Marriott and Ikea team up to bring you Moxy hotels

On a similar note, I stumbled upon this article Why care about gen Y?. Seems Marriot isnt alone in recognising the importance of socialising when travelling. Starwood hotels has their 'Loft' brand that is pushing the social atmosphere as well. Like Moxy hotels they seem to be going for, what I'm going to start calling the 'post-backpacker'. People who stayed in hostels when they were younger, had a blast meeting all the people but can now afford a big more luxury and want their privacy. It's an interesting article.

I think in our rush to spot the blurring of the lines between hotel and hostel, we may have overlooked a third possibility; the social hotel. Interesting times ahead for the industry.

edit: was just flipping through the london Aloft hotel site... and yep, they have a games night on Tuesdays. Hotels with activities. We're through the looking glass people...

On a similar note, I stumbled upon this article Why care about gen Y?.

Really interesting article!

Indeed, as Millennials come of age, suitcases in hand, they become a force the greater industry cannot ignore. Even the most traditional bed-and-breakfast segment has had to come to grips with the question of whether to shake the dust off its doilies, and strip its floral wallpaper, judiciously, to attract them.

And unlike the backpack-toting, hostel-focused youngsters of their predecessor generations, said [Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer of the Luxury Institute, a ratings and research company that focuses on high-end branding], “they are not into roughing it. They want to experience luxury and at least a minimum level of quality in the premises and amenities. They are not willing to compromise on that and they shouldn’t. The world has much higher standards now for travel and hospitality and a lot of options.”

I don’t particularly appreciate the insinuation that hostels don’t even have “a minimum level of quality” and are the accommodation equivalent to “roughing it.” But this should give us at least a little comfort in knowing that this style of social hotel isn’t necessarily trying to compete for our customer base. They’re shooting for a much more pretentious crowd, like the “Booties” described in the thread What is a Boutique Hostel.

In the same article Jay Karens, chief executive officer of the Professional Association of Innkeepers said:

“Where B&Bs are hitting the sweet spot is a more contemporary experience.” He said B&Bs appeal to Millennials now by offering an antidote to what he called “the typical corporate experience.” That often means a slightly more modern environment and a strong desire to build relationships, one-on-one.

The most successful hoteliers build their Millennial business on relationships, not transactions, said Pedraza. “For follow-ups, they don’t just send a generic email, they make a phone call. They suggest something for next year’s vacation. This is authentic human interaction as opposed to commercial gobbledygook speech.”

That’s a really good suggestion. B&Bs have always been relationship-focused, just like us. They’re essentially hostels that only have only private rooms. B&Bs are shifting their focus to these Millennial travelers too. They’re renovating their quaint and cozy rooms with more modern decorations and technology to suit the needs and expectations of today’s young travelers.

The difference in strategies is interesting. The hotels are seeing that people want to interact, so they put in spaces where they can socialize with each other. The hostels and B&Bs have always done this, but the emphasis is on the guests interacting with each other and with us. Aloft’s game night is a good move for them. I wonder how long it will take before the social hotels all start hiring activity coordinators to spend time with the guests and make that personal connection between their brand and their customers.

So, I've just been to Aloft London - the manager on duty Inga showed me around. The place is gorgeous.

The reality is theyre not trying to steal our guests, theyre going after the people who enjoy socialising when they travel but can afford 70-150 pounds a night for a room. not your typical hostel guest - but certainly includes a LOT of people who backpacked in the past. Aloft is, as she put it, trying to take some of the lessons of hostels and apply them to the luxury market; everything you need, nothing you dont. and anything else costs extra. theres no room service, no porter, no restaurant, (ok, they lease out a space to a 3rd party for that), no soap/shampoo to steal in the bathrooms (its in wall-mounted dispensers), no mini-bar but they do sell extra toiletries, food, drink etc down at reception. every room has a 42inch plasma with all the little plugs to connect your laptop, HDD into it, free wifi, activities (kinda) in the bar - DJ nights, games nights... something else I've now forgotten.

Like I said theyre not going after our traditional guests; the biggest market they have in London (mostly on account of the location) is business and conference travellers - but younger ones. They get some weekenders (would get more if they were in a central location, rather than the docklands).

Anyway, I'm off to check out CitizenM - their main competitor apparently - and I'll post what I think of them shortly... after I finish my pint anyway.

So, impressions of CitizenM.

I really liked the decor, has a kind of library feel to it. Lots of dark colours and reds (in line with their logo), very nice intimate feel. That said, it didn't feel all that social. Perhaps it was the time of day I was there but the socialising aspect seems very oriented around the bar. All check ins are self-service but there's a couple of staff members there to walk people through it and the only take reservations online, no phone, no walk ins, no (as far as I could tell) agent bookings but I'm not sure how this works for OTAs like expedia/booking.com

The rooms are... well, kinda cool and kinda gimmicky. Has a kind of spaceship feel to it, lots of plastic, chrome, gadgets etc. On that note, everything in the room is controlled by a Samsung tablet - the window blinds, TV, heating; even the colouring of the lights in the room!

One thing both properties featured was only 1 room type. No deluxe, no twins, no family, no singles. ALL the rooms are identical. This really has to make dealing with reservations incredibly easy and is no doubt almost automated. They both also had cafeteria style arrangements; self service everything. Both said this was on account of there being plenty of good restaurants in the area and their clientele wanted to eat local rather than in the hotel - except in the middle east in the case of Aloft. There their properties had quite popular outsourced restaurants, I think this may be on account of a lack of alcohol in most local restaurants in the region.

So what can we learn, if anything, from them?
Well, thats a tricky one. The over-riding message I got from both properties was an emphasis on modern design and operational simplicity. Keep things simple and the staff can focus on guest interaction - which I noticed a reasonable amount of in both places - rather than paperwork and menial jobs. I'm a HUGE fan of this. I do wonder sometimes if hostels have gone a little over the top with room types and services physically provided by staff, when a more simplistic and automated system would free up staff for more important tasks. Admittedly these guys have the financial wherewithal to have software and systems designed for their purposes, which most of us dont but I'm sure there's more we could do in this area.

I'll agree with Uktrail though, neither has anything built specifically for solo-travellers. All the rooms are doubles (and both have MASSIVE beds, CitizenM is 2.4m wide!) but nearly 1/2 of their guests are in fact singles. I think this is just a sign of the market they appeal to more than anything. I doubt anyone willing to pay 150pounds a night is really going to take the cheaper option and get a single bed, let alone a dorm.

Anyway, I'm going over my notes at the moment and will post more if anything else jumps out at me. In summary, very cool places and I certainly understand the appeal but I doubt we're going to be competing with them in any real sense any time soon.