Need to work? Try out hotel libraries
In an industry challenged by Airbnb and other home-sharing competitors, hotels are happy to attract locals with laptops and the cocktail crowd to their lobbies.
But popularity risks frustrating guests, who may be forced to retreat to their rooms, which has led to an expansion of guest-only areas like meeting spaces, libraries, quiet rooms and bars.
For hotel operators, these private spaces are similar to the concierge-floor perks, where guests pay a premium for access to a lounge with business facilities and food.
“It’s similar to when hotels offer a ‘club level’ lounge, but in this case, the ‘club’ is open to all guests,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst and the president of Atmosphere Research Group. “Business travelers, in particular, enjoy these facilities, as they can provide a quiet place to meet, away from the hotel’s public spaces.”
Some also function as private clubs in the Soho House mold, making amenities enjoyed by club members, such as private restaurants and meeting spaces, available to overnight guests.
“We’re big believers in creating a sense of exclusivity,” said Michael Achenbaum, the managing partner of the new Curtain hotel in London, which also functions as a membership club.
Its meeting facilities, available to guests and members, include a boardroom and work tables. “You see people sitting in hotel lobbies working in spaces not designed for the purposes of work,” he said. “We set up the space functionally.”
Other hotels are opening less defined spaces for quiet time. The Kimpton Hotel Monaco Portland, in Oregon, hosts a quiet room available to guests who request the key for 30-minute timeouts.
There’s no fee to access the room, furnished with an armchair and reading lamp, which provides “a moment of privacy,” according to the hotel general manager Ryan Kunzer, for guests to pray, meditate, nurse or read.
Hotel libraries stake out territory between boardrooms and meditation rooms, exclusively giving guests a shared residential-style room to relax in.
The Betsy-South Beach in Miami Beach added a library in December 2016 when it expanded. The Kimpton Hotel Palomar Philadelphia furnishes its 25th-floor library in a 1929-vintage building with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, binoculars and tufted leather chairs.