Word: hotels
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Localization as opposed to standardization is a common theme. InterContinental's Hotel Indigo is so locality-focused that each city's hotel has an entirely different décor and sponsors local art auctions and singer-songwriters in the lobby. There are guitars for guests to play hung on the wall in Nashville and a dog named Indie residing in the Atlanta hotel. Indie is hosting canine cocktail parties this summer. "We've got the element of surprise of a boutique," says Jim Anhut, head of franchise development at InterContinental Hotels, "with the conveniences of a big brand...
...design its 15 hotels and the 12 more coming this year, Anhut says the company looked to retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Starbucks and Nordstrom rather than demographics for inspiration and used retail-store designers to create some of the spaces. Anhut, like McGuinness, talks about a hotel that provides an experience--notes to guests are written in haiku, and the staff comes from behind the desks to help with luggage or discuss the best local restaurants. "Their customer is maybe a little more conservative than Aloft," says Chris Woronka, an analyst who follows the hotel industry for Deutsche Bank...
...King says. So the furniture--while contemporary, warm and approachable--is deliberately not hip, although the lobby is color coded for coolness: blue for technology, including chairs and tables with accessible plugs; orange for food. According to Marriott, the new lobby has been so successful, the Fair Oaks hotel owner has seen his first-quarter revenue per available room, a standard industry-profitability measurement, rise 12% over last year...
With the economy wobbling, everyone in the hotel industry is battling for customers. Smith Travel Research forecasts growth of just 4.4% in room rates over last year. The upscale sector, in which Aloft competes, is currently worth about $12.5 billion. Woronka says profits for this sector are usually about 15% for owners, and expects that Aloft's owners will be earning about the same. According to Starwood, an Aloft hotel costs from $17 million to $25 million for a developer to build, not including land, which could be a little higher than the cost of a Marriott Courtyard or Hilton...
...business in which everyone is basically offering the same thing--a bed for the night for a price--who might win the new hotel consumer? Jan Freitag, an analyst at Smith Travel Research, says what customers still care about most is location. In that sense, Marriott and Hilton have the advantage. But don't count anyone out. "Starwood, with its W hotels, has shown there's a desire for a hotel that's edgy and hip," says Freitag. "Hilton and Marriott have shown that you can have a family of brands without diluting the name...