World's Best Luxury Hoteliers on Leadership, Management, and the Future of 5-Star Hospitality (2018), profiles more than 35 of the world's best luxury hoteliers on exactly what it takes to lead and manage some of the most legendary hotels and resorts. The book was hailed by top hospitality schools including Cornell, UNLV, Les Roches and others as required reading for all current and future luxury hoteliers. “A Wealth of Insight should be on the coffee table of every hotelier and gifted to every hospitality student upon graduation,” lauded Professor Tony Simons of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration.
Rahim’s second book, A Wealth of Insight: The World’s Best Chefs on Creativity, Leadership and Perfection (2019), profiles nearly 45 of the world’s best chefs who have collectively amassed nearly 100 Michelin stars, and who regularly appear atop the World's 50 Best Restaurants, La Liste, James Beard and other international rankings and awards. Together, they represent some of the most revered and legendary restaurants on earth. Five-time winner of the World’s Best Restaurant Chef Ferran Adrià of elBulli contributes the foreword, praising A Wealth of Insight as the "first-ever comprehensive and authentic exploration of originality in contemporary cuisine, and a true world atlas of creativity and innovation of the 21st century kitchen."
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September 17, 2026
Lots of good insight into the world of hoteliers and chefs.
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