The lobby at the Hyatt Place in Lombard, Ill. was reconfigured
to include places to have meals or to work on a laptop computer.
May 6, 2007SIMON SINEK is a communications consultant who lives in Manhattan — at least when he’s not traipsing around the country on business. In just one month, he will have traveled to five different cities, from Atlanta to Seattle, and spent a considerable amount of time in hotels. Skip to next paragraph 
Eric Kieley Photography
Rooms at SpringHill Suites by Marriott are designed to offer contemporary spaces that can be customized by guests.
When clients pay for Mr. Sinek’s accommodations, they tend to book him at the higher-end hotels, which are nice, though he barely takes advantage of all the luxury amenities they offer. He is more cost-conscious when traveling on his own dime, yet unwilling to stay in a mere roadside motel.
Mr. Sinek, who is 33, fits the prototype of a guest being courted by an increasingly competitive, moderately priced sector of the hotel industry: the business traveler 25 to 45 years old. Major hotel companies like Marriott International and the Hyatt Corporation say they have done extensive research into the lodging preferences of this demographic group. Of equal importance to these guests are contemporary design, up-to-date technology, easy access to clients and social activities, as well as a moderate price.
Other brands making headway in this segment are Hilton Garden Inn by the Hilton Hotels Corporation, Aloft by the Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Corporation and Hotel Indigo by the InterContinental Hotels Group.
Mr. Sinek said he did not need all the luxury of a top-end hotel. “I look for the hotels that have figured out the comfortable balance — a modern room that is well designed, and really clean sheets,” he said during a telephone interview while on a recent business trip to Washington. He added that he was “amazed” when a hotel redecorates “and it still feels dark and dowdy.”
“And I’m really disappointed if they don’t have wireless, not just in the lobby but in the room,” he said. “I used to set up the whole work station at the desk, but now I just want to plop on the bed with my laptop.
“Also, I usually tack on a day or two for me,” he added, saying that he wants “to go out and enjoy the city.”
One thing that Mr. Sinek is not, however, is brand-loyal. And hotel companies, of course, want to promote such loyalty among business travelers. Marriott unveiled designs last year for a repositioning of its SpringHill Suites, a moderately priced chain. The first redesigned SpringHill hotel is set to open in 2008. The company says it expects 30 hotels to be converted to the new design within 18 months. By the end of 2009, some 75 percent of the planned 240 hotels, both new and redesigned, are to be complete.
John Wolf, a spokesman for Marriott International, said that his company’s new brand appeals to guests who want to combine business and pleasure.
“The old way was, ‘I go, I do my work, I leave,’ ” he said. “Now people have a meeting in Cleveland and they say, ‘Hey, let’s go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.’ So they want to stay an extra night, be comfortable but not break the bank. They also need to get their work done. So the technology component is very important.”
Rates at the SpringHill Suites range from around $90 to $179 a night, depending on the market, for a spacious room of about 355 square feet.
Marriott hired Callison, an architectural firm based in Seattle, to create bright, contemporary spaces that could easily be customized by guests.
“The SpringHill room feels bigger because we got rid of the large, clunky furniture and dark, heavy colors,” said Robin Holt, a principal architect for Callison. “We used light, neutral colors and textured materials. The space is designed for maximum flexibility. You can work on the couch with your laptop, or use the desk, which acts as a room divider, so if you’re traveling with someone else, you can close the panels while one person sleeps, or open them up to see the TV from the desk.”
Callison also split the bathroom space, separating the glass-enclosed shower stall from the toilet area.
And there is a place with a small refrigerator and microwave, so guests can buy snacks and beverages and keep them on hand. Callison included plenty of electrical outlets, a flat-screen television and even an iPod docking station. All newly redesigned rooms will have wireless connections.
“For the public spaces, we created zones with drapery that can be moved depending on what the needs are,” Ms. Holt said. In the morning, she added, the drapery “is pulled back and there’s enough seating for everyone having breakfast,” which is free.
At night, the lights can be adjusted and the drapery pulled “to create a lounge-type feel,” she said. “To blur the work and play zones, there are a variety of different seating types. So it’s not a sea of tables and chairs; you can eat, have drinks and socialize, or just have coffee, sit and work on your laptop.”
A similar repositioning was undertaken by Hyatt shortly after it bought the AmeriSuites chain in 2005; it is transforming the chain into Hyatt Place. Twenty Hyatt Place hotels are already in operation — the first opened last August in Lombard, Ill., a Chicago suburb. An additional 120 hotels are to open within a year, according to the company.
“Hyatt Place is one of the most researched brands in Hyatt history,” said Amy Patti, a spokeswoman for the company. “They wanted to design a product for Gen X because this demographic is eclipsing the total amount that baby boomers spend on travel.”
The Hyatt Place king room, typically 500 square feet and ranging in price from $125 to $190 a night, offers contemporary design and spa-inspired bathroom amenities. But the biggest change was reconfiguring the traditional lobby, now called the “gallery,” into three activity areas. There is the “cozy corner” to sit and have coffee or to work on a laptop computer; the “grab and go” area with salads and sandwiches for take-away; and the “guest kitchen” for made-to-order foods around the clock via a touch-screen menu. While there is still a traditional guest check-in area, it has been enhanced with self-service kiosks.
“The Gen X traveler grew up in an era of independence and mobility, so there’s a lot more travel consumption and different expectations,” said Jim Abrahamson, a senior vice president of Hyatt. “Customers told us, ‘When we travel, we’re prisoners to the room.’ So we have created public spaces not to replicate the home or office, but the so-called third place that is a blend of both.”
While both brands are seeking the younger traveler, both companies’ research also indicated that these preferences were shared by many types of guests, whether traveling for business or pleasure, or some combination of both — and by singles, families and groups.
“Business and leisure travel are blending,” Mr. Abrahamson said. “What we discovered was not so much a demographic but a mind-set.”
Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/realestate/commercial/06sqft.html
