There is a reason certain hotels are untouchable. Not because of their square footage. Not because of their view. But because of how they make you feel—and how reliably they do it, over time, without ever slipping.

The Hassler in Rome is one of those places. It doesn’t try to be trendy. It doesn’t cater to the algorithm. It doesn’t need to. For decades, it has delivered a level of service so quietly exacting, so unfailingly calibrated, that it no longer competes with other hotels. It competes with your memory of what perfection feels like.

This is not a soft attribute. This is not anecdotal. Service—true, professionalized, generational service—builds reputation. And reputation, when sustained at this level, becomes the moat. An iron-clad, valuation-altering, margin-expanding moat.

Guests come back not out of habit, but out of reverence. And that reverence turns into pricing power. That pricing power turns into investor confidence. That confidence turns into valuations that cross $4 million per key without blinking.

It is a straight line: service drives guest delight. Guest delight drives financial performance. Performance, when repeated at the top of the market over time, becomes irreplicable. And irreplicability is what makes these assets not just defensible, but rare.

There will always be new money trying to engineer their way into this territory. But they can’t fake it. The Hassler wasn’t built last year. It was earned.

And that’s why it’s worth what it is.

Not because it’s expensive. But because it’s unmatched.