{"id":29835,"date":"2013-01-17T12:26:39","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T11:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/style-de-vie-et-hotellerie-par-dela-le-design-20130117.html"},"modified":"2019-05-03T10:06:52","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T08:06:52","slug":"lifestyle-and-hospitality-beyond-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/lifestyle-and-hospitality-beyond-design","title":{"rendered":"Lifestyle and hotels: beyond design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boutique hotels are dead, live lifestyle hotels! Because that's what they're called these days, lifestyle being the contemporary version of luxury. \"It's about being chic, surprising, sophisticated without being snobbish\".<\/em>says Olivier Servat, director of W Paris. Of course, the term \"shop<\/em> is still very much in vogue. However, it has lost some of its value at the same time as the concept has gained in popularity with tourists and business travellers looking for new experiences. The boutique idea sells, so much so that today some youth hostels present themselves as \"boutique hostels<\/em>. Of course, they have their own relaxed design edge... but we're a long, long way from the radically exclusive and definitively trendy spirit of the origins, initiated by Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell.<\/p>\n

After getting the whole of New York dancing in their legendary Studio 54 club, the founders of this hospital-artistic movement revolutionised the mental foundations of the hotel trade. We all know their idea, and it's still the same one that governs today's lifestyle hotels: to go against the grain of standardised establishments by creating hotels designed as ultra-personalised fashion 'boutiques', rather than temples to anonymous shopping like Macy's. Hotels where passers-by have the opportunity to discover the world of fashion. Hotels where pass-age guests could meet up with the city's happy few to a backdrop of lounge music and hard liquor, served by fashion models of both sexes. It was the Morgans, the first link in the chain of the same name, opened in 1984 in a d\u00e9cor designed by Andr\u00e9e Putman. Then came the Royalton, where Philippe Starck revolutionised the lobby with its long corridor inspired by the \"catwalks<\/em>It was the podium around which the latest New York chic revolved. There was also Hempel in London and the beginnings of the Kimpton group in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

So much for the genesis. But where are we now, almost 30 years later? These trailblazers set the course for a host of independent hotels - cosy cocoons revisiting tradition, minimalist designs, iconoclastic jewellery - which have spread the idea to every metropolis. Boutique hotels - or lifestyle hotels, as they are called - are even the barometer of the future. \"trendyude<\/em> of a city. Hong Kong has its Hullett House, Bangkok its Siam, Singapore its Wanderlust. Sydney has its QT, Rio and S\u00e3o Paulo their Fasano. Tel Aviv has its Brown TLV and Beirut its Hotel Gray... Among others, because we could multiply all over the world the examples of hotels well in their time, well in their city. In France too, where the trendy independent hotel sector is just as dynamic, in Paris of course, but also in the provinces with the Hi Hotel in Nice, the Grand Balcon in Toulouse, the R\u00e9sidence du Vieux- Port or the Mama Shelter in Marseille, and the Baudon de Mauny in Montpellier.<\/p>\n

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The modern man is style<\/h2>\n

Why such a profusion? In fact, it's the coming together of two new generations: at the same time as hotels have undergone a design revolution, the modern businessman has become more flexible. Ties have become looser. Suits falling impeccably over perfectly polished loafers have given way to smart casual. Travellers have become autonomous, never leaving their iPads behind and carrying their own suitcases. And when they leave a meeting, rather than staying in their own corner, it's to breathe in the spirit of the place in bars and restaurants open to the city, or to relax at the spa.<\/p>\n

In short, they need to stylize their lives through experiences that are far removed from the banality of hotels all formed from the same mould, or the statutory pomp of the palaces favoured by their glorious elders. \"Our clients are part of the creative class, as defined by the American professor Richard Florida. They include many academics and artists, but also lawyers, doctors and creative craftsmen, who live in major megacities such as New York, Singapore, London and Berlin. They are regular lifestyle travellers, interested in fashion, architecture, art and music, always on the lookout for new places where they can meet people like themselves\".<\/em>says Claus Sendlinger, President of the voluntary Design Hotels chain.<\/p>\n

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A sign of design<\/h2>\n

Faced with the interest of a younger, trendier clientele, hotel groups saw all the benefits they could reap from the boutique spirit. The flair of Barry Sternlicht, then chairman of Starwood Hotels, enabled the group to capitalise on the trend very early on by launching the W brand at the end of 1998. In New York, of course, on the corner of 49th and Lexington Avenue. Probably waiting to see how this trendy graft would fit into the hotel industry's standardised DNA, the competition has joined in more recently. The first Andaz establishments are now appearing at Hyatt, Sofitel So at Accor, Indigo at IHG, Me at Melia, Nhow at NH and Edition at Marriott.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, haute couture has also discovered its hotel vocation. Armani, Ferragamo, Versace, Moschino, Margiela, LVMH and soon Zadig & Voltaire: these major fashion houses have all launched their own showrooms. \"scratched<\/em> in Paris, Milan, London and Dubai. Missoni and Bulgari have teamed up with Rezidor and Marriott respectively to meet the expectations of fashion addicts with discerning tastes.<\/p>\n

Hilton has been excluded from this long list. Ross Klein came to Hilton from Starwood, where he had created the W brand, and had designed a trendy brand for the American hotelier, Denizen, which was announced with great fanfare in 2009. Problem: Ross Klein left Starwood with his hands full of documents - 100,000 in all! - The verdict on this clear case of industrial espionage: two years without being able to launch a lifestyle brand, an injunction which ends next December.<\/p>\n

Haute couture collections<\/h2>\n

What room for manoeuvre will Hilton find if, by chance, the group has the inclination to get back into the business after this time in purgatory? The opportunities for expansion are ever greater, given the global nature of the phenomenon, but so too are the increasingly tenuous possibilities for differentiation, at a time when the lifestyle spirit has virtually become a standard feature of top-of-the-range hotels, for better or worse. Often for the better, in fact, when the great names in design, interior architecture or couture take over the baptismal fonts of establishments. Among the latest models in this collection, Christan Lacroix chiselled out the artistic project for the Sofitel So Bangkok, Norman Foster for the Me by Melia London and Marcel Wanders for the Andaz Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

If these signatures guarantee a setting that will be remembered, it is behind the scenes that the concept is now evolving, in the art and manner of creating an experience. It's a word that's also slightly overused... and yet it's probably here that the difference will be made.<\/p>\n

\"There is a growing interest in design on the part of customers. And almost every new hotel today has a trendy look. However, what is often missing is an overall concept\".<\/em>says Claus Sendlinger. \"There was a time when having a radically different design and a trendy bar was enough to stand out from the crowd.<\/em>adds Dan Flannery, Operations Director of the Morgans Hotel Group. Today, competition has risen to the point where our customers still want a unique, iconic design, but they also want comfort, functionality and friendly, attentive service,\" he continues. Of course, our aim is to create a very strong first impression with an authentic design and an experience that touches all the senses through in-house perfume, lighting and a careful musical programme. But when you ask customers why they come back, their answer is always the same: the staff and their sense of service.\"<\/em><\/p>\n

To bring customers and staff closer together, the Andaz brand is breaking down physical barriers. No reception desk - on arrival, travellers are invited by a member of staff to sit on a sofa to check in on an iPad, while being offered a coffee or glass of wine depending on the time of day - but no name badges on employees' jackets, ties or uniforms either... Our concept is not based on public spaces brimming with life, but on an overall atmosphere that is of course sophisticated, but above all relaxed and simple,\" describes Arnaud de Saint Exup\u00e9ry, General Manager of the Andaz hotel in London. Design supports a service philosophy based on the art of entertaining and human relations\".<\/em>. So it's not unusual during the week, when City lawyers and financiers fill the hotel, to see them chatting freely with staff in the lobby. Like old friends...<\/p>\n

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Without taking ourselves too seriously<\/h2>\n

\"Service does not mean servitude. We have broken the somewhat military codes of the traditional hotel business to open up the personalities of our 'talents'\".<\/em>says Olivier Servat. It's all about the art of instilling a sense of humour. \"cool attitude<\/em>... In the living room of the W Paris - the word lobby has been banned, this is it \"just like home<\/em> - Here, guests and staff can sit on light grey leather sofas to discuss the latest places to go out and the music programme of the hotel's bar-lounge. The baggage handler doesn't just accompany the traveller mechanically to his room, on the way he tells them about the hotel's design thread created by David Rockwell, a spark symbolising the meeting between the energy of New York and the flamboyance of the City of Light. So many little things that require training and an eye for detail. \"We want to create a hotel that doesn't take itself too seriously, but works hard to surprise its guests. Without being obvious\".<\/em>he continues.<\/p>\n

Without neglecting the fundamentals. The appeal of lifestyle hotels still lies in their ability to create special moments. Happenings around fashion weeks, daily music sessions with up-and-coming DJs: the W aims to showcase the latest trends in its public spaces, with events designed to attract the Parisian public. \"The bar is a destination within a destination. On their way home, business travellers find themselves in a trendy place without even having to leave their hotel\".<\/em>says Olivier Servat. While W Paris plays on atmosphere, Andaz London cultivates its arty leanings. \"It's a breeding ground that stimulates the creativity of our business customers\".<\/em>says Arnaud de Saint Exup\u00e9ry. Thanks to a partnership with the London Design Festival, the hotel exhibits art installations in its lobby, while organising regular readings with artists. Opening your mind to the changing world is not the least of the qualities of a lifestyle hotel.<\/p>\n

Lifestyle and sophistication without borders<\/h2>\n

You're never better served than by yourself. It was Giorgio Armani himself who took care of the details of each of the 95 rooms in his Milan hotel. Nestled since late 2011 in a 1930s building with rationalist architecture, this establishment marks a return to the brand's roots, in the heart of the \"quadrilatero d'oro<\/em>after soaring high in the skies over Dubai, and before flying off to new horizons, probably Paris, New York and Marrakech.<\/p>\n

Rosita Missoni is also overseeing the latest elements of her hotel collection, launched in partnership with Rezidor and due to open in Doha, Mauritius, Turkey and Brazil. As you can see, luxury artisans are keeping a firm grip on these hotels, which are spreading their brand image in the emerging lands of global shopping. Like fashion, the lifestyle hotel industry knows no borders. W Hotels' development plan gives a clear idea of the scale of the phenomenon, with openings expected over the next three years in Panama, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Dubai, Muscat, Mumbai, Bogota and, more traditionally, Milan. Andaz in Delhi and Sanya, Sofitel So in Singapore and Mumbai: with their trendy brand names, the hotel groups are hoping to appeal to this new wave of travellers as well as to local customers eager for the latest trends.<\/p>\n

Even the Morgans group is moving away from Central Park and South Beach to set up its Delano brand in Marrakech, Istanbul, Saint Petersburg and Doha. A real marshal's baton for this pioneer of the concept.<\/p>\n