The Changing Face of Hospitality
As I write this piece, we are approaching week six of working from home. Notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic arriving and fundamentally changing the way we live, even fleetingly, the evolution of hospitality spaces in recent years tells a story of a discipline disrupted. Shifts in how we travel, dine and entertain have thrust the sector forward, reflecting changes in how we work, consume and communicate. In short, the changing face of hospitality is a friendly one – one that has willingly learnt from its peers in workplace and retail in order to make people comfortable.
The increased popularity of co-working in nontraditional spaces is fascinating. The ground plane of public buildings — which not long ago mostly featured grand marble lobbies with a single purpose as a transition zone — has become a space fit for many, welcoming travellers, food-lovers, shoppers and workers. Hotels — the successes of which rely on an instant sense of welcome and, by extension, belonging — have had to consider their local relevance like never before. It’s not enough to be an insular, standalone destination; now a hotel must connect with its surroundings and welcome locals as well as visitors.
For me, the most fascinating part of this evolution has been how hoteliers and commercial landlords have learnt from each other to create spaces that respond to what consumers want in order to place them at the forefront of the market. This nuanced process involves the deeply complicated task of making an idea financially viable; of taking brand aspirations such as Next Hotels’ promise of “making your time count” or The Westin’s “for a better you” and delivering in a manner that equally makes a viable business case.
These increasingly hybrid spaces – such as the street-side jazz bar of the new Westin Brisbane or the lobby upgrades of landmark buildings (the Rialto and 80 Collins Street in Melbourne and the MLC Centre in Sydney) which dramatically change the streetscape and how people move in and around the site – deliver strong returns without sacrificing their goal of being unequivocally great spaces. Landowners are wiser to the business value in creating spaces that attract and retain great tenants, and which also create an identity for the buildings as an integral part of the cultures and communities of our cities.
How? As you know, all projects start with a site and precinct analysis that seeks to understand the context of a building’s location in order to discern how a new design might be used and experienced. In past decades, the ground plane and foyers of buildings were designed as status symbols. In more recent times, the ground plane’s ‘dressing for success’ has evolved from the opulent and frankly intimidating foyers of old to a sensitive consideration of how a design might contribute to its broader context and local community. Unlike their austere predecessors, these spaces deliberately blur the lines between public and private, outside and in. For example, it’s entirely possible that you’ll already have a coffee in your hand before you realise the shady spot you’ve settled in to respond to an email is actually a hotel lobby.
The disruption in the hospitality industry can be boiled down to the fact that it’s no longer enough to simply look the part; meaningful experiences are demanded. The contemporary ground plane is critical in securing commercial tenants, and the right mix of commercial tenants creates the right environment for a thriving business. Spaces have to facilitate the crosspollination of a range of activities and allow developers to curate strategic F&B, retail, and tenant offerings, underpinned by placemaking and the ingredients that make great experiences.
Lobbies and foyers are the new business lounges, offering conveniences that range from areas to meet and spaces to book, to exclusive memberships that allow tenants to expand their business offer to their own clients in an integrated way, simulating airline lounges, exclusive membership clubs, and hotel business lounges. Pairing these spaces with F&B strengthens the offer. Coffee orders for meetings are taken care of as well as appealing to the unscheduled, impromptu business meeting.
For these spaces to truly succeed we must consider the wants and needs of the modern worker. Talking to clients and colleagues during our COVID-19 isolation, I’ve found that what we miss from our regular lives is this: social interaction and human connection; the ease of face-to-face networking; sharing great food; amazing coffee (in Australian cities we’re spoilt for choice); and a change of scenery for the range of meetings each day holds. In short, the things we miss are the essential ingredients in these activated ground plane / foyers of modern public buildings.
Design is informed by people’s desire to belong in meaningful ways. In a time where we have multiple generations in the workforce, a share economy on the rise, and growing evidence that Millennials, who are now coming into their own professionally, value experience over things. It’s exciting to consider the future of commercial developments.
The way hospitality and commercial places have evolved to influence each other will be reinforced post-Covid. In the process of adapting, the operators of hotels, business lounges, and co-working spaces are likely to partner with others, innovating to meet changing consumer needs (as we have seen the food and beverage sector do so well during isolation). The metamorphosis of our hospitality spaces and what they bring to the fabric of a city will continue, and I hope that recent challenges bring back to us the essentials of good, activated space: experience and sensory engagement.