Hotel Designs Differentiate

<B> Hotel Designs Differentiate</B>

By Maria P. Vallejo

"Funky" is quickly becoming a hospitality industry buzzword as new wave designs meet business traveler needs in hotel renovation projects scheduled for 1999.

Cookie-cutter guest room and property layouts are no longer in vogue in the hotel community as the industry revisits its definition of hotel design.

These changes are not selfless acts of artistic expression. Hotels are using design work to differentiate themselves from the competition, which has increased because of last year's countless consolidations and supply additions. Travel buyers also are increasing their demands for services and amenities to compensate for rising room rates.

"Given the increase of competition, you have to renovate to give the customer that little bit of difference. That's where the opportunity for design lies," said professor Leo Renaghan at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration in New York. "Hotels are going to continue raising rates as fast as they can and as high as they can. Travelers are going to pay the prices, so they should go for the quality."

Average national daily room rates rose to $112.96 this year from $105.75 in 1997, according to PKF Consulting's State of the Industry Report released in September. Next year, rates are projected to increase again, to $118.52. One of the most sought-after travel markets, New York, broke the $200 average daily rate mark this year by reaching $212, the report stated, and it is projected to reach $227.

Now is the time for corporate travelers and travel buyers to voice their opinions on hotel and guest room designs, including needed in-room technology additions, public space changes and improved meeting facilities, Renaghan said. Previously, travelers told hotel companies they needed dual line phones, fax machines, data port lines and other technology amenities in their guest rooms and meeting spaces. That buyer input helped create business class rooms and smart meeting spaces--but also resulted in copy-cat hotel layouts, experts said.

"There hasn't been a tremendous amounts of innovation in the hotels," said design consultant Janet Garner, president of Atlanta-based Designers II and member of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants. "You can pretty much draw up a typical hotel guest room without being a designer. The question is, what can you do besides the standard beige box?"

With so many hotels already offering business class rooms replete with technology amenities, properties need to differentiate themselves by providing those same services in a fresh format, consultants said.

Before transforming the four walls of a guest room or the hallways leading to the lobby into a nouveau structure that could alienate business travelers, hotel companies need to understand customers preferences. Some hotel companies realize that design cannot overshadow functionality, especially when dealing with the business traveler, who may not be as apt to stay at a "funky" hotel as the leisure traveler.

"It's a logical line that you draw. If you build a way-out-there fantasy into business locations, it's going to be too trendy and not stand the test of time," said Marc Shapiro, Loews Hotels' senior vice president of facilities.

The hospitality research division of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration is beginning a study based on previous design work and using traveler and travel buyer input. The study will do a cost and revenue analysis attached to investing in these new designs, while working with business travelers to find out what efficiencies they want.

Since the survey will show the actual revenue increase that changes in design will bring, hotel companies may be more willing to tackle the renovation project. The project will broaden its focus beyond the guest room to include public space and services, such as automated checkin machines.

Meanwhile, heads of hotel companies, from Ian Schraeger to Barry Sternlicht, are moving forward with the use of design to underline the uniqueness of boutique hotels. Without customer focus groups to help in the layout of the 10 hotels it already has planned, Starwood Hotels and Resorts' newest brand, W, is fast becoming the talk of the town among design experts.

Eighteen W hotels will be added next year, including properties in Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Francisco and Seattle, and three each in Chicago and New York.

Some believe that if W is successful, the White Plains, N.Y.-based Starwood will thrust the industry into this trend. W hotels "will probably change the direction of hotel design and be a big influence on what people do," said Garner. "We definitely need that breath of fresh air."

W is targeting upscale business travelers, providing them with all the traditional technology amenities plus adding a residential feel. Every property has a different design, creating a boutique-style portfolio. For example, the W New York, formally the Doral Inn, was designed by David Rockwell, the designer of the infamous Nobu. It uses the four elements of earth, wind, fire and water as its overall theme.

Although the company has not used traveler or buyer input in its work to date, it is expected to use customer focus groups for future design development, said Theresa Fatino, W's director of brand design.

W hotels' guest rooms are equipped with Internet-accessible televisions, cordless telephones with dual lines and oversized desks. Properties set aside 15 percent of their inventory for business-class rooms that include computers and fax machines. Business centers are open 24 hours a day.

Starwood officials expect to satisfy fast-paced business travelers who are looking for an alternative to other mainstream hotels. "People are taking more trips and technology has made our life busy and fast paced," Fatino said. "We're staying at hotels all the time and are hardly home, so you want comforts that are equal to or better than your home. Functionality, great style and comfort do not have to be mutually exclusive."

Established hotel brands also are changing their design makeup. N.Y.-based Loews Hotels is combining renovation with new designs to change well-established hotels like the Regency Hotel in New York. Business traveler and buyer feedback has led to a movement away from the classic designs associated with earlier decades.

"During the '70s and '80s, we all tried so hard to make things bigger and better, marble everywhere," Shapiro said. "Now the movement is to lighten up a little bit. We've taken the dowdy out of the Regency and made it contemporary. It was time to take this hotel to the next millennium."

When renovating its properties--including those in Chicago, Miami and New York--Loews rewired the hotels to give each guest Internet access. Furniture incorporates technology, such as fax machines/printers hidden discretely under the desk on a pull out drawer.