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Hotel Giants Are Targeting Tech-Savvy Millennial Travelers

Hotel Giants Are Targeting Tech-Savvy Millennial Travelers

By Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

At the latest breed of hotel, rooms are up to one-third smaller than traditional quarters, with furniture that looks fresh from an Ikea showroom.

The work desk is downsized and might double as a nightstand. The Internet speed is super fast. The Wi-Fi is free. Power outlets and USB ports dot the walls, especially near the bed to accommodate binge watching.

The target is the millennial traveler, ages 18 to 34, who likes to stay connected online, eat on the run, and commune with other millennials.

Hotel giants, including Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide, are launching brands with names such as Moxy, AC, Edition, CitizenM, and Canopy. Even billionaire Sir Richard Branson has a new millennial-oriented chain, dubbed Virgin Hotels.

For good reason: Millennials number more than 75 million in the U.S., and this year the Census Bureau projects they will surpass baby boomers as the nation’s largest generation.

Plus, they have money to blow. U.S. millennials plan to spend about $226 billion this year on travel, according to a Harris Poll survey.

“I think it’s definitely a smart move,” said hotel consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality Group in Costa Mesa, California “It’s a huge market.”

Creating a millennial hotel means tossing out some traditional features, such as the talkative concierge or soothing fountain.

Full-service restaurants are usually nixed in favor of healthy food-to-go choices in the lobby.

Business centers are swapped out for spacious gathering areas with communal tables, couches, and comfy chairs — sort of a hipper version of the parental home that millennials might still be inhabiting.

The front desk check-in might be replaced by a kiosk transaction, as at the podlike Yotel inn near New York’s Times Square or Starwood Hotels’ Aloft chain, which is slated to open a location in August near Los Angeles International Airport.

“I don’t spend lots of time in my room,” said Erin Schrode, 23, co-founder of a nonprofit environmental education program in Sausalito, California “If the room is small and the lobby is comfortable and there are niches and corners to work in, I’m great. We are a communal people.”

What the hotels lose in luxury they make up for with technology, including keyless room entry for some hotels and smartphone apps that let guests adjust the room temperature or make restaurant reservations without talking to a human.

At the Aloft hotel in Cupertino, California, not far from Apple’s headquarters, a three-foot-tall robot delivers snacks or other small items to guest rooms. The Apple Watch will be able to handle check-in at certain Aloft hotels.

The Yotel New York employs a one-armed robot to ferry luggage into storage lockers, all behind glass. At the nearby CitizenM hotel, each room comes equipped with a Samsung tablet to control lighting, curtains, and other features.

“The new traveling generation has a different DNA than their parents and grandparents,” said Harry Wheeler, a principal at hotel design firm Group One Partners.

Daria Taylor, 26, welcomes the new hotel style. Taylor said she travels regularly for her job as co-founder of a London-based digital entertainment and youth insights agency.

“I think hotels are very slow at adapting to change,” she said. “Many have outdated designs, stuffy communal areas and don’t have basic things like Wi-Fi or automated check-in systems.”

For Katelyn O’Shaughnessy, 28, convenience is a top priority.

“I don’t want to stand in line to check in,” said the founder of a Los Angeles travel start-up who is on the road at least twice a month. “I would rather have mobile check-in so I can get right to my room.”

As for room size, she quipped: “You can put me in a closet; as long as there is Wi-Fi, I’ll be happy.”

Millennials say they don’t want to spend on frills but insist on modern amenities and a location within walking distance of bars, restaurants, and other nightlife.

The rates for millennial-oriented hotels typically range from $150 to $200 a night, less than full-service hotels but not as cheap as economy hotels, consultant Reay said.

The minimalist CitizenM boasts on its website that “we sold the hotel cliches and used the money to make your stay cheaper,” with rooms starting at $199 a night.

The 230-room hotel, which opened last year, also houses a 24-hour cafeteria, as well as a full-service coffee and cocktail bar.

Marriott International is launching three hotel brands for millennials in the U.S.

Moxy is Marriott’s mid-price boutique hotel that is set to open in eight locations in the U.S., including New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and New Orleans, starting as early as next year.

AC is Marriott’s European-style brand that has opened U.S. hotels in New Orleans and Kansas City, Mo., with a third slated to open in Washington, D.C., next month.

Edition is Marriott’s high-end brand that opened its first U.S. hotel in Miami Beach last year, with another scheduled to open in New York this year.

“They center around social media and technology with an emphasis on style and design,” said Tina Edmundson, Marriott’s global officer for luxury and lifestyle brands.

Montage Hotels & Resorts, based in Laguna Beach, California, plans to open its own millennial hotel, called Pendry, in San Diego next year. The company describes the new brand as “London hip, New York paced, and California healthy.”

Billionaire entrepreneur Branson launched Virgin Hotels last year in Chicago. He has announced plans to open a Virgin Hotel in New York next year, with others under consideration in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and several other cities.

The Virgin Hotel in Chicago features rooms with sliding doors that separate the bedroom from the bathroom, hallway, and closet. The rooms have mini fridges stocked with snacks at street prices, free high-speed Wi-Fi, and a Bluetooth sound system.

Even budget hotel chains are targeting millennials.

Red Roof Inn estimates that about 12 percent of its guests are millennials, up from 9.5 percent in 2010.

To draw more young travelers, Red Roof President Andrew Alexander said, his company is testing outdoor gathering spots with fire pits and picnic areas at hotels in Ohio, Michigan, and Florida.

“We want our overall occupancy to outpace our competitors,” he said, “and the millennials will be a big part of that.”

Photo: Frank Tasche via Flickr

Score Rooms At Sold-Out Hotels

Score Rooms At Sold-Out Hotels

Sometimes the hotel you’ve had your heart set on is fully booked by the time you get around to making your own reservations.  But there may be hope if you follow Conde Nast Traveler’s advice.

“Trying to get a room in a sold-out hotel? Here’s a strategy that I’ve used for years, and it still works: Call the hotel directly (not the 800 number) and ask on what date cancellation penalties kick in for the date you want to arrive. (Three weeks before? Three days?) Note the date, then call that morning to see if rooms have opened up as people cancel at the last minute to avoid being charged. Even if you’re not first on the waiting list, you may be the first to call and can possibly scoop up rooms made available by people who’ve just cancelled.”

Photo: Hotel Bristol Warsaw via Wikipedia

Test The WiFi Before You Go

Test The WiFi Before You Go

WiFi is here to stay until someone figures out something better, so naturally it has become an important part of a hotel’s services. Unfortunately many hotels still charge extra for it, and whopping fees at that.  Even if you’re willing to pay for it, you want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. Naturally, there’s an app for that. Gizmodo wrote about SpeedSpot and Hotel WiFi Test and tells us “the website will use your internet location to check your approximate location—you’ll have to grant it permission in your browser, first—and then you select your hotel from a list of suggestions. It’ll check your speed and figure the results into the rating.”

Photo: gunes t via Flickr

Landmark Syrian Hotel Destroyed As Rebels Set Off Underground Blast

Landmark Syrian Hotel Destroyed As Rebels Set Off Underground Blast

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

BEIRUT — A huge blast destroyed a hotel in the historic heart of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Thursday after rebels detonated explosives in a tunnel dug beneath government lines, according to opposition and government accounts.

The explosion ripped through the Carlton Citadel Hotel, near the landmark medieval Citadel and Aleppo’s walled Old City, both deemed United Nations World Heritage sites. Opposition activists said the onetime luxury hotel had become a military base.

Islamist rebels tunneled beneath the hotel and “detonated a large quantity of explosives,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group based in Britain. The hotel was “completely collapsed,” the group said, along with several neighboring buildings.

At least 14 soldiers and “pro-regime militants” were killed in the blast and during subsequent clashes, the observatory said.

The state media reported “huge damage to the historic site” after rebels blew up “tunnels they dug under archaeological buildings.”

Video posted on the Internet purporting to document the explosion showed a massive blast and a plume of smoke erupting into the air and drifting over the city, followed by automatic weapons fire.

The Carlton Citadel Hotel, among the most luxurious of the hostelries that catered to Aleppo’s once-booming tourist trade, was situated in a renovated stone building that once housed an Ottoman-era hospital.

Syrian rebels have gained considerable expertise at building tunnels, often beneath the rubble in bombed-out districts, and apparently have also mastered remote detonation of explosives cached underground. Earlier this week, the opposition said that dozens of pro-government forces were killed when rebels set off a bomb in a tunnel excavated beneath a checkpoint in northwestern Idlib province.

Aleppo, a trading terminus going back to ancient times, has been a battleground for almost two years in the Syrian conflict. The city, Syria’s commercial hub before the war broke out, remains divided between government and rebel forces.

Vast swaths of Aleppo, including parts of the landmark Old City, have been destroyed in bombardments and gun battles. In recent weeks, both sides have mounted attacks in a bid to gain ground and break the stalemate.

A fire swept through the Old City’s ancient covered market in 2012, causing extensive destruction. The 12th-century Umayyad Mosque has also suffered heavy damage from shelling.

AFP Photo/Ward al-Keswani