EquipHotel 2026: Laurent Delporte on the issues shaping hospitality

Two keynotes, a masterclass on generous hospitality® and the Parcours Luxe: a 360-degree view, available to journalists

From November 2 to 5, Laurent Delporte, Corporate Hospitality Expert, hosts two keynotes and gives his masterclass on generous hospitality® at EquipHotel.

Meet him at his stand: hall 7.3, stand B029 · Paris Expo Porte de Versailles · Monday, November 2 to Thursday, November 5, 2026

Wellness, food and beverage, bar, upgrading, artificial intelligence, robotics, human connection: Laurent Delporte walks the show to spot what is truly changing in the art of welcoming guests. An award-winning speaker and editor of his own magazine, he draws on daily fieldwork: keynotes in France and abroad, consulting assignments, team training, and the selection of Parcours Luxe exhibitors. Attentive to both luxury and hospitality in general, he answers journalists on a wide range of subjects.

His masterclass: "Generous hospitality®: the invisible key that transforms experience and performance"

Thursday, November 5 · 3:00 to 3:45 pm · Hospitality Talks, hall 7.1

Service meets an expectation. Generous hospitality creates a lasting emotion, through three keys: a sense of place, human connection within teams, and guest well-being. In this masterclass, Laurent Delporte shows how this approach, born in luxury hospitality, transforms guest experience and business performance.

His two keynotes

• Monday, November 2, 10:30 am · Wellness Lounge, hall 4: "Spreading wellness throughout the entire guest journey". Sleep, light, air quality: longevity challenges call for bringing this attention to every moment of the stay.
• Wednesday, November 4, 2:00 pm · Hospitality Talks, hall 7.1 (Hôtel & Lodge session): "Upgrading: why and how does a hotel move from 4 to 5 stars?" More than an evolution, it is often a revolution.

For a hotelier, three issues at the show

When a hotelier walks through EquipHotel, what are they looking for? For Laurent Delporte, the answer comes down to three ideas.

1. Plural hospitality: one guest, a thousand expectations

A hotel is at once a spa, a restaurant, a bar, a workspace, a home rooted in its region. Every trade and every segment, from lodge to palace, has its own codes.

"For Laurent Delporte, hospitality is plural: guests do not separate the room, the spa, the table and the bar. They live a single stay, and the consistency between all these moments is what makes the difference."

"For Laurent Delporte, wellness is no longer limited to the spa. Sleep, light, air quality: it must run through the entire guest journey, from booking to departure."

"For Laurent Delporte, moving from 4 to 5 stars is less an evolution than a revolution: positioning, investment and service all have to be rethought, not just equipment added."

2. Generous hospitality: what remains when the service is perfect

It rests on three keys: a sense of place, human connection within teams, and guest well-being.

"For Laurent Delporte, generous hospitality begins with a sense of place: a hotel that reveals its history, its region and its identity offers an experience found nowhere else."

"For Laurent Delporte, human connection is what no technology replaces: it begins by welcoming oneself in order to welcome others better."

"For Laurent Delporte, generous hospitality is not a decorative extra: it is a performance lever, because teams who feel welcomed welcome better."

"For Laurent Delporte, generous hospitality brings guests true well-being: a stay that soothes and uplifts."

3. Tomorrow's hospitality: technology in the service of people

Laurent Delporte constantly imagines tomorrow's world and how it will evolve. As early as 2016, he presented the ORIGINE® Room by DELPORTE HOSPITALITY at EquipHotel, a room of the future designed to anticipate the debates to come, and he was one of the pioneers in bringing a robot into the hotel to deliver items and services to guest rooms.

"For Laurent Delporte, artificial intelligence is a valuable tool as long as it frees teams for what matters: attention, a personal touch, the uniqueness of an experience."

"For Laurent Delporte, robotics only makes sense if it gives time back to employees, never if it takes it away from the guest."

"For Laurent Delporte, tomorrow's hospitality is prepared today. We must ask the right questions: a hotel opened in three or four years, or a renovation, is designed for the next twenty years. That takes an overall vision."

The quotes from Laurent Delporte published in this press release may be freely reused in any communication.

Wellness: a core topic for hospitality

Trends keep renewing themselves, but wellness remains first of all attention to others: the care given to them, the positive energy offered from the moment they arrive and throughout their stay. Laurent Delporte closely follows this shift, which he addresses in his Wellness Lounge keynote on November 2 and in the pages of his magazine.

"For Laurent Delporte, wellness is not a piece of equipment: it is attention and care for others, a positive energy offered to the guest from arrival and throughout the stay."

"For Laurent Delporte, sleep is a hotel's first treatment: a room that allows guests to sleep well is a key element of any wellness program."

"For Laurent Delporte, a spa alone does not make a wellness hotel: it is the consistency between the room, the table, the teams and the rhythm of the stay that creates the effect."

"For Laurent Delporte, longevity invites us to rethink what guests expect from a stay: less consumption, more restoration, meaning and personalization. But also eating well, caring for one's health, breathing well, with decor that does not release too many chemicals: it is a whole, across the entire journey."

"For Laurent Delporte, the true luxury of wellness is time and attention: available teams and a rhythm chosen by the guest."

The Parcours Luxe: a selection, and values to share

For its 4th edition (after 2018, 2022 and 2024), the Parcours Luxe EquipHotel by DELPORTE HOSPITALITY showcases exhibitors personally chosen by Laurent Delporte for luxury and prestige hospitality.

Such a selection means looking at everything: wellness trends, food and beverage, bar, linen and bedding, lighting, fragrance, technological innovation, artificial intelligence, robotics. Laurent Delporte meets suppliers, compares, sets aside, retains. He selects the products and services of genuine interest for the sector. This overview of the market, rare in the industry, feeds his keynotes and his advice.

For him, the Parcours Luxe is also a way to spread ideas and values. Its selection criteria, CSR, sustainability, personalization, the pursuit of excellence, the quality of the approach, are those of generous hospitality. The Parcours Luxe award is presented according to these same values.

"For Laurent Delporte, a visit to a trade show is prepared with a common thread. The Parcours Luxe is that thread: a demanding selection, for the high-end and luxury world of hospitality, to save time and meet those who matter."

"For Laurent Delporte, tomorrow's suppliers are those who understand the hotelier, and who share their values: responsibility, personalization, excellence."

Parcours Luxe EquipHotel by DELPORTE HOSPITALITY Award ceremony: Tuesday, November 3, from 5:15 pm, on the main stage in hall 7.3, following the Innovation Awards ceremony.

Breakfast, a true hospitality issue

On Wednesday, November 4 at 12:30 pm, Laurent Delporte will host the 1st Hoteliers' Trophy ceremony, breakfast category, organized by the Fédération des Tables & Auberges de France (main stage, hall 4). Long seen as a service like any other, breakfast has become a welcome issue in its own right: a moment of contact with the guest, a reflection of the identity of the place and its region, a lever for image and loyalty.

"For Laurent Delporte, breakfast is a moment of truth: it is often where what the guest will say about their stay is decided."

Laurent Delporte's schedule at EquipHotel

A voice speaking on behalf of hospitality

Laurent Delporte is not the hotelier of a single property: he speaks neither for a brand nor for a product. He speaks on behalf of hospitality, its professions and its values, with the freedom of tone of someone who observes the whole industry, from high-end and luxury to hospitality in general.

That freedom comes from varied fieldwork. He gives numerous keynotes in France and abroad, supports hotels and companies through consulting and training, and edits DELPORTE HOSPITALITY Mag, his magazine, where he expresses his ideas and defends them, article after article. The result: a counterpart who has a point of view on almost every subject in the industry, and who can argue it.

One call is enough: the topics he can speak about

For a quick opinion, an analysis, an in-depth interview or an op-ed, journalists are welcome to contact him about:

• Generous hospitality and human connection: how to give meaning back to welcoming guests, and why teams who feel welcomed welcome better.
• Luxury and high-end hospitality: the new codes of luxury, upgrading, the pursuit of 5 stars, excellence rather than perfection.
• Wellness, longevity and well-being: from the spa to the room, from sleep to food, what guests are really looking for.
• Food and beverage, the bar and breakfast: the table and the glass as levers of identity, image and loyalty.
• Artificial intelligence and robotics: what is changing in welcoming professions, and what must remain human.
• CSR, sustainability and personalization: what hotels and their suppliers can concretely commit to.
• Management, recruitment and team retention: leadership, work climate, attractiveness of the professions.
• Guest experience and venue design: guest journey, a place's identity, service design.
• Trends and suppliers: innovations spotted across trade shows and the Parcours Luxe.
• Hospitality in general: positioning, attractiveness, today's guest expectations, industry challenges.

About Laurent Delporte

A Corporate Hospitality Expert with 25 years of experience in luxury hospitality, notably within the Accor group, Laurent Delporte is the founder of DELPORTE HOSPITALITY and a graduate of HEC Paris. He advises, trains and speaks in French and English, and edits DELPORTE HOSPITALITY Mag. He is an award-winning speaker:

• Top Luxury Speakers of the World, an honor from the World Luxury Chamber of Commerce (the United States luxury chamber of commerce, New York), for the second consecutive year in 2025;
• Top 100 Digital Leaders in Hospitality, a ranking by the International Hospitality Institute and Global Hospitality Magazine.

Laurent Delporte is also invited by schools such as HEC and Sup de Luxe to speak to their students.