Opinion Articles

November 4, 2010

Chip Conley comes out with Joie de Vivre

Chip Conley knows how and when to come out. A prominent gay entrepreneur, he is the founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, a quirky collection of boutique hotels he launched in his native California in 1987. Now, he is ready to put his urbane and playful stamp on hotels outside the Golden State. Armed with an approach based on the work of psychologist Abraham Maslow and a hefty financial commitment from Hyatt scion John Pritzker’s Geolo Capital, Conley is looking to acquire hotels in the western U.S., Hawaii, Manhattan, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami.

October 25, 2010

Hotels in 2025: customer-centric and flexible

Hotel guestrooms in 2025 will be flexible, customizable homes away from home for guests as consumers become more inclined to travel lightly and combine multiple purposes for trips. In a general session called “In the Year 2025—Future Trends/Bold Predictions” at the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific, panelists saw dramatic changes in store for hotels—beginning with guest communication.

October 19, 2010

Boutique and lifestyle: What’s in a name?

Boutiques and branding were a big focus during the Lifestyle/Boutique Hotel Development Conference last week. The conference set independent against chain; lifestyle (which canny hotel veteran Richard Kessler suggested was lower-scale than 3- and 4-star boutiques) against boutique; owner-operator against franchisor. The networking was non-stop, but there was no news of deals, let alone a new brand. Sponsored by Lodging Hospitality magazine in association with HVS Hospitality Management, the event drew some 200, approximately 25 fewer than its 2009 debut.

October 14, 2010

Lifestyle Hotels: Boutiques with Benefits | An Interview with Hotel Indigo’s VP of Global Brand Management

Lifestyle hotels are the next generation of boutique hotels. Driven by the chains, they borrow the best elements of boutiques – small, intimate and modern – and throw in advantages only a chain can offer, like loyalty perks, consistency and economies of scale. As a result, lifestyle hotels are generally more affordable and accessible than boutiques – and soon to be ubiquitous.

By Daniel Craig, Founder & Chief Strategist, Reknown, Reknown Marketing

October 5, 2010

Kimptons' Mike Depatie’s long and winding road

When Mike Depatie describes the typical Kimpton customer, he sounds like he wants to resurrect the yuppie. But the president and CEO of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants speaks of that customer not with irony, but with affection. Depatie is a moneyman. He also is adventurous, health-conscious and contemporary. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Michigan State University and a master’s degree from Harvard Business School. He became the third head of Kimpton in 2006.

United States

September 23, 2010

Room Mate Hotels

As he was developing his business plan for what would eventually become the Spanish chain Room Mate Hotels, Enrique Sarasola was confronted by naysayers who told him there was nothing new in the hotel industry. Check-out was 11 a.m., period. Continental breakfast was served until 10 a.m. at the latest, period. High design meant high prices, period. To which Sarasola replied, why?

Ernest - Lighthouse's AI for hoteliers

Spain

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Lighthouse

August 9, 2010

Design or Lifestyle? A Review of London's Boutique Hotel Scene

The eighties brought the world many design disasters, so it's perhaps ironic that one of the most enduring hotel design trends was born in 1981, in London and San Francisco simultaneously. Attempting to create the antidote to the standardized 'big hotels', typified by the Hilton and Marriott empires, Anoushka Hempel's 51-room Blakes Hotel in London and Bill Kimpton's Bedford Hotel in San Francisco broke the mould of hotels. And so began the concept which became boutique hotels, one of the growth sectors of an industry that has seen the mid-market suffer, budget hotels thrive and the top end of the market becoming even more luxurious.

HVS

March 10, 2010

Put that cookie-cutter away!

The Boutique & Lifestyle segment has emerged through a maze of big brands and frequent guest programs to become a prominent lodging category, highly sought after by consumers and investors alike. We recently met with FRANCES KIRADJIAN, Founder & Chair of the BOUTIQUE & LIFESTYLE LODGING ASSOCIATION, who answers some basic questions and then takes us on an extended tour of the segment.

HYB

United States

March 5, 2010

Joie de Vivre and the Art of the Hotel

Joie de Vivre is California's largest boutique hotel management company, operating nearly 40 boutique hotels, including a luxury lodging camp resort. The portfolio comprises a total of 4,500 guestrooms, including five spas and twenty distinctive restaurants. Joie de Vivre's growth strategy focuses on market penetration, to become the one-stop hospitality provider in California by creating multiple products in one geographic area.

HVS

United States

October 26, 2009

Can The Customer “WOW” Go Mainstream?

Boston is a pretty toney town, even though it has no classic song, like New York, Chicago or San Francisco (“Down by the River Charles” and “Charlie on the MTA” don’t quite cut it). High end Retail is prominent, from iconic hotels, Newbury Street merchants, extraordinary cuisine, cultural institutions, attractions and a well read, traveled, educated consumer. Boston is a Destination of Choice.

By John Hendrie, Customer Experience Facilitator, Hospitality Performance, Inc.

March 16, 2008

You Are Where You Stay

While in Safeway the other day to purchase laundry detergent I was so overwhelmed by the array of choices I almost left without buying anything. How did the simple process of purchasing laundry soap become a highly emotional, self-defining exercise? My conscience told me I should go with the eco-friendly choice, but part of me really wanted my clothes to smell Tide Mountain Fresh™. “WHY PAY MORE?” shouted the ABC label—a valid point, but did I want to be seen at checkout with that tacky box? A myriad of other benefits screamed for my attention. Dawn Stainscrubbers™! Colorguard™! All Stainlifters™! If I made the wrong choice, would glaciers melt and whites turn pink? What if I wanted all the features? That option didn’t appear to be available. I was forced to choose what was most important to me.

By Daniel Craig, Founder & Chief Strategist, Reknown, Reknown Marketing

December 30, 2007

Are Design Professionals Worth the Fees they Charge?

I recently found myself in the middle of a discussion on the validation of professional design service fees and whether or not hospitality design professionals were worth their salt when it came to obtaining a desired objective; yeah…ouch! Well, the ‘desired objective’ was actually my term. The goal of the conversation from this international forum where hospitality topics could be offered up to a group of diverse hospitality professionals all within various industry disciplines was to offer a platform for opinion and professional positioning.

Ernest - Lighthouse's AI for hoteliers

March 25, 2007

Hospitality Lawyer on “LIFESTYLE” hotel mixed-use development. Are Valencia and Miraval the new paradigms for “lifestyle” hotel mixed-use?

Hospitality Lawyer on “LIFESTYLE” hotel mixed-use development. Hotel mixed-use has emerged as one of the few ways hotel developers may be able to make a new development economically feasible, with skyrocketing construction costs. It has also become one of the hottest things going as developers of other real estate uses (shopping centers, office, retail, residential and entertainment) discover the big “IRR Premiums” that may harvested from well-planned and tightly integrated hotel mixed-use projects.

By Jim Butler, Partner & Co-Chair Hospitality Practice, Blank Rome LLP, Blank Rome

Ad AI Hospitality

"Just tell me why my weekend pickup dropped." With Ernest, now you can ask your commercial data anything, and act on the answer.

Lighthouse

September 3, 2006

If Goldie Locks Was A Developer

Goldie Locks was quite selective, one of the pickiest fairy tale characters ever. She had no tolerance for anything that was too hot or too cold, too big or too small, too firm or too soft. She wanted everything to be just right. You know what? Goldie Locks may have been on to something. Hospitality developers should be just as picky.

March 1, 2006

Owner’s Representative: The Missing Link

Once upon a time... most design teams included a professional called an owner’s representative, or owner’s rep as they are more commonly referred to throughout the design and construction industry. That time, however, is no more. Rather, the role of this individual in the design process, much like the way I began this column, is reminiscent of a fairy tale.

December 16, 2005

Minimalism or Maximalism? | Designer Soothsaying Part 2

The desire (by hotelier and designer) to make a design ‘statement’ can overwhelm any sense of functionality. Thus in one hotel a designer shortened all the chairs in the restaurant, lowering the seats and tables to make eating a more ‘laid back’ experience. You had to lay back with your legs stretched out in front of you because to do different was to sit with your knees approaching your chin, doing dreadful things to the digestive tract. Laid back maybe, but ergonomically unsound and within weeks of the hotel opening a source of many complaints.

hoteldesigns.net

August 31, 2005

The Kitchen Evolution

As a one of my colleagues often criticizes about the design of most kitchens in the foodservice industry … “We are still cooking in Escoffier’s kitchen.” What he is implying, and correctly so, is that the design of kitchens and the equipment within them has not changed much over the last 100 years or more. Escoffier could walk into a modern kitchen and feel quite at home. Consider for a moment the progress that has been made in other industries over the course of a century, and then look at our industry. Ford recently celebrated 100 years in business. 100 years ago Ford was making the Model T – and look at where they are now. A deck oven from the early 1900’s look remarkably like the deck ovens we still use today. Looming on the horizon is what I believe to be the Kitchen Evolution.

June 30, 2005

Design Is A Linear Process

I will share with you one of the most valuable lessons that I learned in college … it is the definition of success. Success equals expectations plus one. That is to say, that in order to truly succeed - at anything - one must not only meet, but exceed the expectations that exist. This especially holds true in the design process.

October 1, 2003

Challenge Your Design Team - Editorial by Lee Simon Foodservice Designer With The General Group

When you hire a design professional, what are you really hiring? Well, you should be hiring experience, creative solutions, contacts, and a variety of other resources, all in the form of a partner who is going to commit to you and your project. It is natural to assume that anyone who presents themselves as a design professional would, in fact, have the necessary expertise to execute his or her job effectively. But expertise alone does not guarantee that your designer will be able to develop and implement the best solution for your unique scenario. Like it or not, you need to play an active role in the design process. If you are not familiar enough with plan reading and standard design practices, you can make a very costly mistake by trusting misguided advice.