happiness is shared
What can you do? Ask questions and we will answer you. Do you remember the personality tests you did on the beach? This is your summer hobby.
In this game you have to respect a rule : do not write the words "millennial" or "experience". It's going to be hard. Read them and look at them carefully because, if we play our cards right, you won't see them again for the next five minutes.
Instead, we note that the verbs will appear “share and connect”, because a social hotel is one that connects people and invites them to share. It's a extrovert hotel that rebels against a long tradition of introverted hotels. More than introverts some were stretched and others, directly, edges. The new luxury is sharing and connecting. Can't you see how we said these words would be repeated?
in past decades luxury was confused with distance , the over-the-shoulder look, the starched uniform, the mahogany counters and the closed doors. Hotels struggle to distinguish themselves in a world where the loyalty cards, the spa, the chocolate bar on the pillow and the free Wi-Fi they are no longer a stimulus when it comes to attracting and retaining new audiences. The difference today is in energy and in people. But we're getting ahead of ourselves: let the game begin.
Spaces that invite you to share
CAN I BE BOTH A LUXURY AND SOCIAL HOTEL?
I am glad ask me that question. You can be French, Italian, centenarian, have marble stairs and carpets several centimeters thick. If you want you can and you should but your doors must be easy to open. Traditional luxury works on emerging economies, but to a Swede or a guy from La Coruña they no longer serve him like they did twenty years ago. Not even the Ritz or the new Hôtel de Crillon, both in Paris and reopened after million dollar macro-reforms , they will be able to afford to look at the world over their shoulders.
The new luxury, according to the consulting firm ** Future Lab ,** which explores macro trends, “ emphasizes innovation about aspiration and emotional connection about crazy consumption”. If these English people say so, they think several steps ahead of the rest... This new, or "post-luxury" has a renewed lexicon that spend less for the jacuzzi in the room (does anyone use them?) and more by gather guests in a room at five in the afternoon around a homemade cake, or at 12 around a vermouth
Not even the mythical Hôtel de Crillon is spared the need to be social
I AM AN ELDERLY HOTEL, I HAVE MY YEARS. THERE IS HOPE?
If you are is a venerable hotel in which Churchill slept don't get frustrated: you can be social. A spectacular example is that of ** La Mamounia .** It is over 90 years old, but it meets the two requirements expected of a 21st century social hotel: connect and share You had guessed it, right?
In its common spaces, lobby, majorelle bar, pool, spa, and three restaurants many things happen and many of those who step on Marrakech. Your indoor pool may be the most photographed in the world. The city cannot be conceived without La Mamounia, nor vice versa. In addition, the one who shares tells it because there is too much mythology and beauty how not to do it; must be recorded. That need to go, be there and tell about it is not easy to achieve.
Another mature, luxurious and social hotel is **Gleneagles.** This old lady of European hospitality, well known for golfers, just resurrected after a spectacular reform. This Scottish resort hotel is pure life and, in addition, , intergenerational. These almost century old ladies give him a lot of sociability lessons to other digital native hotels. The will to be social It has nothing to do with age. Think of certain grandmothers: don't you prefer them as fellow bloody marys more than some of her age?
YES I HAVE SOMETHING CLEAR: I HAVE TO BE NICE
Very good: you are reading us carefully. Hotels have opened their lobbies, restaurants, terraces, gyms, meeting rooms and bars to the cities. They have invited the neighbors for them to come in don't bother if they take photos sitting in their India Mahdavi armchairs. They want everyone to do them. We are not talking about neo-hostels, of hotels for that young segment whose name we are not going to pronounce, we are talking about not be on a throne.
The provocation of physical interaction is perceived, by the new generations, as something luxurious. The creators of ** PURE , the great contemporary luxury travel market ** speak of “Empathy Revolution”. But let's not confuse sympathy with friendliness : it is not about turning hotels into public squares, because the magic of a hotel lies in what it has mysterious. You have to save some diva attitude, more of a contemporary diva than a classic Hollywood diva, but a diva. Don't let the hashtag ruin the magic.
WHAT IF I PUT A ROOF TERRACE? OR A BAR IN THE LOBBY?
It's not a bad idea, but that does not make him, in a direct way, social. The energy cannot be forced. You can have the most overwhelming terrace of the world and that it is full of sadness or that people go and do not come back. It's the same with the bar. The hotels you invest astronomical amounts in good bars.
Just opened in New York (with quite a bit of fanfare) Jacques , the hotel bar ** The Lowell .** Trust, with your decoration and menu inspired by the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech , to become an important place on the Upper East Side. Maybe I can: has talent behind , but it is the people who have the last word.
Don't worry just that do well on Instagram; in fact, **The Ned comes out much uglier** than it is and it's the place London's most coveted. Work on the decoration, the menu, the prices, the service, the lighting and music . And now, wait for people to come up and watch. It's nice to watch people. Is usually to learn.
DECIDED: I WANT PEOPLE TO COME TO EAT AT MY HOTEL
you go for good way . Anthony Ingham, Global Brand Leader of W Hotels , social hotels par excellence is clear: "Food is social." Business or pleasure meals They activate a hotel. For this reason, every hotel is born with the desire to have people with fork in hand. The W have always boosted it.
His restaurant at the ** W Washington brings together lobbyists and ladies who lunch.** The longed-for Michelle Obama to eat her hamburger and there the white House Puppies, that she is a neighbor of the place. The W for Barcelona is another example of a hotel with restaurants that promote social life. Its Bravo24 , Salt or Eclipse testify to this, and the beach in front makes everything easier.
have a superstar chef it helps, but not always. Sometimes, no Michelin stars needed to be a magnet. the of Chiltern Firehouse, of London, has Nuno Mendes, known but not adria level , and has managed to turn his space into a place frequented by stars and mortals . The same happens in the same city with the restaurant Berners Tavern from The London Edition. Booking there is like approving Notaries.
The nine restaurants of the aforementioned TheNed, also in the British capital, they are a great example of hotel activators: they don't have a big name behind , but English and visitors are crazy to go. In all these cases, the restaurant is perceived more like part of the city than the hotel. To the new social hotel, which in addition to being friendly is generous, this doesn't matter to you.
This is what a real social hotel looks like
THE OTHER DAY I WAS AT THE ACE IN LONDON AND IT LOOKED LIKE A COWORKING. I ALSO WANT
The dreams are free, dude. To enter the lobby of these hotels is to understand that the way of working has changed. Therefore, the workspaces too. At the ACE in Shoreditch there are more portable and mobile than in a consultancy. people keep meetings with your dog on the feet and everyone seems to have very interesting jobs.
The ACEs are located in areas that host creative companies , although they are not always the predictable ones and not always the ones frequented by tourists; here the client is the new business traveler and the neighbor. In addition, the space design enhances the exchange of the instagram photo . They are open places, where the border between the cafe, the office, the city and the hotel is blurred.
Hotel or co-working?
I AM NOT CLEAR: IS THE SOCIAL HOTEL BORN OR BUILT?
There are hotel labels that they are conceived to be social. We talk about ACE, Habita, Nhow, The Edition, Soho House or W Hotels . It's easy on them forget there are rooms. They have done the exercise of understanding what is the new luxury for consumers and have come to some conclusions. is to do a few lengths in a pool finite or infinite, have rooms with details you want to tell friends, having a lobby in which to work or eating a plate of pasta all'arrabbiata surrounded by people who seem to have exciting lives (and nice shoes). It's doing all that and telling about it. Hotels, like trips, have to give us a topic of conversation. Even if it is with ourselves.
Some social hotels were born and made. The inhabit, for example, that Mexican stamp that has forever altered the continent's hospitality industry with hotels that revitalize neighborhoods. Its cornerstone is community building.
What is that so often repeated "community"? Raphael Michael, his factotum makes it clear: “Our community is a group made up of the guests, travelers and visitors from all latitudes in the 15 hotels in nine destinations of Grupo Habita. They are each and every one of diners and visitors to the bars and terraces. Current guests and those who have accumulated in almost 17 years. Are subscribers to our e-newsletter , followers of social networks. They are the suppliers, the ones who dine in the hotels. The multiplier effect it is unsuspected. That is luxury. membership ”. We could stop writing, because we are not going to explain it better that this gentleman who knows like few of new luxury, but we are going to continue a little more.
YOU HAVE TALKED ABOUT SOCIAL NETWORKS. WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO DO WITH ALL THIS?
Much. All. They have split the history of hospitality in two. Luxury, an important chapter in this same story, has stopped looking down on technology. **You need it (and a lot) ** before, during and after receiving the traveler. We turned, again, to Micha; for him, being social implies: " even reservations by Instagram in The Hollander , our social stay hostel". This means that shared rooms can be advertised on Instagram and guests who so wish can post their intent to share with someone else who is also booked. The system assigns them the same room.
For this hotelier and influential character in Mexico, “Social are also our networks, the feeling of belonging by posting a photo on them, our team and suppliers.” If we look at Instagram hashtags #habita #habitalovesyou #wishyouwerehere , we will see that this It's not corporate chatter. It's true. Going to the Downtown of Mexico City is to see how the borders between the hotel and the neighborhood merge. The same thing happens in his latest adventure, **The Robey.** You don't have to sleep in it to feel like you're in the heart of Chicago.
Hotels prepare their staging to win the unit of measurement of contemporary affect: the like . If you have a good swimming pool, a terrace with views or a colorful breakfast in easier. Social networks allow track customers before they show up at the door.
Some hotel managers sottovoce confess that they do it to know how can they surprise you . They also recognize that someone it can be frightening if they reveal too much information that you have not provided. There is a difference between “We have placed peaches in your room because his grandmother Juanita grew them in the field in Alicante from 75 to 92 "to" we invite you to a mezcal because we have read that you like it”. This, the Habita, they do very well.
The mobile accompanies in the hotel experience from start to finish. It not only serves to search, book, compare, it can also be used to link. apps like hellotel help to people traveling alone to find in your hotel people with whom to connect and share. Again, both verbs appear. They are also behind a very common exercise in 2017 : “Take a photo of yourself in our hotel, use the hashtag X, upload it to your Instagram account and you could win (___)”. Fill in the space with whatever you want and, also, with the word "vanity" , which we all know so well. Not a hotel without its hashtag contest.
I DON'T WANT TO FEEL LIKE A TOURIST. I WANT TO FEEL LOCAL, EVEN IF IT'S HALF AN HOUR. WHAT I CAN DO?
You too? Don't think you're original. The contemporary traveler hates the word tourist (badly detested, because almost all of us are tourists) and is obsessed with the local. That neurosis did not exist in the travelers of yore, who they traveled the world relaxed . Today, guests seek be part of the city where they are.
If we cross the gate Mandarin Oriental of Paris and we sat down to lunch in his Camellia (and if the weather is good, on its terrace) we will feel part of the life of the Left Bank . If we travel to Madrid and go up to the terrace of NH Collection Madrid Sweden one summer night, we will feel in the center of the city.
This hotel, belonging to the NH Hotel Group, is a good example of willingness to be luxurious and social. César Pérez, its Director of Quality for Southern Europe & USA, says that the idea is that a hotel like this is “a place where the client feels so comfortable , who forgets that he is in a hotel to feel that he is part of something unique ”.
The connection with the local can go beyond play at being londoners when we go to London, cats when we are in Madrid and chilangos when we go to DF. East bed&breakfast located in Williamsburg goes above and beyond. Isn't that neighborhood one of those that define that called hipster culture ? Well, let's invent a place where we take this to the extreme. And so is the **Urban Cowboy.** He is, at the same time, a rebellious and inserted place , with a simple appearance but with luxurious details, private and photogenic. Pay attention to initiatives like this.
Social hotels work to have some impact in the place where they are. ** The Chatwalk ,** in New York, is part of the initiative Pack for a Purpose . The hotel encourages guests to leave some room in their suitcase to carry drawing material for children of imprisoned parents.
Another example is that of RATE, a portuguese project brings together ancestral craft trades and markets them with a touch of contemporary design. The Anantara Vilamoura , the first of this label in Europe, collaborates with TASA dedicating a space at the hotel and telling their stories to the guests. How links are created through the stories which are like good epidemics.
Hotels have an advantage over apartments, rental villas and houses lost in the middle of the mountain: in them there is social life , and social life is life and is social. That's what makes hotels sexy. that's what makes them strong and luxurious in an era where they need to be.
Note: We have achieved it: neither millennials nor experiences. We can all behave like millennials. The experiences are, poor, very hackneyed. Let's leave them for another time.
Madrid immersion on the terrace of NH Collection Madrid Sweden