4. #foldedswantowel on-fleek

A hotel can no longer wait for the room to impress its guests; it needs to begin at the door. Actually, it needs to begin with the very idea of the door.

Some 75% of millennial travellers post images on social media at least once a day; images that are just as likely to be the hotel lobby as the Taj Mahal.

A boomer may have enjoyed the towel folded into the shape of a swan, but the millennial traveller will send a picture of it to everyone they know, making that swan as much a business decision as an aesthetic one. A well-chosen minibar concept, meanwhile, filled with local craft ales and intriguing products, can affect the perception of the entire hotel, not to mention earn a quick tweet or photo. If a build doesn’t have that integral # moment in the first few seconds, it’s probably in trouble.

As designers we’ve been waiting for generations for people to realise this and, more importantly, to budget for it. However along with operators, we now need eyes equivalent to Leonardo di Caprio at a spot-the-model contest, as a tired corner becomes an invitation for a negative post and a bitingly sarcastic comment.

5. Social Spaces and Space to be Social

There’s a blurring of the lines happening between functional and social spaces. The lobby is no longer an interim zone, but an interactive, welcoming area, as likely to be used to meet, work and hang out as check in. A boomer might sit in their room and work, but a millennial is just as likely to sit in the bar, the background noise neither distracting nor irritating to them.

Some cutting edge operations are even colliding the bar with reception, creating a dual use space — check in and have a drink, or have a drink as you check in, cutting staff costs, maximising space and increasing spontaneous revenue. As for the restaurant, stand-alone operators have been defining the experience for years with farm-to-table authenticity and this is spreading to the high-room-count sites.

And it doesn’t end there. Meetings are more casual now, with the best business centres becoming business hubs — less clinical, more socially inspiring, where the occupants are just as likely to bust out and continue the conversation in the bar, or create a great on-the-fly concept over a sandwich.

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