Future of Travel [Part 4]: Hotels
We have referred to Airports as the
gatekeepers and Airlines as the vehicle getting travellers back on the
road. Now we come to Hotels, which are also a critical part of the
journey. For many people the hotel/resort is the
destination; but whether business trip or vacation, travel as we know it cannot
resume until hotels re-open. Currently in Canada, up to 95% of hotel rooms
are unavailable due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation is similar around
the world.
Getting travel back to “normal” will
be a complicated “chicken and egg” scenario. Nothing will happen, as we
will see in a future article, until countries fully open their borders and drop
the 14-day self-quarantine rule. But even as countries relax
restrictions, airlines will be reluctant to resume until the hotel and tourism
infrastructure is restored. Paradoxically, hotels and tourism will not
rebound until a reasonable level of airline service is restored.
Someone needs to make the first move, but who will it be?
Like airlines, hotels will be
stressing hygiene and safety in their marketing. We’ll be hearing about
their high sanitation standards and new physical distancing
protocols. Expect to see tacky plexiglass barriers at check-in counters,
maximum occupancy rules on elevators, mask-wearing, and staff wiping down
surfaces all day long – all designed to inspire confidence in the hotel’s
safety standards with guests. Hotel websites will tout their
state-of-the-art disinfection products on their home page. Issues like
room size, amenities, and services will take a back stage. Hygiene and
physical distancing will become the “New Luxury.”
Early on a hotel stay may feel like
being in a hospital!
Eventually hotels will
evolve. With innovative technologies and procedures, as we will see
with airports and airlines as well, hotels transform themselves to such an
extent we will marvel that we put up with the old ways for so long. Hotels
will be safer, offer more space and privacy, and provide more interesting
experiences than we can imagine right now.
Here are some predictions about
hotels of the future:
1. Hygiene will
become a new standard of luxury. Along with room size, thread count,
Michelin-starred restaurants, and special amenities., innovative hygiene
features (and gimmicks) will be part of the hotel’s value
proposition. Expect a new rating system for standards of hotel hygiene to
take its place besides the scores of TripAdvisor, AAA ratings, and the
like. Countries such as Singapore have already set up a hygiene
rating system. Expect to see one or two universal systems pop up, which we
will consult before selecting a hotel.
2. Touchless &
low-touch systems. Automatic lobby doors, apps for check-in,
check-out, and access to your room. Smart elevators that “know” your floor by
scanning your key card or app signature.
3. Tasteful design barriers to promote physical
distancing. Architects and interior designers will have new challenges to
find ways to keep crowds displaced and create the feeling of separation from
strangers. Gyms, spas, restaurants, and lobbies may have to be redesigned.
Expect to see more plants in the lobbies and restaurants. You’ll feel like
you’ve been transported back to the 1980’s!
4. Robots. Yes,
the era of the Jetsons has arrived! 20- or 30- years later than we
expected; but there will be robots. Cleaning robots, room service robots
(I know!) The Westin Houston Medical Center is the first hotel in the USA
with germ-killing robots, which use UV light to detect and disinfect areas throughout
the hotel. Maybe robot concierges! They’re coming. Trust me.
5. Return to single-use plastics. Sadly,
hotels were finally moving away from this, but expect to see throw-away plastic
toiletries back in bathrooms. And, worse, other amenities commonly offered
as a luxury perk – the cheese plate, bottle of wine, and basket of fruit in the
room will disappear. Maybe to be replaced by designer disinfectants?
6. Minimalist décor. With
cleanliness taking top billing in standards of luxury, you may see a more
restrained, minimalist style of décor. No decorative pillows or
hard-to-clean antique lamps and furniture. Everything will want to look
like it was freshly washed-down and blow-dried just before you checked
in! With a significant spike in thorough cleaning and applying of
disinfectants, many current objects and fabrics in hotels won’t stand up to
this amount of abuse: expect to see more durable furniture, objects, and
materials. How will we feel about artwork hanging on the walls? Maybe
someone recently sneezed on that painting? Rooms may start to resemble a
Ikea show room.
7. Staggered check-ins and check-outs. While you’ll handle both tasks, no doubt,
electronically; in order to further reduce congestion in the lobby area, hotels
may offer more relaxed check-in and check-out policies; and even encourage
doing this at unusual times of day. In fact, this might aid house-keeping
so that more time can be devoted to each guest room.
8. Restaurants, meeting
rooms, spas, and gyms will be re-designed to
prevent crowding. You’ll likely have to book gym appointments and make
breakfast reservations. We will likely see the end of buffets. Hotel
restaurants will likely set up cooking stations to replace the old experience,
and allow them and the guests to keep a close watch on food
preparation. Expect fancy TV Dinners (ie. Bento boxes) to be a big hit. Without
a doubt, seating arrangements will be more spacious with tasteful barriers
placed between tables. Gyms will have to be larger to accommodate greater
spacing between devices. Pool chairs will be spaced out more; making the
pool an even greater luxury.
9. In-room Dining and Exercise Equipment Rentals will be promoted to further reduce congestion
in the gyms and restaurants.
10. Prepaid or filled-to-order minibars may replace fully-stocked fridges.
11. Convention space will
be re-purposed. Much to the horror of all large hotels, conventions are
dead for at least the next year. That space can’t just be left
empty. Some hotels will give up forever the pursuit of meetings and
conventions, and re-deploy the unused space to create larger gyms, spas, and entertainment
areas. Others will keep the space intact, but find new creative uses for
large convention areas.
All these things – larger gyms,
limited access to restaurants, new technology – have a cost; so as with
airfares expect to see an increase in room rates after the initial lost leader
promotions die down. As we mentioned in the previous article on airlines,
travel may become a more exclusive experience, with fewer travellers and higher
costs. It is hard to see how this will not be true also with hotels.
Right now, hotel marketing propaganda
focuses on new hygiene protocols. This will get tired really quickly.
But cleanliness and physical space will permanently become a part of what
is considered to be luxury. Marketing campaigns of high-end hotels
will pivot towards more subtle messaging, with the focus on comfort, privacy,
exclusivity, unique experiences, creative food, and lots of space.
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