IS THIS THE HOTEL OF THE FUTURE?
No doormen, check in on an iPad, your phone is your key – and a basement disco...
WELCOME to the brave new world of inn keeping. If recent trends in the Big Apple are anything to go by, the future look and style of hotels will be very different to the traditional model we’ve known for generations.
Opened last month in the heart of the city’s downtown district, Public New York aims to offer the weary traveller an experience unlike anything yet seen on this side of the Atlantic.
For starters, there are no doormen, bellboys or smiling concierges to greet the arriving visitor at this 367-bedroom, 28-storey tower on Chrystie Street in the Bowery, a former no-go tourist area, now gentrified into a millennial-friendly neighbourhood of lofts, delis and upscale restaurants.
Riding up to the second floor lobby on gleaming copper escalators, guests are greeted by ‘Public advisors’ dressed in black T-shirts and clutching iPads to help visitors navigate the digital check-in.
Having already booked your room through your smartphone, it now doubles as your room key, complete with dedicated code and digital wallet throughout your stay. There is no reception desk, nor is there anyone to help carry your luggage, only a vast expanse of cream-cushioned sofas, floor to ceiling windows and sleekly modern bars offering a variety of atmospheres from clubby to Manhattan chic. With standard rooms starting at around €180, accommodation is reasonable in a city noted for outrageous fees.
THE rooms, compact and designed toward the nautical, are kitted out with 50-inch Apple TVs, an online food ordering system, plentiful USB ports and triple-glazed wall-to-ceiling windows with electronically operated blackout shades. The hotel also claims the fastest free Wi-Fi in the city.
And forget about room service – too slow and overpriced. Guests are instead encouraged to nip downstairs to Louis – a market café serving reasonably priced food to eat in or take away.
The hotel also offers also a Public Kitchen restaurant, overseen by legendary chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
Owner Ian Schrager, co-founder of the legendary Studio 54 nightclub in 1977, and who later collaborated with designer Phillipe Starck on a string of boutique hotels like The Hudson, Paramount, Morgans and the Delano in Miami Beach, describes Public as ‘much more than just a place to sleep – you don’t have to leave the premises to get the experiences New York offers’.
‘Each area has a different personality, a different mood. We don’t tell people how to use the space – they tell us.’ Technology is a key element of Public’s operational ethos, delivering economic efficiency combined with entertainment variety. ‘Technology with intelligence makes things cheaper and easier,’ he says.
Forty years after opening the ultimate nightclub that attracted the likes of Mick Jagger and Liza Minelli, Schrager, 70, wants Public to represent a new kind of affordable luxury attuned toward chic efficiency rather than pomp and ceremony.
‘People don’t care about getting their coffee served in fine bone china on a linen tablecloth. Sure, they want great coffee, but delivered fast and hot, not waiting 45 minutes for room service and at $25 a pot. Guests care about being made to feel comfortable, and being treated with respect and that they have a good experience.’ Pitching his latest venture at the AirBnB and Uber generation, Schrager clearly intends Public as the first salvo in disrupting the mid-market accommodation sector – with all the eccentricity of New York as added extras.
‘I am always looking for a new and better way of doing things,’ he says of the unconventional approach he has brought to nightclubs, property development and hotels. ‘To upset the status quo and shake things up.’
While his previous hotels played to the monied corporate crowd, Public will be the vanguard of a chain dedicated to a spirit of value and enlightenment. ‘Great style and service delivered at a reasonable price point is what its all about for today’s savvy traveller, and all the better if you can add in a visually provocative element.
‘It’s about simplicity as the ultimate sophistication.’
And proving that the man who dreamed up Studio 54 all of four decades ago still has the urge to shake his booty, the hotel will have a basement nightclub space called Public Arts, where early evening film and theatre events will transform into a disco inferno in the wee hours. ‘The space is a perfect cube and I’m very excited about a new idea for a night club. After all, it has been 40 years,’ he adds.