Since the pandemic, we have seen a tremendous increase in travelers who are more concerned with their well-being, with sustainability, with inclusive and accessible travel, and much more. To accommodate these travelers, luxury travel advisors have, at minimum, spent time learning more about each of these travel segments to better serve their clients, while some have fully dived into these niches, gearing their entire business towards these select types of travel. But what are hotels doing to meet these growing wants and needs from consumers?
At Luxury Travel Advisor’s recent Ultra Summit, Enrique Vela, principal and director of strategy of V Starr, an interior design firm owned by tennis star Venus Williams, spoke to just that. His experience has included the design of several W Hotels, as well as the renovations of the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago and Conrad Washington, DC, not to mention the interior design of Viking River Cruises—all of which enabled him to share insights on the behind-the-scenes workings of hotel design, consumer trends and a bit more.
Not surprisingly, as general lifestyle trends change, so do the designs of the spaces around us—be it our homes, our offices or the business we frequent, including hotels and resorts. Vela noted the transition over time in the early 2000s of the trend W Hotels popularized (that being a “loud” design, one focused on “bringing a lot of energy, a lot of youthful vibrance to the design”) to the way Four Seasons currently operates, shifting from its white-glove service to a more transparent and personable level of servicing guests. “They understand that it is the next generation that’s coming in and what they value is perhaps not necessarily that type of white-glove service, but a level of authenticity,” said Vela.
In fact, “authenticity” is driving the design of many new and renovated hotel properties. If you’re in Chicago, for instance, how can the design immerse you in the city’s essence? In a separate panel earlier in the day focused on “Hidden Gems & Insider Secrets,” several advisors spoke about living and eating like a local. That point was echoed by Vela, who said these concepts are “always going to be something that’s going to be important moving forward”—be it in the form of a local restaurant outpost, locally sourced ingredients or a regionally driven menu. “The experiences that you want [now] are not the experiences that you wanted 10 years ago. It’s not about being flashy; it’s about knowing and about engaging with community and spaces.” And this goes for urban hotels the same as a resort, he added.
One trend that’s a focal point in hotel design is wellness. “I think wellness is something that is top of mind for most people,” said Vela, who noted that many are embracing the concept of “QTR,” that is “quality time remaining.” As Vela put it: “It’s not about doing everything. It’s not about doing the flashy things. It’s about doing quality things.” And, so, wellness, living well and living healthy is a big thing.”
To that point, however, with a few exceptions (think Equinox Hotels or One&Only’s new wellness-intensive Siro hotel in Dubai), well-being spaces are not dominating hotel design. Spas aren’t necessarily getting bigger, and neither are guestrooms—especially at the cost of a couple hundred thousand per key, said Vela—so that they might accommodate equipment or space for in-room fitness. But that doesn’t mean these things aren’t considered in the design. Said Vela: “For us, when we’re discussing projects, we’re always going back and saying, ‘OK, well how is it that the design of the space itself can make for a better experience—not just a more memorable experience, but an actual experience that is helping you?”
Within the spa, many hotel owners and operators are instead looking to make the space more versatile. Instead of adding treatment rooms to accommodate more guests at once, perhaps they are looking to reduce this number so they can make room for sound therapy, guided meditation or any other well-being practice. “It is not the space and the footprint itself that’s changing, it’s really more about, how do you make that space do more?” Vela noted.
Sustainability is also playing a larger role in hotel design. Vela said he’s seeing more hotels utilizing materials that are not overly worked or overly treated, instead incorporating more natural linens, natural woods, not super stained or painted products. In essence, they are “keeping things much, much simpler.”
Also playing a role in hotel sustainability is technology. For instance, Vela spoke how design is leaning into Power over Ethernet, a way of powering certain electronic devices through the same device that provides it with data service, offering a much more energy-efficient system. “I am super happy to see these things come to life because it doesn’t affect the user experience at the end of the day: you still have a lamp, it’s still bright; you just don’t know that it’s being powered with an Ethernet cable and not a regular power cable.” While getting the power to the lighting might not be a major challenge, designing the light switches is.
“We all [as travelers] have an issue with the dimming and lighting in every room because you can never find the switch, whatever it’s supposed to be, and you have to press them all before you figure out what is what,” Vela said. His job is to make this a simpler, more seamless experience, “so that it doesn’t become cumbersome” to the guest. While he said, “nobody wants a big TV-sized controller on the side on your wall that lights up at night for no reason while you’re sleeping,” he added that your smartphone may be a better solution. “The pricing on all that [technology] has come down, so it’s making it a lot more accessible, a lot more possible to simplify that experience for people.”
When it comes to accessibility, don’t expect many hotels to go above and beyond what’s required by law, said Vela. “I’ve never, to this day, seen somebody go beyond that requirement.” The reason? Guests who do not need an accessible room and receive one at check-in are likely to come back to the front desk and complain. If, say, you’re one who requires a hypoallergenic room, however, Vela said you might be in luck. Especially at the higher-end, more hotels are incorporating allergy-free room design, but it still poses its own challenges. It’s not necessarily the goods or the design that’s costly but the housekeeping. “If you’re washing more delicate fabrics where they cannot be all thrown into the ginormous industrial washer with a ton of bleach, then it has ramifications up and down the chain as far as making those decisions,” Vela said. Yes, brands like Aman or One&Only, he said, are definitely leaning into this but hotels at a lower position or even boutique properties that don’t have the facilities likely won’t be adding too many, if any, of these room types.
Vela was asked by an advisor about something that’s always a pressing concern for them: connecting rooms. Why don’t hotels have more? There are several factors, Vela explained, which can include the type of hotel (an all-inclusive beach resort is much more likely to have connecting rooms than a city-center business hotel, for instance), but cost and acoustics play a role. “Running drywall is much easier than creating an opening, putting a door, adding the hardware, et cetera, et cetera,” said Vela, who added “you can’t really seal a door the same way you can when you’re putting up drywall and proper acoustical backing behind it, staggering studs.” Just like those mobile guests who are given an accessible room, travelers who only require the one room will often complain if they are given a connecting room. “It’s a tricky balance that operators try to navigate as best they can based on their market metrics,” Vela concluded.
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