Having been a journalist for 25 years and specialised in hotel business, Maria Pütz-Willems travelled the world for 16 years as a freelance journalist for leading hotel and tourism publications. Always with a certain feeling for trends and ideas and staying in permanent contact with international dialogue partners. In 2005, she launched the online magazine www.hospitaliyInside.com, a bilingual network for international hotel business.
 |
|
Design in bulk
Hotel design is "hot" right now but it could be "out" again quicker than we think. At the moment, the new fad is endangered by recent mass developments. "Exclusivity" becomes "massclusivity", so to speak. The word-play, created at an investment congress in Berlin, has become a synonym for the new trend in the field of hotel business.
Hotel design bears different names nowadays: aloft, Indigo, Missioni and Bulgari, for example. The last two names are already known in Europe as synonyms for luxury and lifestyle, for quality and taste, for jewels or textiles. The first two names are yet to be discovered by travellers - at present, they are part of the large hotel chains' "development plan". That is to say, it seems as if the world's bed giants have discovered the posh designer's creations and have started to turn their exclusive goods into mass goods. It's the start of serial hotel design.
However, the large hotel chains did not come up with that idea to start with: the first ones who tried distinguishing themselves from the rest by means of extraordinary furniture, posh and trendy ambiance and a very personal service were the creative private hotels that exist in every country. An association who tries to bundle a number of these individualists is design hotels in Berlin. In the meantime, though, the company has started applying strict terms of admission - in order not to lose real design to the latest fad and therefore to international mass developments.
Design hotels in general, no matter of which shade, have got "that special something", the ounce more in terms of soul being just the thing that many (single) travellers are looking for. That's why they are so successful. Whoever markets a house as a "design hotel" is likely to immediately increase turnovers by at least 15 percent. Naturally, this stimulates the large hotel chains who consequently strive for a larger piece of the design cake.
The hotel strategists' first move was clear: They got together with the real designers. The American Marriott chain, for example, concluded a contract with Italian designer brand Bulgari and has already opened up the first two super-luxury-lifestyle-chain hotels in Barcelona and in Bali. Naturally, both domiciles carry the name Bulgari, making it possible to make even more money than with Marriott, who is also known to feature middle-class hotels. By the way: Armani and Versace are now also available in "hotel editions"!
The Rezidor Group, owner of the famous hotel brand Radisson, is one of the chains who are currently taking the next step: At present, they are developing first-class design hotels at a reasonable price in cooperation with the Italian fashion designer Missoni. Soon, a night in cool designer atmosphere will only cost 100 or 150 Euro instead of 1000 Euro. All beginnings are difficult but in this case, the intentions are serious. It looks as there will be a couple of Missoni hotels around very soon.
Step number three on the design ladder is embodied by international mega chains and their ideas: InterContinental Hotels have come up with "Indigo" in order to take part in the new design development. Up to now, this hotel type is only available in the USA; but it is said to come to Europe soon - by the dozen!
The same is also true for "aloft", a product of the American Starwood Hotels & Resorts who also manage luxury brands such as St. Regis and the recently created design brand "W". The W on New York's Times Square, for example, is one of the Big Apple's hottest spots. Guests don't seem to mind the standing in line every night next to the hotel elevator in order to be admitted into the club's gloomy lobby featuring a colourfully lit-up bar, cool chairs and hipsters of all cultures ordering fancy drinks. After this primitive but profitable concept's sudden success, Starwood came up with another trick: W's little sister. Named aloft, the new brand absorbs W's basic design elements but uses less posh materials and manages to pack even more guests into a lobby that consequently becomes the place for collectively surfing, eating and drinking. Just like in Mum's living room.
Over the next five years, 500 alofts are said to be opened worldwide! Now try to get that into your head: 500 new alofts, meaning 500 locations sporting serial design! - So much for "massclusivity".
|
