Evolution of 'Hotel' Customer Experience Creation

   Jooyun Kim's 
Spacebranding vol.20

"For Generation M, luxury means a genuine experience in an unusual place."


<Branding of designed customer experiences>
Hotels are essentially spatial environment businesses. In the 1980s, Ian Schrager and Philippe Starck opened a new chapter in the hotel experience business with a shocking atmosphere and impression. That's a 'boutique hotel' and a 'design hotel'. 

Paramount Hotel, New York opened at 1990 ©Jooyun Kim

Virginia Postral said that with the advent of boutique hotels, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, a global hotel chain, has adopted a space branding strategy that "competes with design."1) 

The Hudson, New York opened in 1997 ©Jooyun Kim

In other words, the paradigm of hotel business has changed from previous convenience-oriented to spatial experience-oriented. The hotel has come to provide a 'branded customer experience'. High-end hotels are intentionally preoccupied with creating unique and valuable customer experiences.2)

<Inspiration of space through customer experience.>
The W Hotel is a six-star boutique hotel created by Starwood Group with a sensuous design for young people. W Hotel is not a place to stay, but a place to have a new experience. W was first opened in New York in 1998, and in Seoul in 2004, W Hotel and Boutique Hotel were introduced in Walkerhill, the 19th in the world and the first 6-star hotel in Asia.

W hotel WooBar opened in 2004, from https://www.afar.com/places/w-seoul-walkerhill

At that time, Hotel W was a hot spot for young people. It was a space where people could enjoy playing and relaxation in a new style of electronic music, ‘Scent of W’, and a nightclub-like atmosphere. The employees' uniforms were participated by Jung Joon-ok, designer of 'Juun. J', and the restaurants 'Namu' and 'Kitchen' were designed by Tonichi of Tonychi & Associates, famous for their hotel designers.

W hotel NAMU, https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/316870523758732556/


Tonychi defines his design as creating an atmosphere. He leads the hotel experience business with the 'atmosphere' of the space. In 2016, his website 'Design Declaration' shows the relationship between space and business.

"Designers are creators and developers beyond just providing services. Life created by space is a business by design. We create a memorable concept that becomes a powerful brand. It makes the inspiration of space into the customer's experience. That generates sales and net profit."




<Luxury of travel = authenticity + connection + personalization>
Tonychi's design declaration easily and clearly explains the need for space branding presented in this blog. Recently, the space of the hotel is changing from the high-fashion and style experience offered by the boutique hotel to the experience of local culture and authenticity. New generations have new experiential demands.

According to a report by the global trend information site WGSN, millennials born in the early 1980s to early 2000s often travel and like to travel. For them, luxury means a genuine experience in an unusual place. They want to show off the playfulness of travel that satisfies 'authenticity', 'connection', and 'personalization'.

Boston Consulting Group predicts that by 2025, millennials will account for 54% of all business airlines, and they will dominate the luxury travel market. Recently, hotels and resorts are focusing their efforts on creating 'Instagrammable experiences' that are worth posting on Instagram. For millennials, the functions of traditional hotels that also adhered to boutique hotels are also meaningless.

<The evolution of hotels into lifestyles.>
As a representative example, the ACE Hotel lobby in Manhattan, New York, is surprised by the library's reference reading room-like atmosphere and customers working hard in the lobby even during the day. It is shocking for customers who expected a spacious, quiet, and bright luxury hotel lobby. As such, the change to the atmosphere of free and lively spaces such as Bana Cafes and libraries as the lobby and front desk of traditional hotels are disappearing. 

ACE hotel New York ©Jooyun Kim

The hotel chain 'Citizen M' is providing a room called 'Society M' which contains co-working spaces with a conference room for the new business generation who enjoys leisure while working on a business trip. In addition, hotels are expanding health amenities for those who are interested in health and well-being, such as fitness for exercise, meditation, yoga, and spas to relax the mind.

Citizen M New York ©Jooyun Kim

In this trend, fitness chains that had nothing to do with the hotel business started the hotel business. An American luxury fitness chain Equinox opened the hotel at Hudson Yards in New York City in July 2019 with its wellness concept. The hotel offers the world's best fitness experience 24 hours a day and plans to open Equinox brand hotels sequentially by 2022 in Seattle, Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago.


As such, traditional hotel businesses are being challenged in various fields, starting with Airbnb. Recently, a space business for ‘digital nomads’ has emerged as it overcomes the inconvenience of Airbnb and provides the convenience of a traditional hotel. That's 'Rome'. (www.roam.co)

It is basically a lodging sharing platform, but it not only provides premium lodging, but also provides co-working and co-living services. Roam's website advocates "meeting interesting people in interesting places" for a week or a lifetime. To this end, Roam pursues three things: 'comfort', 'community', and 'productivity'.

ROAM from https://www.economist.com/1843/2018/03/21/dont-settle-the-rise-of-digital-nomads

Premium hotel comfort provided by award-winning designers, unexpected human connections made in public spaces such as open offices, event halls and yoga studios, 24-hour co-working space, media lounge, reading room, etc. Digital Nomad The productivity of support facilities and so on.

ROAM Bali, Image Courtesy of ROAM from https://www.archdaily.com/788147/concretizing-the-global-village-how-roam-coliving-hopes-to-change-the-way-we-live/574441d3e58ece1edd0001a1-concretizing-the-global-village-how-roam-coliving-hopes-to-change-the-way-we-live-image?next_project=no

Through space, ROM supports happy people and people who want to do happy things in a happy space. A new lifestyle space business has been created that can satisfy both work and life at the same time at a cost of $500 to $850 per week.3) Generation M's pursuit of experience is the evolution of hotels into lifestyle space businesses. Unfortunately, ROAM is currently closed due to Covid-19. 





 <5 Summaries>

"With the advent of boutique hotels, global hotel chains have adopted a space branding strategy that 'competes with design'."

"The paradigm of hotel business has changed from previous convenience-oriented to spatial experience-oriented."

"Hotels have become immersed in creating a unique and valuable customer experience to provide a 'branded customer experience'."

"For Generation M, luxury means a genuine experience in an unusual place."

"'Luxury of travel = authenticity + connection + personalization', millennials' pursuit of experience has evolved a hotel into a lifestyle space business."



1) Tom Peters, Tom Peters Essentials Design, DK, 2005, pp.19
2) Shaun Smith & Joe Wheeler, Managing the Customer Experience: Turning Customers Into Advocates, Pearson FT Press, 2002, pp. 57-60
3) 프롬에이, “일과 삶 사이의 경계를 즐기는 코워킹&코리빙 플랫폼, Rome”, 2018.3.16., from https://froma.co/acticles/398
 







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