Hotel Design

Planning and Development

SECOND EDITION
 Hotel Design
Planning and Development
SECOND EDITION

Richard Penner, Lawrence Adams

and Stephani K. A. Robson

Second edition published 2013

by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2013 Richard Penner, Lawrence Adams and Stephani K. A. Robson.

All rights reserved.

The right of Richard Penner, Lawrence Adams and Stephani K. A. Robson to be identifed as authors of
this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identifcation and explanation without intent to infringe.

First edition published by Architectural Press, an imprint of Elsevier Science

© 2001 Walter A. Rutes, Richard H. Penner, and Lawrence Adams

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

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ISBN: 978-0-08-096699-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-08-096700-4 (ebk)

Acquisition editors: Nancy Green, Liz Burton, and Wendy Fuller

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Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Preface

Part 1 HOTEL TYPES

1Overview
2Urban Hotels
3Design Hotels
4Suburban Hotels
5Multi-branded Hotels
6Mixed-use Developments
7Resort Hotels
8Casino Hotels
9Convention Hotels
10Conference Centers
11Residential Hotels, Condominiums, and Vacation Ownership
12Updating Existing Hotels

Part 2 DESIGN GUIDE

13Site and Master Planning
14Programming and Development
15The Guestroom Floor
16Guestroom and Suite Design
17Public Space Design
18Administration and Back-of-house Design
19Technical Coordination and Construction
20Future and Fantasy Development

APPENDICES
ALEED New Construction Checklist
BInternational Hotel and Travel Organizations
CDevelopment Budget (typical 500-room hotel)
DTen-Year Forecast of Net Operating Income
ECoordination Matrix
FChain Brands
GBibliography
HProject List and Credits

About the Authors

Index
Acknowledgments

This book is the result of many decades of experience in the specialized feld of hotel architecture and
interior design—the experience of the scores of people who generously provided us with their insights
about design and with examples of their work. We credit the architects, designers, photographers, and
others who encouraged us and provided us with material about their projects—there are many more
than we can suitably acknowledge here.
We owe a special debt to three giants in the industry: architect Michael Graves, designer David
Rockwell, and developer Barry Sternlicht, who agreed to introduce the book with personal observations
about their distinguished careers and about the future of hotel architecture, design, and development.
Also, to their assistants who helped with the work: Ben Wintner at Michael Graves & Associates, Joan
MacKeith and Maggie Hartnick at Rockwell Group, and Beth Shanholtz at Starwood Capital. In
addition, sincere thanks to Robert E. Kastner, Ian Schrager, John C. Portman, Jr., Stephen Perkins,
Roger Thomas, Howard J. Wolff, Steve Rushmore, Jim Anhut, and Sara Schoen for providing a series
of sidebar commentaries for specifc chapters.
We cannot offer enough thanks for the patience and enormous good judgment of the editors at Taylor
& Francis and W. W. Norton: Laura Williamson, Wendy Fuller, and Nancy Green, and, especially,
Ruth Mandel of Images Sought and Found, without whose assistance this book would not have been
possible.
Also, over the past few years, students at Cornell and other universities took on individual research
projects or assisted with the many drawings that illustrate the book. These include Katie Kozarek,
Jerome Chen, Eduardo Quintero, and Carla Moulton. Their interest and enthusiasm for the details of
hotel planning issues are infectious.
Our own associations with many good friends provided helpful comments throughout the writing of
the book, and others went far beyond the call of duty in providing resources. There are too many
individual contributors to acknowledge each one. We want to thank, however, the many hotel
executives who identifed their company's most exciting new properties and the many media services
and marketing people who provided us with images and drawings, all of whom willingly met our endless
request for additional information. Most of all, we must recognize the sacrifces made by our families,
friends, and colleagues who have provided incredible support and encouragement to complete this
project. Thank you all.

Foreword

The Architect's Perspective

Michael Graves, FAIA, and Patrick Burke, AIA

Michael Graves & Associates
Princeton, New Jersey

Business hotels and resorts compete for today's sophisticated global travelers, and their developers and
operators often look to architects and interior designers to create new and interesting “experiences” for
the guest. For decades, the hotel industry had been focused primarily on functionality and operations,
and hotel design became formulaic. For business hotels, the predictability that came with
standardization was often a virtue. For resorts, however, the trend resulted in a proliferation of hotels
across the globe that looked as if they could be located anywhere in the world. Hotels in Egypt could
have easily been built in Costa Rica, or in Miami.
All that has changed over the past 15 years as leisure travelers seek unique experiences connected to
local culture and context. As architects and designers, we ask ourselves, “What is special about this
place, and how can we capture that spirit?” The sense-of-place infuences every scale: from the
landscape and buildings, to the interiors and the smallest details of their furnishings. Thus, a resort in
Costa Rica might be designed as a series of ecologically friendly, small-scale, semi-open-air pavilions,
creating the feeling of being immersed within the tropical landscape. Or a spa resort in Switzerland may
incorporate restorative natural thermal baths and grand freplaces within architecture that is
contemporary in design but constructed according to local craft traditions.
Urban hotels too can refect local culture. For example, The St. Regis Cairo embodies the worldly
character of the hotel's brand while conveying the ambience of the host country through details,
materials, colors, and patterns inspired by the context and intended to be locally sourced. Going local
is just one component in the prevalent interest in environmental responsibility. The hospitality industry
increasingly recognizes the benefts of building and operating hotels that are effcient in their use of water
and energy. This requires integrative thinking among members of the design team and a commitment
from developers and operators. Signifcant technical inroads have been made not only in building
envelopes and mechanical systems but also in the hotel kitchen, laundry, and waste management. We
believe that guests appreciate the healthful aspects of environmentally responsible places, as much as
they appreciate good design.
Good design, long associated with luxury and boutique hotels, today brings fresh and sometimes
innovative solutions to three-star and four-star properties as a way of differentiating brands, providing
value, and attracting guests. In creating operator standards for these hotels, many of which cater to the
business traveler, we have learned that the attributes must be adaptable to different building layouts and
designs since many of such hotels are conversions of existing properties and not always new
construction. Like their higher-end counterparts, these hotels recognize the guests' expectations for
services that meet today's needs.
Hotels, like other customer-oriented institutions, continually evolve in the services they provide and
how they provide them, creating a gradual change in the building type. What hotels offer the public
today meets the expectations and needs of business and recreational travelers, from express grab‘n’go
food to Internet access and programmable technology for everything from hotel check-in to controlling
light, sound, and temperature in the guestrooms.
Despite the importance of the public spaces in hotels—the lobby, lounges, restaurants, spas, and
ftness center—guests' satisfaction is ultimately judged by their experience of the living
accommodations. In many of today's higher-end developments, the guestroom may be a traditional hotel
room or a serviced apartment, a phenomenon that has transformed the standalone hotel to a mixed-use
minicommunity. For the architect, the guestroom, or the apartment unit, is the essential building block
that sets the module for the building. It's the place where one gets to think through who the guests are
and what they need; guests may be a group gathering to play golf, a family on vacation, or a solo
business traveler using the room as a temporary offce. While some hotels once thought they had
“perfected” the guestroom, today, just as in the technology industry, there is an impetus to innovate.
The guestroom is being rethought in terms of its aesthetics, functions, and features. As savvy travelers,
we have embraced the idea of traveling to different places and enjoying great guest experiences, and a
well-designed guestroom is a measure of success.
 As architects who have been involved in hospitality projects for decades, we know there is simply
no “one size fts all” in this industry. Therefore, a book like this is very helpful as a comprehensive
reference guide to hotel design, planning, and development. We are honored to have been asked to offer
a few comments on today's hotel world and look forward to reading the insights of our colleagues.

The Interior Designer's Perspective

David Rockwell
Founder and CEO
Rockwell Group
New York, New York
Today's hotel is not merely a destination, but is also a convergence of an incredible array of experiences.
The moment guests enter, they become part of a vibrant microcosm, a carefully crafted environment
that provides both a thrilling escape and domestic comforts. While the hotel's calendar of events may
change with the seasons, the value placed on small, everyday rituals is a constant. This is the very nature
of the new hotel: its ability to be both up-to-the-moment with the latest trends, yet reassuringly personal
and accommodating to a broad spectrum of guests.
The hotel itself is a hybrid linking two worlds: home and destination. In terms of design, this idea is
most clearly represented by the hotel's entrance, which becomes a celebratory focal point of the lobby
space. Although the hotel is itself a dynamic environment, it is also situated within a larger set of
attractions and cultural milieu. Hospitality environments today must engage and refect local context,
forging a symbiotic relationship with the cities and neighborhoods beyond their walls. By joining in the
celebration of local festivals or assimilating regional ingredients in their culinary offerings, authentic
favors of the world can permeate the hotel in myriad ways. An East Asian hotel might offer a traditional
tea service, for example, and staff uniforms may be designed by an emerging fashion star. Fostering a
rich sense-of-place can transform a feeting hotel stay into an enduring, memorable experience.
Through innovative uses of technology, hotels are able to refect the interconnectedness of our lives
today. From the moment you step into a hotel, smartly integrated, cutting-edge tools can transform and
heighten previously tedious chores. Check-in desks are becoming a thing of the past. With advanced
data-management systems, greeters can personally welcome each guest at the door by name. A
cumbersome process becomes convenient, even leisurely, as travelers check in via iPad over a gin-and-
tonic in the lounge. These are the least of the possibilities that our information age offers us. Rooms are
equipped with a range of customizable features with which to personalize your space: at the touch of a
button guests can control the lighting, changing the room's entire mood, select a special aromatherapy-
infused shower to shake off the drag of jet-lag, or conjure up a concealed high-end entertainment
system.
This fexibility translates into a warmth and openness towards individual needs that complements the
distinctive character of a hotel. Each guest brings with him or her a personal routine of comforts, which
the hotel should respond to attentively with a fne-tuned menu of services. Quotidian rituals are enabled
by diverse, dynamic spaces. In common areas, purposeful design can set the scene for spontaneous
encounters and reveal unexpected and delightful details; everyone can fnd a favorite gathering spot—a
lounge that allows intimate conversations, a lobby where you can go to see and be seen, or a comfortable
corner to curl up with a book.
 In tune with the tempo of the individual and resonating with multiple rhythms, the hotel environment
today presents an inviting, comfortable haven. The most successful hotel interiors transform a sojourn
into an unforgettable experience, however brief, and position guests as the curators of their own
journeys.

The Developer's Perspective

Barry Sternlicht
Chairman
Starwood Capital Group
Greenwich, Connecticut
My mother is an accomplished artist. During our childhood, many of her paintings hung in the hallway
of our home and in the living room. I loved the colors she used, the texture of her knife, and the calmness
and feelings they evoked in me. Most of all, I marveled at the creative process, how on a blank canvas
one could create such emotion and beauty. In high school, I took several art classes where I focused on
painting. Good artists understand the delicacy of composition of the canvas … still lifes arranged just
so—work … and others don't. A picture taken at one angle tantalizes the viewer, but seen from another
it is boring. The juxtaposition of one color against another is complementary and soothing, or dark,
disturbing, and uncomfortable. While my parents suggested I not become an artist, I love design and
architecture and so, for me, marrying design and real estate in the form of hotels was not work but the
fulfllment of childhood ambitions.
Over the years, I bought an immense amount of property in many product types such as offce, retail,
golf courses, senior housing, and, of course, hotels. I marveled at design that worked, that powered
occupancy, and achieved great rents versus that which did not. For example, when I lived in Chicago,
I worked across the street from the Water Tower, perhaps America's most successful vertical mall. The
center was always busy and it felt busy. The mall was designed with anchor stores at either end, but in
the center was a circular space four or fve stories high in which were the glass elevators and all the
escalators. You saw everyone in the mall! It was always busy and going up and down the escalators you
could see all the stores you forgot were tenants or new stores you wanted to be sure to visit before you
left.
What I noticed about the hotel industry in 1995, the year I decided I would do a national “boutique
chain” that I named W Hotels, was that the industry had spent decades dumbing down the product, and
competed on price but not on aesthetics. We had a $79 a night chain, followed by those at $99, $109,
$139, and $179. My theory was that we could build a chain where we would compete on design: that
design matters, that consumers would not only pay more for great design but that it would build an
emotional attachment with them, that they might defne themselves by our aesthetic and we would build
brand loyalty and, therefore, give ourselves pricing power. In hotels, the product had become
commoditized. One could not tell the brand by looking at the room. It seemed that interior designers
had gone to the “one size fts all” box, like the failed K car of Chrysler where someone had the brilliant
idea of building multiple bodies on the same chassis and engine. Consumers saw right through it and
so, by trying to be all things to all people, you appealed to almost no one. Or, at least, we can say you
built no brand loyalty.
There are certain spaces you walk into that put you at ease and make you feel comfortable. These are
spaces that work: proportions that are elegant, furniture that is sized appropriately for the space it
occupies, pieces that speak to each other and enhance each other with their presence. We react to texture,
to proportion, to color, and the immense talent of great interior designers is that they take the complex
and make it look effortless, just as great athletes seem to hardly be trying when they are in their zone.
A space may be flled with numerous wonderful textures, vibrant color, and surprising and dynamic
innovative products. It simply feels right and yet it is, in my mind, just as hard as the great painter's
compositions executed in the physical space. Sometimes design makes you nervous, is unsettling, and
you simply want to leave; sometimes you don't even know why. And then there is design for design's
sake.
If you are working in hotel design, you can't forget it's about people, customers, and that they are
going to be part of your “composition” when it is complete. Great designers can deftly edit a space,
modify its contents, work across all the dimensions of design—scale, color, texture, lighting—in their
heads, and the result will be spaces that work, that make people feel good, that are inviting. If the artist
can execute this with great originality, it becomes memorable, a classic. To me, it's about the human
experience for, after all, hotels are meeting places for weary travelers. Why not dazzle them and amaze
them and leave them yearning for one more night's stay? Just as Apple, Samsung, and Aston Martin
have created loyal customers through innovative industrial design, so too can great designers infuence,
strengthen, and even defne a great brand.
Preface
Development and Design Interact

For their kind Foreword illuminating the timeless goals of the world's largest industry, we immensely
thank Michael Graves, David Rockwell, and Barry Sternlicht, who represent the major disciplines
involved with hotel development and design.
Much has changed about hotels and the hospitality industry since the 2001 edition of Hotel Design,
Planning and Development. In just over a decade, the Internet has risen to being the key form of
communication for our guests and development teams alike and shapes how everyone does business
everywhere in the world. Rapidly advancing technology is supporting the application of sustainable
principles in design and operations. Robust growth in hotel supply during the 2000s refected new
segments, new markets, new lodging products, and new approaches to fnancing in a diffcult economy.
Today there are more hotel brands than ever, each demanding a specifc set of design and operational
requirements that make an integrated effort among the developer, operator, and design team paramount
in order to ensure a successful outcome. In 2001, most hotel development was still taking place in North
America. Now, Asia is the engine of much of the industry's growth and other parts of the world are
poised to follow suit. There has never been a more exciting or more challenging time to create hotel
assets.
This book is intended to serve as a practical guide to the hotel building type for practitioners and
students alike. Our inquiry begins with the word “hotel” itself, meaning mansion, borrowed from the
French soon after the American Revolution in an effort to express the sophistication of the new
multifaceted inns that then appeared. From their onset, these novel mixed-use establishments served the
varied needs of a rapidly expanding society by freely adapting new residential, commercial, and
industrial features to hotel use. These include the frst grand ballroom in New York, an atrium and
Merchants' Exchange in Boston, a domed European lobby in New Orleans, and a theater, shops, and
laundry in London. Their competitive nature meant that hotels were among the frst buildings in most
cities to incorporate the newest technologies such as gas and electric lighting, central heat, telephones,
and elevators.
Such creative responses to consumer needs and desires more than ever drive hotel design and
development today. There is no such thing as a “generic” limited-service or full-service hotel anymore.
Ever-greater segmentation means that hotels need to be keenly focused from the very start of the
development process. The specifc requirements of the road-warrior business traveler, the design-savvy
boutique guest, the family on vacation far from home, the meeting planner and corporate travel
coordinator, as well as the hotel management company and the selected brand, all require careful
consideration throughout the planning and design stages. And as digital technology continues to evolve
at breakneck speed, developers and designers must constantly adapt to make sure that the amenities and
infrastructure in all new projects keep pace.
In the following chapters we expand upon the practices, features, and trends that shape the hotel
development industry. So sophisticated are today's markets that certain once-popular concepts have
faded into oblivion while some previously negative traits are now considered attractions. Therefore, we
are pleased to be able to interpret today's design, technology, and creative concepts which continue to
offer such bright prospects for the future.
Richard H. Penner
Lawrence Adams
Stephani K. A. Robson
We dedicate this book to the memory of Walter A. Rutes, FAIA, our late coauthor and mentor.
Wally for many years was a hotel architect and corporate executive, responsible for many of the
innovations in the last quarter of the twentieth century. We miss his spirit and good sense.
PART 1
Hotel Types
W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences, Dallas, Texas
With 252 guestrooms and 94 luxury residences, this 33-story hotel and condominium tower is the centerpiece of the 72 acre
(29 hectare) Victory master-planned development in Dallas. Designed by HKS Architects, the hotel includes a 10,000 sq ft
(925 sq m) spa, pool, and fitness facility, 11,000 sq ft (1,020 sq m) of meeting space, and Ghostbar, a sleek and stylish
rooftop venue.
 CHAPTER
1
Overview

Arriving in Esfahan, Iran, centuries ago, you could stay outside the city gates at a roadside
caravansary now called the Sha Abbas. Or desiring better service, you might continue to the
Khan, an in-town hotel. As a “frequent traveler” journeying to Rome, you could stay at a
downtown mansione, a boarding house on the Appian Way, or at a spa resort.
While the quality of hotels has advanced immeasurably over several centuries, especially
their services, the basic functional elements remain almost as simple and familiar as in ancient
times. But with increasing guest sophistication—and imaginative development and design—
we anticipate growing demand globally for increasingly diverse and customized hotels, resorts,
and related leisure-time amenities for the world's largest industry. The first part of this book
discusses and illustrates scores of different types of hotels and considers how their design is
being refined and their markets reassessed. They range from sensible extended-stay residential
units to lavish super-luxury urban suite hotels. Hotel developers are reconsidering the design
and character of all hotel types, from ecotourist retreats to the adaptive reuse and restoration of
existing urban infrastructure. The latter provides a variety of finely detailed hotels and
entertainment amenities that dramatically upgrade inner-city environments. And family-
oriented theme parks continue to serve as multi-resorts for major corporate trade exhibitions
and conventions as well as for advanced leisure-park communities.
The explosive growth of our global economies has generated extravagant architectural and
engineering accomplishments around the world: in the Middle East, China, India, and Russia,
as well as in Europe and the United States. Such major resort destinations as the Palm Islands
in Dubai have sprouted dozens of hotels featuring all the leading brands with luxury
accommodations and residences. Resort World Sentosa, off the coast of Singapore, City of
Dreams in Macau, and CityCenter in Las Vegas represent massive investments in multihotel,
residential, retail, entertainment, gaming, and conferencing developments. Extraordinary hotel
architecture continues to amaze travelers with such exceptional structures as the Marina Bay
Sands in Singapore and with such iconic mixed-use developments as the Elbphilharmonie in
Hamburg, Germany, which includes a philharmonic hall wrapped with hotel rooms. Design
hotels extend the boutique fascination by emphasizing great architecture combined with chic
interiors and now include fashion designers entering the fray with their own brands, such as
Armani Burj Khalifa and Missoni Edinburgh. Fashionable downtown hotels such as Hotel
Gansevoort and The Standard in New York's Meatpacking district bring new vitality to
dormant neighborhoods and serve as place-making destinations. Environmental responsibility
has taken on new dimensions worldwide in all segments of the hotel and resort industry as new
properties seek LEED certification or similar recognition by a number of other international
green-design rating systems.
 Other major prototype developments include hotels with themed shopping and entertainment
atriums, all-villa enclaves, various types of vacation ownership resorts and spas, as well as
vertically integrated mixed-use high-rise towers combining hotel functions with offices and
trade centers incorporating flex-suites affording virtual officing. One type that has seen major
growth in the past decade is multi-branded hotels, where one site or building houses two or
more competing brand hotels. The next several chapters illustrate a wide range of the era's most
significant hotel types, from future concepts for world-class multi-resort destinations to the
most innovative and cost-effective limited-service prototypes. While the opening chapters
discuss the latest examples in each category, and describe the different features of each type of
hotel, the Design Guide, Part 2, provides information on how to program and design the hotel
guestroom, public, and back-of-house areas.
With concepts ranging from airport conference center hotels to exotic eco-tourist lodges and
from high-fashion design hotels to gigantic casino hotels, Part 1 reviews more than fifty
different types of hotels now flourishing in today's increasingly customized marketplace.
Separate chapters are devoted to each of 11 major categories. For example, suburban hotels
offer many choices ranging from office-park hotels to country inns, while resorts encompass
an ever-widening array from luxury wilderness lodges to remote island resorts. The
repositioning of countless downtown and suburban properties is accomplished by innovative
renovations, restoration, additions, or adaptive reuse. The conference center hotel, which
significantly differs from the urban convention hotel, is discussed in terms of design options,
planning, and development considerations, as well as social and cultural implications. Highly
imaginative future hotel and resort development concepts are summarized in the final chapter.
A continuing theme is the emphasis on carefully targeting specific market segments so that the
hotel may better fulfill its function. For example, luxury resorts and super-luxury hotels need
small, superb restaurants and health spas to maintain their clientele.
In industrialized nations, familiarity with new types of hotels is essential for developers to
plan their expansion strategies and devise more imaginative prototypical features that attract
new customers to hotels. Some types of hotels are as different as is a single-family home
compared to a high-rise apartment tower in the residential feld; it is essential for the designer
to understand the variations in facilities, program areas, and circulation patterns required for
each new form of hotel designed to serve a particular market niche. Also, an overall familiarity
with diverse types encourages cross-fertilization of ideas, as, for example, introducing larger
health spas to fill relaxation needs at conference centers, adding meeting rooms to turn country
inns into instant conference retreats, and borrowing attributes of super-luxury hotels, such as
original artwork, to better upgrade other types of hotels. New ideas for better hotels come from
each member of the design team, ranging from market researchers to food and beverage (F&B)
consultants, and include a variety of specialized disciplines from high-tech systems experts to
talented landscape architects and environmental designers. Chapter 19, Technical Coordination
and Construction, discusses the development areas in which consultants are recommended—
even required.
Classifications
Since hotels generally are classified by location, function, and other special characteristics, a given
hotel may ft more than one category—for example, Ames Hotel in Boston is both a design (boutique)
hotel and an example of adaptive reuse. A number of airport hotels could also be considered
conference centers or convention properties. However, the overlap should not impair the usefulness of
the classification system referenced in this book, which permits easy access to information by subject
headings generally used in the hotel feld and clear to the public.
While hotel classifications are necessary for purposes of organizing and referencing information, they
are by no means perfect and no substitute for specific knowledge of the individual character and
detailed ingredients of the hotel. As a writer in the New Haven Register lamented:
Along with new hotel types and almost infinite combinations and varieties, it is increasingly difficult
for guests to select a hotel when labels are inadequate or misleading. Downtown hotels have as many
tennis courts, pools and saunas as resorts. Resorts have as many convention or conference guests as
downtown convention hotels or airport meeting centers. Motor inns are not necessarily superior to
motels. And “inns” are not necessarily old. “Lodge,” “spa,” “guest ranch” also are unclear labels.
Price is no indicator—expensive hotels may have small rooms, while budget hotels have larger, better
appointed rooms. Buying on the basis of ingredients looks like the new wave.
Our late coauthor, Walter A. Rutes, FAIA, at the turn of the century wrote:
It is likely that today's oxymoron marketing mantra of “mass customization” is increasing in the hotel
feld, after bringing gold to industries ranging from clothing to personalized vitamins. It responds to
the consumer's desire for individual treatment in an increasingly impersonal world. If the typical guest
buys designer clothes and made-to-order music CDs from a long questionnaire, why not a virtual Ritz
at Times Square?
(Rutes, Penner, and Adams, 2001, p. 6)
Therefore, in this book guest perceptions are emphasized as much as the actual differences among
types of hotels. In other words, what's “in” at the inn is even as important as what's in it.
Planning and Design Considerations
Since each type of hotel seeks different kinds of guests, its planning requirements will vary by
its location, quality level, size, image, space standards, circulation, and other characteristics.
For example, convention hotels and conference centers require closeness to airports, while
vacation villages and ski lodges do not. Airport hotels and roadside motels need high visibility
and good highway signage, while conference centers, country inns, vacation villages, and
ecotourist retreats seek seclusion. And while super-luxury hotels must be small to create an
intimate atmosphere, upscale hotels must be large enough to justify the greater number of
restaurants, lounges, and banquet rooms required by first-class or five-star international
standards.
Design considerations also vary by hotel type. For example, resorts require larger rooms and
more closet and drawer space than downtown hotels due to the longer stays of their guests and
the higher number of occupants per room. Some roadside inns may require larger restaurants
than other hotels for peak periods such as breakfast, yet offer no room service. Casino hotels
require a glittering design, while conference center décor needs to be more understated. Also,
similar design concepts are expressed differently in each type of hotel. For example, the social
pastime of people-watching in the downtown or suburban hotel is accommodated in its lobby
or atrium space. The same purpose is served by the pool deck at the resort, the sun deck at the
ski lodge, the commons area at the conference center, the outdoor bar at the vacation village's
piazza, the tea lounge of the luxury hotel, or the high-fashion lobby of the boutique hotel.
While the specific facilities, area programs, and technical requirements are discussed in Part
2, Design Guide, this first section summarizes the main variations in planning and design for
each distinct type of hotel.
Table 1.1 Hotel milestones

Biblical Boarding houses existed

times
500 BC First resorts at mineral and hot springs in Greece
Mansiones built along Roman roads to lodge government-sanctioned travelers;
some inns existed for others
Romans spread spa resorts to England, Switzerland, and the Middle East;
introduced campona (inns) in England. Riviera popular with
Phoenician and Greek traders
Caravansaries, cloistered courtyard caravan stops, provided by government along
roads in the Middle East
Khans, small inns, established in Middle East towns
Middle Manorial lords, abbeys, and monasteries sheltered some travelers
Ages Monastic inns run by religious orders. Hospices built as hospitals and shelters for
travelers
Some inns developed in larger towns (no meals)
Rooming houses used as relay stations for mail, government transport, rest stops,
changing horses
Hospitalers created shelters for Crusaders and pilgrims traveling to the Holy
Land
1100s Travel became safe in Europe. Inns prospered with freedom and right to travel,
declined in times of lawlessness
The European inn gradually developed
The Three Kings Inn opened in Basel, Switzerland—earliest inn still operating
1200s Guest houses, courier mail stations opened in China and Mongolia
Rooming and relay stations for mail, government transportation, rest stops
Cour St. Georges Inn opened in Ghent, Belgium
Angel Inn opened in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England
1300s The English country inn developed; some inns in London
Castle Inn founded in Taunton, Somerset, England
French law required innkeepers to replace stolen property plus pay victims three
times as much in damages
1400s French law required hotel register
English law established regulations for inns
The Krone Inn in Solothurn, Switzerland, is earliest adaptive reuse—converted
from residence
1500s European spas revived in Carlsbad, Marienbad
Stagecoaches developed, using Roman road system; teams changed, carriages
checked, and travelers rested at posting houses
English innkeepers set pattern for Europe and America to follow; 6,000 inns in
England
Inn plan took form of enclosed courtyard with arched entrance, rooms along two
sides, kitchen and public rooms at front side, stable and storage at rear
First travelers' guide rating inns in France
1600s Hotel industry developed in Europe with well-placed and reliable cuisine “at sign
of insignia on a metal plaque, grating its rugged hinges in every wind”
Seaport inns developed in American cities: for example, the Blue Anchor in
Philadelphia
Village inns developed as required by Massachusetts law in all towns: for
example, the Old Yarmouth Inn at Yarmouthport
First scheduled coach service established in England
1700s Clubhouses similar to British clubs and Masonic lodges developed in America
Spa resorts developed in Yellow Springs, Pennsylvania, and White Sulphur
Springs, West Virginia
Boodles and Coventry clubhouses opened in London
Market Square Taverne founded in Williamsburg, Virginia
Place Vendôme in Paris is first mixed-use complex
1780s Dessien's in Calais, France, was early large inn
Covent Garden Inn in London was early large inn
1790s Industrial revolution stimulated hotels in England, Europe, and America; resorts
developed
Corre's Hotel and City Hotel in New York were first downtown hotels
Saratoga Springs, New York, developed as spa resort
1800s White Hart Hotel opened in Salisbury, England
Royal Hotel founded in Plymouth, England
Luxury “swagger hotels” established in major cities
Early resorts built along French and Italian Riviera
 Imposing clubhouses built
Fulton's steamship Clermont launched on Hudson River
Exchange Coffee House in Boston was first atrium hotel
1810s Ryokan guest houses developed in Japan
Dak bungalows, 24-hour guest stops, run by government of India
1820s Catskill Mountain House in New York State was early major resort
City Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland, was first with partial gaslight
B&O Railroad began passenger service
Tremont House in Boston was first luxury downtown hotel with indoor toilets,
locks on guestroom doors, and à la carte menu
1830s Saratoga Springs Hotel opened in New York State
American Hotel in New York City was first with gaslight throughout
Astor House opened in New York City
St. Charles and St. Louis Hotels established in New Orleans, Louisiana
Holt's Hotel, opened in New York City, was first with an elevator for baggage
Reform Club in London had courtyard roofed in to become an early atrium
Euston Station Hotel, opened in London, was early example of railroad hotel
1840s Railroads replaced coaches; coach-route inns declined
Shepheard's Hotel, opened in Cairo, was early major adaptive reuse
Hotel des Trois Couronnes founded in Vevey, Switzerland
Bar au Lac Hotel opened in Zurich, Switzerland
New York Hotel in New York City was first with private baths
Planter's House Hotel founded in St. Louis, Missouri
The Homestead established in Hot Springs, Virginia
Resorts developed in Coney Island, New York
1850s Spa resorts reached height of popularity
Resorts developed in Niagara Falls, New York, and New Jersey shore
Mills House opened in Charleston, South Carolina (rebuilt in 1970)
Parker House established in Boston (rebuilt in 1927)
Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City was first with passenger elevators
1860s Railroad terminal hotels such as Charing Cross in London were main type of
hotels developed 1860s through 1920s
Mohonk Mountain House established in the Catskills in New York State
Central and Union Pacific Railroads were joined
1870s Coney Island in New York was themed seaside resort with Queen Anne and
Oriental-style hotels and amusement park with roller-coaster
Fashionable Vendome Hotel built in Boston
Palmer House opened in Chicago was largest of time and first built with a
fireproof structure (rebuilt in 1925)
Palace Hotel opened in San Francisco was earliest hotel with a large atrium
Sherman House founded in Chicago
Grand Hotel built in Point Clear, Alabama
Continental opened in Paris (restored in 1970 by InterContinental)
1880s Hotel Del Monte established in Monterey, California
Hotel Everett in New York City was first with partial electric lights
Sagamore Hotel at Lake George in New York State was first with electricity in
all rooms
 Chelsea Hotel in New York City was first large residential hotel
Mountainview House established in Whitefield, New Hampshire
Ponce De Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, was first built of concrete
Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan, had largest veranda
Victoria Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, was first with baths in all rooms
Hotel Del Coronado, opened in San Diego, California, was largest resort of its
time
Whiteface Inn and Golf Club founded in Lake Placid, New York
The Savoy in London was first hotel with theater, chapel, print shop, laundry
1890s The Broadmoor opened in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Brown Palace in Denver, Colorado, was earliest hotel atrium still operating
Copley Square Hotel opened in Boston
Ecole Hotelière in Lausanne, Switzerland, was first hotel school
Hotel Netherland in New York City was first with phones in all rooms
The Breakers opened in Palm Beach, Florida (rebuilt in 1906, again in 1926)
Lake Placid Club established in Lake Placid, New York
Original Waldorf=Astoria built in New York City, tallest of its time, at 17 stories
(later site of 102-story Empire State Building)
Wentworth-by-the-Sea opened in New Castle, New Hampshire
Claridge's, Berkeley, Connaught all opened in London
1900s The Ritz founded in London
The Willard opened in Washington, DC
The Plaza, St. Regis, and Astor built in New York City
Taj Mahal Hotel opened in Bombay (restored in 1972 by InterContinental)
Statler in Buffalo, New York, established main principles of modern multi-story
hotel and circulation flow
First cross-country U.S. auto trip
1910s Grand Central Terminal in New York City was early mixed-use complex
Boarding-house resorts developed in Catskills in New York State
Bellevue Stratford opened in Philadelphia
Copley Plaza built in Boston
Beverly Hills Hotel established in California
The Greenbrier opened in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
Asilomar near Carmel, California, was first non-profit conference center
Kahler Hotel in Rochester, Minnesota, was first medical hotel
First trans-Atlantic fight and first scheduled airline
Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City, at 2,200 rooms, was largest of its time
1920s Hotel boom #1 generated by economic prosperity
Grand Central District in New York City was example of further developed hotel
complex connecting five hotels
Miami Beach developed with Mediterranean-style architecture; for example,
Flamingo, Pancoast, and Roney Plaza hotels
School of Hotel Administration established at Cornell University
First non-stop cross-U.S. plane fight
Baker and Adolphus hotels opened in Dallas, Texas
Royal Hawaiian established in Honolulu
Prohibition caused decline of hotel/restaurant business
The Ritz-Carlton opened on the Boston Public Gardens
 The Statler in Boston was first mixed-use hotel/office building
Ahwahnee Hotel built in Yosemite National Park in California
Biltmore founded in Santa Barbara, California
Stevens Hotel in Chicago had 2,700 rooms—largest of time
The Cloister opened in Sea Island, Georgia
Arizona Biltmore built in Phoenix
1930s Depression forced many U.S. hotels into receivership
The new Waldorf=Astoria in New York City, largest of its time, built during
Depression
1940s Statler in Washington, DC, was one of few hotels built during World War II
Flamingo in Las Vegas was first casino hotel
Statler Hotels in Los Angeles, California, Hartford, Connecticut, and Dallas,
Texas, first post-war hotels
San Souci in Miami was first new post-war resort
1950s Hotel boom #2 generated by expanded education and mass travel
Resorts developed in Caribbean
Vacation village concept developed by Club Med
Holiday Inns was first motel chain with large rooms
Casino hotels developed in Las Vegas, Nevada
Fontainbleau opened in Miami Beach
First commercial trans-Atlantic jet service
Airlines began developing hotels
1960s 23,000 hotels, 40,000 motels, and 170 chains operated in the U.S.
Resorts developed in Spanish Mediterranean, Portugal, Balearic Islands,
Scandinavia, Greece, and Yugoslavia
Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia, reintroduced atrium concept
Arden House of Columbia University, Tarrytown House in Tarrytown, New
York, and General Electric Co. in Crotonville, New York, were first conference
centers used extensively by businesses
Sheraton at Prudential Center in Boston was first major hotel/mixed-use complex
Hilton Palacio del Rio Hotel in San Antonio, Texas, was first built with
prefabricated concrete modules
1970s Boeing 747 introduced; airlines became active in hotel development through
subsidiary chains
New hotel expansion took up slack caused by demolition and conversions of
hotels to apartments and office buildings
Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida, opened as first major
hotel/amusement destination center
Extensive hotel development in the Middle East generated by oil prosperity
Luxury condominiums developed offering hotel services
Hotel restorations extensively developed
First suite hotels converted from condos
Time-sharing and condominium resorts developed
MGM Grand casino hotel fire in Las Vegas caused changes in building and fire
codes
Outbreak of Legionnaires? Disease at Bellvue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia
caused bankruptcy of hotel and changed engineering and maintenance operations
No-smoking rules took effect in federal buildings
 Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, Georgia, had 70 stories—tallest hotel
Multi-resort complexes developed in Maui, Hawaii, and Cancun, Mexico
China opened to foreign tourists; international hotel experts invited to participate
in development of facilities
Middle East investments in U.S. real estate increased values of hotels and resorts
1980s Hotel boom #3 generated by innovative marketing and development of
specialized types of hotels, many combined with large-scale commercial
complexes such as Copley Place and Lafayette Place in Boston
Airport hotels, conference centers, all-suite hotels, vacation villages, health spas,
marina hotels, ski lodges, time-sharing and condo resorts developed rapidly
Casino hotels developed in Atlantic City, New Jersey
Condominium hotels developed, such as The Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons in
Boston and UN Plaza in New York City
Limited-service budget motels continued rapid growth
Popular revival of country inns
Marriott Marquis in Atlanta was largest convention hotel
Marriott Marquis in Times Square in New York City was highest-cost hotel
project
Hyatt and Marriott open mega-hotels in Orlando, Florida
Hotel boom in China; 50 major hotels under construction or design including
2,000-room Lidu in Beijing; visitors increased from 200,000 at beginning of
decade to 5,000,000 per year expected by end of century
Embassy Suites and Crowne Plaza by Holiday Inn, Courtyard by Marriott, and
Residence Inn debut
Japanese investments in U.S. real estate increased values of hotels and resorts
Dow-Jones average of New York Stock Exchange plunged 508 points, or four
times previous record one-day drop
Americans with Disabilities Act became law, affecting broad areas of hotel
design and operations
Electronic key-card for hotel rooms was introduced by Ving
Resolution Trust Corporation sold off hotels as required due to failing savings
and loans
First baby-boomers turned 50, Generation X gained economic power
Disney licensed operation of Tokyo Disneyland, east of the city in Urayasu,
Chiba, Japan, the first Disney park outside the U.S.
1990s Gulf War slowed tourism
Recession of 1991 resulted in lowest financial record in hotel history, with
majority of hotels not meeting debt service
Growth through conversions became more prevalent
Over 75 percent of top 25 U.S. chains engaged in global hotel development
Casinos and hotels on Native American reservations gained acceptance
Riverboat gaming on Mississippi River and Gulf Coast
Budget hotels were industry's leading money-makers
Disney opened Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France, the second park
outside the United States, with seven hotels and 5,800 rooms
Palace of the Lost City in Sun City, South Africa, based on a fantasy lost African
tribe, was most costly casino resort
Wall Street—REIT investments in as many as 15 percent of all U.S. hotels turned
back financial recession, with hotel values at levels higher than paid by previous
 waves of international investors in the 1970s and 1980s
Vacation ownership booming, with five million members investing record annual
$6 billion at 7 percent yearly growth rate forecast
Regent Four Seasons built in New York was highest-cost hotel project
Mega-casino themed resorts rapidly expanding in Las Vegas, including New
York, New York, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, The Venetian, and Paris, increasingly
attracting family market
Better shower offered at Holiday Inn in place of standard tub/shower
combination
Cruise ships booming owing to unmatched appeal to affluent elderly population
Self-service business centers widely available to hotel guests
Hotel schools at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, New York University,
and the University of California at Los Angeles expand their role in international
conferences and research activities in hotel, resort, travel, and leisure-time feld,
now the world's largest industry
Universal Studios opens major resort theme park including first mega-hotel in
Orlando
Disney announced expansion of its luxury resort, retail, dining, and entertainment
center at Disneyland in Anaheim, California
Atlantis mega-hotel opened on Paradise Island, Bahamas
Internet, incorporating console control of lighting, temperature, security
monitoring, non-disturb, maid, large-screen interactive infoentertainment centers
with multiple language and time zone displays, city guide, speaker/video phones,
data port, and speed dialing to home and office installed in hotels by INNCOM,
SeaChange, GTE, TCI, LodgeNet, On Command, ViaTV, Travelers Telecom,
Zenith, Panasonic, Thomson, Phillips, etc.
Hotel boom #4 generated by advanced technology, imaginative design, and the
successful marketing of mass customization of hotels, resorts, and leisure-time
amenities
Spas booming as baby-boomers perceived them as essential to health
Boutique hotels popular with business travelers; such developers as Ian Schrager,
Bill Kimpton, and W brand by Starwood all converted older hotels or developed
new properties
First billion-dollar Native American mixed-use casino complex completed in
Connecticut, catapulting the region into a major gaming center
Entertainment hotels introduced in downtown areas, including New York City
Hilton Hotels acquired Promus, owner of Embassy Suites/Doubletree, making it
the third largest global hotel company
Over 250 luxury and upscale hotels were announced for development worldwide
Ultra-high-rise mixed-use hotels developed in Shanghai, Bangkok, and other
major Asian cities
2000s Hotel Design, Planning and Development, first comprehensive book on hotel,
resort and leisure-time feld by Rutes, Penner, and Adams,
published by Architectural Press and W. W. Norton
Pod hotels developed in urban business centers and airports throughout world
Many chains developed boutique (or “lifestyle”) hotel brands to compete with
independent design-centric hotels
Urban hotels introduced massive spas, for both guests and city residents
Hotel chains introduced the lobby “great room” concept, encouraging
 socialization among guests
Guestroom layouts increasingly used stall showers in lieu of the tub/shower
combination
Hotel operators frequently outsourced restaurant operations to independent
operators or brands
Suites became more common, especially in resort destinations
All developers took greater interest in sustainable design, for operational
efficiency, lower costs, and marketing reasons
Hotels co-brand with fashion houses
Increasing activity among niche brands of all types
2010s Hotels introduced smartphone applications for check-in/out and use as room key
Greater customization of guestrooms common
Developers sought out carbon-neutral designs for hotels
Enhanced in-room entertainment systems became popular
Hotel companies achieved more efficient operations and economies by co-
locating two or more of their brands on one property
Modular construction using factory-built components became commonplace
 CHAPTER
2
Urban Hotels

The City Hotel, built on lower Broadway in New York City in 1794, trumpeted a new form of hospitality
building distinct from European inns and American seaport and village inns or taverns ofthat period.
Larger than any inn, the five-story City Hotel had 73 guestrooms but, most significantly, housed a
ballroom and banquet hall—public spaces that forecast the new role that hotels would play as the center
of downtown social and business life for centuries to come. Expanding on that new role in 1809, the
Exchange Coffee House in Boston featured an assortment of public social and business functions
including a ballroom, a restaurant, a coffee room, and a Merchants' Exchange floor beneath a 100 ft
diameter (9.2 m) sky-lit dome, making this the first atrium hotel and further defining this new urban
business and leisure hotel genre.
In this chapter we will examine a variety of urban hotels and the factors that influence their
development and design. Dense downtown urban settings present numerous challenges and
opportunities that must be accommodated and exploited for the hotel to be successful. In focusing on
the characteristics inherent on downtown locations we will look at noteworthy examples of business
and leisure, waterfront, entertainment, and super-luxury hotels.

Urban Business and Leisure Hotels

It was the Tremont House in Boston that established hotels as enduring monuments in the cityscape.
Clad in Quincy granite, the Tremont was the most costly building in the United States in 1828. It earned
the title “The Adam and Eve of the Modern Hotel Industry” by setting the standard for deluxe
innovations including private locked rooms, indoor (although not private) bathrooms, à la carte menus,
the first bellboys, and an annunciator system that allowed guests to call the front desk from their rooms.
Architect Isaiah Rogers devised an ingenious floor plan of crossing corridors that splayed the public
rooms across the front of the building with courtyards in the back and an intersecting guestroom wing
that separated the public and private realms. Envious of the Tremont's stature, John Jacob Astor hired
Rogers seven years later to design the Astor House in New York City as the new best hotel in the
country. Other U.S. cities joined the competition as each major city sought to own the most prestigious
hotel in the land. In New Orleans, the French citizens boasted the St. Louis Hotel while the English had
the St. Charles.
Innovative design continued to flourish as each new hotel vied to outdo previous ones with such
amenities as hot and cold running water in the rooms, bathrooms on each floor, gas lighting, steam heat,
and room service. But no invention had a greater effect on future hotels and indeed the very skyline of
the city than the passenger elevator, first used in 1859 in the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City.
Locals referred to the elevator as a “vertical screw railway” while the English called it the “ascending
room.”
By the turn of the century most major cities had at least one prestigious hotel. The Waldorf and Astor
hotels were developed on New York's Fifth Avenue. The Palmer House and the Sherman House, the
largest hotels of their time, became the pride of Chicago's State Street, while the Palace on San
Francisco's Market Street and the Brown Palace in downtown Denver displayed impressive atriums.
Feeding off the frenetic growth in U.S. cities, The Savoy in London advanced the mixed-use nature of
hotels by including a theater and a chapel. The Savoy had its own in-house laundry and, with 67
bathrooms to its 400 guestrooms, the builder was prompted to ask the developer if he was catering to
amphibian guests.
Perhaps no hotel exhibited the extraordinary role that they would play as epicenters of the urban
social, political, and business activity as the original Waldorf=Astoria. Designed by Henry J.
Hardenbergh as two separate hotels for the feuding Astor cousins, the eventual reconciliation led to one
of the prize public concourses of the day as Peacock Alley married the two hotels and was permanently
symbolized in the hotel's official spelling with the equal mark between Waldorf and Astor. As the
“Unofficial Palace of New York,” The Waldorf=Astoria's huge ballroom and 40 public rooms were
used for the most important social and political events of the day. Peacock Alley was a fashionable
runway where elegant gowns and the latest attire were on display for those who came to see and be
seen. The Bull and Bear men's café was where J. P. Morgan and Henry Clay Frick met to cut deals after
the close of the New York Stock Exchange.
The early twentieth century saw the advent of the modern commercial hotel: Ellsworth M. Statler
established the main principles of modern high-rise hotels when the Buffalo Statler was built in 1908
in western New York State, bringing the service departments up to the ground floor, surrounding them
with restaurants, bars, and banquet facilities, and connecting them to the guestroom floors by means of
service elevators. Though The Ritz in Paris was the first grand hotel to provide each guestroom with its
own private bath, The Statler introduced the model for today's bedroom and bathroom set and
exemplified efficient planning with its double-loaded guestroom floors. (See Chapter 15 for a
discussion of planning the guestroom floor.)
Statler's innovative prototype proved monumental as it defined a model of business-tourist hotels in
cities for decades to come. Still evolving through the downtown hotel boom of the post-war 1920s and
1930s, its influence continues today, finding new forms in the rapid expansion of new types such as
design hotels, downtown entertainment hotels, and mixed-use complexes. And technological advances
have allowed hotels to soar to incredible new heights, once again dominating the skylines of major
cities around the globe.

Planning and Development Considerations

Rail travel in the early twentieth century fostered development of hotels near city railroad terminals.
Many hotels took advantage after the New York Central Railroad made acres of prime sites available
along Park Avenue in the Terminal City development around Grand Central Terminal. Even after the
decline of rail travel many of these locations remain viable hotel development sites since they have
evolved into centers of concentrated business and retail activity and the terminals themselves have
become commuter rail stations. In fact, restaurants and bars of hotels built near commuter train stations
are usually at their peak performance just after quitting time.
The location of a hotel in the city in many ways defines its market and its character. In addition to
rail terminals, urban hotels have gravitated to locations in close proximity to active business centers and
fashionable shopping districts such as New York's Fifth Avenue, Chicago's Magnificent Mile, or
Tokyo's Ginza Strip. The Grand Hyatt Tokyo at Roppongi Hills is located in the heart of Japan's largest
private-sector urban redevelopment project near the famous Ginza shopping district comprising the
world's highest-priced real estate.
High-end residential neighborhoods with fashionable shops, museums, and art galleries often provide
a magnet for luxury hotels whose character borrows from the residential surroundings. Some

The Grand Hyatt Tokyo at Roppongi Hills, Tokyo, Japan

Fusing art and intelligence, the Roppongi Hills development is known as the “Artelligent City.” It
includes the 54-story mixed-use Mori Tower, also designed by the hotel's architect, KPF. With 380
guestrooms, 10 restaurants and bars and 13 banquet rooms, the hotel serves a pivotal role in the
livelihood of the development.
Jumeirah Frankfurt Hotel, Frankfurt, Germany
As a central component to the PalaisQuartier, a major leisure and retail project in downtown Frankfurt
in close proximity to the Stock Exchange and the popular MyZeil shopping mall, the Jumeirah Frankfurt
provides accommodations for both business and leisure travelers, with 218 guestrooms and suites, six
multi-purpose meeting rooms, a 4,306 sq ft (400 sq m) ballroom and a world-class Talise spa.
hotels are identified with major city plazas and parks such as the Plaza Hotel on New York's Central
Park, the St. Francis on San Francisco's Union Square, and the former Ritz-Carlton (now Taj Hotel) on
Boston's Public Gardens (see Urban Super-luxury Hotels, pages 44–51).
Urban renewal redevelopment efforts often seek hotels as a catalyst to attract other real estate
development or to provide a necessary ingredient for the success of a project. The Jumeirah Frankfurt
Hotel is a central component to the PalaisQuartier, an important leisure and retail project in downtown
Frankfurt, Germany, in close proximity to the Stock Exchange and the famous MyZeil shopping mall.
A new wave of urban entertainment venues led by the resurgence of center-city neighborhoods such
as the burgeoning Downtown Miami Metropolitan district, New York's Meatpacking District,
Melbourne's Crown Entertainment complex, London's Leicester Square, and Singapore's Bayfront
Avenue Marina have provided fertile ground for a new type of hotel, exemplified by the dazzling Marina
Bay Sands hotel development in Singapore (see pages208–211)
W London, London, United Kingdom
Evoking the cinematic legacy of Leicester Square, the hotel is wrapped with frameless glazing
suspended from the face of the building like a floating sheer veil, etched with an undulating pattern like
the folds of a theater curtain. Hundreds of energy-efficient light fixtures set into the outer main wall
provide an infinite number of combinations and effects, controlled by sophisticated electronics from
within the hotel, allowing the presence of the building to alter as day turns to night.
across the harbor from the city's central business district. As cities are realizing the value of their
waterfronts after long periods of neglect, mixed-use developments that include hotels are prospering in
the context of cruise ship and ferry terminals, waterfront recreation facilities, and the air, light, and
spectacular views afforded by the open expanse at the water's edge (see Urban Waterfront Hotels, pages
36–43).
Boutique hotels originated in marginal neighborhoods where inexpensive and obsolete buildings
were transformed into high-fashion lodgings. With their explosive popularity and heavy investment
from major chains, boutique hotels (variously referred to now as design, fashion, or lifestyle hotels)
have expanded to more central upscale locations in the city (see Design Hotels, Chapter 3). Other
markets that drive location in the urban center are for hotels located near major medical centers,
government centers, convention centers, financial markets, courts, universities, and city halls.

Place-making: Hotels that Transform and Define Neighborhoods

Pioneering developers boldly pursuing their visions by investing in risky real estate transactions can
transform quiet underserved neighborhoods into dynamic center-city destinations. As we have seen in
New York City with the Mercer Hotel in SoHo or the Tribeca Grand, hotels as leading-edge urban
interventions become a catalyst for place-making and defining the character of neighborhoods.
The trailblazing development of the Gansevoort Hotel in the drowsy Meatpacking District in Lower
Manhattan was without question a key ingredient in transforming an obscure light-industrial
neighborhood of a few bistros and boutiques scattered among beef-filled warehouses into a thriving and
fashionable residential, commercial, and entertainment destination.
The Gansevoort, The Standard, and The James Hotel demonstrate that the most undeveloped real
estate in urban areas is often their rooftops. In multi-story hotels structural loads require a tight
Gansevoort Hotel, New York, New York (top)
Beyond catering to its sleep-over guests, the hotel-as-nightclub model of the pioneering original
Standard on Sunset Boulevard endures with the Gansevoort Meatpacking NYC Hotel. With 187
guestrooms and 23 suites, the 14-story hotel features lively rooftop amenities that attract guests and
non-guests to its heated 45 ft pool with underwater music, “Plunge” Bar and Lounge, landscaped
garden, and 360-degree panoramic views of New York City and sunsets over the Hudson River.
Gansevoort Hotel, New York, New York (bottom)
Once a thriving hotel district in the early twentieth century, Park Avenue South has long been
underserved by luxury hotels. As those early hotels were epicenters of social life in the city, the
Gansevoort Park presents a new standard of hotel luxury and destination-gathering for the area.
Trumping the extravagance of the Gansevoort downtown rooftop, the Park Avenue hotel's 20,000 sq ft
triple-level complex features an indoor/outdoor heated pool with underwater music and multiple
connected nightlife venues.
grid of columns on most floors but rooftops can be relatively column-free, providing guests with open
space, abundant light and panoramic views. Views from mid-rise buildings are different from rooftop
observatories on high-rise structures like the Empire State Building or Sears Tower, which provide
sweeping vistas of the entire region.
Building on the successful formula of their earlier hotel on the lower West Side, the Gansevoort Park
Avenue expanded the concept of urban resort with extravagant rooftop venues by creating a new
entertainment destination and breathing new life into the previously lackluster Park Avenue South
neighborhood in New York City.

Style and Theater

As an outgrowth of the exploding popularity of boutique hotels and an intense interest in cutting-edge
design by brand-name architects, hotel developers are finding high-style design to be a significant
advantage in achieving notoriety and resultant market value. Technological advances in building
systems and applications of amazing new computer design programs are resulting in fantastic forms
and building envelopes in all types of buildings. The hospitality industry is realizing that investment in
avant-garde architecture pays off in marketing appeal.
Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai have become virtual laboratories for ultramodern hotel buildings
where construction budgets are aimed at daring experimentations of architectural fancy. Hotels are part
of bold and extravagant mixed-use buildings such as Burj Khalifa, Marina Bay Sands, Meydan
Grandstand and Hotel, India Tower, Crystal Island Tower, and the Shard in London. Other examples
of extraordinary super-modern design include the Renaissance Paris Arc de Triomphe Hotel, the Silken
Puerta América Hotel, The Address Hotel, and Frank Gehry's remarkable Marqués de Riscal Hotel in
the Spanish wine region.

Renaissance Paris Arc de Triomphe Hotel, Paris, France

Atelier Christian de Portzamparc designed a striking façade for the hotel with undulating horizontal
glazed bands. The undulations become bay windows in the guestrooms, affording views up and down
the avenue toward the Arc de Triomphe and Place des Ternes. The hotel has direct and exclusive access
to Salle Wagram, the famous banquet and event venue built in 1865, which has been fully restored
according to Portzamparc's design.
The Shard, London, United Kingdom (top)
At 1,016 ft high, Renzo Piano's Shard is one of the tallest buildings in Europe and one of the most
ambitious architectural achievements in the United Kingdom. The deluxe 195-room Shangri-La Hotel,
at the Shard, London, is accessed by a dedicated entrance at street level and occupies floors 34 to 52 of
the iconic London Bridge Tower.
Innside Premium Hotel, Munich, Germany (left)
As one part of a four-piece architectural ensemble which includes two office towers and a low-rise
office building designed by Helmut Jahn in Munich's burgeoning urban redevelopment project,
Parkstadt Schwabing, the Innside Premium Hotel caters to the design-conscious business traveler with
160 guestrooms and suites, a restaurant, fitness club, and conference rooms.
Celebrity architects or “starchitects” are in high demand as developers and hotel companies seek the
wow-factor and media attention they bring to their hospitality developments. Michael Graves, Tadeo
Ando, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, Kengo Kuma, Rem Koolhaas, Arata Isozaki, Enrique
Norton, Jean Nouvel, I. M. Pei, and Helmut Jahn are among those whose celebrity and critical acclaim
have transformed them into idols of the architectural world. They are eagerly sought after by hotel
developers to bring status and value to their projects.

Place and Tradition

In the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Frank Lloyd Wright demonstrated early in the twentieth century that
hotels must reflect place and tradition. Hotels that establish their primary aesthetic identity by creating
a contextual fit to the architectural heritage of the city they inhabit reflect this same sensitivity and
provide real value to preserving a sense of place in the city.
Only a few doors down from the original site of the famed Tremont Hotel, Kimpton's Nine Zero
Hotel is surrounded by the rich history of Boston Common, Beacon Hill, Faneuil Hall, and Quincy
Market. The architects faced the rigors of the Boston Redevelopment Authority and Boston Civic
Design Commission in delivering an appropriate contemporary building design in the heart of one of
the oldest cities in the United States.
Beyond hotels that contain facilities for performance and entertainment (see Urban Entertainment
Hotels, pages 31–35) there is a fundamental quality of downtown hotels that provides a setting where
the theater of human life is played. Morris Lapidus laid bare the theatrical aspect of hotels in the 1950s
with his designs for the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels in Miami Beach. Here guests were cast as
performers while dining in an elevated stage-like restaurant or while climbing up and down grand stairs
that might have been built for Loretta Young or Scarlett O'Hara. From the Astor in New York to the
Hotel Ritz in Paris, hotels have long embodied an architecture of theatricality defining a place for the
drama of human activity and experience.
The prestige of Atlanta, Georgia, soared after its first atrium hotel, Hyatt Regency Atlanta, triggered
a wave of new development and catapulted the city into the future, further defining its role as capital of
the New South. The symbolic image of Quebec City has long been shaped by the commanding presence
of the Hotel Frontenac high above the bluffs on the St. Lawrence River. Hotels as highly visible
monuments and prized trophies have elevated the self-esteem of cities since the architect Isaiah Rogers
produced the Tremont House in Boston and the Astor House in New York City in the early 1800s and
the stately Taj Mahal Palace hotel overlooking the Arabian Sea in Mumbai opened in 1903.
Making a dominant visual statement on the skyline has long been a goal of hotel owners, supported
by architects and developers alike. The majestic domed roof of the St. Louis Hotel in early nineteenth-
century New Orleans could be seen miles away on the Mississippi River, and the superb twin copper
spires of The Waldorf=Astoria have adorned New York City's skyline for seventy years.
The current title-holder for tallest hotel in the world is the Rose Rayhaan Hotel in Dubai superseding
the former champion, the nearby Burj al Arab Hotel. The 72-story Rose tower soars to a height of 1,100
ft (333 m), offering a sleek icon on the Dubai skyline.
Mixed-use towers allow hotels to bask in the glory of magnificent skyscrapers while occupying only
a fraction of the floor area. The Park Hyatt Shanghai in the World Financial Center and the neighboring
Grand Hyatt Shanghai in Jin Mao Tower both once claimed to be the “highest” hotel. Surpassing both,
the Shanghai Tower J-Hotel is the centerpiece of the stunning 121-story Shanghai Tower being
constructed in the hub of the central business district of Lujiazui, shoulder to shoulder with the other
two towers. (See Mixed-use Developments, Chapter 6)
Nine Zero Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts
In combining traditional red brick and limestone with sleek nickel, chrome, stainless steel, and glass,
the façade of this 190-key downtown hotel echoes the timeless use of materials of its surrounding classic
architecture, punctuated with an elegant modern style.
Rose Rayhaan by Rotana Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The slender steel and glass tower rises from a relatively small footprint of 10,000 sq ft (929 sq m),
requiring the architects and engineers to incorporate the latest structural and architectural solutions in
skyscraper design for this 482-key hotel, the tallest all-hotel building on the planet.

Public Spaces
Since a hotel's architecture is often obscured and overwhelmed by its dense urban surroundings, the
entrance lobbies in downtown hotels must make bold statements and lasting impressions. More than
any other element, the lobby quickly sets the hotel's tone and ambience.
The grand hotels of the 1920s and 1930s saw dramatic swings in size and extravagance of their public
spaces. The original Waldorf=Astoria on Fifth Avenue was rendered obsolete by the Plaza Hotel when
it opened offering New York society its immense ballroom and its sumptuous palm court, parlors, and
lobbies. The New Netherland built in New York in 1926 during Prohibition avoided lavish public halls
and placed its emphasis on luxurious appointments in the private realms of guestrooms and suites where
many guests availed
Shanghai World Financial Center, Jin Mao Tower, and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai, China
Within a tight three-block area of downtown Shanghai, the three dueling skyscrapers each boast first-
class hotels as their crowning elements. In Gensler Architects' Shanghai Tower, the lobby of the J-Hotel
is located on the 101st floor of the building and the hotel itself includes 258 guest rooms within floors
84–110.
themselves of room service with bootleg trimmings. Then the new Waldorf=Astoria emerged on Park
Avenue in 1931 to reclaim the title as the “Unofficial Palace of New York,” as vast lobbies and
ballrooms returned en vogue.
In the late 1960s, Hyatt Regency Atlanta expanded on such historic models as San Francisco's Palace
Hotel and Denver's Brown Palace and set a new pace with its towering atrium offering a bold new
dramatic form for downtown hotel lobbies. With or without atriums the trend in the 1970s and early
1980s was for large impressive lobbies. That trend has taken on new dimensions with brands such as
Gaylord Hotels, where huge atriums cover acres of landscaped gardens and terraces and enclose a
wonderland of restaurants, lounges, shopping streets, and performance venues. In reaction to the
expense and perceived lack of warmth, many developers returned in the twenty-first century to more
intimate interior spaces
Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, Dallas, Texas
With 4.5 acres (1.8 hectares) of indoor gardens and winding waterways, the 1,500-room hotel boasts
over 400,000 sq ft (37,150 sq m) of flexible meeting space, including the 180,000 sq ft (16,700 sq m)
Longhorn Exhibit Hall. The hotel's 165 ft (50.3 m) high glass-framed atrium houses a San Antonio-
themed Riverwalk complete with replicas of the Alamo and other Spanish missions.
and focused interior budgets on high-quality materials, lighting and artwork to achieve the sense of
grandeur.

Planning Controls
A deciding factor in hotel location is very often the influence of city zoning regulations that regulate
use, density and bulk on any given development site. City guidelines may also offer zoning bonus or
tax incentive programs that are aimed at fostering the beneficial qualities a hotel brings to a
neighborhood. Zoning constraints can rule out a site for hotel development by not permitting transient
use, not allowing sufficient floor area to be built for the project to become feasible, requiring immense
amounts of parking, or through some other regulation that checkmates the developer's goals. For
example, one prime downtown site could not be developed as a hotel because, though city zoning
regulations required two loading berths based on the proposed size of the hotel, another regulation
prohibited curb cuts along the avenue frontage, thereby precluding the required loading dock and thus
preventing hotel development. In order to solve the dilemma the developer had to acquire an adjacent
parcel that fronted on another street that did allow curb cuts so that the hotel could build the required
truck docks.
Land values in urban areas are normally so high that development calls for building the maximum
allowable floor area that a site can bear. City planners regulate density in different areas of the city
based on the desire to keep the character of a neighborhood low-scale and residential or to encourage
large-scale development and high-rise construction. Density, therefore, is regulated by a formula
relating the area of the building lot with a density factor sometimes called floor area ratio or FAR. FAR
is a multiplier used to calculate the amount of floor area that can be built on the site. For instance, a site
of 10,000 sq ft with a mandated FAR on the site of 15 allows a maximum of 150,000 sq ft gross (10,000
× 15) of zoning floor area to be built above grade. (Cellars and sub-cellars usually are unlimited.) If that
turns out not to be enough area to make the hotel project fly, then other options may be available, such
as an FAR bonus or the purchase of air rights (also called unused development rights) from an adjacent
property owner. The New York City zoning map describes a theater sub-district that, in order to
encourage construction and renovation of theaters, provides a floor area bonus to developers who build
or renovate legitimate theaters in that district, in addition to building their own project.
City zoning regulations may also control the shape of the building in order to define view corridors,
street walls, and building height. But most often bulk regulations are aimed at preventing dark stagnant
streetscapes and are designed to permit light and air to penetrate down to street level and make it a
healthier environment. These

Kimpton Palomar, Chicago, Illinois

Shaping their design within the stringent regulations of the River North zoning district in the heart of
downtown Chicago, GREC Architects sculpted the Palomar's glass and concrete envelope with an array
of purposefully placed building setbacks in response to zoning requirements for sufficient light and air.
Notwithstanding the restrictive zoning constraints, the limited views caused by the adjacent American
Medical Association tower, and the miniature size of the property, the architects managed to incorporate
a great deal of building onto the site.
The Nines Hotel, Portland, Oregon
In converting the 1905 vintage Meier & Frank building in downtown Portland to The Nines Hotel,
SERA Architects worked closely with the Portland Development Commission in carefully maintaining
the building's historic character, allowing it to maintain its status on the National Register of Historic
Places (NRHP). The project won a National Preservation Award from the NRHP.
regulations are sometimes referred to as height and set-back rules and are best illustrated by New York
City's 1916 Zoning Resolution that prescribed specific set-backs from the street based on sun angle
studies. The result of that law defined the character of skyscraper design for decades to come, as
illustrated by the remarkable renderings of Hugh Ferriss. The Shelton Hotel, the world's tallest hotel
when built in 1923 with 34 floors and 1,200 rooms, was a beautifully proportioned response to 1916
zoning and set the tone for many of New York's great buildings of the 1920s and 1930s.
Use regulations can also have important ramifications in the design and development of hotels. Retail
continuity was a requirement for the New York Four Seasons, built on a fashionable shopping street.
According to the zoning regulation only 20 percent of the street frontage could be anything other than
retail use. Therefore, the hotel entrance became very narrow, contradicting the developer's wishes for
the hotel to have great presence on 57th Street. The architects, thus, were compelled to raise the lobby
to the second level above the stores that flanked the entrance.
Many cities now have commissions and agencies whose duty it is to oversee construction on or near
its historic buildings and landmarks. In many cases whole neighborhoods are designated landmark
districts so any new building must be scrutinized for its contextual appropriateness. Architects and
developers often must conduct exhaustive research and prepare convincing documentation to present to
the landmarks authority for approval before construction can begin. The degree to which faithful
reproduction of details and design is required usually depends on the value and status of the landmark
itself.

Site Factors
In any hotel development a survey of elements surrounding the site is as important as surveying the site
itself. The density of urban settings presents a multitude of special problems. Placing your entrance next
to an adjacent property's loading dock may be worse than putting it next to your own. Also, care should
be taken when locating close to a movie theater, where long ticket queues and exiting crowds may
disrupt your entrance. Some cities have regulations that prohibit alcoholic beverages being served
within a certain distance of a church or school, making a liquor license impossible to obtain. Due
diligence to avoid these types of surprises is essential.
Views add real value to a hotel property. Hotels routinely demand higher rates for rooms with great
views of the skyline, the waterfront, or a park than for those facing an adjacent office building.
Therefore, it is important to know about and even to predict where views will exist. It may govern
decisions on how high to build to assure that upper-floor specialty suites gain a spectacular view over
surrounding buildings. A developer may be faced with the economic decision to build a 40-story hotel
with 15 guestrooms per floor as opposed to a more efficient and less costly 20-story hotel with 30 keys
per floor. The added expense of building the taller structure must be weighed against the potential of
higher room rates for the added value of spectacular views and the intangible value of a more significant
presence on the city's skyline.
In designing a hotel in New York City, the developer and architects for the RIHGA Royal (now The
London Hotel) were aware of plans for a large bulky office tower directly across the street that would
limit views towards the south. In response they devised a system of bay windows so that every room
had views looking east and west. Similarly, sunlight and shadows are another consideration when
designing a hotel in the urban landscape. Whenever possible, roof terraces and main entrances should
be arranged to receive maximum sunlight.

Space Maximization
The density of urban sites requires much tighter control over matters of efficiency and layout. The
designer must make every square foot count to a degree not usually required in other hotel types such
as resorts and suburban hotels where space is not such a premium.
The James Hotel, SoHo, New York, New York
The locally popular rooftop venue, which accommodates up to 140 guests, is accessed from a separate
entrance on a side street in order to avoid interference with hotel operations. Careful engineering and
placement of rooftop mechanical systems was required in order to accommodate this exceptional
rooftop setting. A colossal flying beam encircles the pool deck, framing the outdoor terrace and
crowning the building with an architectural halo.
Where FAR limits the amount of area that can be built on a particular site and since cellars and sub-
cellars are usually excluded from FAR calculations, components of the hotel that do not require natural
light and air should be located below grade. This usually includes such back-of-house functions as
laundry, kitchen, storage, engineering, housekeeping, and employee areas, in addition to mechanical
spaces. Even executive offices, meeting rooms, and health clubs may be located below grade to allow
valuable floor area to be utilized for additional guestrooms. The high cost of excavation is offset by the
value added to the property by utilizing the allowable space for revenue-producing functions. The
Jumeirah Frankfurt utilized four subterranean levels for back-of-house and parking. The Chambers
Hotel in New York City needed to resort to leasing three levels beneath the sidewalk from the city in
order to fit their basic program into the hotel. There are locations where cellars are not possible, such
as New Orleans, where much of the city is below sea level and the water table is near the surface. Also,
many of the hotels around New York's Grand Central Terminal, such as the Biltmore and The
Waldorf=Astoria, were not able to utilize basement levels because the hotels were built above
subterranean railroad tracks.
A convention hotel presents a particular design challenge for a tight urban site in that the tower
columns and elevator core must be kept away from the clear-span ballroom. This generally means that
the site must be large enough to contain both elements independently, because otherwise enormous
structural gymnastics must be called upon to pick up and transfer the massive loads from the guestroom
tower to avoid columns in the ballroom. In many cases the use of huge transfer girders and mechanical
offsets are required in order to transfer tower columns and shear walls and to provide a feasible column
placement in the public areas of the hotel. It's all part of the expense of building downtown.
Fierce competition in many cities for the limited supply of developable hotel sites coupled with
extraordinary revenue growth due to increased room rates downtown has developers scrounging for all
types of odd-shaped sites. Brand standards often must be compromised or abandoned in order to adapt
to odd-shaped sites in dense urban settings. Today, hotels designed as narrow sliver buildings—tall
buildings wedged into small, mid-block sites—are on the upswing as large sites are increasingly scarce.
Located on a tiny corner site in SoHo near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, the 110-key guestroom
tower of The James Hotel is cantilevered over a multi-level podium that includes a third-floor sky lobby.
The lobby is accessed from a discrete ground-floor street entrance by a grand stair and glass-enclosed
elevator that passes through richly landscaped terraces and an urban garden.
Postage-stamp-sized sites combined with security concerns because of the overcrowded streets in
New York's Times Square have prompted several hotels in that area to raise their lobby above street
level. These hotels must necessarily employ additional reception staff at ground level to ensure that the
guests are greeted appropriately and ushered up to the lobby safely with their luggage and to prevent
unwanted sightseers from wandering in and out.

Traffic, Parking, and Service

Parking is less of a requirement in downtown hotels than in most other hotel types since there is an
abundance of public transportation and taxicabs and many of the city's great restaurants, museums, retail
stores, and office buildings are within walking distance of the hotel. Guests arriving at a city hotel very
often leave their cars parked for the entire stay, since driving on the city's congested streets and trying
to find parking is far less desirable than calling a cab, hopping on a bus, or using underground transit.
Many cities now discourage the construction of parking garages in order to encourage use of public
transportation, thereby cutting down on congestion and pollution. This presents a problem for new
hotels since a moratorium may exist on creating new parking. In fact, most city hotels lease parking
from a nearby facility and use valets to park the guest's car upon arrival. Where possible hotels should
provide 0.4 to 0.8 parking spaces per room in large cities, and 1.2 to 1.4 spaces in smaller cities where
guests rely more on their automobile.
Entrance courts and porte cochères are rare in dense urban settings. Exceptions include the New York
Hilton Hotel, with its block-long covered entry drive on the Avenue of the Americas, and The Ritz-
Carlton San Francisco on Nob Hill. The Grand Hyatt Tokyo at Roppongi Hills provides a spacious porte
cochère for the main lobby entrance beneath the overhang of a large circular volume containing banquet
rooms and a terrace overlooking the street. More common is a hotel drop-off zone where taxis and
limousines are permitted to stand in line for hotel customers; in some cities these drop-off zones require
a special permit. One important consideration when evaluating a site on a busy urban street is to make
note of bus stops, fire hydrants, and other features that could prevent the creation of a passenger drop-
off area for the hotel.
 While building signage is of utmost importance for many hotel types including roadside and
suburban lodgings that depend on recognition from a speeding automobile, in downtown locations the
building itself is often relied on for identification. Critics historically have feasted on hotel architects
who due to their lack of imagination in giving the building personality and identity resorted to large
signs at the top. However, it is critical for hotel restaurants, if they are to survive, to have some
identifying feature in the way of a sign, canopy, or marquee to identify the outlet for pedestrians; a
separate entrance to a restaurant in an urban hotel is a distinct advantage. Hotel restaurants do not share
the luxury of a captive audience that resort restaurants or even suburban and airport hotel restaurants
have. The city is full of great restaurants, many within walking distance, so the hotel restaurant must
compete at literally the same level, at street level. Without establishing a reputation by having a noted
chef or spectacular décor, a restaurant that is tucked away in the public areas of a hotel will be
compromised.
As indicated above, off-street loading docks are needed and frequently mandated in city hotels. The
problem that arises on tight urban sites is in locating the loading area with its odors and noise as far
away from the hotel entrance as possible. In the case of sites that front on more than one street, provided
that curb cuts are permitted, this shouldn't be difficult. One hotel in Times Square with enormous site
constraints opted for a 40 × 14 ft (12.2 × 4.2 m) hydraulic truck elevator that led to a sub-cellar loading
facility, which included a giant turntable so that the truck could back up to the underground dock.
Garbage collection presents many special challenges in an urban setting, not least of which is noise.
Because of traffic, collection is usually done in the middle of the night. Noise from the trucks may echo
back and forth off of surrounding buildings, frequently disturbing guests. Many luxury properties go to
the expense of providing high-quality sound-resistant window systems such as triple-glazing on lower
floors where ricocheting sonic energy is worst.

Back-of-house Efficiency
Back-of-house operations in downtown hotels present many challenges not usually encountered in other
hotel types where space is less constrained. Often relegated to cellars where valuable above-grade areas
are limited to guest use, many functions have to operate with clockwork-like precision to ensure that
services are provided to the guests in a timely and efficient manner. Following E. M. Statler's lead in
the back-of-house design of the earlier Buffalo Statler, Warren and Wetmore designed New York's
Biltmore Hotel in 1913 with excellent functional organization. Statler's theories on hotel organization
have withstood the test of time as architects such as William B. Tabler have advanced his approach,
improving on efficiency and economy in hundreds of hotels and widely influencing functional design.
Some hotel chains have resorted to centralizing off-site such back-of-house functions as the laundry,
operating several properties in a geographic region. This has proven of particular benefit to urban
properties where space can be recaptured and reassigned, freeing up floor area for much needed
administrative functions or allowing for additional function space or guestrooms.
Hilton centralized its laundry facility fora large region that included New York City, western
Connecticut, and northern New Jersey. This allowed many properties within the region to free up much-
needed space for back-of-house functions, administrative offices and, in some cases, additional
guestrooms and meeting space. Centralization of administrative functions such as accounting and
reservations may be possible through increased computerization and Internet capabilities.

Size
Following the introduction of elevators to hotels, Americans developed the large hotel in the mid-
nineteenth century while Europeans cherished their small hotels, resisting the construction of major
hotels over 500 rooms until well into the 1960s. Completing the circle in the 1990s, U.S. cities embraced
the boutique hotel by returning to a model that provides a European level of personalized service and
atmosphere (see Design Hotels, Chapter 3, pages 53–67).
The optimum-size hotel is often determined by “threshold” factors, or points beyond which:
•additional rooms are needed to offset the high land costs
•an extra elevator or second bank of elevators must be added
•an additional restaurant is needed
•the extra building height requires a more sophisticated structural system
•the added structural loads dictate more complex foundations
•another cooling tower, chiller, or boiler becomes necessary
•structured parking is needed.
But while such elements influence optimum sizing within a range of 50–100 rooms, they are relatively
minor factors when compared with the inherent administrative efficiency of small versus medium-and
large-size hotels.
Two hundred rooms is a threshold beyond which management begins to shift from a direct hands-on
style operation to a more intricate system of multiple department heads and assistant managers. In hotels
with fewer than 200 rooms, the management style can be more personal, with fewer supervisors
required, more productive and happier employees, better satisfied guests, and lower operating expenses.
Any economies of scale to offset this are not usually achieved until a size of 500–600 rooms is reached.
In other words, labor productivity peaks at 200 rooms, declines, and is not overtaken by size economy
until there are at least 500 rooms.
Note that among independent non-branded hotels, most are under 200 rooms. This proves their size
is basically efficient and profitable even without the marketing and reservation-system advantages of
the large chains. Moreover, large hotel restaurants tend to be overstaffed and have oversized, over-
equipped kitchens, while small hotels often lease out their restaurants to more effective individual
operators.
Chain-affiliated, limited-service properties under 200 keys are finding good occupancy rates and
healthy RevPAR (revenue per available room) in a formula that provides limited in-house food and
beverage (perhaps complimentary breakfast buffet and hors d'oeuvres and cocktails in the evening),
minor meeting space, and lower staff levels.
Although less efficient to manage, hotels in the 200–500 key range are often more convenient to
market and finance; for example, lending institutions often prefer to invest in two 500-room hotels in
different cities than in one more efficient 1,000-room facility, no matter how great the market demand.
But midsize hotels need to economize more on their capital costs to offset their lower efficiencies.
Conversely, the more optimum-size hotels can translate their superior profitability into more attractive
designs, whether an atrium or more elegant décor.

Guestrooms
The size of hotel guestrooms is difficult to quantify in the downtown context since there are so many
sub-types to consider: The adaptive reuse of office buildings may generate very deep room layouts;
design hotels often charge top dollar for small rooms; pod hotels provide minimal accommodations to
those on a tight budget; and even standard rooms at super-luxury hotels may be huge. (The Setai Fifth
Avenue boasts the largest rooms in Manhattan, the smallest over 450 sq ft or 42 sq m). Guestroom size
only becomes a constant in the major chains where the result is similar to the suburban hotel types.
Since the average length of stay and number of occupants per room are similar, guestroom sizes in
downtown hotels are equivalent to those in suburban and airport hotels. The basic 12.5 ft × 18 ft (3.8 ×
5.5 m) net living room dimension varies only within about 10 percent, based on special preferences of
owners or operators who believe a slightly larger room will give them a significant competitive
advantage. Experience has shown that a foot of width is less important in making the room seem larger
than a lighter color or other decorative scheme. For example, in the restoration of New York's
InterContinental Hotel, a mirrored wall was installed in one 11.5 ft (3.5 m) wide room. Most guests felt
the room was larger and preferred it to the standard 12.5 ft (3.8 m) wide guestroom.
While increased width provides minor additional space between the foot of the bed and the dresser,
this space does not allow for additional furniture, whereas increased length can provide for a larger
desk, extra chair, or convertible sofa. Also, increased width adds more cost than length, since it increases
structural spans,

YOTEL, New York, New York

Following the success of its airport properties the Yotel developers opened a hotel near Times Square
in New York City as part of a 1.2 million sq ft (111,484 sq m), 60-story LEED-Silver complex which
will include residential units and the Frank Gehry-designed Signature Theatre. Proffered as affordable
luxury with cutting-edge technology, the flagship Yotel urban property will feature a restaurant, bar,
meeting rooms, a club lounge, and the largest hotel terrace space in Manhattan.
slab thickness, non-saleable corridor area, and exterior façade. Therefore, lengthening the room is less
costly and more beneficial to the guest than widening it (see discussion on guestroom layout, Chapter
16).
No hotel prototype expresses the density and crowding issues faced by downtown hotels more than
the capsule hotels in Japan. The Japanese, whose population density is 10 times greater than that of the
United States, have a long history of inventing ingenious ways of utilizing minimal space. The primary
market for capsule hotels is young professionals who live in the outer suburbs of Tokyo where rent is
cheaper than in the city. Often kept late working or in meetings and dreading the long train ride home
only to turn around a few hours later to return, they frequently seek inexpensive overnight lodging.
Conveniently located near the railway stations these hotels can contain up to 1,000 units, or capsule
rooms. A capsule is a sleeping compartment, not unlike those found on trains, except they are usually
entered from one end rather than from the side. Approximately 6.75 ft (2.08 m) long by 3.5 ft (1.08 m)
wide by 3.5 ft (1.08 m) high, the molded plastic capsules are stacked two high along double-loaded
corridors. For 4,000 yen ($35) per night one can rent a private capsule equipped with a firm mattress,
TV mounted to the ceiling, radio, alarm clock, reading light with dimmer switch, mirror, corner shelf,
and controllable ventilation nozzle similar to those found on airlines. Men and women are placed on
separate
 Case Study
The Standard Hotel, New York, New York
Architect: ENNEAD Architects
Interior Designer: Roman and Williams
Located in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, an energized neighborhood just west of Greenwich
Village bordering on the Hudson River, the 18-story, 337-room Standard Hotel brings luxury and
panache to a rapidly developing part of New York. Once a light manufacturing district of nineteenth-
century warehouse buildings, the Meatpacking District recently transformed into a center of high
fashion, nightclubs, boutiques, gourmet restaurants, and high-end retail. The hotel literally straddles a
unique and very popular linear park converted from an abandoned 75-year-old elevated railroad line
known as the High Line which meanders north from Gansevoort Street to West 34th Street.
Hotelier extraordinaire Andre Balazs, creator of the Mercer Hotel in SoHo and the original Standard
in West Hollywood, California, engaged the services of his college friend Todd Shliemann, FAIA, of
Ennead Architects (formerly Polshek Partnership) to collaborate with interior designers Roman and
Williams and set designer Shawn Hausmann in the design of the hotel. Unique among owner-
developers, Balazs collaborated closely with the design team in establishing a program and design
vocabulary for the project. Andre Balazs Properties manages operations for the hotel along with six
other hotels in the Balazs portfolio.
The architects maximized the development potential of the site, located in a light industrial
manufacturing zone, by utilizing zoning incentives including a plaza bonus and by placing
administration offices and back-of-house functions below grade to avoid using the limited zoning floor
area (FAR) of approximately 200,000 sq ft (18,500 sq m). The design strategy called for leaving much
of the ground-floor area unbuilt by creating an open-air urban plaza as a forecourt to the hotel entrance.
The open-air seating areas of the ground-floor restaurants also do not count against the allotted floor
area. Like the older structures that were built over the railroad tracks decades earlier, zoning restrictions
only required that new construction over the elevated railway essentially be a box with a hole in the
middle to allow the tracks to pass through. Since the city's development of the High Line into a popular
public park, The Standard will likely be the last building permitted to span across it.
Situated at the collision of two distinct urban geometries, the Lower Manhattan street grid and the
non-orthogonal rail
line that cuts across it, the building form responds with its bent double-loaded slab perched on massive
concrete piers 57 ft (17 m) above the horizontally scaled industrial landscape. Drawing inspiration from
French architect Le Corbusier in works such as Unité d'Habitation in Marseilles, the composition is one
of rugged poured-in-place concrete supporting a delicate grid of super-clear water-white glass lifted
above the pedestrian zone by muscular pylons, allowing natural light to penetrate to the street. The
hotel's street-level restaurants reflect the neighboring historic warehouse buildings by use of reclaimed
brick, steel frame windows, and metal canopies surrounding an airy open plaza.
In planning the hotel Balazs programmed a large assortment of public spaces throughout the building,
continuing the long tradition of downtown hotels that serve as centers of city social life. The ground
floor includes a complex series of interlinked public venues, both outdoor and indoor. Guests enter the
hotel off the Grand Plaza through a day-glow yellow revolving door, arriving at an intimate reception
lobby with a mirrored ceiling and a continuous light strip that visually bisects the room. The Living
Room is an indoor-outdoor lobby lounge and bar off the front desk. The Standard Grill spills out onto
the Grand Plaza and Washington Street and includes a less formal bistro-type bar/grill area and a
separate more formal dining room. The Biergarten is a 4,000 sq ft (370 sq m) outdoor café tucked
beneath the High Line. The Wine Room is a tasting room accessible from the Standard Grille and
Biergarten. Opening onto the Biergarten, the Garden Room is a 1,250 sq ft (115 sq m) dividable event
space that can be leased for private parties.
On the second floor the High Line Room is a 1,400 sq ft (130 sq m) dividable meeting room with
high ceilings and wall-to-wall glass at both ends; one faces the river, the other faces the High Line. The
adjacent pre-function lobby opens to the 2,400 sq ft (220 sq m) High Line Terrace. The 18th floor
contains two flashy nightclub venues, so exclusive that neither is advertised on the hotel's website. The
Boom-Boom Room, a lavish party lounge with a spectacular bar, shares the floor with Le Bain, a bi-
level nightclub with a small indoor pool and access to an open-air rooftop lounge. The popularity of the
two clubs has created a challenge for hotel staff since long lines form in the lobby on club nights,
obstructing circulation for hotel guests. On crowded weekend nights management uses the service
elevator to transport club-goers, which brings another line through the back-of-house with its
predictable negative impact on room service. Newer hotels have learned to provide a dedicated elevator
and entrance lobby to such popular rooftop venues.
The 337 guestrooms and suites range in size from the Standard Queen at 250 sq ft (23 sq m) to the
Empire Suite at 875 sq ft (81 sq m). The typical guest floor is a variation on the double-loaded slab
configuration (see The Guestroom Floor, Chapter 15), with rooms on the south side oriented with the
long dimension open to more expansive views. Guestrooms have floor-to-ceiling windows and clear-
glass showers offering guests views of the city while bathing.
Most back-of-house and administration offices are located on the ground floor (loading dock on West
13th Street, employee entrance, housekeeping, and main kitchen) and in the basement (administration
offices, storage, and mechanical equipment).
floors; the public areas of the hotel usually include a cafeteria and a bathhouse with a communal pool,
both of which are open all night. This epitome of no-frills accommodation serves an important market
in a uniquely vibrant metropolis.
Following the model of the capsule hotel several new products offer similar, though somewhat larger,
accommodations in dense urban locations to serve much the same traveling market. New micro-brands
including Qbic, Trocadero, and Yotel, each opening its first properties at airports, have found a thriving
new market in urban settings such as New York's Times Square, London's Westminster, and
Amsterdam's World Trade Center. The market for affordable luxury lodging in dense urban locations
has yielded a formula blending elements of capsule hotel, luxury train cabins, and first-class airline
suites with boutique-style design and fashion.

Adaptive Reuse
The last few decades have seen a number of urban office buildings converted to hotels. Hotel chains
are showing strong interest in establishing new properties in downtown areas, but suitable sites for new
construction are scarce and expensive. At the same time, older office buildings are becoming
functionally obsolete and devalued in a competitive office-space market. Converting older office
buildings to hotels has proved to be an attractive development opportunity. In most cases the cost of
acquisition and renovation has been less than the cost of new hotel construction. The feasibility often
depends on several factors including zoning, building footprint, window spacing, building façade, floor-
to-ceiling height, and the structural system. (See Chapter 12 for more discussion on adaptive reuse.)

Sustainable Urban Hotels

No longer are environmentally responsible design principles and procedures for the hospitality industry
limited to eco-resorts. Developers and hotel companies are embracing sustainable principles for all
types of properties including urban hotels. The hospitality and travel industry is finding that ecological
responsibility both has marketing value and can actually boost profits. Many urban hotel properties seek
to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designation from the U.S. Green
Building Council by providing energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved
indoor environmental quality, better stewardship of resources, and greater sensitivity to their impacts.
Designed to become Marriott's first LEED Gold-certified property, the environmentally focused
Ritz-Carlton in Charlotte, North Carolina, features a green roof vegetated with 18,000 plants which
insulates the building, slows rain runoff, and cools the air through evaporation of water. In addition, the
hotel utilizes a water purification and container system that will divert 73,000 plastic bottles from
landfills, save more than 104 barrels of oil, eliminate nearly 49 tons of CO2 emissions, and save almost
605 million BTUs of electricity each year.

W Minneapolis-The Foshay, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Once the tallest building west of the Mississippi, the Foshay Tower, built in 1929, was modeled after
the Washington Monument. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Minneapolis
Heritage Preservation Commission as a designated landmark, the building has been converted to a
stylish W Hotel. The relatively small footprint permitted an easy adaptation to hotel, with 10 rooms per
floor at the lower level and two suites per floor at the apex.
Meydan Grandstand and Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Curving around the racetrack with single-loaded corridors, all 290 rooms and suites in the hotel enjoy
an unobstructed view of the races. The expansive hotel incorporates high-end restaurants, the Meydan
Museum and Gallery, a spa, an IMAX theater, and the Meydan Marina.

Urban Entertainment Hotels

Personifying the theatricality of the “Great White Way,” the Astor Hotel built in Times Square
in 1904 was a vast amusement palace with early themed restaurants, elaborate banquet halls
and a famous rooftop wintergarden that brought a festive presence to Broadway. The Astor was
a rousing forerunner of downtown entertainment hotels whose lobby included many theatrical
and thematic elements, the most dazzling of which was the Orangerie, a restaurant with
amazing scenographics and lighting effects that provided guests with a virtual apparition of the
Mediterranean. Hot summer nights in New York City rendered the un-airconditioned
Broadway theaters so uncomfortable that many closed their doors for the season. Outdoor
performances, however, were staged in the cool night air of the outdoor rooftop theater of the
Astor Hotel wintergarden. The wintergarden roof was encircled in sparkling lanterns adorning
the building's cornice line and presenting a spectacle to merrymakers of the night, foretelling
the glittering light show that plays today in Times Square.
Entertainment as a focus market for a downtown hotel can take many forms including music,
art, gaming, sports, museums, theater, cinema—even high-tech virtual interactive media.
Accommodations for such a wide variety depend on the nature of the entertainment venue
being offered. Hotels near sporting events, such as the SkyDome Renaissance Hotel in Toronto,
actually orient guestrooms' views to the playing field. Or at the Meydan Grandstand and Hotel
in Dubai guestrooms are oriented to views of the horse-racing track below.
Hotel public spaces often actually contain the entertainment venue. The public spaces of the
21c Museum Hotel in Louisville

21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky

The hotel itself is a giant interactive work of art, using its guests as obligatory participants. The
urinal in the men's public restroom faces the clear side of a two-way mirror that is cleverly
placed in the hallway leading to the women's restroom, where women often stop to fix their
hair or make-up in the reflection, not knowing what stands on the opposite side.
Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel, Pudong, Shanghai, China
Architect Arata Isozaki designed the podium of the Himalayas Center as an “organic forest,”
with amorphous concrete pillars that mimic trees and form an open 103 ft (31.4 m) high central
court connecting the box-shaped retail and hospitality wings.
Hard Rock Hotel, Chicago, Illinois
The hotel is housed in the historic Carbide and Carbon Building in the heart of downtown on
Michigan Avenue. Designed in 1929 by the sons of famed Chicago architect Daniel Burnham,
the 40-story Art Deco landmark is appropriately shaped like a champagne bottle, with a
terracotta exterior corresponding to the green glass bottle and an illuminated golden tower
alluding to the shiny foil top.
Hard Rock Hotel, Macau, China.
Occupying a circular tower reminiscent of a stack of vinyl records, the Hard Rock Hotel and
Casino Macau is part of the City of Dreams Casino and Entertainment Resort Complex located
on the Cotai Strip in Macau, China. Designed by Arquitectonica as part of a complex of four
hotel towers, the Hard Rock Hotel sits above a mega-casino, a major high-end retail venue
called the Boulevard, and two state-of-the-art high-definition multi-media theaters providing
incredible sound and explosive visual effects.
immerse its hotel guests and other visitors in a plethora of artistic installations that often entice
the guest to interact. On the floor next to the front desk a video-art installation
called Sleepers projects a life-size video stream of a man and woman sleeping in bed. The
position of the image is such that the guest must partially stand on the bed when checking in;
guests often are startled when one of the sleepers turns over or adjusts their pillow.
 As part Himalayas Center, a cultural and entertainment complex designed by Arata Isozaki
in the heart of Pudong Shanghai, the Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel, incorporates the
“edutainment” mission of the project throughout its public spaces. The lobby has a ceiling
height of 52.5 ft (16 m) and features the “Thousand Character Essay,” a spectacular display of
1,000 Chinese characters that tells a 5,000-year-old story of Chinese cultural evolution.
Few hotel companies are more purely dedicated to the art of entertainment than the Hard
Rock Hotel brand. The venture started as Hard Rock Café, opening restaurants in London, New
York, and Las Vegas with authentic rock-and-roll memorabilia adorning its walls and ceilings
and thumping drums and electric guitar riffs filling the air. With “party hard” as its mantra, the
creators soon realized that its customers could use a place to crash after dinner and drinks and
so expanded the concept to include Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos. Today, the party never
ends, and no one has to go home.
Urban Waterfront Hotels
The first hotels in North America were seaport inns located in the harbor districts of cities along
the Atlantic coast. During colonial times before the increase in travel by stagecoach, private
carriage, and horseback that resulted in the construction of inns and taverns along the post
roads, ships from Europe were the most important means of travel and seaport inns catered to
the needs of intercontinental travel and commerce.
In the world's seafaring towns waterfronts have long been utilized for commerce relating to
waterborne foreign trade. Technological developments in the shipping industry such as
containerization coupled with expansion of trucking on the interstate highway system rendered
obsolete many port-city waterfront dock neighborhoods that depended on overseas maritime
commerce for their prosperity. Urban renewal efforts now seek to reclaim the city's waterfronts
for recreation and leisure-time enjoyment. Waterfronts in many ways have become the city's
last frontier. New York City alone has 578 linear miles (930 km) of waterfront, most of it
inaccessible or underutilized.
Developers and designers of downtown waterfront hotels maximize the potential of their
unique sites by addressing opportunities for expansive views, shoreline access, proximity to
water transportation, a dominating presence on the skyline, historic vistas, and the
overwhelming sensation of being connected to a larger world. Often such hotels find
synergistic benefit from being part of a complex of waterfront development such as the
Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver, Canada, adjacent to Canada Place including Vancouver's
Cruise Ship Terminal, the World Trade Center, and the Vancouver Conference and Exhibition
Center.
Waterfront properties provide ample opportunity to arrange hotel public spaces to take
advantage of the spectacular views
Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel, Vancouver, Canada.
With unobstructed views of the north Shore Mountains, Stanley Park, and Coal Harbour, guests
are treated to the vistas that have transfixed travelers since Captain Vancouver arrived in 1792.
Hyatt Regency, Dusseldorf, Germany (facing page, top)
Set on a dominant promontory in trendy Media Harbor, which spills into the Rhine River, the
Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf is afforded unobstructed visibility while achieving a commanding
presence on the city's waterfront. Linked by a pedestrian bridge to the opposite side of the
harbor, the hotel's public spaces pour out onto a festive public plaza at the tip of the headland,
with views of the Old Town and the Rheinturm telecommunications tower.
Nhow Hotel, Berlin, Germany (facing page, bottom)
Built right up to the banks of the river and fitting with the surrounding industrial-style dockside
buildings, the hotel, designed by NPS Tchoban Voss Architects, is composed of two U-shaped
blocks, forming terraces at the second level opening to views over the water and crowned with
a three-story cantilevered section conveying the image of a “crane house,” echoing Berlin's old
city port area. The entire overhanging soffit of the cantilevered section is a huge polished
mirror, creating a dazzling visual effect reflecting the colorful river terrace below.
Abu Dhabi Mirage Hotel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Changki Yun's nautically themed design for this urban marina hotel is composed of three
buildings: the residential hotel that faces the city, the marina hotel that has an artificial
beachfront, and the marina club located in the inner cove of the resort. The bridge that connects
the two hotel wings contains a presidential suite and the lower deck connects them to the
observation tower.
and refreshing breezes on the shoreline. The architects for Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf took
advantage of its site on a promontory of the Rhine River by designing its lobby and restaurants
to open out onto a festive public plaza at the tip of the headland.
To maximize the expansive views the orientation of the guestroom tower should allow for
most of its rooms to have at least a partial view towards the water. The wedge-shaped footprint
of the W Barcelona tower orients nearly all of its guestrooms toward views of the
Mediterranean Sea. Likewise, the guestroom floors of the Nhow Hotel on the River Spree in
Berlin is configured as a double-U plan, providing its rooms with views out across the old city
port area.
Urban hotels on the waterfront can offer guests amenities that are not available at inland
properties, such as waterfront cafés, boat rentals, water taxis and beaches. Korean architect
Changki Yun's design for the Abu Dhabi Mirage Hotel includes a marina club, a floating
theater, a cruise terminal, an artificial beach, a sailing school, and glass floating suites.
 Case Study
W Hotel Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Architect and Interior Designer: Ricardo Bofill, Taller de Arquitectura

Few urban hotels embrace and exploit their position on the waterfront as well as the W
Barcelona. Nearly every significant feature of the hotel is designed by renowned Spanish
architect Ricardo Bofill to capitalize on its superb coastal site overlooking the Mediterranean
Sea.
Located at the new entrance to Barcelona Harbor on a 25 acre (10 hectare) plot reclaimed
from the sea, the hotel is part of an ambitious urban renewal plan for Barcelona's coastline. The
iconic tower is sited at the beginning of the world-famous boardwalk, La Barceloneta, that
connects the hotel and the Olympic Village. The closest beach to Barcelona's city center,
Barceloneta Beach, was featured on a popular travel TV program as the “Best Urban Beach in
the World.”
The sail-shaped tower mast of the hotel is pushed to the edge of the sea and clad in a silvery
glass curtain wall reflecting the motion of blue ocean waves and colorful sky. With its
commanding presence against Barcelona's magnificent waterfront and skyline, the slender 26-
story guest tower is set perpendicular to the dock and shoreline affording virtually every
guestroom unlimited views of the sea and city. The guestroom floor corridors and elevator
lobbies are provided with floor-to-ceiling windows framing spectacular views. The Bofill
design team chose red stucco walls and carpet for the corridors to contrast and enhance the rich
blue of the water below. The guestrooms are designed with the bed floating in the middle of
the room facing the window. Efficient use of guestroom space is sacrificed for dramatic effect.
W Barcelona
 The tower volume is wrapped on the dock side by a low-slung podium containing the hotel
public spaces and forming two expansive terraces overlooking the water. Awash with reflected
light from the sparkling water, the hotel lobby and public spaces open out onto these sunny
piazzas. One wall of the hotel's largest ballroom is constructed of floor-to-ceiling glass
providing a spectacular maritime backdrop for banquets and conferences.

Urban Super-luxury Hotels

One day a guest [at The Ritz Hotel Paris] demanded sea-urchins for dinner, or she would leave the hotel on the spot—
unfortunately, sea-urchins were completely out of season at that time of year. Charles, the room-service maître d'hôtel, put in
a call to an independent fisherman on the Côte d'Azur. Once the precious sea food was tracked down, Charles laid on an air-
taxi to fly the consignment up to Paris. A short while later, ushered in by the maître d'hôtel wearing a mischievous smile, the
entire room-service team paraded into the room bearing a dozen sea-urchins on a bed of crushed ice.
(From Ritz Hotel Paris archives)

Impeccable service, urbane management, sumptuous décor, and elegant architecture are the
hallmarks of a rare breed of small superluxury

Growing Affluence and the Diversity of Luxury

Stephen Perkins, AIA, ISHC
ForrestPerkins
Washington, DC
In the middle of the Indian Ocean, Four Seasons Maldives operates three luxury destinations: Landaa
Giraavaru, Kuda Huraa and the luxury dive ship, the 40-meter Four Seasons Explorer. Out there, Four
Seasons has bet on a location that could be easily swept away by the rising oceans of global warming.
But more importantly, Four Seasons has bet on the insatiable travel aspirations of its guests. The settings
are unique, but the high standards are the same with regard to spa, cuisine, and service. On balance,
Four Seasons has created learning and conservation programs in the Maldives, and has vigorously
pursued an ecologically-sensitive approach to its operations that also become part of the allure of its
unique offerings.
 In the early twenty-first century, as in the late nineteenth century, global transportation has inspired
the affluent to go wherever they want and to stay as comfortably as they could stay practically anywhere
in the world. The means to travel luxuriously is equally met by the means to luxuriate in seamless and
boundless comfort in an unbroken chain of service whenever and wherever.
The difference between then and now is that today the traveler is as likely to be an affluent Turk,
Russian, Chinese, Indian, or Brazilian as an American or Western European. The globalization of
affluence has changed not only the patterns of luxury consumption, but also its language and desires.
The modern, and in many cases, newly affluent traveler is as likely to explore those historic sites that
have intrigued travelers for centuries as he or she is to look for the unique travel experience for which
access may only be gained by that same affluence.
For centuries purveyors have packaged unique experiences, whether for adventure, romance, or
natural beauty. Now those desires are fueled by an Internet-charged fire hose of information, largely in
English, that allows the affluent traveler to search both broadly and specifically for types of lodging,
and indeed, the luxury chain of unique travel experiences that cohere transportation, lodging, shopping,
and highly exclusive access to rare experiences. It is this constellated chain of exclusive experiences
that will increasingly attract the affluent traveler.
As affluence spreads around the world, the desire for a luxury travel and lodging experience will
begin to generate much larger demand than any ever experienced before. The globalization of affluence
will also result in a wide array of narrowly-focused opportunities to meet the growing passion for luxury
travel. The difference in the future is that these opportunities will be increasingly enjoyed at a scale
which may seem burdensome to those seeking the quiet and solitary enjoyment of rare beauty or the
exhilarating thrill of physical challenge.
In 2011, 57 million Chinese tourists were expected to travel abroad and spend approximately U.S.$55
billion. In future years, large numbers of Indians and Africans will seek the novel experience that has
driven travel for thousands of years. The challenge will be the protection of the novel and the
accommodation of numbers almost unimaginable in our time. The risk of environmental degradation is
high and, indeed, the spoiling of those attractions that generate travel will require national protections
to ensure both their long-term life as well as the viability of the tourism industry.
As the unique becomes mundane, luxury entrepreneurs will test the limits of the imagination and the
resources of those most able to enjoy the rarefied experience of sub-sea or space tourism. In the near-
term, the quest for the rare solitary luxury-travel experience will likely be met by Sir Richard Branson's
Virgin Galactic, a sub-orbital space flight available to six luxury astronauts aboard the Spaceship Two.
At a cost of U.S.$200,000 and booked through Virgin Galactic or Accredited Space Agents,
approximately 430 astronauts have signed up for space tourism.
Underwater, the growth of submarines and the abilities to inhabit the vast and largely unexplored
majesty of the shallow and deep will become attractive destinations for those seeking a unique and
memorable—and expensive—holiday.
The affluent traveler will always seek the unique, and with a greater diversity of travelers seeking
ever-unique experiences, fragile landmarks and ecosystems must be protected from the threat of
overuse. Affluent travelers are emboldened to excuse their zeal for the exceptional in all things
pleasurable. And, given the heightened numbers of these travelers, national interests may require federal
protection to preserve the experiences for posterity.
hotels that uniquely caterto royalty, foreign dignitaries, captains of industry, celebrities, and cultural
leaders. The most prestigious major chains have endeavored for decades to emulate, but have rarely
been able to accomplish, the sophisticated charm and posh accommodations of the world's most
exclusive closely-managed hotels. Such hotels provide a private world of rare and refined beauty where
the art of personal service is practiced with efficiency and aplomb.
 As with any hotel which provides a high level of personalized service, the virtues and reputation of
super-luxury hotels largely are dependent on the management style of the hotel owner and staff. The
owner often is very well known to the hotel's elite clientele and a copy of the managing director's
impressive resume sometimes can be found in the literature describing the most important features of
the property. But, most often, the leading force on which the style of service is defined is by the ever-
resourceful concierge. Erudite and multilingual, the concierge commands a carefully selected, highly
trained professional staff to fulfill any guest requirement, no matter how capricious, with verve and
flare. For example, a concierge in one deluxe hotel was called upon to shop for and deliver an elaborate
stereo system to the room of a famous conductor, who needed to rehearse for an upcoming performance.
It is not uncommon to find the staff at these hotels outnumbering guests by three to one. Some super-
luxury hotels provide 24-hour personal butlers who, in addition to the more mundane duties of packing
and unpacking luggage, or drawing baths, might be called upon to hand-deliver an important document
across town, have a suit tailored for an important meeting, iron newspapers to prevent ink from rubbing
off, or provide a stenographer for dictation at two o'clock in the morning. In addition to a personal
butler, one European hotel provides its guests with a chauffeured Bentley.
Of course, the management staff must keep a detailed dossier on the predilections and idiosyncrasies
of all repeat guests so that they know, for instance, that one guest sleeps until noon and must have a
very quiet room shielded from morning sunlight, or that another requires a special brand of pet food for
her temperamental cat.
Perhaps the most important aspect of super-luxury accommodation is the privacy, discretion, high-
level security, and inconspicuous service sought by its most distinguished and prestigious clientele.
“Our staff knows when it's appropriate to introduce two heads of state, or when they should blend into
the Aubusson rugs,” says Dan Camp, president and managing director of The Carlyle in New York
City.

Design Considerations
Most super-luxury hotels derive much of their opulent character from the superb historical buildings
they occupy. In fact, many such as the Hotel de Crillon in Paris and Hotel Danieli in Venice inhabit
national landmarks.
Occupying a magnificent Renaissance palace—the fifteenth-century Palazzo della Gherardesca—
and a beautiful former convent building—the sixteenth-century Conventino—the Four Seasons Firenze
is set within a lavish 11 acre (4.5 hectare) private garden, Giardino
Four Seasons Firenze, Florence, Italy
The public spaces of the palazzo are replete with frescoes, bas-reliefs, stuccoes, and silk wallpapers, all
carefully restored to bring forth their original vivid detail. The courtyard lobby is surrounded by
porticoes and barrel vaults, decorated with a coffered ceiling comprising thousands of painted sunken
panels. Each of the hotel's 117 guestrooms and suites is unique in dimension and character, with original
friezes and fireplaces, skylights and staircases, ceiling art, and antique stoves.

Aman Hotel, New Delhi, India

The super-lux urban resort is spread over 7 acres (2.8 hectares) with two sandstone-clad wings: the
nine-story Aman wing, with 31 rooms and 8 two-bedroom suites, and the five-story Lodhi wing, with
14 suites and 7 three-bedroom suites. The organization of the public spaces frames a long courtyard
with water, columns, and jaali screens referencing the traditional Mughal architecture surrounding the
hotel.
della Gherardesca, in the heart of Florence. It took seven years of painstaking restoration to create this
stunning property which is as much a living art museum as it is a hotel. The developers hired interior
designer Pierre Yves Rochon along with architects Studio Noferi and Magris & Partners to restore this
opulent complex and convert it to a hotel masterpiece of unparalleled opulence. The meticulous
restoration was carried out under the watchful eye of Florence's Superintendent for Artistic Historical
Patrimony, the Ministry for Fine Arts and Culture, and the Department of Fine Arts.
 Case Study
Andaz Shanghai Hotel and The Langham Xintiandi Hotel, Shanghai, China
Architect: KPF Architects
Associate Architect: Leigh & Orange
Interior Designers: Remedios Siembieda and Super Potato

Perhaps no two hotels more clearly demonstrate the distinction in design and service to the luxury
leisure and business traveler than Andaz Shanghai Hotel and The Langham Xintiandi Hotel. The 309-
room Andaz Hotel appeals to leisure travelers through its resort-style amenities, such as a rooftop
wedding chapel and nightclub. Alternatively the 357-room Langham Hotel accommodates business
travelers, offering meeting rooms, atrium lounge, and international dining selections.
Located in the award-winning and highly successful Xintiandi redevelopment district, the leisure-
oriented Andaz Shanghai and the business-oriented Langham Xintiandi are connected by a dramatic
curving pedestrian bridge that spans over Huangpi Road, which separates the two towers. With the
project as centerpiece of a larger redevelopment project in downtown Shanghai, the developers of
Xintiandi's North Block sought to celebrate the city's past while, through selective demolition and
modern interventions, incorporating it with the commercial realities of contemporary urban living.
Recognizing the value of its historic character the developers of Xintiandi reinvigorated a declining
community with its 1920s gray-brick townhouses and carved-stone gates, in collaboration with the local
Lu Wan District government and a consortium of banks to breathe new life into the neighborhood.
The original developer for the hotel project sought approval from city officials for a pedestrian bridge
connecting the two hotels as the original plan called for both hotels to be under one management
company, thereby permitting shared amenities and services. The city approved and, in fact, encouraged
more bridges as city planners sought to expand the substantial underground network in central Shanghai
with level-2 pedestrian connectivity. There were plans to have another bridge between the Andaz and a
retail building to its south. The idea was to create a pedestrian network lifting pedestrian circulation
above busy vehicular traffic, emulating the pedestrian network in Central Hong Kong that covers 4.3
miles (7 km) and connects 40 buildings. Ultimately it was determined that in the Xintiandi district
ground-level circulation was far more important and so the network of bridges connecting this project
was cancelled. The developer, however, having obtained approval for the bridge, decided to keep it
even though it was decided that the two hotels would now be operated by two competing hotel
companies. The bridge encouraged a dynamic synergy that benefited both hotels, linking the leisure-
oriented public spaces of the Andaz with the business-focused function spaces of The Langham on level
2. Symbolically the bridge had value since it increased long-distance visibility of the project at street
level.
 The two hotels stand over 325 ft (100 m) tall with 79 ft (24 m) high podiums containing lobbies,
restaurants, fitness centers, retail and meeting space. The challenge for the architects was to orient the
towers to the smaller-scale two- and three-story buildings to the south. Like the 1920s townhouses the
towers are clad with gray stone with fenestration patterns fashioned after Chinese latticework. The mass
of the project steps down on the south to a grouping of two-story retail pavilions tempering the contrast
in scale and density. The composed massing of the two towers is reminiscent of two sisters, graceful
young ladies of the 1920s that strolled Shanghai's streets in pairs, symbolically holding hands through
the bridge.
 Far more rare, however, than historic restorations or adaptive renovations are hotels of this high
stature designed as new buildings. Located in the heart of the city, the Aman New Delhi provides a
superb example of cool contemporary architecture supporting superior luxury hotel service in an urban
setting. Combined with an exceptional level of service, the hotel design promotes an air of sophisticated
calm combining the privacy and exclusivity expected by Aman guests with the varied public facilities
and social engagement demanded in a contemporary city hotel.

Public Spaces
Entrance lobbies most often are elegantly small and distinctly residential in character. Registration may
occur at a small front desk or, sometimes, at private desks where the guest is invited to be seated. At
The Carlyle, located in New York City's most exclusive residential area and for many years the only
five-star hotel in the city, a quiet side entrance away from the hustle and bustle of Madison Avenue
leads visitors into a luxuriously intimate lobby that feels more like the entry hall of a stately home than
the center of a busy hotel. From the understated elegance of the hotel lobby guests may enter the Gallery
for afternoon tea, have drinks in the renowned Bemelmans Bar, with its 1940s murals by Ludwig
Bemelmans, or find top-name entertainment served up at Café Carlyle, well known among New York's
elite as the premier cabaret room in the country.

Guestrooms
In developing the New York Regent hotel, later the New York Four Seasons, over a million dollars
were spent on the construction of fully detailed guestroom mock-ups that were torn apart and rebuilt
several times in perfecting the design. Early in this process the decision was made to extend the floor-
to-floor height of the building to yield 10.5 ft (3.2 m) ceiling heights for every room, and to bear the
exponential construction cost increase to achieve this grand scale. The rooms were equipped with
bedside controls allowing the guest to open and close the drapes, turn on a discreet privacy sign, or call
for maid service at the push of a button.
Bathrooms in many luxury properties now exceed one third of the overall room size. The recent
renovation of a hotel in Beverly Hills, California, reduced the number of guestrooms from 253 to 184,
primarily to increase the size of the bathrooms. Ultra-luxury bathroom design may now include
multiple-head showers with 10-button controls and automatic temperature settings, marble vanity with
two porcelain basins and brass fittings, heated fog-free mirrors, a deep cast-iron soaking tub with
adjustable hand spray, three-stage mood lighting including a reading light over the tub and toilet, remote
control TV with steam-free screen, “hands-free” two-line speaker phone with special digital circuits
that minimize the sound of running water and automatically lower the volume of the radio or TV when
a call comes in, a compartmentalized water closet, heated marble floors, heated towel bars, heated toilet
seats, and bidets with hot-air drying functions. Specialty suites may offer deep whirlpool baths with
windows facing
Burj al Arab, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The lavishly decorated 8,400 sq ft (780 sq m) duplex two-bedroom royal suite on the 25th floor includes
a private elevator, a private cinema, a library, a rotating four-poster canopy bed, a marble and gold
staircase, leopard-print tufted carpets, and Carrara marble floors. The suite comes with a chauffeur-
driven Rolls-Royce and private helicopter service.
out onto a spectacular view. But for all the bells and whistles, the most prized luxury item—and
sometimes the most expensive to build—is good water pressure, a feature that is harder to achieve in
new-build projects because of new regulations on water-saving devices and low-flow requirements.
This is not a problem for the Four Seasons Hotel New York, which has to “warn” its guests that the
deep soaking tub fills in less than 60 seconds.

Back-of-house
The design of the New York Four Seasons called for staff to take the guest's luggage upon arrival into
a special luggage elevator adjacent to the entrance, carry it to a room in the sub-cellar where it was
tagged and logged into the computer, and then transport it by high-speed service elevator to the
guestroom before the guest entered the room.
Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, India
Inspired by the majestic palaces of Rajasthan, architects Nimish Patel and Parul Zaveri of Abhikram
created a luxurious masterpiece based on the rich heritage of the Mewar region with its domed pavilions,
rambling courtyards, gentle rippling fountains, reflection pools, and verdant gardens.
The Four Seasons went through over 50,000 resumes and selected only one staff member for every
10 that were invited to be interviewed. Highly prized as they are, facilities for the staff in super-luxury
hotels most often are on a level well above employee facilities in other hotel types. Super-luxury hotels
pamper their employees not only to foster a sense of loyalty but to create a feeling of high esteem
commensurate with the behavior and attitude required in delivering first-class service. Employee
lockers, showers, dining rooms, and lounges are often 1.5 to 2 times larger than those of less luxurious
establishments and are treated as part of the hotel's basic décor rather than given the usual sterile finishes
found in most back-of-house facilities.
Security and privacy continue to be essential features of super-luxury hotels and technological
advances will produce ever more sophisticated systems. Such high-tech systems as electronic door locks
that alert security upon entry of a room, surveillance cameras, and window sensors add to the guest's
peace of mind.
In one London hotel, state-of-the-art electronic heat and motion sensors are wired from each room
into the butler's pantry—a space somewhat closer to Mission Control. The butler knows whether guests
are in their room so he won't disturb their privacy but is always close at hand to answer a call. In
addition, the electronic key systems permit the butler to coordinate with housekeeping, engineering,
and other hotel services to prevent guests from being disturbed.
Le Royal Monceau Raffles, Paris, France
Philippe Starck's sophisticated, irreverent design approach, with his use of bold color,
unexpected materials and textures, and idiosyncratic high-quality custom furniture, completely
transformed Le Royal Monceau, helping it regain its popularity with artists and celebrities.

CHAPTER
3
Design Hotels

For the purpose of this chapter we will use the term “design hotels” to encompass the wide range of
hotel types that are most frequently referred to as boutique hotels, lifestyle hotels and design hotels.
Later in this chapter we will discuss the somewhat minor differences perceived between these three
labels but for the sake of simplicity, unless discussing those differences, the term “design hotels” will
be used for all three.
With the explosive popularity of design hotels over the last three decades there has been somewhat
of a feeding frenzy within the industry as hundreds of new properties lay claim to the design hotel
characterization, a number of design hotel chains have emerged, established hotel companies have
entered the fray with their own design hotel brands, and established design hotel brands have expanded
their range dramatically. Developers have realized the uncontested fact that, just as Madison Avenue
ad agents discovered in the 1950s with sex-appeal, “design” sells. This phenomenon has spread to nearly
all segments of the hospitality industry and we find incredibly interesting and unique design showing
up at airport hotels, mixed-use projects, office-park hotels, ski resorts, casino hotels, marina hotels, etc.
This chapter will limit the scope to those hotels whose most salient characteristic is a dedication to
immersing the guest in a world of exquisite and interesting design featured both in its architectural
innovations and unique interiors.
Hotels have been trendsetters in design and lifestyle for centuries. The grand hotels of the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries featured a very high level of individualistic interior and exterior design. The
list of historic hotels that featured extraordinary and provocative design as a fundamental component
would include The Ritz in Paris, The Vendome in Boston, The Savoy in London, The Waldorf=Astoria
in New York, The Breakers in Palm Beach and The Del in San Diego, to name but a few.
During the post-war days of the 1950s, standardization of products and services began to emerge and
hotel brands and chains became the prevalent trend in the United States and Europe. This trend was
epitomized by the famous line from Holiday Inn founder Kemmons Wilson when he coined the slogan:
“The best surprise is no surprise.”
In reaction to the mediocrity and dreary uniformity of conventional hotel design, a few innovative
developers in the 1980s realized that unique and provocative architecture and design could be a very
fertile marketing asset. Anouska Hemple with her exotic Blakes Hotel in London, Ian Schrager and
Steve Rubell with the ground-breaking Morgans Hotel in New York City, and Bill Kimpton with the
trend-setting Bedford Hotel in San Francisco were the early pioneers of this genre. A substantial market
was discovered for fashion-minded travelers seeking an atmosphere in which they could enjoy an
artistic lifestyle: a setting that immersed them in the avant-garde where they could feel they belonged
to a community of insiders whose taste was impeccable.
With Morgans, arguably the progenitor of the species, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell transformed a
seedy hotel in an unstylish midtown location into a lodging that attracted movie stars, entertainment
moguls, models, and designers. With designer Philippe Starck, Royalton and The Paramount soon
followed in Manhattan, and some years later, Los Angeles' Mondrian and Miami Beach's Delano.
Schrager and Rubell were able to address this untapped market by instilling in their lodging properties
the same theatrical magic and glamorous mystique that succeeded for them at their legendary nightclub,
Studio 54. Like Studio 54, these properties depended on hip cachet and chic renown for their popularity.

More Than a Place to Sleep

Ian Schrager
Chairman
Ian Schrager Hotels
New York, New York
I believe that the hotel business has become predictable, banal, conformist, marbleized, and
computerized—it is too generic and has descended to a commodity business. The only
opportunity for distinguishing your product from another company's product is on price, like
all commodities. The industry has lost touch with its customers. Its traditions and formulas
have become outdated. We have the same dislocation and void in the market as twenty-five
years ago when my late partner, Steve Rubell, and I reacted to cultural shifts that were emerging
at the time and conceptualized Morgans, the first boutique hotel. There was a huge opportunity
to create a new genre of hotel that could not be pigeon-holed into a specific and traditional
business classification. There is something wrong when you stay at a hotel in Los Angeles and
it is exactly the same hotel as when you go to London or Miami. A hotel should have a sense
of time and place, and that was our opportunity. There hadn't been a new idea in the hotel
business, I think, since Statler invented the modern hotel room a century ago and Portman
developed the atrium hotel fifty years ago.
Boutique or lifestyle hotels have become trivialized by their explosive growth. The industry
has created a Frankenstein. The idea behind the boutique hotel, as I saw it, was meant to touch
people emotionally and viscerally and offer guests a truly unique experience. The idea has been
lost with the huge number of watered-down versions we have today. I want to bring it back in
an updated version and elevate it to a cultural experience for the modern-day traveler. These
travelers now expect truly unique experiences and not merely a place to sleep.
My new venture, PUBLIC, is a new breed of hotel. Its fundamental attributes are an
innovative, sophisticated, and authentic style; personalized, empathic, and “essential” service
that makes people feel special; lasting comfort with complete functionality; all at a tremendous
value. For the first time, this type of hotel experience will be available to everyone and anyone
who wants it. What is unusual is that it is inclusive, rather than exclusive. I have taken the best
from the luxury segment, the best from the boutique/lifestyle set, and the best from the limited-
service model and created a new kind of hotel where everything has been rethought and every
original idea updated. This brand will be defined by the unique experience it creates rather than
by a business classification or price point.
PUBLIC will offer both great value and service. With no traditions to uphold and a new set
of priorities, I will start with a blank canvas and push the industry in a new direction. Hotels
have been predicated upon the mass market model. There was a virtue in everything being the
same; in coming up with an idea and “cookie-cutting” it across the country. Holiday Inn
advertisements a few years ago had Kemmons Wilson's tag line: “The best surprise is no
surprise.” For me, there is nothing better than a good surprise when you go into a hotel and can
have fun there. Well, that is what we're trying to do, come up with something that hasn't been
done before. Treat a hotel as more than just a place to sleep—a place for somebody to have
fun, a visual feast. Walk inside and see something that you haven't seen before. Walk in the
lobby and excite people, be able to cut the electricity in the air. Offer something indefinable,
the same kinds of things that make you want to purchase a car or buy a house or pick a mate. I
wasn't looking to do a hotel for 100 million people. I was looking to do a hotel that I would
like and, by chance, there would be other people out there who also would like it.
My hotels never were about design. Instead, they are about an approach, an experience. It's
something the industry never understood. I have seen far too many over-designed and overly
self-conscious hotels in the marketplace; instead, I opted for a restrained, refined, and
classically cool approach to PUBLIC's design. It's a new simplicity—a “new chic,” a more
“sincere chic”—tasteful and understated without attitude. At PUBLIC, service matters most.
But the key point of differentiation is in the kind and quality of services it offers. The brand
will only offer services that matter, those that guests really want and need rather than an array
of superfluous services they do not use. This marks a new approach devoid of excess and a
rejection of the old-fashioned idea of what “luxury” means to people. There is no pretense here,
just effortless, timeless, purist design providing a relaxed vibe and familiar atmosphere that
feels like home.
Table 3.1 Distinction among boutique, design, and lifestyle hotels

Key features Boutique hotels Design hotels Lifestyle hotels

Size Below 100–150 “Smaller” than large “Smaller” than large
rooms, although chain hotels (feature not chain hotels (feature not
number is increasing critical) critical)
(important feature)
Location Mainly urban and Mainly urban and city- Mainly urban and city-
city-center locations, center locations, but can center locations, but can
but can be anywhere be anywhere be anywhere
Type of Most have historic Most have historic Most have historic
building element (conversion) element (conversions), element (conversions),
increasingly also increasingly also
greenfield projects greenfield projects
Design Individual design (any Individual, Individual,
style) contemporary and contemporary design
modern design
Ownership/ Rather owner- Rather owner-operated, Rather owner-operated,
management operated increasingly also chain- increasingly also chain-
operated operated
Quality level Upscale to luxury Anything between Anything between
budget and luxury budget and luxury
Facilities, Diverse facilities Depending on quality Depending on quality
services (small scale), personal level/category, personal level/category, personal
service service service
Source: L. Hochedlinger, “Are design hotels more attractive real estate investments than traditional hotels?” unpublished
Master's thesis, Danube University, 2010.

Attracting trendsetters and celebrities, design hotels have ushered in the return of the hotel
lobby as a downtown social gathering spot, an important urban function on the wane since the
grand hotels of the Golden Age, when hotels were a city's epicenter of fashion, politics, and
high society. Grand hotels have long been associated with their stylish interiors. Although at a
different scale but in greater quantity, this new attention to innovative style in many ways is a
return to the grandeur of nineteenth-century hotels: cosmopolitan, elegant, and distinctive; a
culture of design.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the term that was most often used to describe these hotels was
“boutique hotels.” But by Webster's definition a boutique is “small, fashionable, and
independent.” Dissatisfied that the implication that you had to be small in order to be
considered a boutique hotel, many developers sought other terms more appropriate to their
enterprises.
Fashion hotels, architecture hotels, and avant-garde hotels are just some of the terms applied
to the burgeoning segment; however, the two most common substitutes for boutique hotels
became lifestyle hotels and design hotels.
A number of theorists claim that there really is no difference between these three categories;
however, others do find the terms useful in defining sub-segments of the genre. For instance,
some claim the following distinctions (see Table 3.1):
•Design hotels tend to focus on innovative, experimental, or unconventional design. They can
position themselves in the market anywhere from budget to luxury.
•Boutique hotels, though tasteful, are less unconventional in design and tend toward smaller
renovated properties. They mostly cater to the upper-upscale segment.
•Lifestyle hotels may have qualities of both design or boutique hotels but differentiate
themselves by paying particular attention to delivering an entertaining atmosphere and
personalized service.
Development and Planning Considerations
Beauty as we feel it is something indescribable: what it is or what it means can never be said.
(George Santayana)

Researchers have found a high correlation between properties that profess to focus on
architectural design and their profitability. The conclusion they reach is that investment in
sophisticated architecture and design pays off. Even though operating costs exceed industry
standards, design hotels still achieve higher revenues and profit levels than non-design hotels.
Still, analysts seeking to quantify the level of design-ness of a property are stymied by the
intangibles, attempting to answer questions as impossible to answer as “What is art?” or “What
is beauty?”
“Architecture, design, service, gastronomy and lots of intangible qualities must come together like
pieces of a puzzle to create a coherent picture. That is what distinguishes it from just any boutique hotel”
(Carl Sendlinger, founder of Design Hotels AG).
“Atmosphere” and “ambience” are terms that have particular meaning for this segment, since they
imply more than just physical design attributes and expand to include sound, scent, emotion, and, very
importantly, interaction. Public spaces in design hotels take on particular importance for this reason.
Restaurants and bars are very important features. They are places to see and be seen. While design
hotels showcase the personal tastes of the hotel owners, the architects, and the designers behind them,
they also define the guest's personality and preferences and facilitate projecting an image for the guest
that they wish others to perceive.

Size
The term “boutique” connotes smallness and has been most often used to refer to small, intimate hotels.
While many automatically use “boutique” to refer to a hotel with fewer than 100 rooms, this does not
accurately portray the genre. Three forerunners of this burgeoning hotel type in New York City opened
larger: Morgan's Hotel with 113, Royalton with 170, and The Paramount with 600 keys. Hence, from
inception, design hotels have had much more to do with avant-garde design and stylish cutting-edge
operation than size. The original W Hotel on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, the first of a rapidly
expanding global brand, sought to capitalize on the design hotel mystique while achieving the
economies of scale in both development and operation that larger hotels generally enjoy. The challenge
for developers of large design hotels is to maintain the high level of personalized service characteristic
of this segment.
With 814 rooms, Bella Sky Hotel located in Ørestad, a progressive new town development near
Copenhagen, is the Nordic region's largest hotel and among the largest design hotels internationally. To
avoid the impersonal and formal impression associated with most large hotels, 3XN Architects
incorporated a classical Scandinavian design approach where simplicity, functionality, and high quality
are the hallmarks.
With Zen-like simplicity, the Kimber Modern Hotel in Austin, Texas, represents the opposite end of
the size spectrum for design hotels, with only five guestrooms and one suite. Burton Baldridge
Architects tailored the micro-hotel to a sloping site, tucking a few parking spots beneath the guestrooms
and incorporating a lushly landscaped courtyard.
While design hotels have been thought of generally as upscale properties, many developers find
opportunity at the economy end of the market. In converting an original YMCA building to the 1,000-
room Hudson Hotel in New York, the developer made the decision not to gut the interior in order to
combine rooms, thereby keeping the original tiny 136 sq ft (12.8 sq m) room configurations intact and
construction costs low in order to create an affordable alternative

Bella Sky Hotel, Copenhagen, Denmark

Leaning 15 degrees in opposite directions, the twin towers of the Bella Sky Hotel in Copenhagen's
Ørestad region give dramatic expression to what 3XN Architects refer to as the “New Nordic Cool.”
The hotel is built next to the largest conference center in Scandinavia.
Kimber Modern Hotel, Austin, Texas (top)
Perfectly tailored to its sloping triangular site, the minimalist hotel comprises five rooms and one suite,
with simple common areas opening to a lushly landscaped courtyard.
Missoni Hotel, Edinburgh, United Kingdom (right)
Missoni's fashion trademark of colorfully patterned fabrics and prints defines the interior of the hotel,
while Matteo Thun's architecture renders a playful weave of fenestration and simple yet elegant form.
hotel. Drawing inspiration from a private cabin on an upscale yacht, the Philippe Starck-designed hotel
delivers high-style and panache to budget travelers. A number of economy brands have emerged to
capture this market with design-centric, albeit no-frills, offerings including Yotel, citizenM, Motel One,
Big Sleep, and Roomz.
Design hotels on the luxury end of the segment cater to an upscale clientele desiring a high degree
of luxury and personalized service. Fashion hotels, those that bear the name of top-of-the-line fashion
houses, are priced at the top end of the luxury segment as exemplified by the super-deluxe Palazzo
Versace on Australia's Gold Coast. Missoni, Armani, and Bulgari all have branded properties and are
expanding rapidly in the luxury sector, where luxury consumers are invited to buy not only the product
but the way of life associated with it. They are encouraged not only to wear the brand but to live the
lifestyle corresponding to it.
Housed in a skillfully designed but understated modern building by the Milanese architect Matteo
Thun, the Missoni Hotel Edinburgh interiors are adorned from top to bottom with the colorful patterned
fabrics that are the signature of the fashion design giant. As if inserting a bit of the Milan fashion scene
into Edinburgh's Royal Mile, the hotel's Cucina and Bar serves as an Italian café by day and cocktail
bar by night.
New Construction and Renovation
Historically, the attraction to develop design hotels may be at least partially attributable to the number
of older hotels that could be refurbished for far less construction cost than building from scratch. Part
of the reason that many cities have so many of these hotels is a large inventory of older hotels that could
be cheaply acquired and upgraded. In the absence of suitable hotels to renovate, developers have also
turned to adaptive reuse of outmoded downtown office buildings and other industrial buildings.
However, the towering success of the segment has led many developers to construct hotels from the
ground up. New design hotels promote the architecture itself as integral to, or in many cases the essential
element of, the design concept.
Conversion of an existing hotel or adapting another building type for hotel use is often met with
necessary compromise to the hotel program due to inherent flaws such as small slow elevators,
inadequate back-of-house area, irregularly spaced windows and columns, and antiquated building
systems. These inefficiencies can ultimately affect guest satisfaction and profitability. On the other
hand, in a new building the programmed elements can be accurately planned for and properly tailored
to hotel operations and, as increasingly called for, to brand standards. These advantages, coupled with
the opportunity to create dynamic and exciting new architecture, help explain the increasing number of
new-build design hotels.
Once the tallest office building in Boston, the nineteenth-century 14-story Ames Building was
converted by the Rockwell Group to a 120-room design hotel. The designer merged historical elements
of the existing structure with dramatic new lighting, furnishings, and finishes to achieve a unique and
unusual composition that complements the historic fabric of the building while introducing theatricality
and innovative design.
Ames Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts
Built in the nineteenth century, the 14-story office building of the railroad magnate was once the tallest
building in Boston. Rockwell Group drew inspiration from the building's rich industrialist history in
transforming it into a fashionable 120-room design hotel.

Hotel OMM, Barcelona, Spain

In contrast to the sensuous modulations of the front façade, shown here, the rear façade is composed as
a rigid geometry of retractable horizontal metal bars, supporting a curtain of vegetation in front of
private balconies.
The developers and architects for the Mondrian SoHo, faced with a tight urban site, high land costs,
and onerous zoning restrictions, created a hybrid scheme where the existing 12-story load-bearing brick
and riveted steel manufacturing building was partially demolished and structurally reinforced to support
13 new guestroom floors in order to fit the requisite program for the hotel. The resulting polished 25-
story steel and white metal-clad tower houses the surprisingly sumptuous and thematically exotic
interiors.
Forming an important new component of the historic urban street wall, the artistic expression of the
newly constructed 91-room Hotel OMM is borne on its articulated façade. Its skin is made up of curved
stainless steel modules clad with limestone appearing to have been cut to create a number of slits which
have been “peeled back,” curling outwards like the pages of a book. The direction of the opening takes
account of both the view and the proper orientation to the mid-day sun. It also serves as a screen that
keeps the interior private and acts as an acoustic barrier against the considerable traffic noise from the
street.
 An early new construction design hotel, Chambers, a 77-room luxury hotel on West 56th Street in
New York City, metaphorically captures the ambience of a renovated SoHo loft building with exposed
sprinkler pipes and track lighting against raw concrete ceilings and polished concrete bathroom floors.
Even as a new building meeting the exacting demands of the facilities program, the appealing character
of adaptive reuse was accomplished.

Case Study
Chambers Hotel, New York, New York
Architect and Interior Designer: Rockwell Group
and Adams Soffes Wood

Chambers has the distinction of being one of the earliest new-build boutique hotels. With the
term “boutique” primarily associated with avant-garde transformations of dreary
underperforming hotels or the stylish adaptive reuse of existing buildings, but with all of the
design fireworks happening on the interior, Chambers led a trend that also emphasized avant-
garde design of the building exterior as an important element in a genre we now refer to as
design hotels.
Situated on a narrow mid-town site in Manhattan, the 15-story building steps back from the
street in response to the city's strict zoning parameters, resulting in private terraces for several
of the hotel's 77 guestrooms and suites. The building's façade is clad in Macedonian limestone
and punctuated by brushed-aluminum French doors opening to stylized glass and blackened
steel balconette railings. At street level the lobby is a double-story space with a vaulted ceiling
and wrapped with a mezzanine library that is accessed by a sculptured stair that winds around
a glass-enclosed fireplace. Four stout leather-clad columns modulate the space. The tableau of
activity in the lobby is on display to the street through a sleek two-story transparent glass
façade. Conversely the street life is made part of the lobby. The visitors' arrival experience is
choreographed as they enter through a pair of colossal walnut doors carved in a basket-weave
pattern, into a dark, compressed vestibule before emerging into the small but surprisingly
spacious-feeling lobby. Guests are brought to their rooms via one of two glass-enclosed
elevators that look out onto the raw concrete shaft with counterweights and traveling cables.
The lobby and mezzanine library function also as an art gallery as the walls are filled with
original and site-specific artwork. The hotel itself exhibits over 400 pieces of art by some 100
artists. Each of the 12 guestroom-floor corridors is a commissioned work of art. Artist and film-
maker John Waters filled one corridor with life-size photos of women's shoes hung only inches
above the floor. Each of the guestrooms is fashioned as an artist's loft containing a minimum
of three original pieces per room. The guestroom design evokes the rough-rich urban vibe of
SoHo loft-living with raw concrete ceilings, exposed sprinkler pipes, and track-lighting.
The architects, Rockwell Group and Adams Soffes Wood, collaborated on fitting the owner's
ambitious program onto a very restricted site by carefully budgeting the limited available
zoning floor area (ZFA). To avoid using up valuable allotted floor area, the restaurant and
boardroom were placed below grade in a double height sky-lit space beneath the rear yard. The
saved ZFA permitted an additional four guestrooms in the tower. In order to provide the
necessary back-of-house and mechanical spaces, three cellars were required. But that was not
enough. The architects were able to gain an additional 2,000 sq ft (186 sq m)
in the basement by utilizing a little-known provision that permits owners to lease space beneath
the sidewalks from the city for a small annual rent. Space utilization in the hotel tower was also
optimized with a tight core and stairs at the ends of a short corridor leading to eight rooms per
floor on the lower floors and a single duplex penthouse unit occupying the top two floors. The
award-winning Chambers penthouse opens to a generous private terrace overlooking West 56th
Street.
Independent to Chain
In response to the overwhelming success of the design hotel segment, international hotel companies
entered the market with a number of new design brands that profess to offer the same attractive elements
as independent hotels but with the advantages that come with being affiliated with a major hotel
company, i.e., synergies in purchasing, marketing, sales, and staffing. Starwood's W brand boasts over
sixty luxury properties worldwide, operating or planned, and continues to expand. In addition to W,
Starwood has Aloft and Element to capture the limited-service side of the design hotel market. Other
major hotel companies with design hotel brands include IHG with the Indigo brand, Hyatt with the
Andaz brand, and Marriott with the Edition brand.
To maintain a competitive advantage with the chain-operated design hotel brands, independent hotels
have flocked to consortia and online platforms that specialize in design hotels and can expose the
independent properties to a wider market. Consortia such as Tablet Hotels and Design Hotels AG
represent and market curated selections of hundreds of independent design-centric hotels around the
world by emphasizing their cultural authenticity, thought-provoking design, and extraordinary
architecture.
Semiramis Hotel, Athens, Greece
Entering the hotel, guests pass through a glowing colored-glass cube that leads into the lobby, where
color-changing glass walls radiate with subtle motion. The Rashid-designed interiors are filled with
vibrant colors of pink, lime green, orange, and yellow on a white background, with colored terrazzo
slabs, glass tiles, teak wood, epoxy floors, custom-printed carpet, colored glass, Rashid-patterned wall
coverings, and printed laminate surfaces.
The Alluvian, Greenwood, Mississippi
ForrestPerkins served as design architect and interior designer in transforming a group of small-town
buildings into a fashionable 50-room hotel. The original four-story Hotel Irving was combined with two
adjacent retail buildings. Two additional floors were added to the retail buildings and a courtyard was
carved out at the rear of the complex, providing necessary light and air to the guestrooms.
The wonderfully eccentric, quirky and artistic creation of Karim Rashid for the Semiramis Hotel in
Athens, Greece, while an exciting and stylish design hotel, still benefits from the widened market and
reservation calls through its listing consortium, Design Hotels AG. Raffles Hotels, with its rich history
in super-luxury hotels and resorts, expands that legacy in the design hotel segment with Philippe Starck's
reinvention of Le Royal Monceau. And a small-town Mississippi manufacturer, Viking Stoves, creates
a masterpiece—unaffiliated and independent—design hotel with ForrestPerkins's creation of The
Alluvian in Greenwood, Mississippi.

Modern and Traditional

While one of the earliest examples of design hotels, Anouska Hemple's Blakes Hotel in London, was
decidedly traditional in style, her treatment of the style was so eclectic and eccentric one would hardly
recognize it as traditional design. It was, in fact, the very inventiveness with which she interpreted
traditional elements that drew attention to it as unique and cutting-edge. On the other hand the skillful
period renovation of New York's Algonquin Hotel by Alexandra Champalimaud, while highly creative
in capturing the unique spirit of that famous hotel, through its high-style atmospherics and fashionable
ambience could easily fit the design hotels' leitmotif.
Far more prevalent, contemporary design motifs are the palette of design hotels. The segment is
replete with examples of those that embrace modernism in their architecture and interiors and establish
a new and fresh imagery. Lukas Hochedlinger and Susanne Kraus-Winkler propose that design hotels
can be divided into three basic groups as follows:
•Type A: Unique hotels that are fully designed by one designer from the outside to the inside.
(Example: the Loisium Hotel in Langenlois, Austria, architecture and interior design by Steven
Holl.)
•Type B: Hotels that are designed by multiple well-known designers who contribute their names
like brands. (Example: the Silken Puerta América Hotel in Madrid, Spain, architecture by Jean
Nouvel, interior designs by Zaha Hadid, Sir Norman Foster, David Chipperfield, Arata Isozaki,
Richard Gluckman, and others.)
•Type C: Hotels that offer a modern and contemporary atmosphere through furniture, staff, etc.
The name of the designer is not important, if there is one at all. (Examples: Roomz hotel
Vienna, Motel One, and citizenM hotels.)

Le Royal Monceau, Paris, France

Philippe Starck's design for Le Bar Long in the heart of the hotel is a high, long, narrow, and luminous
bar. The bartenders move behind the bar as customers sit face to face.
Loisium Hotel, Langenlois, Austria
For this site in a gently south-sloping vineyard on the edge of the picturesque town, one hour west of
Vienna, architect Steven Holl designed a new wine center and hotel. The project is composed of three
parts: the existing 900-year-old wine vaults, which were made accessible to visitors, the Wine Center,
and the Loisium Hotel Wine and Spa Resort. The ground-floor public spaces of the 82-room hotel are
spatially transparent and flow to a generous courtyard oriented to views of the vineyard.
Silken Puerta América, Madrid, Spain
While the façade of the hotel was designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel, each of the hotel's 12
floors contain guestrooms, elevator lobbies, restaurants, furniture, and accessories designed by world-
renowned architects and design studios, including Arata Isozaki, Norman Foster, Marc Newson, Ron
Arad, Richard Gluckman, Javier Mariscal, Victorio & Lucchino, and Zaha Hadid. Appropriately, Puerta
América bills itself as “12 floors with 19 stars.”
Design and Planning Considerations
The value of good hotel design is no longer equated with use of expensive materials. Design hotels with
linoleum floors and chrome-plated fittings are getting the same average daily rate (ADR) as
conventional luxury hotels with marble floors and brass fittings. Quality design and architecture are
essential values of the service that the design hotel must deliver. Notwithstanding the old adage, good
design doesn't cost more to build—it may in fact cost more in design fees as developers compete for
celebrity designers to add market appeal to their properties and to stay ahead of the fashion curve. Frank
Gehry, Philippe Starck, Christian Liaigre, Rafael Viñoly, David Chipperfield, David Rockwell, Richard
Meier, Jean Nouvel, and others are in high demand to provide prestige value as well as originality and
vision. Even fashion design giants Sonia Rykiel, Todd Oldham, and Giorgio Armani are courted for
exclusive designs in this domain.
As we have seen, design styles for this niche segment are as varied as the markets they serve.
Whatever the market, the hotel designer's mandate is to bring to the project a high level of creativity
and originality; to design an ambience that makes guests feel that they are staying in an exciting place
where sleeping is the last thing on their minds. There is, however, a danger of letting innovative design
approaches overshadow other fundamentals of hotel design. Some fall into the trap of style over
substance. In one example, guestrooms were designed with the bed floating in the middle of the small
room with a long narrow ledge very close to one side. Unfortunately this unique layout gave no room
for the housekeeping staff to make the bed and resulted in the threat of a strike by the hotel union.
Historically, design hotel properties have had sub-functional back-of-house and administration areas
with all emphasis going to visual pyrotechnics and hip persona. Since most early boutiques were
renovations, they often inherited poor conditions from the start. Cramped basements, slow elevators,
and lack of loading facilities are inherent conditions that cause undue hardship to the operation of these
properties. The experimental nature of this type of hotel also presents unusual design challenges for
operations and back-of-house
Hotel Marqués de Riscal, Elciego, Spain
Located in the vineyard of the medieval town of Elciego, the 43-suite hotel was designed by Frank
Gehry as a series of rectilinear elements, clad in sandstone, combined with spectacular curving panels
of gold and pink titanium, and with mirror-finish stainless steel reflecting the colors of the winery. The
hotel's guestrooms are distributed across two wings connected by a stunning glass bridge.
areas. Both an all-white guestroom décor and bellmen in Armani suits place added burdens on the
housekeeping department. Fresh exotic fruit in the room requires specialized food and beverage (F&B)
service. Pet goldfish for the guests may require an aquarium department for one chain of boutiques.
Demand for high-level personalized service in luxury boutiques normally requires a much higher staff-
to-guest ratio that impacts all employee areas. Like any hotel, the back-of-house and administration
areas need to be tailored to the operational style of the hotel. With boutiques this can be in many ways
as unique and original as the physical design.
To remain economically viable, design hotels are finding it important to adopt and promote principles
of environmental responsibility
Hotel Palomar, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Architects Building was designed in 1929 by French-American architect Paul Philippe Cret, along
with a group of 20 other architects and firms. The 24-story building is Kimpton Hotels' first LEED-
certified hotel. A striking example of Art Deco architecture, the building was thoughtfully renovated
by Gensler, with its historic elements incorporated into the design.
Bardessono Hotel and Spa, Yountville, California (right)
Designed to achieve LEED Platinum, the highest standard for environmental design, the 62-room
luxury resort was conceived by architects at WATG with a number of sustainable methods, including
gorgeous woods used throughout the hotel that were milled from salvaged trees, geothermal heating
and cooling, rooftop solar panels, and occupancy sensors in the guestrooms. Operationally the hotel
continues its environmental responsibility with sustainable practices including use of organic linens and
cleaning supplies, recycling and composting, carbon-fiber bicycles, and on-site productive organic
gardens.
and to institute green initiatives in the development and operation of their properties. One of the
pioneering design hotel companies, Kimpton Hotels, earned the Governor's Environmental and
Economic Leadership Award from the California Environmental Protection Agency for its sustainable
initiatives. And the Kimpton Hotel Palomar in Philadelphia became one of the first design hotels to
achieve LEED Gold certification in its adaptive reuse of Philadelphia's historic Architects Building.
The Bardessono Hotel and Spa in California's Napa Valley, designed by WATG Architects, is a new-
build 62-room luxury design resort hotel that was the third hotel in the world to achieve LEED Platinum
certification. The architects integrated advanced environmental technology including geothermal
heating and cooling, rooftop solar panels, and occupancy sensors in the guestrooms. With the highest
achievement in sustainable accomplishment Bardessono has set the bar for environmentally responsible
design hotels.
Ramada Encore, London West, United Kingdom
Today's suburban hotels are incorporating the same high-style exterior design elements that
have been more typical of boutique urban properties.
 CHAPTER
4
Suburban Hotels

In his 1898 treatise, Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Sir Ebenezer Howard described three options for
living in the industrial age: town, country, or town-country. In promoting his utopian model he noted
that cities had become alienating, unsanitary, and unlivable while the country, offering natural beauty,
fresh air, and healthfulness, lacked the social advantages of city life. Early suburban or pseudo-urban
development sought to offer a refuge from the noise, dirty air, crime, and congestion of late-nineteenth-
century urban life while mitigating the cultural deficiencies of the countryside.
The Riverside Hotel, possibly the first suburban hotel, was built in 1870, 9 miles (13 km) west of
downtown Chicago in Riverside, Illinois, an early commuter suburb planned by Frederick Law Olmsted
and Calvert Vaux. Riverside was built in 1868 as a new suburban community combining “the beauties
and healthy properties of a park with the conveniences and improvements of the city.” Overlooking the
Des Plaines River, the hotel was designed by noted Chicago architect William LeBaron Jenney, who
also designed most of Riverside's houses. Even though this elite suburban development was tied directly
to downtown Chicago by the Burlington Railroad line and a limited-service parkway also designed by
Olmsted and Vaux, the developers went bankrupt, as it was considered at that time to be too far out of
town.
Following World War II major investment in the interstate highway system and billions of dollars
made available through the U.S. Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration for
suburban home development fueled explosive suburban residential development. By 1950,1.5 million
new house starts per year in the United States were spurred on by the post-war suburban baby boom.
With expansive residential suburban development came the growth of the large-scale regional shopping
center, drawing patrons from a wide geographic area and further fueling suburban expansion.
In the 1950s, industry and commerce began relocating near major highways in the suburbs as
trucking superseded railways. Suburban sites with good highway access, lower land costs, plenty of
parking, attractive landscaping, and nearby services spurred development of industrial parks and
research and development centers. Eventually corporations began to realize advantages in
decentralizing and relocating to the suburbs that were cleaner, less congested, less expensive, and safer
than the city.
By the 1970s, mid-rise apartment buildings, business and science parks, shopping malls, satellite
universities, sports complexes, airport commercial developments, entertainment centers, theme parks,
research institutes, industrial parks, medical complexes, and a wide variety of hotels made up the rich
fabric of suburbia. As commuting patterns changed to accommodate the increasing population who live
in one suburb and work, shop, and play in another, highway interchanges became the epicenters of
commercial development. No longer just an interchange, the highway cloverleaf had become a
destination in and of itself. Naturally a strong demand arose for hotels near this burgeoning suburban
business energy.
 With the exception of resort hotels, prior to the 1940s most hotels were located in cities and towns.
As highways superseded railroads the market for accommodations along the roadways and near
residential suburbs vastly expanded. Early hotels in suburbia took the form of motels and motor inns
catering mostly to the needs of highway motorists. Motels located near airports served airline crews and
stranded passengers and also provided an inexpensive alternative to downtown lodging. As business
activity in the suburbs increased, suburban hotels took on a different role and began to resemble
downtown hotels with meeting rooms, restaurants, shops, fitness facilities, and other full-service
amenities. In some suburban markets, these projects have come to resemble the mixed-use
developments common in downtown areas, combining residential, office, retail, and hotel space in a
single development.
Expansion of suburban growth, especially around airports, malls, and business parks, generated a
multitude of user segments and price categories. To a large extent the broad-reaching market
segmentation that now defines the hospitality industry grew out of the diversity reflected in the suburban
hotel markets. Some hotel chains have as many as nine separate brands tailored to sub-segment markets
all found with suburban applications. The chains, through extensive market research, have customized
their products for wide-ranging cost categories and fine-tuned market targets beyond leisure and
business travel definitions to create highly specific niche products. They have even found that some of
these brands that were born in the suburbs can be applied in urban markets where there is demand for
relatively inexpensive, quality lodging at a room rate that supports the higher development costs of
these locations.

Selecting What Goes Into “Select Service”

Jim Anhut
Chief Development Officer, Americas
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)
Atlanta, Georgia
The term “select service” began cropping up among hotel developers in the first decade of the twenty-
first century, marking another evolutionary milestone for our business. After essentially solving the
problem of inconsistency that plagued the industry through the mid-twentieth century, hoteliers first
expanded their offerings, trying to be all things to all travelers. By the early 1990s, attention had shifted
to designing different properties for different travel occasions. If a significant segment of the traveling
population doesn't want a restaurant, lounge, or meeting space, why not build a hotel without those
things? And the “limited-service” concept took form.
This idea was refined to create the “select-service” designation—that is, a hotel without a food and
beverage outlet, or with a very restricted offering, and a small amount of meeting space. The
nomenclature, though, is unfortunate. We are in the service business, after all. Which part of “service”
are we choosing to select or limit? Perhaps “focused service” or “brand-appropriate” hotels might be
better, more accurate monikers.
The challenge for the architect and designer, therefore, is to go beyond yesterday's thinking about
generally accepted constraints of this segment. Instead, first peel the onion all the way back to the
product and service elements. Then examine these within the context of the constituencies for whom
the hotel is being designed: guest, brand, owner, employees, and environment.
Clearly the guest is in first position. It's critical to accommodate this segment's mainstream customer
needs and expectations: restorative sleep, an invigorating shower, and breakfast to get the day started
right. Brand considerations take this a step further, addressing the consumer's emotional as well as
practical expectations—“I feel smart that I stayed here last night. I feel good about what I paid.” The
sweet spot over-indexes on what matters to guests and delivers nothing that doesn't.
That brings up the owner perspective. There's a reason select-service hotels are a popular concept
that continued to be developed even when the economy fell into crisis. They are efficient to build and
generate a good return on investment (ROI). Solid design supports this, weighing service levels and
price points against total investment.
An often-overlooked constituency are the employees. The hotel's design should take into account the
multi-tasking required of the people who deliver the service, especially since select-service staff-to-
guest room ratios are usually 1:3 rather than the 1:1 common in big full-service properties. Making task
areas proximate in the lobby, selecting easy-to-clean fabrics and finishes, ensuring employee break
rooms and restrooms are not an afterthought—all belong in the design consideration set.
The final element is the environment. As developers and designers, we're just beginning to push the
envelope in this arena, through technology and materials selection that produce efficient, sustainable,
user-friendly buildings that conserve natural resources while accomplishing their purpose.
Effective designers and architects think holistically about the needs of all five constituencies. They
continually challenge themselves to find better ways to solve these needs within the select-service
format and to create good design that produces a solid ROE: that's return on equity, employees, effort,
and environment.

General Design and Planning Considerations

The design of suburban hotels in many respects is less challenging than it is for their downtown
counterparts. Lower real estate values and better land availability result in significantly larger building
sites. Larger parcels of land and less restrictive zoning in most cases allow for more flexibility in
massing and make functional layouts easier to achieve than can be done on tight urban sites. The larger,
less restrictive sites have many advantages, including better vehicular arrival and departure areas,
convenient and plentiful parking, sensible lobby layouts based on optimum elevator core position and
column spacing, the ability to arrange for circulation of service vehicles and loading facilities out of
view from the main guest entrance and outdoor areas, and room enough for outdoor recreation facilities.
Zoning regulations in the suburbs often mandate height and density restrictions appropriate to the
regional architectural character. The ability to spread out over the site lends itself to lower-rise
construction and therefore less expensive building methods, further reducing project costs. For larger
properties, less restrictive regulations governing the placement and configuration of the guestroom
tower favor a more logical column grid which frees up long span areas suitable for lobbies, function
space, and indoor pools. More flexible tower placement also permits the guest elevator core and service
core to be located in closer proximity to their related functions and leads to a more efficient back-of-
house configuration.
While the standard 2 acre (0.8 hectare) site remains typical for most select-service properties, designs
that work on sites as small as 1.3 acres (0.5 hectare) provide developers with a broader range of options
for small or costly markets. Economy hotels may require a slightly smaller site, while office-park sites
may be substantially larger to accommodate extensive landscaping and outdoor recreation.

Visibility, Accessibility, and Signage

Because walk-in guests without reservations account for a higher proportion of sales at suburban hotels
than is typically the case for downtown and resort hotels, prominent visibility to travelers from
surrounding roads continues to be a feature of successful suburban, airport, and roadside properties.
Potential sites must be evaluated for their natural contours, visibility of building signage, or other
alternatives to freestanding signs, particularly in communities where there are strict signage laws. For
similar reasons, entrance approach patterns providing for ease of auto access and flow for the traveler
including adequate deceleration lanes, stacking space, and turning radii are equally essential.

Parking
With almost total reliance on car access, a suburban location's ability to develop its full potential for
occupancy and outside business for the food and beverage outlets and function spaces is often governed
by its ability to provide adequate on-site parking. (Peak parking needs for guests, visitors, and
employees may be established for each hotel based on formula given in the Design Guide, see p. 369).
Suburban hotels generally require about 1.2 cars per room or about 50 percent more parking than
that of the average downtown property. Parking facilities should be sized to meet peak-hour
requirements, which will vary depending on the hotel's concept and market. Properties that cater
primarily to business travelers will see their busiest parking hours late on weekday evenings whereas
extended-stay hotels in leisure-oriented markets tend to have peak parking demand on weekend nights.
One of the advantages of mixed-use developments is that some of the parking space assigned to the
office buildings can be used by the hotel during the overnight peaks, reducing overall requirements by
up to 15 percent. However, peak parking hours for apartments and shopping malls prevent overlapping
or significant sharing by a hotel.
Guestrooms
Guestrooms and their associated circulation and support space make up 75–85 percent of the total built
area of most suburban hotels. Guestroom sizes for most select-service properties average about 325 sq
ft (30 sq m) for transient hotels and 425 sq ft (39.5 sq m) for extended-stay concepts. By contrast, budget
chains have reduced room sizes to roughly 230 sq ft (21 sq m) or less: Accor's “etap” brand has a
standard guestroom size of only 135 sq ft (12.5 sq m) and a total build-out of 240 sq ft (23 sq m) per
key. In Europe, it is not uncommon for select-service properties to have a room size as small as 235 sq
ft (22 sq m), particularly if the hotel is an older building. Full-service airport and office-park hotels have
similar space requirements to their urban location counterparts, namely guestrooms of 300–400 sq ft
(27–37 sq m) and a total build-out of at least 575 sq ft (53 sq m) per key. The highly segmented suburban
category gives travelers a choice depending on what they want to spend and how they want to spend it
and provides a wide range of products for hotel developers with suburban sites of almost any size.
Increasing technical sophistication of business travelers and the explosion of information technology
have produced a dramatic new emphasis in suburban hotels of all types. Guestrooms and public areas
are made to function as office workspaces and wireless networking is an expected amenity at all price
points. Guestroom furnishings are being designed to be reconfigured as needed to accommodate
different work preferences. Guests also demand printing facilities, mobile device charging, easy
connection to the in-room television to take advantage of its larger screen for work or presentations,
and convenient spots at the bedside to place a tablet computer or e-reader.

Other Spaces
To be competitive and to meet the continually escalating demands of travelers, many suburban hotels
have added amenities approaching those found in downtown hotels. At major airports, or
regional shopping center or office-park hotels, food and beverage facilities and retail areas may be
equivalent to those of the downtown hotel, while their meeting and function spaces average about 20
percent less and their lobbies and circulation spaces approximately 25 percent less than a full-service
urban property. Lobbies, circulation space, and retail areas in small town and roadside hotels and motels
are generally 50 percent less than those same spaces in suburban and airport hotels.
Sizing food and beverage facilities in suburban hotels is driven by the market and the brand or
category. Food service is rarely offered at all in economy properties, but if provided it generally is a
self-service breakfast with minimal hot offerings. In the select-service category, some brands have
introduced a more sophisticated food and beverage program that offers light fare all day and, in some
cases, alcohol in the evenings as a way of generating additional revenue and providing more upscale
amenities, which allows these hotels to drive up the room rate. Full-service properties at airports and in
office parks generally have only one table-service restaurant and one bar or lounge and sometimes
supplement these with a self-service grab'n'go outlet to help handle peak demand for breakfast. Some
properties have elected to forgo food and beverage operations altogether and lease portions of their sites
to fast-food chains or freestanding restaurants to provide for guest needs at minimal cost or effort to the
hotel.
Full-service airport and office-park hotels typically have 40–50 sq ft (3.7–4.6 sq m) of meeting space
per key although properties in Asia tend to have much more. Select-service hotels may have only a
fraction of this amount and roadside hotels require a great deal less meeting space—usually one small
meeting space (less than 500 sq ft or 46 sq m) is all that is included in the program—and their
administrative and service areas are about 20 percent smaller than those of other types of hotels since
fewer guest services generally are required. Detailed space requirements and planning information are
included in Chapter 14, pp. 305–311.
Roadside Hotels and Motels
Following World War I, when Americans first took to the road in great numbers, the need for
roadside accommodations expanded dramatically. The majority of motorists were in search of
convenience, economy, and informality not offered by the more upscale downtown hotels and
so would choose from a variety of roadside inns, tourist cabins, and motor courts lining the
major thoroughfares. These facilities often were a series of detached cabins operated by a
family whose nearby home served as the registration office. Located on the outskirts of town,
most offered a casual atmosphere, the convenience of parking next to your door, paying in
advance, and leaving at any time without the check-out ritual or the need to tip.
Individual cabins of tourist courts were often dressed up in a variety of fanciful ways to catch
the eye of passing motorists and to tantalize their imagination and fantasy. Wigwams, log
cabins, igloos, adobe huts—these storybook cabins were perhaps hotel design's earliest
examples of theme architecture. Less flamboyant cabins simply donned brightly colored roofs
to be easily seen. In 1926, Arthur Heineman opened the Milestone Motel in San Luis Obispo,
California, as a series of California-style bungalows and Mission-inflected services buildings,
and immediately claimed credit for inventing the word motel by combining “motor” and
“hotel” into a single memorable term.
The dollhouse-like freestanding cabins of early roadside hotels were eventually replaced by
linear one-story structures housing rooms under a single continuous roof. This evolution of the
building form might be traced to early prototypes of the 1930s where a guest's automobile was
sheltered beneath a roof spanning between two cabins. Eventually, as lodging demand
increased, these carports were closed in to make additional rooms, forming a string of
connected rooms facing an open parking lot. Later, as the significant economies of construction
and maintenance of this new form were realized, a second floor was added.
By the early 1930s many of these roadside lodgings gained unsavory reputations as lodgings
of ill repute. “Hot sheet motels,” as they were called, were rented by the hour, no questions
asked. In a 1940 article titled “Camps of Crime,” FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover declared that many
motels were dens of vice and corruption that harbored “gangs of desperados who prey upon
surrounding territories.”
Following World War II, the expansion of the interstate highway system created an
explosive demand for safe, clean, comfortable en route lodging. The potential of this lucrative
market quickly drew the attention of hotel entrepreneurs like Kemmons Wilson, who developed
a respectable chain of family-styled motels that he named Holiday Inn, after the popular
Hollywood movie. Holiday Inn's chief innovation was the inclusion of a restaurant which made
the facility more hotel-like, thus completing the evolution from tourist court to motel to motor
hotel. By the late 1950s an explosion of motels, motor hotels, and motor inns were developed
with chains such as Howard Johnson's, Travelodge, and Ramada Inn finding key locations on
the new interstate highway system. By 1954 there were more motel rooms than hotel rooms in
the United States and by 1972 the number doubled.
To differentiate themselves from one another, the major chains began to develop more
elaborate suburban properties, adding swimming pools, coffee shops, gift shops, meeting
rooms, and amenities normally associated with full-fledged hotels. This capital-intensive
competition drove most of the mom-and-pop operators from the field but left a gap in the
economy market. By the early 1960s a whole new generation of budget motels began to appear
as stripped-down versions of the big chain products. Motel 6 rented, appropriately, for $6 per
night. Days Inn advertised “luxury” budget rooms for $8 per night. By the mid-1970s
segmentation and branding had rendered the word “motel” obsolete. No longer described in
terms of their location on the highway, such products were now referred to by categories such
as “limited-service budget hotels” or “mid-priced full-service,” with new brand names ending
with “Inn,” “Lodge,” “Hotel,” or “Suites,” but not “Motel.” Advertising wizards produced a
profusion of euphemisms to label budget/economy sector products, proffering “affordable,
low-cost value” for “price-sensitive” customers.

Ace Hotel and Swim Club, Palm Springs, California

This innovative conversion of a 1965 motor hotel into a popular lifestyle destination for young
travelers in the twenty-first century demonstrates the potential of the large amount of aging
suburban hotel stock throughout the United States. The project combines vintage mid-century
architecture with design elements from a variety of periods and styles.
Unfortunately the corporatization of the motel resulted in a bland uniformity of design that
prompted New York Times critic Ada Louise Huxtable in 1973 to write Hospitality and the
Plastic Esthetic, in which she condemned “the totally uniform and cheap consistency of taste
and manufacture” of “the ubiquitous plastic room.” But today a new appreciation of the unique
design styles of early roadside motels has emerged. Entrepreneurs are trying to save some of
the more architecturally interesting motels along historic Route 66, and a number of restored
or replicated vintage motels such as Kate's Lazy Meadow in the Catskill Mountains of New
York attract customers with a fondness for mid-century retro design. Others are converting
aging roadside properties into high-style but low-cost lodging for young travelers.
To recapture markets turned off by both the higher prices of the more elaborate inns and the
cheap, unimaginative designs of most budget motels, a new wave of well-managed economy
lodging chains has unveiled inventive designs combining low rates with a fresher, more
sophisticated ambience. New economy brands like the Tata Group's Ginger in India and
Accor's HotelF1 in Europe feature very small rooms with carefully planned built-in furnishings
that offer all the amenities of higher-end hotels in a very simple form, punctuated by bright
colors on walls or bedding. Established U.S. brands have adopted a similar strategy. Motel 6's
most recent look, dubbed “Phoenix,” borrows the colors, materials, and filleted forms of mid-
century design that were popular in upscale boutique hotels in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
One step above the economy brands are what are currently termed “select-service hotels.”
These are properties that offer higher-quality guestrooms and more public amenities than the
economy brands but typically do not provide a table-service restaurant or other features of a
full-service hotel. The select-service segment has seen tremendous growth in the past decade
as developers have embraced the relatively low development and operating costs of these
properties relative to the rate they can command in many markets. Select-service hotels are
commonly located in suburban locations because their smaller size allows them to remain
profitable in markets with lower demand and their low-rise design fits into the suburban context
effectively. However, developers have been having good success in creating high-rise select-
service properties on tight urban sites as well.
In the past, select-service brands de-emphasized public spaces but the newest generation of
these properties have multi-purpose lobbies that combine the check-in function with communal
workspaces, quick-service dining and bar seating, a small retail area that sells sundries and
ready-to-eat foods, and self-service business facilities such as printers, workstations, and
interactive “concierge” screens. The designs of these lobby spaces are intended to support guest
interaction and offer a high level of service with fewer employees. For example, Marriott re-
envisioned its Courtyard by Marriott brand to make the lobby the functional as well as physical
center of the hotel for guests. Four distinct guest activity zones—semi-private seating areas
with dedicated televisions, a casual counter-service restaurant and bar, a business library with
computers and printers, and a high-top communal table for group activity—combine in a single
space that also offers a direct connection to an outdoor lounge area. A traditional check-in desk
was replaced with short podiums intended to encourage employees to stand with the guest
during interactions, and racks of brochures and area information were eliminated in favor of a
wall-mounted touch-screen that guests can use to check weather and flight information, find
local restaurants, or order ground transportation.
Today the select-service segment has also incorporated a more sophisticated visual style in
the guestroom and public space interiors, and in some cases, on the building exterior. The low-
rise, “residential”

Motel 6 “Phoenix” Design Scheme

Design elements once associated solely with urban boutique hotels are now demanded by a
broader market, including the suburban chain-hotel guest. Motel 6's current design scheme
incorporates streamlined furniture, saturated colors, and rounded forms, a significant departure
from earlier brand styles.

Case Study
Jupiter Hotel, Portland, Oregon
Architect: Skylab Architecture
Hotel development that recycles existing structures tends to adapt other building types to
lodging uses. But developers Tod Breslau and Kelsey Bunker had a different vision: to rework
a rundown 1960s motor lodge in a marginal Portland neighborhood and turn it into a “cultural
boutique hotel.” The site was within easy reach of the newly expanded Oregon Convention
Center and its affordable environs attracted unique local shops, restaurants and entertainment
that appealed to young creatives who appreciated the area's inexpensive and atmospheric
housing. A hotel that spoke to this market and respected Portland's sustainable ethos was likely
to be a success.
Jeff Kovel and his firm, Skylab Architecture, recognized that the target market was looking
for an upbeat social experience on a budget. He transformed the motor lodge's central parking
area into courtyard lounge space and gave the 81 exterior-corridor guestrooms a modern and
playful look featuring low platform beds and wall-sized photomurals of American landscapes
and cultural icons. The on-site 24-hour restaurant was given a radical makeover to create the
Doug Fir Lounge, a popular restaurant, nightclub, and music venue. Fire pits in the courtyard
extend the social atmosphere beyond the lounge and give the hotel “people buzz.” The result
has been a high-profile project that has received multiple design awards and achieves a higher
average occupancy and room rate than its competitive set.
Courtyard by Marriott “Refreshing Business” Lobby
The redesigned Courtyard lobby space serves as a social hub for guests, who can choose to use
the dining areas, the communal table, or the popular “media pods” (shown at far right), either
for interaction or for doing independent work in a shared environment.
style that was popular in the 1980s has been replaced by a cleaner, more geometric appearance.
Starwood's aloft brand uses a distinctively shaped roof element—sometimes repeated on the
porte cochère or inside the public spaces—as part of its trade dress, while the Hyatt Place and
Ramada Encore brands have used a higher proportion of glass and exterior color in their façades
to appear more modern and to increase visibility. Upgraded design features that are becoming
more common in these properties and beginning to appear in the economy segment as well
include:
•Self-service kiosks and business facilities;
•Flatscreen TVs in guestrooms and lobby spaces;
•Built-in work surfaces with high-quality wireless internet access;
•Improved bed linen programs;
•Bold color applied to interior walls and accent pieces;
•Minimal patterns on materials or finishes;
•Bed runners rather than bedspreads;
•Rounded shapes in furniture and fixtures;
•LED and colored lighting in public spaces and on the building exterior.
Efficiency of planning is important to profitability and about 80 percent of the built area is
dedicated to rooms. Back-of-house areas rarely exceed 7 percent of gross hotel area because of
the limited services offered in these properties. Recently, lobbies have grown slightly to
accommodate seating areas and space for self-service breakfast or snacks but are still
streamlined and need to be able to be operated with a minimal staff.
Airport Hotels
Airport terminals have been transformed from purely functional waystations to multi-use
centers of commerce and culture, incorporating extensive malls, food and beverage outlets well
beyond the traditional fast food kiosks, corporate meeting facilities, art galleries, museums,
and, more than ever, elaborate and sophisticated hotels.
Some of the most interesting hotels built in recent years have been at or near airports.
Formerly, most airport hotels were dowdy, inexpensive, and often noisy, catering to unlucky
passengers on layover, pilots and airline personnel too tired to go into the city or with early
morning departures, and guests avoiding the hassle and expense of staying downtown. While
airport hotels still serve these markets, they have seen vast growth in business and leisure
segments that now represent 85 percent of their guests. Today most hotel companies wouldn't
dream of building a full-service airport hotel without significant meeting facilities (usually
including a ballroom), self-service check-in kiosks, 24-hour business support, a health spa and
fitness facility, upgraded rooms on a concierge or club level, at least two restaurants, and other
upscale amenities previously limited to downtown hotels and resorts.
Much of the explosive growth in airport hotel development can be attributed to busy
corporate executives asking, “When you only go from the airport to the hotel and the hotel back
to the airport why would you want to stay anywhere else?” The international corporate world
has come to favor meeting at airports where the location is ideal for business guests to fly in
from different cities, hold their sessions, and be off in minutes, avoiding long trips into and out
of downtown traffic congestion. As globalization of industry continues to fuel the pace and
reach of business travel, amenities for the individual business traveler to work and meet on site
are rapidly expanding.
Every major city airport now has a major “airport city” next to it. Architect Helmut Jahn
noted that airports “in addition to their role of moving people and freight, have become self-
sufficient economic and cultural nodes, micro-cities that are no longer dependent satellites of
the old downtown.”
Airport cities such as the 2.1 million sq ft (200,000 sq m) Circle at Zurich Airport in
Switzerland are intended to maximize the potential of airport real estate. At the Denver
International Airport, expanding demand has driven development of a second phase of what is
the largest airport in the United States. Designed by Santiago Calatrava, this new mixed-use
facility will incorporate a 500-room hotel and conference center, a large retail and concession
plaza, and a rail station that will connect the airport with downtown Denver. In addition,
Gaylord has announced it will build a 1,500-room convention hotel nearby.
Conversely, because of the high land value of many airport sites, projects with small
footprints have become increasingly prevalent. Select-service hotels continue to be effective
airport properties because of their low-rise structure and lower development costs, but full-
service hotels are still being created in airport locations and are more likely to be physically
connected to the terminal areas in an effort to maximize land use. The Fairmont Vancouver
Airport is directly
Yotel, Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom
Tiny rooms inspired by the design of aircraft allow travelers to rest and recuperate between
flights. More like cruise ship staterooms than traditional hotel rooms, the units lack windows
to the outdoors, which helps control noise and light.
connected to the airport's international departure hall and has all the features of an upscale
business hotel including concierge floors, a health club and spa, and 8,700 sq ft (800 sq m) of
meeting space. At London's Heathrow, Yotel in Terminal 4 goes the other direction, providing
75 sq ft (7 sq m) “cabins” with “monsoon” glass-enclosed showers, fold-away workstations,
fully adjustable mood lighting, and, in the premium rooms, a couch that expands into a full-
size bed at the touch of a button, all inspired by first-class accommodations in aircraft.
Guestroom windows look into the corridors, which helps minimize outside noise. The hotel
keeps costs down and revenues up by offering only self-service check-in and by selling rooms
on an hourly basis, yet is able to provide 24-hour room service from staffed galleys on each
floor. Similar “pod” concepts from emerging brands like Citizen M, easyHotel, and Qbic are
appearing at busy airports worldwide, some only offering sleeping and work facilities but no
individual bathrooms. A particularly innovative example of a high-design, low-cost airport
hotel concept is the Jumbo Stay at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport: guests sleep in a retired and
repurposed 747 jumbo jet with a view of the airport out each aircraft window.
The sky-lit lobby atrium, while no longer popular for downtown locations due to their high
cost, finds good use in airport hotels as a comfort to guests who have arrived on long flights in
cramped aircraft cabins and hunger for expansive space and air. These atriums provide a sense
of light and transparency and of being closer to the sky, maintaining the milieu of flight. The
atrium also contributes to noise control for rooms that face the interior. Extensive plantings in
these spaces also dampen noise and provide welcome natural views to weary travelers.
The historically high guest turnover rate characteristic of airport hotels and the need to
respond to full occupancy immediately due to severe weather or other travel interruptions place
specialized
Jumbo Stay, Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, Sweden
A retired 747, mothballed for six years, now serves as a hostel for adventurous business and
leisure travelers on a budget. Many of the original aircraft features were retained in the
conversion of the fuselage into guestrooms and public space. Room 747, depicted here, is the
most coveted sleeping room onboard.

Crowne Plaza Changi, Changi Airport, Singapore

The property was designed to be an oasis for tired long-distance travelers and to provide a taste
of Singapore for those who may not be venturing further into the country. Designed by WOHA,
the hotel is enclosed in a filigree “cage” that softens light and sound and offers passersby a
framed view of the lush interior plantings that bring the Singaporean jungle indoors.
 Case Study
Sheraton Milan Malpensa Airport Hotel and Conference Center, Milan, Italy
Architect: King Roselli Architetti
Interior Designer: Saporiti Design Hotel

Airport hotels that connect directly to air terminals face perhaps the highest number of design
constraints of any hotel type: they must be low-rise, high-security, soundproofed, restful, and
highly functional. The Sheraton Milan Malpensa Airport Hotel and Conference Center
achieves all of these in style, with an innovative exterior that references Italy's refined design
culture while responding to some challenging site issues including a roadway on one side,
passenger loading and unloading facilities on the other, a railway underneath, and an existing
parking garage below. King Roselli Architetti's unique proposal for a long, slender building
punctuated with guestroom blocks facing a series of interior courtyards and wrapped in a sleek
shell won a design competition for the building's exterior and has quickly made the Sheraton
Milan Malpensa an architectural landmark.
At 433 keys, the hotel has many of the features typical of large airport hotels. Although there
are relatively few multi-bay suites, a club floor with 58 rooms and a 2,100 sq ft (195 sq m) club
lounge allows the hotel operator to obtain a higher room rate from close to 18 percent of the
keys. There is a generous 21,000 sq ft (1,951 sq m) of meeting space allocated among 22
function rooms as well as over 12,300 sq ft (1,150 sq m) of spa and fitness facilities and two
food and beverage outlets. Of particular note is the crew lounge, a dedicated 4,300 sq ft (400
sq m) space for flight crews to relax away from other travelers. Large windows along the west
façade offer spectacular views of the Italian Alps to the northwest.
While the mountain view may be unique, what makes this hotel truly stand out is its stunning
exterior that wraps around the guestrooms on the terminal side of the project to create a series
of seven curved forms. This fiberglass-reinforced composite membrane presented some
construction challenges as architect Ricardo Roselli insisted upon a seamless appearance. By
stretching long 4.6 ft (1.4 m) wide panels of the exterior material over a steel and composite
frame, the designers were able to fully unify the east façade with the
roof, making it appear to be another façade to those passing overhead. Another benefit of this
solution is that it blocks views into the guestrooms from Malpensa's Terminal 1, which is
connected to the hotel via a tunnel.
The interiors were designed by Saporiti Design Hotel. The use of intense color as a highlight
in the sleek, minimalist interior makes the lobby spaces pop while the meeting-room color
scheme is much more neutral. The curves of the hotel's exterior are referenced in the lobby and
ballroom ceilings, giving the hotel a streamlined and retro feel.
demands on the hotels' administrative areas and the back-of-house. Rooms division, accounting
offices, front desk areas, housekeeping, food service, and engineering divisions are all heavily
impacted by the operational needs unique to airport hotels.
Most airport hotels are affiliated with chains which require that their branded hotels be
within 3 miles (5 km) or 10 minutes of terminals and offer food service 24 hours a day, free
airport vans, same-day laundry and pressing service, business centers, and multilingual
receptionists. With a new focus on the individual business traveler and corporate meeting
groups, design requirements suitable for conference centers and flex-office guestrooms
discussed in other chapters should be reviewed. Airport hotel guestrooms should be equipped
with large work desks with ergonomic seating, WiFi and “jack packs” for connecting multiple
devices to the television and to building systems.
Height restrictions for all buildings in the vicinity of airports are based on the approach angle
of arriving and departing aircraft and are strictly regulated by government agencies such as the
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Noise obviously plays an important role in site selection
fora hotel, so planning should account for the air traffic patterns including arrival and departure
routes around the airport. Sophisticated noise-reduction technologies are available and should
be employed during construction, including the use of triple-glazed windows, noise-reduction
wall finishes and foam membranes, vibration isolation springs, and sound-cancellation
systems. For hotels that are physically connected to air terminals, the increased security needs
of today's transportation infrastructure require special consideration. Screening checkpoints
with imaging and sensing equipment as well as bollards to keep vehicles away from buildings
and a profusion of security cameras inside and outside the hotel are among the standard design
responses to high-security locations.

Office-park Hotels
Office parks started in the United States as a natural outgrowth of suburban expansion. Many
of the same qualities that attracted residential development to the outer boroughs—green space,
lower costs, easier access, and safety—also attracted business development in the form of
suburban office complexes. The rapid decentralization of central business districts to perimeter
developments was a necessary phase in the evolution of the modern city as major office tower
tenants moved to the suburban office market.
While industrial parks were the precursors of the genre, high-tech industries led the way to
early office-park development. Silicon Valley, California, was an early manifestation of a
modern office/science park. In the early 1960s the environs around Stanford University became
a haven for computer science graduates wanting to establish their businesses in close proximity
to the university's research facilities. Hewlett-Packard was the first major company to locate
its California headquarters in Silicon Valley to take advantage of its research-rich environment.
In the 1970s corporate giant IBM moved from its Manhattan office towers en masse to
suburban Armonk, New York, and split off entire new divisions to other suburban locales
across the United States. Other major corporations followed suit in their exodus from
downtown.
In Europe, British developer Stuart Lipton created Stockley Park adjacent to Heathrow
Airport as a U.S.-style “business park.” Lipton's emphasis was on landscape design and quality
architecture as essential amenities offered to itstenants. According to Lipton, “It was all about
PhDs rolling in the grass.” The theory was that fertile minds function better in the pleasant
open environment of a business park rather than the crowded cacophony of a city office block.
Office parks usually fall under the control of a single entity that sets out a master plan and
defines development guidelines and restrictions. Amenities are important to tenants and their
employees and if not available in the immediate area must be provided on-site. These include
good parking, attractive landscaping, daycare facilities, food and beverage outlets, fitness
centers, outdoor recreation, business support centers, meeting and conference facilities, and
overnight accommodations. Since hotels can provide many of these amenities under one roof,
they are a natural fit for office parks. One such property is the Westin Hyderabad Mindspace
Hotel, part of the Mind Space IT Park in the massive HITEC City information technology and
office complex in Hyderabad, India. Mind Space IT Park has over 4,000,000 sq ft (370,000 sq
m) of office space spread over 110 acres (44 hectares) occupied by companies like Accenture,
Amazon, IBM, and several banks, with the plan to eventually support 55,000 technology
professionals and support staff. The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace has all the traditional
features of an upscale downtown hotel but also hosts an evening social hour and provides
access to a nearby golf and country club as ways to foster professional networking among its
guests and clients in the surrounding businesses.
Another style of office-park hotel has much more of a suburban conference-center feel. The
Hyatt Lodge at McDonald's Campus in Oak Brook, Illinois, is this kind of property: designed
to emulate
Umstead Hotel and Spa, Cary, North Carolina
Set on 12 acres (4.9 hectares) alongside a small lake, The Umstead Hotel and Spa incorporates
natural materials and museum-caliber artwork throughout the 150-room luxury property. The
hotel serves the adjoining corporate campus of SAS as well as other business and leisure
travelers visiting the Raleigh area.
Frank Lloyd Wright's “Prairie” style, the 218-room Hyatt Lodge is low and spread out along
the edge of a private lake and connected to nearby buildings via a network of bucolic walking
paths. A 5,100 sq ft (474 sq m) ballroom overlooking the lake makes it a popular wedding
location, giving the hotel a valuable revenue stream on weekends when corporate business may
be slower. Because many of the hotel's guests stay for extended periods while attending
McDonald's nearby training center, Hamburger University, the hotel has extensive fitness and
recreational facilities that go well beyond the typical hotel workout room.
As with any hotel that caters to business travelers, office-park hotels must be equipped with
state-of-the-art technology in guestrooms and in the conference space. These properties may
have the same or more function space per key than a downtown hotel because of the demand
for meeting space generated by businesses in the park. For example, the five-star Umstead
Hotel and Spa in Cary, North Carolina, has 66 sq ft (6 sq m) of function space per key as well
as a fine-dining restaurant and a luxury spa, giving the Umstead the feel of a beautifully
landscaped destination resort despite its business-oriented location on the suburban campus of
SAS World Headquarters.

Country Inns and Bed-and-breakfast Inns

Descended from eighteenth-century English and European inns, one of the oldest forms of
hospitality has endured to become an important component of the leisure lodging industry. In
1980 there were approximately 1,000 inns serving about one million guests in the United
States. Current industry estimates place the figures close to 17,000 inns that drive a U.S.$3.4
billion industry. International figures are harder to find but thousands of bed-and-breakfast
lodgings can be found all over Europe and in locations as diverse as French Polynesia, Turkey,
Panama, and even in Africa where B&Bs offer accommodation to both NGO workers and
tourists.
The traditional qualities inherent in country inns and home-style bed-and-breakfasts remain
central to their appeal: generous hospitality, personal attention, owner involvement,
architecturally interesting or historic structures, individually decorated rooms, comfortable
ambience, and unhurried surroundings. Though endless variety exists with these hostelries,
most guests envision a quaint country cottage or farmhouse with a wide front porch full of
comfortable seating, a cozy fireplace, a floral-wallpapered bedroom furnished with antiques
and heirlooms, claw-footed bathtubs, and delicious “slow food” cooking all served up by a
charming and gregarious host. The personality of the innkeeper is often tantamount to the
character of the inn itself and the quality of the stay. Some referral organizations actually
suggest a phone chat with the prospective host to confirm personal compatibility before
booking.
The trend towards high-quality personalized service is evident in many hotel segments, and,
as with the expanded development of luxury properties and the growth of boutique hotels in
urban areas, is reasoned to be in reaction to the impersonal service of the large corporate hotel
trade. The friendliness and authenticity of country inns and B&Bs are often preferred over the
grand impressions and commercial approaches followed by other types of lodging.
Despite their popularity, inns face stiff competition and increasing costs. It no longer is
sufficient to have a charming residence and a website: inns of all types must offer many of the
amenities that travelers expect from any hotel—WiFi and spa-style bathrooms—as well as
personalized experiences that cannot be duplicated by the chains. Properties that cater to
particular niches have become more prevalent: bed-and-breakfast inns along the scenic
California coastline offer special packages to biking and motorcycling enthusiasts, and fans of
the macabre can stay in the room where Lizzie Borden allegedly murdered her parents in Fall
River, Massachusetts. The diversity of country lodging is matched by the cultural diversity of
the patrons as younger, more sophisticated, and more ethnically diverse travelers are changing
the market. Some of these travelers are turning to online resources such as Airbnb.com to find
inexpensive home stays, which gives additional exposure but also competitive pressure to
urban B&Bs.
Individually themed guestroom designs have long been a feature of country inns and B&Bs;
in fact the appeal is greater if no two rooms are alike. The Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport,
Oregon, has 20 literature-themed rooms named for famous authors from Shakespeare toJ. K.
Rowling, each lined with well-loved volumes to peruse. Guests at the Chateau de Tennessus in
Poitou Charentes, France, can stay in an authentic medieval castle with arrow slits overlooking
the moat and drawbridge. Accommodations at country inns cover a very broad range of
economic categories, from simple rooms for under U.S.$50 to the elegant luxury of the five-
star Twin Farms Country Estate in Vermont where rates begin at U.S.$1,300 including meals.
The ever-broadening diversity of types of country inns and B&Bs has led the Professional
Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) to codify the varieties of inns based on type of
building, type of ownership and operation, size, location, services, and amenities. In general,
the larger the property and the less the owner is involved with day-to-day operations and
interacting with the guests, the more the property is perceived as a hotel instead of an inn by
the traveler. Any facility with more than 30 rooms is generally considered a bed-and-breakfast
hotel.
One commonly thinks of country inns or B&Bs as restored historic buildings or renovated
farmhouses where the charming characteristics and fine craftsmanship of past eras are essential
values of the experience. Creating a B&B/country inn from a historic structure usually means
carving out guestrooms and baths where none existed before or adding wings. It is important
when undergoing renovations of this kind to maintain the style and quality of workmanship
original to the building. Housing of administration and back-of-house functions, such as
laundry/housekeeping, food preparation, or repair shops is often accomplished in cellars,
outbuildings, or off-site.
Many country inns are designed to capture a sense of history and regional personality by
employing the architectural styles, detailing, workmanship, materials, traditional furnishings,
and artifacts of an earlier period, but contemporary approaches to the design of country inns
have produced some dazzling new architecture and interiors. In stark contrast to the traditional
notion of a country inn, the View Sunset Monzen Family Inn, sited in the Japanese countryside
overlooking the Sea of Japan, represents a hyper-modern evolution of the genre. Its

The Inn at Middleton Place, Charleston, South Carolina

Unlike most country inns, The Inn at Middleton Place has a distinctly modern aesthetic.
Concrete, wood, metal, and glass follow a formal grid pattern in the L-shaped block of low-
rise buildings facing an expansive green courtyard and the Ashley River beyond.
futuristic architecture demonstrates a new and unique approach to lodging with guestroom pods
strung along a pedestrian deck that frames a carefully crafted garden overlooking the sea and
leads to the lobby and a lookout tower. In the south of France, Michel and Sebastien Bras
created a strikingly modern hotel and a restaurant with three Michelin stars in the hills outside
Laguiole, featuring a glass-walled dining room cantilevered off the hillside to maximize the
views over the rolling Aveyron countryside. The building is composed of three parallel tiers
that step downhill to give all guestrooms a western exposure.
At 55 rooms, The Inn at Middleton Place outside Charleston, South Carolina, is perhaps best
defined as a small hotel. Its rustic setting alongside a nationally registered historic plantation
transports guests to the eighteenth century but the inn itself was built over 250 years later and
earned an AIA Honor Award for distinctive architecture in 1987. An ivy-covered concrete shell
provides circulation and connects the modern room blocks that face a pristine courtyard and
the Ashley River beyond. Inside, the guestrooms offer all the comforts of a luxury country
inn—wood-burning fireplaces, window shutters, braided rugs, and handcrafted furniture—but
with a clean-lined, contemporary feel.
As the country inn continues to evolve as one of the hospitality industry's most enduring
forms, it will be the homelike atmosphere that will continue to draw guests to the tranquil
ambience and gracious welcome that it offers.
Special-purpose Hotels, Hybrids and Other Suburban Hotel
Types
The explosive development and expansive diversity found in the suburbs has led to a wide variety of
hybrid hotel types that cater to an even wider variety of markets. These hotels are characterized as
accommodating a multitude of regional functions including shopping malls, universities, museums,
amusement parks, medical centers, restaurant villages, and even small towns in addition to the larger
audiences discussed above such as airports and office parks. Most suburban hotels accommodate more
than one geographical market, so it is not surprising to find a major chain hotel serving a small university
town near an airport “fly-in” business park and close to a major regional shopping center. In addition
to satisfying price category requirements, these hotels must provide a variety of amenities and facilities
that satisfy all potential user types.

Suburban Mixed-use Developments

Combining hotels with office space, residences, shopping, and entertainment has been a popular
development strategy for decades. Although many mixed-use developments are built in urban settings

Hotel Habita, Monterrey, Mexico

This suburban hotel, designed by architect Agustín Landa, sits in a residential neighborhood and
features a solely black-and-white interior. The curved 10-story tower is topped with a pool and open-
air bar with expansive views of the surrounding city and mountains.
to maximize the use of expensive real estate, there are also suburban mixed-use projects that incorporate
striking hotels. The Hotel Habita in the San Pedro neighborhood of Monterrey, Mexico, stands at the
junction of two curving structures that contain office space and apartments. Landa Arquitectos designed
a unique ovoid concrete ten-story tower that creates unusual and dramatic floor plans for each of the
hotel's 39 sleek luxury guestrooms.
Suburban mixed-use developments in the United States often emphasize the pedestrian experience.
Hotels may not be fully integrated with retail or commercial areas but will be an easy walk along
attractively planned outdoor pathways. A major connection to public transit is becoming a common
component of these projects, with light rail or subway stops incorporated into the design as a way of
increasing the appeal and hence the value of the residential units and commercial space. The specific
needs of the market determine the precise mix and proportion of uses, and local climate has a lot to say
about how these uses are physically connected.
Marriott's Renaissance Club Sport is a hotel concept designed for these kinds of suburban mixed-use
locations. The hotel combines guestrooms and dining with a 50,000 sq ft (4,645 sq m) high-quality
fitness, spa, and sports club that drives revenue in the form of community memberships. Sport club
members also dine in the hotel and are a source of “VFR” roomnights (visiting friends and relatives)
that supplement lodging demand from nearby office buildings.

Mall Hotels
Shopping malls reached their peak in the late 1970s as the natural result of residential suburban growth
and served as a potent catalyst for further residential and business expansion. Suburban hotel
development gravitated to these locations, lured to the crossroads by the same magnetic attraction that
fused new residential, retail, and business projects. For example, the area surrounding King of Prussia
Mall outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has grown to include a wealth of office parks, recreational
facilities, and housing developments which in turn has driven the development of a cluster of hotels that
range from smaller economy and all-suite properties to hotels with four-star service. One of these
properties, the Dolce Valley Forge, offers all the features of a downtown business hotel—24,000 sq ft
(2,200 sq m) of meeting space, a business center, and 24-hour fitness facilities—with an outdoor pool
and garden that attract leisure travelers who have come to spend a day or two at the nearby regional
shopping complex.
Mall areas can attract large numbers of family travelers, and some projects have directly targeted this
segment by offering unique features. The Great Wolf Lodge Grapevine opened in 2007 about 2 miles
(3 km) from the 1.6 million sq ft (147,200 sq m) Grapevine Mills Mall outside of Dallas, Texas. The
lodge offers family-friendly recreational facilities centered on an 84,000 sq ft (7,725 sq m) waterpark
with multiple indoor and outdoor play areas as well as a children's club, interactive role-playing game
spaces, an arcade, a teens-only social room with the latest in online and video gaming, a children's spa,
and, at a peaceful remove from all the activity, a full-service spa for adults. However, the property also
sports a 20,000 sq ft (1,840 sq m) conference center, a useful amenity given its location relative to the
Dallas-Fort Worth Airport 10 minutes away. Partnerships with well-known, kid-friendly food and
beverage brands both simplify and promote on-site dining.

University Hotels
Universities have always provided a profitable market for the hotel industry for housing families and
friends who are visiting students, prospective students or professors, invited lecturers, conference
attendees, visitors on research-related or administrative business, sports fans, and others. Many
universities worldwide operate their own hotels on campus, in some cases integrating these hotels with
hospitality management programs and utilizing students of the schools as industry trainees. The
substantial demand for meeting space from campus activities makes conference facilities a significant
part of any university hotel. For example, the J. Willard Marriott Executive Education Center at the
Statler Hotel at Cornell University provides nearly 20,000 sq ft (1,840 sq m) of conference space within
the hotel itself and is physically connected to the School of Hotel Administration with its own auditoria,
amphitheaters, and flat-floored classrooms which can all be used for group events when classes are not
scheduled.
University hotels often have a relatively high proportion of suites as a result of the high number of
VIP guests and families who come to campus. Designers of these hotels often are charged with making
the property connect both physically and emotionally to the university; campus views are very
important, as is the incorporation of university iconography and donor recognition.

Statler Hotel, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

The 150-room campus hotel and executive conference center serves the diverse university market of
alumni, recruiters, speakers, trustees, and families of students. It features a wide range of meeting
rooms, including a 94-seat amphitheater, used for management training programs and academic
conferences.

Case Study
The Study at Yale
Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg

Like the Jupiter Hotel profiled earlier in the chapter, The Study at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, is
a conversion of a 1960s motor hotel, but that ends the similarities between the two projects. Intended
to be the first hotel of a new brand, The Study at Yale aims to reflect the unique character of neighboring
Yale University and to establish an emotional and intellectual bond with its guests and the surrounding
cultural community by fostering a strong sense of place. The result is a gently quirky concept that uses
the art of reading as a motif for the hotel's comfortable, contemporary style.
In order to increase the room count in what had been most recently the Colony Hotel from 86 keys
to a more profitable 124, developers Hospitality 3 and Toronto architects Kuwabara Payne McKenna
Blumberg added two new floors to the existing building. The guestrooms in the original building had
large picture windows with stunning views of the Gothic academic buildings of Yale's campus so this
feature became the focal point in the redesign: a narrow desk that runs the width of the room faces the
window, and in the suites—or “studies”—a cozy reading nook is also oriented toward the view. Each
guestroom also features a leather chair and ottoman with a reading light to encourage perusal of the
hundreds of books and periodicals available in the hotel's public spaces. Even the room-service menu,
labeled “Food for Thought,” refers back to the hotel's academic setting.
On the top floor, a new 1,200 sq ft (112 sq m) Penthouse Lounge also has a panoramic view of Yale
and generates additional revenue as event space for smaller gatherings. This space supplements a further
1,800 sq ft (167 sq m) of meeting space on the ground floor. Also at ground level, the Library/Living
Room features a café with coffee and light snacks, and the on-site restaurant and lounge emphasizes
local, contemporary cuisine. Together these spaces push The Study at Yale's total allocation of food
and beverage space beyond what a typical 124-key boutique hotel might have in order to attract custom
from the entire Yale community, not just from hotel guests.
An immediate hit, The Study at Yale sets a new standard for upscale university hotels and
demonstrates how aging hotel stock can be effectively reborn provided that there is a strong fit among
the project's location, design, and intended market.
Medical Hotels
During the early twentieth century, with the dawn of advanced medical services, the citizens of
Rochester, Minnesota, were solving a community-wide problem. Annually, the Mayo Clinic medical
phenomenon was attracting more than 60,000 patients to a city with a population of only 15,000.
Hospital waiting lists were long, and hotel accommodations were in short supply. To serve the growing
demand, in 1907 John H. Kahler built his first hotel with 60 rooms. Part convalescent hotel and hospital
unit, it contained an upper-floor surgical and obstetrical suite and nursing school. It soon became grossly
undersized for its market and, after numerous additions, operates today as the Kahler Grand Hotel with
624 rooms and 30,000 sq ft (2,750 sq m) of meeting space connected to a further 100,000 sq ft (9,250
sq m) of conference facilities in the neighboring Mayo Civic Center. Today 50 hotels with over 5,000
rooms now serve the Mayo Clinic and achieve robust occupancy rates.
Table 4.1 Suggested medical hotel program features

Adjacency Separate short-term guest stays and residential-style rooms to allow for greater patient
privacy and restful ambience.
Public Public amenities (e.g., restaurants, deli/convenience store, gift shop with a section for
amenities special needs items, and beauty and barber shops).

Patient center that provides facilities where guests can use an exercise room, medical
library, lounge, card, and video room, or catch up on work at a complimentary
business center, patient/guest relations program including counseling and other
specialized services.

Fitness and rehabilitation center.

Room Shower stalls in each bathroom.

amenities

Large easy chairs for daytime lounging.

Rooms equipped for long-term living including DVD player, kitchenette with
microwave ovens, refrigerator, dishwashers, and tableware.

Access Enclosed connection to the adjacent medical building.

Oversized elevators, hallways, and guestrooms to accommodate for movement of

stretchers and wheelchairs.

Extra-wide hallways and doors for easy wheelchair access.

Medical Emergency response system monitored 24 hours a day by medical personnel.

Medical waste disposals in each room.

Special consultation and private meeting spaces for group and individual counseling.

Design Patient-friendly interior design improves appetite and flatters complexion.

Others Accommodate needs of local and visiting medical community.

Innovations in medical care and the increasing emphasis on outpatient services have spurred
significant growth in hotels associated with hospitals and medical centers around the world. These
properties offer accommodation to patients before and after tests and outpatient procedures as well as
to family members and to health-care professionals who are on site only for short periods of time to
conduct research or participate in conferences. This diverse client base means that medical hotels must
offer an array of design features that have high functionality as well as aesthetic appeal. A growing
source of international demand for medical hotels comes from
Connexion Integrated Health Centre, Singapore
A 250-room full-service hotel is just one component of this single structure, which contains hospital
facilities for in- and outpatient care, physicians' offices, a conference center, a medical school, and
recreational facilities, all connected to a commuter rail station below grade.
“medical tourists,” generally affluent travelers who seek medical care outside their home nation at
greatly reduced cost when compared with U.S. medical expenses. Costa Rica, Thailand, India, and Israel
are all leaders in this area with many more countries rapidly increasing their medical capacity to attract
this lucrative market. Singapore's Connexion development represents the latest thinking in providing
hotel services on a health-care campus, in this case the cutting-edge “mediplex” of Farrer Park Hospital,
Farrer Park Medical Center, and One Farrer Hotel, all elements of the same massive, mixed-use
building. The hotel component provides accommodation for

Hampton Inn Hometown Ground Floor

This 52–64 room limited-service prototype specifically for smaller markets offers the same features as
larger Hampton Inns but can be sited on parcels as small as 1.32 acres (0.5 hectares). The allocation of
meeting space is generous, allowing these hotels to become centers of community activity.
outpatients and for visitors to the complex as well as meeting space to support the hospital, medical
center tenants, and the graduate school of medicine that is incorporated into the complex. On five floors
of the hotel are the specially designed “hospitel rooms” featuring oversized bathrooms and separate
sleeping areas for family members who may be sharing the room with the patient. These rooms can also
be converted to hospital beds as the need arises. In all other respects, One Farrer Hotel looks and feels
like an upscale boutique hotel with 120 “typical” hotel rooms, rooftop tropical gardens, indulgent spa
facilities, retail shops, restaurants, and conference spaces. This integrated approach offers operational
synergies that make this model likely to become more common for new-build health centers worldwide.
In developing the medical hotel's room mix, it is important to recognize the phases of recovery that
many patients may experience as they relate to guestroom needs. When first released from the hospital
the patient may need to be attended to closely by a private nurse or family member. The patient will not
be mobile and may not feel presentable enough to mix with other guests, preferring to stay in his or her
room. A full kitchenette may be required as well as adjacent accommodations for attending family
members or nurse. Once patients become ambulatory, they may enjoy moving about on the floor and
so may be able to use a central kitchen area with a small dining room, TV lounge, orsunroom on the
same floor. Patients near the end of their stay may be able to enjoy the public spaces and hotel lobby,
restaurant, and exercise facilities as available. Table 4.1 outlines some of the design features and
services that these hotels can provide.

Small-town Hotels
Small-town hotels represent perhaps the most cross-bred of all hybrids. Regarded by the large chains
as a tertiary market, small towns offer lodging in the form of unbranded motels, bed-and-breakfasts,
country-style inns, or smaller versions of well-known branded suburban hotels. These hotels often lack
the regimentation characteristic of larger, more urban accommodations. Small-town properties may take
a prominent role in community affairs and often are the setting for wedding receptions, high school
reunions, local awards ceremonies, beauty pageants, bingo nights, fraternal club meetings, seasonal
festivals, and other community functions. Swimming pools and health clubs often are open to locals for
a modest fee. Upscale restaurants in small-town hotels are sometimes the best dining option in town
and naturally become a local social epicenter.
Hilton has created a “hometown” prototype of its Hampton Inn brand for these smaller markets,
allowing developers to create a hotel with all the benefits of brand affiliation but at a size that makes
sense for locations that cannot support a large number of rooms. At no more than 64 keys, Hampton
Inn Hometown hotels are designed to be built faster on a smaller site than typical Hampton Inns.

New Suburban Brands

Suburban hotels continue to be a laboratory for new prototypes and hybrids. Just as the
diversity reflected in suburban markets has led to the development of new lodging products,
the evolution of suburban and exurban life is driving the creation of ever more niche hotel
brands with unique design features.
One fertile area of development is in the all-suite segment. Originally “one size fits all,”
today's all-suite brands offer an array of suite types and amenities targeting both professionals
on assignment and weekend leisure guests. Marriott's TownePlace Suites is a recent example
of the trend toward studio suite brands with much smaller guestrooms and public spaces than
the all-suite concepts that were developed in the 1980s. In their typical rooms, these hotels
feature a small kitchen area (although with minimal cooking facilities beyond a microwave), a
pull-out sofa, a generous and customizable working space, and a single king bed, all in a space
of roughly 330 sq ft (30.6 sq m). The current fashion to use bright blocks of color in high-
contrast interiors is reflected in the brand décor as is the provision of a communal table in the
lobby space to support working alone but in the company of others—now a hallmark of the
younger traveler's working style.
Targeting a similar demographic such new brands as Hyatt Place, aloft, and NYLO have all
entered the market with modern designs that emphasize the lobby “great room” where guests
can work, eat, drink, and socialize. Hyatt Place properties can be either new-builds or
renovations of properties formerly under other flags, but aloft and NYLO were planned as
entirely new constructions.
Looking forward, it is clear that the economy and select-service brands will continue to
develop upscale-like amenities but in a smaller space or with minimal hotel labor in order to
provide a higher-quality experience at a price more in keeping with suburban demand. Even if
they are not staying in gateway cities, twenty-first-century travelers will expect all hotels to
have a comfortable room, the latest technology, and high style.

TownePlace Suites Typical Room

Designed with business travelers on longer-term assignments in mind, this studio unit offers a
second, rolling work surface that can be positioned anywhere in the room and a small kitchen
area with full-sized appliances.
JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton at L.A. LIVE, Los Angeles, California
Gensler's sleek glass tower tapers outward to accommodate the larger footprint of the Ritz-
Carlton guestrooms and residences, presenting a striking architectural profile to downtown
L.A. and reflective of the hotel's program. The dual-branded hotel complex is remarkable in
offering two superb luxury brands within a single property.
 CHAPTER
5
Multi-branded Hotels

Developers seeking to build branded lodging in urban areas often find it difficult to acquire suitable
property due to the high cost of land. Building more than one brand on a single site, however, can create
more feasible economies-of-scale and result in a number of development, marketing, and operational
advantages. The concept of dual-branded properties began with projects where two brands from the
same hotel company were built on the same site but in separate buildings. The concept has expanded to
include a wide variety of configurations including multiple brands in a single building or complex.

Planning and Development Considerations

Multi-branded hotel developments benefit from the following advantages:
•There is reduced initial construction cost per room with smaller program areas due to shared
public space, meeting space, recreation, administration, and back-of-house. Savings can be as
much as 30 percent.
•Hotels have reduced operating costs and greater efficiency with shared services and a
centralized staff under one general manager.
•Meeting space becomes more cost-effective. A ballroom might not be feasible to build and
operate for one hotel alone but when shared by two, it becomes viable.
•Blended product provides more options for the customer; for example, the extended-stay
guestroom has a kitchen while the upscale transient brand has a restaurant for guests who don't
feel like cooking.
•Blended product captures a broader market in multiple demand segments (transient plus
extended-stay or mid-price plus economy brands)
•Right-size the project to the property. Investment in a site that should support 400 keys can
now support two hotels at 200 keys.
•There is reduced risk to the investor. If one brand doesn't attract customers, the other one
might.
•There is increased brand loyalty. One brand generates interest in the other. Guests get exposure
and become attracted to an unfamiliar new brand.
•Operators can adjust the guests to the product that best suits them. If guests are booked long-
term in a transient hotel but are better suited to the extended-stay product, they can be moved
over.
•Cross-selling becomes easier without competing sales forces.
A developer in São Paolo, Brazil, sought to reposition a 600-key downtown hotel with a
branded product but the building was too large for the particular brand. Instead, the hotel was
split between two distinct but compatible brands each capturing a substantial share of its
respective market. Similarly, a developer in Silver Spring, Maryland, sought to adapt an office
building in a prime location to a single focused-service brand but realized the building was too
large for just one hotel, and the commercial office market was flat. The zoning in that
neighborhood had been changed to restrict high-rise building so the developer was not
permitted to build from the ground up. Working with Hilton, the company ended up developing
a dual-branded project that housed two hotels within the former office building. The Silver
Spring property became a co-branded Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn.

Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn, Silver Spring, Maryland

Developers converted a 150,000 sq ft (13,935 sq m) underachieving office building into two
Hilton brands, each sized appropriately to their market share and achieving mutual efficiencies
in shared administration and back-of-house areas.
It is a frequent problem for developers, seeking the advantages of a dual-branded property
in a dense urban area, to find a site large enough to accommodate two separate freestanding
buildings. The most common solution has been to design the two brands within a single new
structure with shared amenities and services.
A common formula for dual-branded properties is to marry an extended-stay product with a
mid-priced transient product, each at approximately the same price tier. For example a Hilton
Garden Inn is combined with a Homewood Suites (also by Hilton) or a Residence Inn with a
Courtyard (both by Marriott). Other combinations include products at different price tiers, such
as a mid-priced brand with a budget brand. Another formula combines a brand focused on the
leisure market with one serving the business market. There are even dual-branded properties
where two hotel brands from different and sometimes competing hotel companies occupy the
same building. The Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas occupies the upper floors of the Mandalay
Bay Resort and Casino although the two hotels are managed independently. Likewise Andaz
Shanghai Hotel by Hyatt and The Langham Xintiandi Hotel (see pages 47–49) are physically
connected by a sky bridge and have a synergistic relationship but are operated independently.

Design Considerations
There are a number of building configurations that we find in multi-branded hotel projects. The
earliest model is simply having two stand-alone buildings that share the same lot. In the case
of the Hyatt Place and Hyatt Summerfield Suites at Fort Lauderdale Airport in Florida, the
developers preferred seeing the success of the Hyatt Place before committing to the second
hotel. The two hotels benefit from certain operating cost savings as one general manager runs
both properties and cross-selling is a significant advantage.
The more substantial economic and operational benefits of multi-branding come when the
hotels are physically connected. Only then can they truly share the construction cost savings
and operational efficiencies inherent in the multi-branding concept. To a large extent the form
that these combined properties take is driven by site constraints. If the site is large enough, the
preferred configuration is to have two towers connected at the base with public and back-of-
house space and two separate entrance canopies. The risk for hotel companies when the hotels
are connected is maintaining brand identity and avoiding brand confusion. Most brands have
architectural prototypes that have been carefully developed to provide an identifiable image
representative of the brand. Marrying two brands within a single building presents a challenge
to architects to blend these images effectively so that the building does not evoke Frankenstein,
yet maintains a clear representation of the prototypical building elements. Two towers
connected at the base with separate arrival areas lends itself very well to this goal since each
separate tower can follow the brand prototype. More difficult is a smaller site which can only
accommodate a single tower. The brand-confusion issue is exacerbated if the site can only
allow for a single entrance canopy. In some cases signage becomes the only vehicle to brand
identity.
Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn, Toronto, Canada
Located within minutes of Toronto's Pearson International Airport, the two buildings boast 126
Hampton rooms and 128 Homewood brand suites and are joined by a shared common area,
pool, and fitness center. The developers realized a need in both the upscale extended-stay and
mid-priced transient hotel segments in the growing Toronto Airport Corporate Centre area.
Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites, Jacksonville, Florida
On a tight downtown site, Bounds and Gillespie Architects placed an L-shaped tower on the
site, leaving only one quadrant for open space. The clever site plan utilizes the open space for
two incompatible functions shared by the two brands. The swimming pool is nicely screened
from the entrance court but becomes a vibrant element to view from both hotel lobbies.
Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites, Bossier City, Louisiana
Faced with Holiday Inn's new brand standards for eliminating exterior corridors, the owners
decided to demolish the existing building and reflag the site with two Hilton brands. Mathes
Brierre Architects designed the first low-rise dual-branded property, with two independent
four-story wings formed around a courtyard and swimming pool and linked at the entrance by
a single-story public space podium. A single porte cochère leads to the two branded lobby
elements: Hilton Garden Inn's iconic “Pavilion” and Homewood Suites' recognizable “Lodge.”
The two hotels share administration, back-of-house, recreation, and meeting spaces.
 A single tower can be divided either horizontally, where guestroom floors of each hotel
brand are on one or the other side of the tower, or vertically, where guestroom floors of one
brand are built above the other. In either case each brand needs to have its own entrance, lobby,
and passenger-elevator core, though they can share emergency exit stairs and service elevators
if carefully planned. In horizontally divided projects, since guestrooms and corridors of each
brand share the same floors, it is necessary to create a break in the corridor so that guests do
not circulate to the other brand's side of the floor. Brand standards should be maintained in the
décor of each brand's corridors. The Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites in Jacksonville,
Florida, is designed as an L-shaped tower with each leg dedicated to a brand. The ground floor
of this tight rectilinear site is cleverly arranged with a shared arrival court leading to separate
entrances. The common swimming pool is tucked neatly between the two wings adjacent to
but screened from the arrival court.
In addition to the brand confusion issue there are functional problems to solve when
combining two or more hotels within a single building envelope. Circulation requirements
connecting each brand's lobby to shared meeting space or recreational amenities often mean
that the lobbies become connected by a corridor or pre-function space. This allows for guests
from one hotel to easily visit the lobby of the other. While this has the advantage of giving the
guest exposure to the other brand, it can have functional disadvantages as well. For instance,
Hilton Garden Inn serves its guests a free hot breakfast while Homewood Suites does not; care
must be taken in the plan layout to discourage the Homewood customers from availing
themselves of the free meal intended for the Garden Inn guests.
If the goal is to have a cohesive exterior tower design, the architect must sometimes address
the fact that the typical guestrooms of each brand are of different widths and sometimes have
different window sizes and patterns. This difference will become evident on the building's
façade. In addition, each brand prototype might have different exterior material and color
palettes. Or they may have different cornice, pilaster, roof gable, or other architectural details;
one prototype might have a flat roof and the other a pitched roof. Fortunately, many brands
offer the developer more than one prototype to choose from. Others allow the architect latitude
to creatively interpret the prototypical elements, thereby making the process of blending styles
less of a challenge.
At the corner of West 54th Street and Broadway in New York City a 67-story mixed-use
building was designed by architect Nobutaka Ashihara with 30 floors of a Residence Inn above
25 floors of a Courtyard by Marriott. This rather extraordinary example of a vertically stacked
dual-branded property includes a six-story podium containing retail stores, restaurants, and
other public space.
Ibis is a European budget brand by Accor that is often joined with an upscale brand such as
Mercure or a Suite Hotel (also by Accor). When designing a hotel with brands at different price
points, the more upscale brand guestrooms should be oriented toward the better views. This is
the case with the Coeur Mediterranée in Marseilles, France, where the guestrooms of the more
upscale Suite Hotel have a covered loggia that faces north with views of the sea, while the
budget brand Ibis faces away from the view.
Marriott Place Indianapolis is a true multi-brand complex featuring four individual brands
on a single city block connected to the Indiana Convention Center: JW Marriott Downtown
Indianapolis (see pages 192–195), Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Indianapolis, Fairfield
Inn & Suites Downtown Indianapolis, and SpringHill Suites Downtown
Residence Inn and Courtyard, New York, New York
In creating this 67-story dual-branded hotel on a narrow 10,000 ft sq ft (925 sq m) lot,
developers of the 340,000 sq ft (31,500 sq m) building utilized air-rights purchased from
adjacent properties and from the renovation of a theater in Times Square, exploiting a zoning
incentive granted to promote the restoration of historic Broadway playhouses.
Coeur Mediterranée, Marseilles, France
The mixed-use building is organized as a U-shaped plan consisting of an Ibis Hotel in the south
wing and a Suite Hotel in the north wing, with office and commercial space in between. The
building skin is like a continuous ribbon, pierced by stylized trapezoidal-shaped windows. The
north-facing Suite Hotel façade contains a covered loggia with views of the Mediterranean Sea.
Indianapolis. While the JW Marriott and the Fairfield Inn are separate hotel buildings joined at
the base, the Courtyard and SpringHill Suites follow the model of the Jacksonville project with
the two brands housed in a single L-shaped tower with a shared arrival court and separate
entrances covered by a sweeping semi-circular canopy.
 An exceptional variation to the L-shaped tower model of dual-branded hotels is the 123-key
Ritz-Carlton and 878-key JW Marriott Hotel, the centerpiece of the $2.5 billion L.A. LIVE
entertainment development district in downtown Los Angeles. The twist to this luxury dual-
brand is the inclusion of the 224-unit Residences at The Ritz-Carlton on the upper floors of the
54-story tower. With both brands at the highest price tier, they differentiate themselves by the
markets they serve. The JW Marriott Hotel will serve the convention, group meeting, and
tourist market, while the five-star accommodations of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel will be ideal for
headline performers, visiting sports teams, and executives doing business at L.A. LIVE and
downtown.

Ibis and Mercure Salvador Rio Vermelho Hotel, Salvador, Brazil

In Brazil, many dual-brand hotels have been successfully developed, a large majority of them
using the brands of the Accor Group. The first dual-brand hotel of the country, using the brands
Mercure and Ibis, was inaugurated in the city of Salvador. The hotel, a concept conceived by
HVS São Paulo, is today delivering excellent results to its investors.
Marriott Place, Indianapolis, Indiana
Three separate arrival courts on two streets greet guests at the four Marriott brands in a
remarkable ensemble serving a variety of markets in this vibrant downtown area. One block
away, the 622-room Indianapolis Marriott Downtown Hotel is connected to the Marriott Place
hotels via a series of bridges, which in turn connect all five hotels to the Indiana Convention
Center.

Courtyard and SpringHill Suites, Indianapolis, Indiana

While it is essential to take care to avoid the problem of brand confusion that arises when co-
locating hotels on a single property, the benefits of shared administration and back-of-house
and the synergy of cross-selling prove to outweigh those concerns. The Courtyard and
SpringHill Suites manage to share a single porte cochère that leads to separate brand-
identifiable entrances.
Crowne Plaza and Staybridge Suites, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Set along the Yas Links Abu Dhabi and the turquoise Arabian Gulf, all 428 rooms and suites
of the Crowne Plaza and 164 suites of the Staybridge feature magnificent views and are within
walking distance of the Yas Marina Circuit and the Ferrari World Abu Dhabi theme park. The
two hotels, while housed in separate towers and serving different markets, are connected at two
basement levels and share extensive back-of-house facilities and below-grade parking.

Case Study
 JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles
Architect: Gensler
Interior Designer: Gensler

As the centerpiece of the $2.5 billion L.A. LIVE entertainment development district, the 54-
story dual-branded hotel is the first skyscraper to be built in downtown Los Angeles in nearly
two decades. Anchored by STAPLES Center, AEG's development includes 5,000,000 sq ft
(464,500 sq m) of entertainment, hospitality, and office amenities, which annually bring more
than 600 live sports, concerts, major award telecasts, family shows, and corporate events to its
35 acre (14 hectare) campus. The hotel complex is located on a super block with the Nokia
Theater, Club Nokia and the ESPN Broadcast Facility, all connected through a series of
pedestrian plazas. STAPLES Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center are across 11th
Street to the south.
Although the L-shaped massing of the hotel tower and the representative building signage
gives the impression that the JW Marriott occupies the shorter leg and The Ritz-Carlton the
taller, the organization of the building actually has the 879-room JW Marriott hotel on floors 4
through 21 and the 123-room Ritz-Carlton hotel on floors 22 through 26. Floors 27 through 52
hold 224 Ritz-Carlton Residences. Architects at Gensler created a 31 ft (9.4 m) deep standard
room bay for the JW Marriott guestrooms and suites and sited them on the lower floors of the
building. The shape of the tower fares outward as it ascends, starting at the Ritz-Carlton floors
to accommodate the luxury hotel's larger rooms while maintaining the column grid bay
dimensions. The widening tower footprint also provides the greatest floor area for the valuable
Ritz-Carlton Residences towards the top of the building. To create this profile the architects
placed curved steel columns near the top of the tower, facilitating installation of the giant glass
curtain wall.
The earthquake-resistant structure was designed with a thin, steel-plate shear wall system
instead of thicker concrete shear walls which reduced the weight of the tower's structure by 35
percent. In addition to savings in construction cost, this system resulted in energy savings by
reducing the quantity of materials for the structure and foundations.
Gensler's design for the hotel building gained LEED certification through a series of
sustainable features including drought-tolerant landscaping and light-colored paving at the pool
decks, single-ply roofing to help create a cool roof, and low-water-consumption bathroom
fixtures and waterless urinals to reduce water usage. California's Title 24 energy requirements
code mandates a maximum transparency of 60 percent on building façades. The architects used
computer modeling to develop a system to reduce transparency on the lower hotel floors and
to gradually increase transparency on the upper floors in response to marketing demands for
greater access to views for the high-end residences. This was achieved using glazing types
with a variety of transparency and reflectivity. Ceramic fritting on the glass allows light
penetration to be modulated while reducing heat gain. In order to promote a sense of unity for
the building's façade, the architects used a random dimensional pattern and alternating blue,
silver, and gray-colored glass to address the different-sized openings and higher floor-to-floor
heights as the building ascends.
 The Ritz-Carlton has a discreet entrance court off a relatively quiet side street that leads to
an intimate chandelier-lit and mahogany-paneled reception lobby for hotel guests and an
adjacent equally intimate lobby for The Ritz-Carlton Residences. By contrast the JW Marriott's
entrance is off bustling Olympic Boulevard and leads to a dramatic triple-story lobby that has
become a popular public gathering spot and teems with life, especially before and after events.
The south side of the lobby opens to a small public plaza that leads to the larger Nokia Plaza,
which is ringed by a series of video screens and ties the complex to the STAPLES Center.
The third floor looks down to the huge lobby and contains meeting spaces and a small
ballroom. A bridge at the third level connects across Georgia Street to the JW Marriott
Conference and Banquet Center with over 80,000 sq ft (7,400 sq m) of function space,
including a 25,000 sq ft (2,300 sq m) ballroom.
The conference center is ideally located to connect in the future to a planned expansion of the
Los Angeles Convention Center to the south.
On the fourth floor, directly above the JW Marriott lobby, there is a 4,000 sq ft (370 sq m)
fitness center opening to a large pool deck that can accommodate up to 1,000 visitors and
guests, providing an ideal downtown party venue. While guests of the JW Marriott have access
to The Ritz-Carlton's 8,000 sq ft (740 sq m) spa, guests of The Ritz-Carlton have exclusive
rights to the 3,400 sq ft (315 sq m) Club Lounge, rooftop pool, and private fitness center on the
26th floor. A double-story restaurant located on the 24th floor offers exceptional views of Los
Angeles.
W Mumbai at Namaste Tower, Mumbai, India
Following the great tradition of Indian architecture, W. S. Atkins's design of the striking 62-
story tower reflects the namaste yoga gesture of hands clasped together, symbolizing a greeting
to the city of Mumbai. Incorporating a W hotel, office, and retail space, the building will be
topped by a quadruple-height atrium space, which will enclose a restaurant and bar with
stunning views of the busy city.

CHAPTER
6
Mixed-use Developments

Each element of the mixed-use complex, including its hotel, office building, condominiums, and
shopping mall, benefits from integration with a larger, more prestigious project. With its higher
visibility and more ambitious overall planning concept, the impact of the entire development is far
greater than the sum of its parts. In addition to its more efficient methods of land use, assembly,
construction, and financing, the mixed-use complex encourages innovative design, often overriding
outdated zoning regulations, improving traffic circulation patterns, and initiating planning variances
beneficial to both the community and the developer.
The Exchange Coffee House Hotel, built in Boston in 1809, was one of the earliest hotels to provide
ample public spaces that ushered in a new era of hotels as downtown social and political epicenters. In
addition, it is one of the earliest examples of a mixed-use hotel building. The Merchants' Exchange,
located under the giant sky-lit rotunda of the hotel's main floor, provided a market not only for the 200
guestrooms but also for the ballroom, coffeehouse, and dining rooms that were the very public spaces
that defined this new genre. It set an early example for the synergistic advantages that result from
combining diverse functions into mixed-use developments, especially when the hotel is a central
component of the mix.
The end of the nineteenth century saw tremendous building development around major railway
stations, including hotels, office buildings, retail, and other uses. The large and lavish hotels offered so
many special amenities and public functions that they often were spoken of as “cities within cities.” In
Chicago one of the most spectacular of these developments was the Auditorium Building, which
combined three types of public use. Designed by Adler and Sullivan, it combined an office block, a
luxurious 400-room hotel on Michigan Avenue, and an acoustically perfect 4,300-seat theater, the
world's largest when it opened in 1889. Except for the entrance, the theater was almost completely
enclosed from the street by the hotel. Created to provide a permanent home for Chicago's opera,
symphony, and other performing organizations, the multi-use commercial components—the hotel and
commercial office space— were included in order to offset possible losses from the operation of the
theater. The complex rose 16-stories, the tallest in Chicago at the time, in part by adapting innovative
structural systems to allow the hotel ballroom to span the theater. More than a century later, mixed-use
projects continue to be in the forefront of structural innovation and the competition to have the tallest
building.
Pioneer of the modern downtown hotel, Ellsworth M. Statler constructed The Park Plaza Hotel, the
first major mixed-use development combining hotel and office building, covering a full
Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Soaring high above downtown Dubai in the iconic Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest building, Armani
Hotel Dubai, the first hotel designed and developed by Giorgio Armani. The fashion designer's signature
style is evident in the interiors, with sophisticated colors, clean lines, and unique textures that blend
together seamlessly with the tower's stunning architecture.
block in Boston in 1927. Two years later, on the day before the stock market crash in 1929, a $42
million construction contract was signed for The Waldorf=Astoria, a monumental hotel/residential
complex that represented the last major hotel project to be built until after World War II. Major mixed-
use projects that contained hotels did not appear again until the government-sponsored urban renewal
efforts of the 1960s prompted such huge developments as
Place Bonaventure in Montreal and Boston's impressive Prudential Center. These key projects set the
pace for downtown revitalization by attracting both regional and international clientele to their large
convention facilities, office structures, and impressive malls and by providing the latest in recreation
and entertainment amenities for the city. The Prudential development, the largest complex of its kind
up to that time, included a 50-story office tower with a popular
Kingdom Tower, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
The immense tower will be the centerpiece and first phase of a $20 billion proposed development known
as Kingdom City, located along the Red Sea on the north side of Jeddah. The tower's primary uses will
be hotel and residential, with most of the floor area going to a Four Seasons hotel and residences and
luxury condominiums. The tower will also include office space and the world's highest observatory.
visitors' observation center at its top, a 5,000-seat civic auditorium, a 1,500-room twin-tower Sheraton
hotel, two apartment towers, and a 3,000-car underground garage.
In the 1970s John Portman's designs for Embarcadero Center in San Francisco and Renaissance
Center in Detroit demonstrated the use of huge atriums to provide the focus and organizing elements of
mixed-use developments which included offices, retail, and hotels. Other significant complexes facing
more stringent site limitations relied on stacking of functions vertically such as Water Tower Place
India Tower, Mumbai, India
Designed by Foster and Partners, the spectacular 125-story India Tower is located on Marine Lines,
named after the Marine Battalion Lines, a military establishment built by the British in south Mumbai.
The tower is planned to house the 255-key Park Hyatt Mumbai, which will also include 55 apartments
serviced by the hotel and exclusive banqueting and meeting facilities.
in Chicago, with its Ritz-Carlton Hotel topping a multistory shopping mall, and Araldo Cossutta's
cylindrical hotel occupying the upper floors of the Credit Lyonnaise office building in Lyons, France.
Two major mixed-use projects, the Houston Galleria and Boston's Copley Place, highlighted the
public's infatuation with shopping malls; here, the hotels supplied potential shoppers while the malls
provided hotel guests with a wealth of extra amenities. In these pioneering developments, which
included office buildings and convention facilities, corporate travelers and executives could
Shanghai Tower J-Hotel, Shanghai, China
Shanghai Tower J-Hotel of Jin Jiang International Hotels will span the 84th to 110th floors of the tallest
of a group of three supertall buildings in Pudong, the other two being the Jin Mao Tower and the
Shanghai World Financial Center. The hotel will feature 258 luxury guestrooms, with the hotel lobby
located on the 101st floor.
bring their families on business trips to enjoy the array of shops and recreational facilities, while many
tourists were drawn to the hotel-in-mall concept, providing instant activity for their vacations.
Two major mixed-use developments of the early 1980s signified the explosive business growth and
rapid expansion of tourism in Singapore during that period. Raffles City, designed by I. M. Pei and
taking its name from the world-famous Raffles Hotel, borders on downtown Singapore and contains
two major hotels and an office tower connected by a seven-story podium containing retail and
restaurants. Both hotels are operated by Westin and therefore benefit from certain shared back-of-house
and administrative functions. The Westin Stamford Singapore, at 71 -stories, was the tallest hotel in the
world when completed. John Portman's Marina Square convention complex in Singapore included an
even higher ratio of hotel space, offering three major hotels each focused around a major atrium space
with restaurants, cinemas, shopping, office, and recreational facilities clustered at their bases.
Stretching ever skyward there is a developing breed of mixed-use super-towers that house luxury
hotels, expensive condominiums, and premium office space, lending dominant visibility and global
notoriety to those users. Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building (as of this writing) stands at 2,717 ft
(828 m) with 163 habitable floors, not including mechanical floors. As the flagship of a larger mixed-
use development called Downtown Dubai that includes Dubai Mall, the world's largest shopping mall,
and the spectacular Dubai Fountain, Burj Khalifa houses the fashionable Armani Hotel with 160 luxury
guestrooms and 144 signature Armani Residences. The hotel occupies the lower 39 floors while the
upper floors contain luxury condos, corporate suites, a restaurant, and a public observatory. An
engineering marvel designed by Adrian Smith of SOM Architects, the building's Y-shaped floor plan
configuration is ideal not only for structural stability but also for the hotel and residential usage, with
the wings allowing maximum outward views and inward natural light.
 Not to be outdone and bearing a strong resemblance to Frank Lloyd Wright's Mile High building,
Kingdom Tower is designed by Adrian Smith to be 568 ft (173 m) taller than Burj Khalifa. With 5.7
million sq ft (530,000 sq m) of floor area, Kingdom Tower will feature a Four Seasons hotel, Four
Seasons serviced apartments, Class A office space, luxury condominiums, and the world's highest
observatory. With 210 floors the massive tower will be served by 59 elevators. The three-petal footprint
is ideal for hotel and residential units and the tapering wings produce an aerodynamic shape that helps
reduce structural wind loading. The stunning tower is the centerpiece of a major mixed-use development
by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Named Kingdom City, it will include residential, commercial, and
entertainment uses along a pedestrian-friendly waterfront promenade. The developers of Kingdom
Tower regard it not only as a symbol of economic strength but as a cultural icon marking Jeddah's
historic importance as the traditional gateway to the holy city of Mecca.

Development and Planning Considerations

Because of their size and complexity and their potential and projected impact on surrounding
communities, large mixed-use projects are very often made part of a more comprehensive
urban master plan, and therefore are subject to the goals and guidelines set forth by the local
planning authority. For the same reasons, these large projects are often subjected to intense
scrutiny by local communities and civic groups and can be the source of heated debates over
economic, social, and environmental benefits and drawbacks. Many projects, such as the
Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany, require huge capital commitments and can drag on
for years until a consensus is reached with regard to the scale and composition of the project.
Because of the beneficial influences that a hotel provides, incentives are very often offered in
the form of zoning variances and bonuses, as well as tax abatements and other economic
incentives meant to encourage developers to include hotels in their schemes. Hotels often act
as catalysts, promoting other more lucrative surrounding development, and are as essential as
residential development for a balanced community.
In the same mold as Louis Sullivan's Auditorium Building, the Elbphilharmonie, designed
by Herzog & de Meuron, brings an iconic cultural building to a prominent site on Hamburg's
harbor. And just as with the Auditorium Building, a major performance space will
synergistically cohabit the building with a significant hotel. Buried deep in the heart of the
stunning glass form that emerges from the historic warehouse building, the 2,150-seat
philharmonic hall is wrapped on all sides by 250 hotel rooms and 47 apartments. Coming off
a broad waterfront public plaza adjacent to the hotel lobby, the entrance to the performance
hall is via a breathtakingly long escalator that runs diagonally across the warehouse,
transporting
Westin Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany
The 250 guestrooms and 47 serviced condominiums of the Westin Hamburg will wrap around
a new philharmonic hall with spectacular views of the sprawling Hamburg harbor. Architects
Herzog & de Meuron designed this complex mixed-use project placing a dramatic mirror-glass-
skinned wave-inspired form on top of an existing red-brick building, formerly a cocoa bean
warehouse.
visitors up to a spacious public terrace with spectacular views of the city and harbor.
The key goal to a successful mixed-use development must be for each component of the
development to benefit from its inclusion with the overall project and to draw significant
advantages from its interaction with other components. For that to happen, a synergy must exist
between its various uses, such as hotels, office, retail, residential, and entertainment, to produce
a positive confluence where the entire development becomes far greater than the sum of its
parts. The W Mumbai Hotel brings the W brand's prestigious international reputation and
design hotel cachet with 350 rooms in the 62-story Namaste Tower designed by WS Atkins.
Hotel, office, and retail uses are synergistically woven with multiple shared amenities,
including a top-floor quadruple-height atrium space which will enclose the Sky Restaurant and
Bar with stunning views of south central Mumbai. Advantages of mixed-use projects include:
•Higher visibility as a result of being part of a larger more prestigious project
•More efficient methods of land use, assembly, construction, and financing
•Greater built-in market demand
•Adjacency to a captive audience
•Certain shared operating costs
•Combined efficiency of a central energy plant serving the entire complex
•Combined loading facilities
•Better control over and improved traffic circulation patterns
•Combined comfort and security of an enclosed development
•Shared parking where different peak business hours allow for a reduction in spaces
•Insulation against market fluctuations of any one component

Shangri-La Hotel at the Shard, London, United Kingdom

Renzo Piano's beautifully conceived contribution to the London skyline in the London Bridge
Quarter will include 538,000 sq ft (49,950 sq m) of office space and a 195-room Shangri-La
Hotel. Two sky gardens are located on each office floor to help improve indoor air quality as
well as naturally ventilate the work areas.
Just as a hotel's success is based on the right mix of facilities, the viability of a mixed-use
development depends upon the optimum combination of uses it offers. A market analysis and
feasibility study may provide a rational evaluation of the proposed uses and indicate the
profitability of the overall project as well as each component by itself. It is difficult to find
building types or uses that are not on some level compatible with hotels or for which some
historic precedent can't be found. One might think of factories or prisons, but it doesn't take
much imagination to realize that a hospitality market could exist even for these functions.
Major mixed-use projects can revitalize a section of a city by delivering its amalgamation of
compatible businesses in the form of a spectacular architectural statement. Renzo Piano's Shard
at London Bridge Quarter does just that and more. As the tallest building in Western Europe,
the 72-story building is an iconic symbol of economic growth for central London. A 195-room
Shangri-La Hotel shares this magnificent edifice with offices and luxury apartments, along
with a public viewing gallery at the top. The development of the Shard included major
improvements to a vital public transportation hub that includes London Bridge Station, with
over 350,000 journeys through the station daily.

Design Considerations
Whether connected through a mall, an atrium, a central lobby, or some other pedestrian
circulation element common to other primary functions in the mixed-use development, the
hotel lobby should be designed as an extension of the overall development. In most cases,
because of greater circulation resulting from traffic of adjacent uses, the hotel lobby should be
20 percent larger than those of other downtown hotels with comparable guestroom capacity.
Hotel restaurants and lounges should have entrances directly on the common circulation where
possible, with open caf?on the center's atriums. Their restaurant and bar seating should be 30
percent more than in conventional downtown or suburban hotels, reflecting the greater built-in
demand for lunch and dinner, drawing from the center's retail, entertainment, residential, and
office areas.
With a bridge connecting the development to Air Canada Centre, home to the Toronto
Raptors (basketball) and the Toronto Maple Leafs (hockey), the Maple Leaf Square mixed-use
development includes two slender residential towers above a nine-story podium containing
retail, office space, entertainment venues, a daycare facility, and a 167-room Le Germain Hotel.
The roof of the podium will be landscaped into a series of courtyards and terraces for hotel,
daycare, and residential uses.
In high-rise mixed-use complexes where uses are divided vertically and hotel guestroom
levels are located on upper floors over office, retail, or residential levels, a hotel “sky lobby”
may be required if adequate space is not available in the building's podium. A porte cochère
and a well-defined street-level hotel entrance lobby must be provided, and should be separate
and distinct from the office, residential, or retail entrances. The entrance lobby must be staffed
by doormen and a reception desk, where guests are greeted and
Le Germain Hotel at Maple Leaf Square, Toronto, Canada
Connected to the Air Canada Centre, Maple Leaf Square is an energetic 24-hour sports,
entertainment, and residential development in downtown Toronto. Twin residential towers with
900 condominium units rise above a nine-story podium containing the 167-key Le Germain
Hotel, a daycare center, a 40,000 sq ft (3,716 sq m) Longo's supermarket, sports bar, and fine-
dining restaurant, with additional office and commercial space.

Grand Hyatt Chengdu, Chengdu, China

The 450-key Grand Hyatt hotel is designed on 25 floors above the 12-story, 120,000 sq ft
(11,148 sq m) Chicony Plaza Department Store, on a full city block adjacent to a vibrant public
square in the central business district of Chengdu. The two primary masses of podium and
tower are unified by a series of stepped gardens that are accessible from the hotel's sky lobby,
ballrooms, and dining facilities.

Radisson Blu Hotel, Chicago, Illinois

The undulating concrete slabs of the 86-story tower, with resulting odd-shaped projecting
balconies, provides a strong connection to outdoors and forms an unexpected community of
adjacent users. Hotel guests enjoy participating in this high-rise vertical neighborhood while
delighting in its spectacular views.
Solis Hotel, Shenzhen, China
Conceived as a floating horizontal skyscraper, Steven Holl's design for the headquarters
building of Vanke, China's largest residential real estate developer, will include a 200-room
Solis Hotel, an 86,000 sq ft (8,000 sq m) conference and exhibition center, serviced apartments,
and small restaurants and cafés scattered throughout a tropical park.
directed to express elevators that take them directly to the sky lobby floor. This should contain
all of the ingredients normally found in a downtown hotel lobby: reception desk, lobby lounge,
restaurants and bar, and access to function rooms and health clubs. From the upper lobby,
guests gain access to a separate set of elevators connecting to the guestroom floors. Sky lobbies
have the potential for great drama as they may open up to a dramatic panoramic view. The
Ritz-Carlton at the International Commerce Centre in West Kowloon, Hong Kong, is (as of
this writing) the current title-holder as the world's highest hotel. Occupying floors 102 to 118,
the hotel also boasts the world's highest swimming pool on the 118th floor. In a new meaning
to the term “sky lobby,” guests are whisked by express elevators in 50 seconds up to the 103rd
floor main hotel lobby, with astonishing views of the harbor and city skyline. KPF Architects'
design for the ICC tower was originally taller but Hong Kong zoning regulations require
building heights to be less than the surrounding mountains.
To determine the number of parking spaces required in a mixed-use complex, a study of
peak-hour business of all major uses should be conducted to determine the crests and valleys
of parking requirements for each use at different times during the day. For example, since the
peak business hours of retail malls and hotels overlap, separate additional parking is normally
required to accommodate both functions. A specific parking area should be set aside for hotel
use to ensure space for its guests. With underground garages, a separate shuttle elevator
between the garage and the
 Case study
The Ritz-Carlton at the International Commerce Centre (ICC), West Kowloon,
Hong Kong, China
Architect: KPF Associates and Wong & Guyang
Interior Designer: LTW Design Works

Union Square in West Kowloon, Hong Kong, is a massive mixed-use development project on
33.5 acres (13.54 hectares) of reclaimed land. The development is ringed with 17 high-rise
buildings with 11,732,940 sq ft (1,090,026 sq m) of commercial, residential, and leisure uses,
including the 890,700 sq ft (82,750 sq m) Elements shopping mall with 123 high-end stores,
an ice skating rink and the 1,600-seat Grand Cinema, the largest cinema complex in Hong
Kong. Built on top of Kowloon Station of the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway, the complex
includes some of the tallest buildings in Hong Kong, including the tallest residential tower—
the Cullinan—and the tallest commercial building—the 118-story International Commerce
Centre (ICC), designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Architects (KPF). In addition to private
residences, the twin-tower Cullinan houses the 393-room W Hong Kong Hotel and the 266-
suite HarbourView Place. The pinnacle of the development is the ICC, which houses the
“highest hotel” in the world—The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong.
KPF designed the tower with tapered inverted corners and with gently sloping curves at its
base to optimize the building's structural performance. Its triple-glazed curtain wall curves
outward at the base, forming entrance canopies on three sides, with a dynamic atrium on the
north side that provides a public connection to the public transit station, Elements Mall, cinema,
and the rest of Union Square.
The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong occupies floors 102 to 118 of the ICC tower, with 312 luxury
guestrooms including a 30,000 sq ft (2,750 sq m) presidential suite on the 117th floor. Guests
enter the hotel's arrival lobby in the building podium and are taken in high-speed express
elevators 1,394 ft (425 m) to the Sky Lobby on the 103rd floor. Three restaurants, Tosca, an
Italian restaurant,
a Chinese restaurant, and the main restaurant, are all located one floor below reception on floor
102. Guests need key-cards in order to use the hotel elevators to access the hotel rooms on
floors 104–117. The 118th floor includes a dazzling infinityedge swimming pool, along with
the Ozone Bar. The 116th floor houses the 9,250 sq ft (860 sq m) Ritz-Carlton Spa by ESPA,
with nine deluxe treatment rooms and two couples' suites, all with floor-to-ceiling windows
overlooking the harbor. Near the arrival area in the building podium, The Ritz-Carlton operates
14,000 sq ft (1,300 sq m) of meeting space, including one of Hong Kong's largest ballrooms at
10,000 sq ft (925 sq m).
KPF collaborated on ICC with Hong Kong Polytechnic University in the design of an
innovative energy-optimizer airconditioning system that monitors consumption, storing data
for further analysis. Other sustainable features of the building include elevators with a smart-
card system that puts passengers heading to similar destinations together to reduce the waste
associated with vertical travel, as well as reusing the water from the airconditioning unit for
use in the cooling towers and toilet flushing.

lobby is preferable for security purposes, rather than extending the central elevator bank
directly to the garage levels.
Service entrances may be combined for all facilities in the complex, and located underground
on tight urban sites. Special security practices must be provided at the loading docks and
receiving offices in this type of shared arrangement.
A wide variety of configurations are employed when combining uses within a single building
or complex, and the hotel's interactive role is defined by its position in the composition. Hotels
can be the dominant component of the mixed-use complex, such as with Grand Hyatt Chengdu,
where the hotel is the larger of the two uses in the building, or may represent a relatively small
part of the development, as with the Radisson Blu Hotel in the Aqua Building in Chicago,
where the hotel occupies only 18 out of 86 floors.
Within a single building a mixed-use complex is normally divided vertically with the hotel
at the top, middle or bottom of a tower. The vertically separated hotel must be served by its
own ground-level entrance canopy and a dedicated bank of elevators. Where the site is large
enough to permit a horizontal arrangement of uses, the hotel may be located on the same floors
as the other uses but in a separate wing of a single building, such as the Solis Hotel at Steven
Holl's Vanke Center in Shenzhen. Alternatively, it may be a separate building linked by
common spaces, as with Holl's Linked Hybrid Hotel in Beijing, which is literally linked with
a bridge at an upper level and at grade by common circulation.
The Crystal Towers Hotel and Spa in Cape Town is an example of a mixed-use complex
where each element—hotel, residential, and commercial office—is expressed as a separate
architectural form within the overall ensemble. The hotel and residential towers share a
common promenade that links the two uses at grade.

Linked Hybrid, Beijing, China

Steven Holl's design for the mixed-use complex comprises 650 apartments in eight towers
ranging from 14 to 21 stories that are connected near their tops by one- and two-story bridges.
The bridges form a “sky loop” that provides programmed space for art galleries, shops, cafés,
and even a fitness club with a swimming pool. A cylindrical hotel and an angular multiplex
movie theater rise from a large reflecting pool at the heart of the complex.

Crystal Towers Hotel and Spa, Cape Town, South Africa

The mixed-use development is composed of three building components. The 12-story, 180-key
hotel tower and 90-unit residential tower are joined at the base by a common retail promenade.
The freestanding six-story commercial office building completes the ensemble and shares
access over the canal by a distinctive steel suspension bridge.
What pressures specific to the twentieth century does the combination of program impose on
architectural form? Concentration of many social activities within an architectural form distend
and warp a pure building type. Certain previously neglected forms of associations have been
wrenched together in the modern city so as to generate buildings which might stand as an anti-
typology, if examined under current theoretical preoccupations. Building functions are mixed,
disparate uses combined, structures collected here are “Hybrid Buildings” with respect to use.
Although there are examples of combined function buildings throughout history (the house
over the shop is prevalent in many ages and cultures), Hybrid Buildings developed most rapidly
in the twentieth century. The modern city has acted as fertilizer for the growth of architectures
from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous in regard to use. Urban densities and evolving
building techniques have affected the mixing of functions, piling one atop another, defying
critics who contend that a building should look like what it is.
(Steven Holl, quoted in Joseph Fenton, Pamphlet
Architecture 11: Hybrid Buildings, Princeton: Princeton
Architectural Press, 1984, p. 3)
Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
This property's strong sense of place was inspired by Bedouin fort architecture and local
building techniques, including earthen retaining walls and a stucco exterior that resembles
traditional mud construction.
 CHAPTER
7
Resort Hotels

The first resorts were seaside spas in ancient Greece and Rome, a concept which soon advanced
throughout the Roman Empire (see the list of hotel milestones in Chapter 1). After their decline in the
Middle Ages, spas were revived along with the flourishing of the arts and sciences during the
Renaissance, and returned to prominence throughout Europe. For example, the most famous of ancient
spa destinations, Germany's Baden-Baden, has over fifty hotels to cater to the thousands of visitors who
come each year to enjoy the town's natural mineral springs, a draw since the time of Roman emperor
Aurelius Severus. Following similar origins, the earliest North American resorts were spas, starting in
the 1750s in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and in the resort community of Saratoga Springs,
New York, which reached the height of its popularity as a national social center in the 1850s.
During the early years of the industrial revolution, resorts remained the province of the well-to-do.
Fashionable hotels, such as Mohonk Mountain House in upstate New York and the Hotel del Coronado
in San Diego, California, prospered in diverse scenic mountain and seaside settings. But the twentieth
century saw the resort become increasingly accessible to the middle class through steadily rising
disposable income and paid vacations, particularly following World War II. This included dramatic
increases in leisure travel by Europeans and Asians, primarily Japanese, as well as Americans. Resorts
experienced a sustained growth boom, eventually evolving into highly customized categories serving
many different types of vacationers.
Beyond basic property type, location is a prime influence on resort development. In established resort
regions such as Cancun or Phuket, resort amenities—spas, sports and recreation facilities, and related
retail—are provided in virtually all hotels, for required market flexibility and because they are preferred
and expected by most travelers. Also, resort amenities often are added to non-resort properties because
of the continued growth of health consciousness and fitness megatrends. Resort programming, site
layout, and hotel design are all vitally influenced by such cultural and market trends.
It's not just vacationers who seek out resorts: the MICE segment (meetings, incentives, conventions,
and events) increasingly looks to these properties to attract participants and add value to meetings and
events. The needs of the leisure and MICE markets, combined with cultural and environmental
considerations in a given location, determine whether the resort buildings are designed in low-rise
structures to sensitively blend with the traditional community and landscape, as at the Qasr Al Sarab
Desert Resort by Anantara, or in striking, highly conceptual buildings like the innovative Yas
Viceroy Hotel in Abu Dhabi. But regardless of the building type, resort guests demand a strong sense
of place.
While most vacation spots are places guests travel to, new types of in-city resort-like hotels are
designed to advance weekend or other non-traveling “stay-cations.” Often located on the urban
waterfront or in the heart of the city near upscale shopping and offering elaborate spa facilities, these
hotels effectively function as urban resorts, designed for tourists as well as local guests preferring
convenient close-by vacations that save on travel time and expense.
 This chapter is organized into nine basic categories reflecting the wide range of resort types, from
secluded beach resorts to vast multi-resort destination complexes. While casinos and vacation
ownership properties have many resort-like qualities, these hotel types have special design requirements
and will be discussed in their own chapters.

General Planning and Design Considerations

The primary function of a resort is to offer an escape from everyday life. Environments that are highly
evocative of a specific place, time, or culture are appealing to resort travelers, who want experiences
that they cannot get at home. Many successful resorts emphasize vernacular architecture and materials
as a way of transporting guests to what is often an idealized version of a destination, but one that assures
that the vacation will be memorable. This requires careful consideration of local building styles and
relationships to the geography. Landscaping takes on much more importance in resorts, as guests tend
to spend more time outside at these properties, which means attention to detail during the design phase
to create pleasing outdoor experiences and to provide the means for operators to maintain them.
Resorts are subject to fluctuations in demand that are somewhat predictable: ski resorts will be busiest
in the snowy months, while the lakefront resort peaks in the summer. Planning a hotel that can handle
high volumes of guests during the peak season but will still be profitable in the shoulder seasons presents
challenges. A common approach is to divide guestroom areas into blocks or wings that can be opened
and closed as demand dictates, and to do the same with amenities such as food and beverage outlets and
recreational spaces. Designing with seasonality in mind is also helpful in the event of unforeseen dips
in demand due to natural or political upheaval. Conversely, the developer and designers need to consider
how the property will grow as a destination becomes more popular.
In recent years the trend has been toward more family and extended-family resort travel, pushing up
the demand for suites and self-contained villas or cabins. Today's resort may have as many as 25 percent
of its keys allocated to suites, and many luxury properties are made up largely of standalone villas.
Length of stay influences the number and size of hotel amenities. Resorts tend to have many more
food and beverage seats per key than other types of hotels, because offering dining variety keeps guests
on the property throughout their stay. The provision and placement of sports and recreation facilities
has the same goal: to enhance the guest experience while generating additional revenue, either directly
through user fees or indirectly through food and beverage or retail purchases. Length of stay also should
be noted when planning the guestroom, as larger closets and more storage space in general will be
necessities.
Just as guests have higher storage needs in resorts, so do hotel operators. Depending on the setting,
a resort may receive less frequent deliveries of some or all supplies, so adequate back-of-house storage
is key. Maintenance facilities for golf courses and boat docks, as well as shops and storage for
recreational equipment and outdoor furnishings, all add to the resort's support space, which can be as
high as 15 percent of the hotel's total built area.
Each kind of resort hotel has specific and unique planning and design requirements. The following
sections describe nine majortypes of resort and illustrate some of each type's important development,
planning, and design issues.

Seaside Resorts
From the Sardinian coast to the Gulf of California, from Cape Town to the Canaries, and from Key
West to Kauai, most vacationers head for the seaside, where seemingly endless beachfronts continue to
supply idyllic sites for most new resorts. Views and water sports, including underwater scuba trails (and
schools for certification), as well as imaginative accommodations, keep the second-oldest form of
resort, after the health spa, the most popular of all. Major seaside resorts also provide golf and tennis
facilities matching those of scenic mountain and desert resorts, as much as those specializing in golf or
tennis. They emphasize sports and spa facilities as well as convention and conference centers for
business groups. Such resort amenities also attract the typical business traveler, who often chooses
them, where available, over downtown or suburban hotels. And corporate groups increasingly prefer
resorts for business gatherings, as their more relaxed atmosphere promotes teamwork and closer
personal contacts. “Even when people play a bad round of golf together, it brings them closer,” one
manager observed. Corporate meeting planners feel that resorts:
•Combine the most effective training atmosphere, with a touch of reward added as motivation.
•Are self-contained, with conference and recreational amenities closely integrated, making it
easier to keep a group together in a more productive series of meetings.
•Go all out to please aesthetically, with imaginative design, lush scenery, and recreational
features that leave groups with a sense of reward for their working meetings.
But the above factors apply only if the resort provides the highest quality conferencing technology,
uppermost in the meeting planners' requirements. Of equal importance, to attract both family and
business groups resorts must provide the widest and most imaginative array of sports and recreation
activities, from golf to aerobics and teen activities, to ensure satisfying all members and guests of the
typical group.

St. Regis Sanya Yalong Bay Resort, Sanya, China

Set within a wetlands sanctuary, the 400-room resort's main building is completely surrounded by water,
including a lagoon, a private marina, and two landscaped swimming pools. Against a mountainous
backdrop, this aquatic setting enhances the hotel's relationship to its 800 ft (244 m) of pristine
beachfront.
Four Seasons, Bora Bora, Tahiti
Overlooking the cerulean waters of Bora Bora lagoon with sensational views of Mount Otemanu, each
of the 121 beach and over-water bungalows is styled after classic Polynesian bungalow architecture
featuring traditional teak-wood furnishings, high ceilings, and thatched roofs made from pandanus
leaves.

Planning Considerations
Although closeness to the water is the essential ingredient of the seaside resort, environmental
regulations in many areas, particularly those lacking comprehensive master plans, mandate large set-
backs of 200 ft (61 m) or more from the shoreline. While guestroom balconies and full exterior window
walls help dramatize beach views, designers add such water features as canals and decorative pools to
enhance the hotel's relationship to the shoreline and to compensate where the hotel is off the beach. This
is done at the Kahala Hilton in Honolulu, Hawaii, which has its own large lagoon and dolphin pond,
and the St. Regis Sanya Yalong Bay Resort, which is entirely surrounded by water.
Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia
Perched high above limestone cliffs on a dry elevated savannah, 84 villas are tucked into the gently
sloping landscape, each with a private pool and cabana overlooking the sea. WOHA Designs employed
sustainable principles throughout the complex, including careful placement of structures with minimal
disruption to the existing vegetation and to the natural contours of the site.
 Shade structures, whether moveable, trellised, or landscape types, increase comfort along beaches,
and are essential at swimming pools and other water-sports facilities, whirlpools, bars, and food-service
areas. Siting the hotel at or close to the shoreline, or in a lagoon, becomes more interesting and exciting
when environmentally compatible, such as at Four Seasons Bora Bora or Beach House Maldives, where
bungalows are built out over the water, strung along a serpentine boardwalk.
Hotels built into shoreline bluffs or cliffs can be strikingly effective, as at the Alila Villas Uluwatu
on the dramatic southern cliffs of the Indonesian island of Bali. As with Uluwatu, care must be taken to
plan around important landscape features such as large boulders or mature trees when siting cliff-side
villas.
Resorts provide ocean views for virtually all rooms. The more efficient double-loaded corridor
designs are oriented perpendicular to the shoreline, allowing interesting 90-degree views of both land
and water. Single-loaded hotel wings provide the guest with a 180-degree water view, but the
construction costs are about 15 percent higher, since they require twice the normal corridor space, plus
additional exterior walls with windows in the corridors and related air-conditioning. Known as “cost
guzzlers,” they are not only wasteful of energy and land, but require additional staff due to the structure's
increased servicing distances. But a small percentage of single-loaded spaces can often be most cost-
effective, particularly where this helps provide an economical solution to an otherwise unusable site or
building orientation problem. However, where climates
W Retreat Kanai and Spa, Riviera Maya, Mexico
Views of the ocean and mangrove landscape define the building forms in Richard Meier's design for
the 180-room W Retreat Kanai, located on the Yucatan Peninsula near Cancun. The strong T-shape
geometry of the main hotel building surrounds the main pool, maximizing daylight with its southwest
orientation and engaging spectacular views. A single-loaded guestroom wing is intersected by parallel
wings that run perpendicular to the shoreline, with guestrooms that angle out toward the sea.
Paradisus Resort, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
The all-inclusive 537-deluxe suite resort, located on world-famous Bavaro Beach, allows guests to
enjoy unlimited meals and snacks, beverages, entertainment, sports facilities, services, and amenities.
Situated on 96 acres (38.8 hectares) of beachfront property in Punta Cana, the resort is designed to blend
35 two-story bungalows and a spectacular lake-style swimming pool in perfect harmony with the natural
beauty of the exotic environment.
permit the single-loaded hotel to have an open-air balcony-type corridor, it costs about the same as the
double-loaded scheme, and may present a viable solution.
As with other types of lodging, architects can plan resorts in a variety of ways. Atriums with single-
loaded interior balcony corridors may be justified in luxury resorts with the highest rates. For example,
if the architect locates guestrooms on three sides of the major lobby space, all oriented toward the ocean,
the guests are rewarded with views of the crashing surf. The total land area requirement for a luxury
resort, however, depends on larger considerations than the coverage or bulk of its buildings. For
example, a 500-room mid-rise beachfront hotel generally requires about 10 acres (4 hectares), including
a swimming pool and related landscaping, with most parking placed below grade. However, the total
land development for the resort depends on the extent of major recreational components such as golf,
tennis, and other such amenities. For instance, a tennis center with 10 courts would require an additional
3 acres (1.2 hectares), and an 18-hole golf course approximately 110 to 160 acres (45 to 64 hectares).
An important planning consideration for resort developments, particularly for those in remote
locations or on uninhabited islands, such as the Beach House Maldives and Mandarin Oriental Dellis
Cay in Turks and Caicos, is the availability and accommodation of employees. Often a developer will
look for a village or a number of villages within the vicinity of the resort site that can supply a large
portion of the resort's labor pool. Training programs are set up for the purpose of employing locals to
serve the resort; however, skilled positions may need to be filled by importing experienced personnel
and accommodating them in or near the resort. Transportation to and from the resort must also be
considered. In some cases, in larger resorts, an employee village may be planned for this purpose and
could include housing, basic retail, child care, and entertainment facilities for its inhabitants. Higher-
echelon staff might be given small villas or other more upscale lodging. Employing local residents has
the benefit of providing an economic improvement aspect to the project and can facilitate approvals and
acceptance of the development by local government authorities. Investment in the infrastructure,
housing, and schools within an established nearby village can also be a viable option to insuring the
availability of quality personnel.
 The variety of accommodation offerings at individual seaside resorts has reached a new apex with
the Water Cay Baccarat Resort in Turks and Caicos. When it is completed, visitors will be able to book
a variety of room types in the main hotel building, an overwater bungalow, in-water bungalow, overland
tree-house, inland tree-house, cliff villa, beach villa, marina condo unit or ocean condo unit. That's not
to mention several varieties of seaside single-family villas offered in the rental pool.
In the early stages of seaside resort planning, it is important to identify plant materials for the project
and to initiate a site nursery so that new plantings are somewhat mature by the opening of the resort.
Without a nursery the resort may take several years to look complete, as vegetation needs time to fully
develop.
All-inclusive resorts provide guests with a wide range of amenities and food and beverage venues as
part of the vacation package. These types of resorts require major back-of-house and support spaces
beyond normal operations. The Paradisus Punta Cana Resort in the Dominican Republic boasts “ultra-
inclusive” amenities, with 12 restaurants, seven bars, 24-hour room service, nightclub acts, unlimited
golf, tennis, horseback riding, and spas, and even includes Dominican cigars. Guests at these resorts are
required to wear digital wrist-bands or other devices to prove that they are legitimate users when they
avail themselves of the inclusive amenities.

Design Considerations
Architect Marcel Breuer pointed out that the main visual features people focus on are the landscaping
and the building finishes. But while building materials may vary in their appeal, proper landscaping
always receives praise, and this is never more true than at a resort. Landscaping also relates the
development to its natural environment, whether coastal, mountain, or desert.
Architects and interior designers appropriately draw on the beauty of the natural landscape as a vital
theme of the resort's design. Since guests are drawn to their favorite environments, such as the
Caribbean for the beach and the sun, or mountain locations for scenery, such natural attractions are
reinforced by both the architecture and interior design through color, form, and materials. For example,
earth tones and rugged finishes often psychologically blend with mountain resorts, while pastel colors
more closely recall beach locations, green interior accents complement forest settings, and natural
sandstone finishes

Case Study
Park Hyatt Maldives, Hadahaa
Architect: SCDA Architects
Interior Designer: SCDA Architects

Park Hyatt Maldives, Hadahaa, is situated on a small pristine island 250 miles (400 km) south of Male
on the Gaafu Alifu (North Huvadhoo) Atoll, believed to be one of the largest and deepest atolls in the
world. Designed by Singapore architect Chan Soo Khian of SCDA Architects, the resort opened as an
Alila resort but a few years later was rebranded as a Park Hyatt.
Guests arrive via speedboat from the airport and are greeted on the arrival jetty by resort staff and
taken to a sheltered reception area, whose design was derived from the distinctive timber-ribbed hull of
the traditional Maldivian dhoni boat, used for inter-atoll navigation. Metaphorically, the guests arrive
to an overturned boat, as if cast away to an enchanted island. Local craftsmen were used to create the
dhoni hull, ensuring authenticity in the details. From reception the guests are taken to one of the 50
villas, offered in three types.
There are 14 Aqua Villas, which are 1,200 sq ft (110 sq m) and built over the water along the jetty;
20 Island Villas, which are 1,300 sq ft (120 sq m), built along the beach, and include a private plunge
pool; and 16 Island Villas, which are 1,100 sq ft (102 sq m), are nestled among the natural vegetation
of the island, and include a private deck. The orientation of each villa was carefully arranged to take
best advantage of the tropical climate, utilizing high open ceilings, cross-ventilation, deep roof
overhangs, and window-shading devices.
The resort includes a PADI five-star diving water sports center, offering guests the opportunity to
dive amidst undisturbed reefs and sites in this untouched atoll, where the marine life is more abundant
and varied than anywhere else in the Maldives. Other facilities include a tropical island garden spa, a
fully equipped fitness and health center, two specialty restaurants, a rooftop lounge, and a library with
a star-gazing roof.
The architect took great care in the design of the resort to preserve the natural vegetation, in order to
maintain the ambience of the island and minimize its environmental footprint. Green Globe certification
was achieved by utilizing sustainable design principles, including rainwater harvesting, waste treatment
plants, solar shading, cross-ventilation in all indoor spaces, and bio-diversity protection of native
species. The resort's close proximity to the equator makes it less susceptible to tropical storms, so
precautions for storm-surge and wind-resistant structures were less of a concern than for resorts in more
vulnerable locations.
Four Seasons Resort, Republic of Seychelles
Built on a rugged site on Mahe Island, the resort exemplifies the principles of designing in harmony
with the existing terrain. The development was carefully crafted onto this sensitive site, which stretches
from a coral beach to tropical hillsides and rock outcrops. To minimize disturbance to the natural beauty
and the ecological balance of the site, individual structures were painstakingly located and then adjusted
at micro level to ensure existing rock outcrops and vegetation were least disturbed and the natural flow
of rainwater was not adversely affected.

Viceroy, Anguilla, British West Indies

Set on rocky bluffs overlooking Meads Bay, the Viceroy casts strong geometric lines against the subtle
natural beauty of the Caribbean beachscape. WATG Architects crafted an elegant ensemble of stark
modern structures to house 166 villas, townhomes, and resort residences with a 140-seat restaurant and
an 8,000 sq ft (743 sq m) spa at this luxury seaside resort.
harmonize with desert sites. In addition, local artwork and decorative motifs recall and inform the guest
of the area's traditions.
Besides natural and traditional beauty, resorts emphasize comfort and luxury. Historically, for the
well-off, resorts are generally expected to be more lavish in amenities and décor, even when informal
in mood. Lobbies should be 30 percent larger than those of suburban or airport hotels, and 10 percent
greater than those of downtown hotels of comparable size. This also reflects the additional time guests
spend lounging and socializing in lobbies at resorts. Since many guests like to shop on vacations, 50
percent larger retail space should be provided than in downtown or suburban hotels. Complete space
requirements are provided in Chapter 14.
Since both the average length of stay and the number of occupants per room are greater in resorts,
guestrooms should be at least 10 percent larger. In areas with higher family occupancies, such as in
Orlando, near Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Studios Escape, the guestroom length should
be increased from the standard 18 ft to 21 ft (5.5 to 6.4 m) for ease in accommodating required roll-
away beds and cribs. Closets should be at least 4.5 ft (1.4 m) long, since vacationers pack more clothing
and sports equipment. Guests expect larger bathrooms, with dressing areas and additional amenities
provided, as in the more luxurious resorts. Balconies should be at least 5 ft (1.5 m) deep, furnished with
a table, chairs, and at least two chaises, essential for lounging and sunbathing, as well as enjoying views
and relating to the outdoors.
A full-height window wall may be provided at the balconies to enhance guestroom views, with
interlocks recommended on the doors, so that if they are left open the cooling system will automatically
shut down. In addition to conserving energy, this avoids the possibility of mildew, which would cause
discomfort in the guestroom. Some otherwise fine resorts experience this condition, particularly where
care is not taken to vent wall cavities that may cause in-room condensation.
Exterior back-of-house areas, particularly loading docks and service drives, should be concealed by
retaining walls, trellises, and landscaping. Truck docks must be roofed and enclosed to prevent
unsightly views, noise, and odors. Where visible from upper levels, roofed areas should be terraced and
decoratively landscaped to ensure pleasant exterior views from all guestrooms.
But no element sets the ambience of the resort more than its pool area. Since guests spend more time
there than in any other public space, it affects their overall impression of the resort more than any other
element and provides the same memorable experience as the main lobby in the downtown hotel.
Guests expect imaginative pool designs, which often provide a transition between the building and
its surrounding natural land forms. Fanciful elements such as bridges, islands, grottos, and waterfalls,
as well as totally abstract free forms, provide decorative photo backgrounds most often sought by guests
at the pool. However, the overall pool size and shape must allow for swimming laps, group play,
wading, and, with today's accent on fitness, sports such as water polo. Nevertheless, diving boards
should be avoided, since they are a prime cause of accidents. The design must also maintain sight lines
for lifeguard surveillance of all areas. A whirlpool at least 8 ft (2.4 m) in diameter should be located
adjacent to the
Anantara Desert Islands Resort and Spa by Anantara, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Set on the island haven of Sir Bani Yas, a nature reserve just off the coast of Abu Dhabi, the luxury
Desert Islands Resort sits on a pristine beach surrounded by the warm waters of the Arabian Gulf. The
shoreline infinity pool forms a breezy backdrop to a romantically lit outdoor seafood restaurant.
swimming pool, with a second whirlpool near the beach. Wavepools, waterslides, and pools with spray
fountains and related play equipment are particularly important for resorts with high family occupancy,
but a separate adult pool must be provided in such cases. Children's wading pools, where desired, should
be located close to the main pool for purposes of surveillance by parents.
However, pool design is subject to regional and cultural differences. For example, in China a separate
pool for younger children generally is not desirable, because the Chinese believe that families should
treasure swimming together and be encouraged to do so. In various Middle East areas, communal
bathing is not permitted in public. Local health and safety regulations also may vary. For example,
while popular with many guests, ramped pools, allowing bathers to wade in from one end as at a beach,
are prohibited in some areas because of their lack of safeguards against entry by small children.
Pools must be located to obtain maximum sunlight exposure, but in equatorial climates shading such
as trellises must be designed over a part of the pool, for relief from the sun. For example, at a
Hilton Sanya Resort and Spa, Sanya, China
Nestled amongst tropical gardens that stretch along 840 ft (256 m) of pristine oceanfront beach,
WATG's design for the 500-room resort features a dramatic 25 acre (10 hectare) aquatic landscape that
includes nine swimming pools.

Ritz-Carlton Sanya, Sanya, China

Located on 37 acres (15 hectares) of the most secluded area of Yalong Bay, Sanya, this hotel's
destination is known as the “Oriental Hawaii,” as well as being China's only tropical seaside tourism
resort. For the 450 guestrooms, suites, and villas, architects at WATG drew influence and inspiration
from the classic building design of Beijing's Summer Palace, with high-pitched ceilings, dark rich wood,
intricate carvings, and mosaic detailing, coupled with grand water features and opulent furnishings.
resort in Sharjah, along the Arabian Gulf, a tensile fabric structure is provided over the pool during the
day, to reduce the intense sunlight, yet the pool must be heated at night.
And for one of the resort's most popular vacation sports, people-watching, for which more guests use
the pool deck than the pool, adequate chaise-longue space must be provided. More than any other area,
the pool deck encourages socializing, and many guests make friends there. Therefore, provide area for
at least 1.5 chaises per room. Satellite bars often are built into or contiguous with the pool as convenient
outdoor snack, juice, marina, or tiki bars, providing food and beverage service to virtually all outdoor
areas.

Environmental Technology
With rare exceptions, the hotel industry fully understands the folly of any lack in preserving the
environment, if for no other reason than to avoid problems which could diminish the guest appeal of
the region. As Scott Berman, partner in the hospitality and leisure group of PricewaterhouseCoopers,
warns: “Limpid, turquoise seas sell. Polluted waters and destroyed reefs don't.”
Yet examples persist of inadequate protection, bureaucratic authorities, improper actions by
developers and builders, and lapses in enforcement of standards posing potentially incremental as well
as irreversible effects on total communities and business economies. For example, in an 80 mile (129
km) stretch along the east coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, extending from the fully developed
Cancun area to the protected Mayan archeological sites of Tulum, one of the largest resort construction
programs in history started with over 9,000 resort rooms and condominiums, to be followed by another
scheduled 15,000 resort units over a five-year period—expansion that took fast-growing Cancun 20
years to develop. Dubbing it the Riviera Maya, developers proceeded, in many cases without approved
permits, paving hundreds of acres of mangrove swamps, the crucial plant-life responsible for nourishing
ocean reefs as well as wildlife. Such natural phenomena, properly protected, can preserve an ancient
geographic area such as the Yucatan as a continuing attractive and viable ecotourist paradise, no matter
how fragile it may be. But radical land-use changes require adequate study and respect for sound
technical judgment. Only through alert international news reporting was the above critical condition
exposed, publicly condemned, and corrected by the developers. Hopefully,

Waldorf=Astoria Maldives, Republic of Maldives

With a rich history stretching as far back as 2,000 BC, the Maldives formed part of a thriving trade
route for the ancient Egyptians, Romans, Mesopotamians, Chinese, and Indians. Located on the pristine,
lagoonringed Haa Alifu Atoll, which is fringed by powder-white beaches and has a leafy jungle at its
center, the 35 acre (14 hectare) resort comprises 83 Maldivian-style villas, three restaurants, four bars,
and a luxurious spa.
such publicity encourages proper legal reforms in other delicate environmental areas.
Acapulco, former Mecca to the jet set and popular resort, suffered serious long-term environmental
damage from over-development, which, along with severe crowding and related social problems,
resulted in a major decline in its tourism. Not surprisingly, some of our most superb resort areas, those
best able to attract natural and historic interest and favored by sunny climates and convenient airline
connections, may be lured into developing unreasonable resort densities. Therefore, for any large new
resort development, studies should include an assessment of the eventual total capacity and an analysis
of alternative physical concepts. These need to offer the developer a fair return, provide the guest with
a vacation experience, and protect and preserve the environment and community. Frequently,
developers run into legal difficulty by not being familiar with the local requirements. It is important that
developers work within the system to:
•Prepare environmental and other analyses and keep clear documentation at each stage.
•Identify the government agency responsible for approving various aspects of the project.
•Acquire copies of all legal requirements, necessary permits, or technical standards applying
to the project.
•Monitor construction and proactively seek government inspection and approval at each stage.

Island Resorts
The benefits of clean environments to islands have not escaped savvy vacationers, who by the
planeload choose them as preferred getaways. Call it the “island phenomenon,” but with
economics amiable to leisure travel, land values of island resorts compared to those on other
sites may soon exceed megatrend proportions.
In the mid-twentieth century, the Big Island, Hawaii's largest and most unique lava-based
geological formation, began establishing the era's largest group of environmentally motivated,
experimental, and ultimately successful resorts. Respected environmentalist Laurance
Rockefeller, founder of RockResorts, and his highly dedicated architect, Nathaniel Owings (the
O in SOM), created the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel: “one of the world's finest resorts, with
Polynesian art displayed throughout, and its residential wings elevated to permit the landscaped
grounds to freely flow into its interior gardens and courtyards further enhancing the resort
experience” (Rutes and Penner, 1985). The design was far ahead of its time: the developers
tested mock-ups of villa units, which decades later became a popular environmental
Mandarin Oriental Dellis Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands
Master-planned for an uninhabited island with building designs by seven of the world's
foremost architects—David Chipperfield, Zaha Hadid, Kengo Kuma, Piero Lissoni, Shigeru
Ban, Chad Oppenheim, and Carl Ettensperge—this 560 acre (227 hectare) island resort is
planned to include 71 luxury waterfront and over-water villas, a 30,000 sq ft (2,750 sq m) spa,
gourmet restaurants, retail, recreation and entertainment venues.
concept. Also, they made a noble effort to preserve the natural lava surface on the golf course;
however, resort guests, wearing cleated golf shoes, voted to banish the hazardous slippery
surface.
Planning a resort on an uninhabited island, such as the Dellis Cay resort in Turks and Caicos
or the Beach House Maldives, presents many challenges and opportunities. Investment in basic
infrastructure alone can make such developments prohibitively expensive to build. Special
systems are often called for, such as wastewater-treatment plants, desalinization or reverse
osmosis equipment, and electrical power generation through solar, tidal, or fuel-driven devices.
Garbage collection must be planned, considering prevailing winds, for the use of clean-burning
incinerators and compost areas. Fire stations and medical clinics are also important
considerations for the more remote locations. Depending on the location, it might be necessary
to include a cell phone tower on the island.
Water Cay Resort guests arrive at a small dock near Providenciales and are greeted in a
simple lounge building, where they check in, hand over their luggage, and board a sleek
speedboat for the 20 minute ride to Water Cay. The arrival experience is carefully
choreographed as the boat enters a narrow channel leading past the marina village through thick
native vegetation and up to the main hotel building, where an electric cart awaits, ready to
whisk the guests on to their private over-water bungalow. Services of a coastal engineer
become important for the planning of such resorts,

Water Cay Resort, Turks and Caicos Islands

Tahitian architect Pierre Lacombe of Tropical Architecture worked closely with coastal
engineers in expertly sculpting this uninhabited island to its maximum potential for resort
development. The 400 acre (160 hectare), 110-key resort includes 16 over-water bungalows,
seven in-water pavilions, 28 tree houses, 26 cliff villas, and six beach villas. The hotel center
includes multiple restaurants, bars, and lounges. The resort also includes a luxury spa, a marina
village, a sports complex, and housing for 40 employees.
WaterColor Inn and Resort, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
WaterColor is a 499 acre (201 hectare) master-planned community located on the northwest
Gulf Coast. Planned by Cooper, Robertson & Partners, under the direction of the St. Joe
Company, the resort exhibits vernacular architecture and many of the same new urbanism
principles as its predecessor, Seaside Florida, which lies directly to the east. Fitting it perfectly
to the milieu, Rockwell Group designed a 60-room beachfront hotel that combines the luxury
of a Southern grand hotel with the casualness of an unpretentious beach cottage.
with dredging canals for sea craft movement and analysis of wave action and bathymetric and
hydrology studies to determine the flow of tides into and out of arrival channels. Tidal range
and storm surge determine the height of buildings above mean sea level and instruct
engineering of structures to withstand impact during tropical storms and hurricanes. Jetties and
artificial reefs are sometimes needed for beach protection and construction, and can even be
used to construct small islands.
In the Caribbean islands, Florida, the Gulf Coast, the U.S. East Coast and Baja California,
resort structures must be designed to withstand hurricane-strength winds of 150 mph (240 kph),
as called for in the South Florida Building Code, and to withstand impact from large and small
airborne missiles. Wooden structures are often better suited to these conditions through their
ability to flex in strong winds, while more rigid structures such as steel or concrete may reach
a failure point before bending. The corrosive nature of salt sea air must be considered when
using steel for construction or when using metal finishes on the interior or exterior of the
buildings.

Desert Resorts
In the early 1900s, the dry climate in desert communities began attracting visitors seeking its health
benefits. A number of desert lodges sprang up around the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs,
California, specializing in asthmatic and respiratory care. In 1909 Nellie Coffman created the famous
Desert Inn in Palm Springs as a health-care hostelry. Early hotel operators seized the opportunity to
attract wealthy Easterners afraid to travel to Europe during the war and attracted to the subtle beauty
and serenity of the “Land of Eternal Sun.” La Quinta Hotel, the desert's oldest resort, built its first 56
guest casitas in 1926 and quickly became a retreat for Hollywood stars looking fortranquility and
seclusion. The city of La Quinta was named after the resort in 1982.
Attracted to the majestic beauty of ancient sand dunes, deep canyons, towering plateaus, looming
buttes, mesas, and other mighty rock formations, travelers to desert resorts seek out the elemental
harshness and solitude of the desert landscape.

Planning and Design Considerations

Were it not for the Palm Springs aquifer, Coachella Valley would have stayed raw desert, suitable only
for a few drought-tolerant animals and plants. All drinking and other domestic water comes from the
aquifer, a source usually referred to as groundwater. Water from the Colorado River recharges the
aquifer via the 122 mile (196 km) Coachella Canal. It is also naturally recharged by rain and melted
snow from nearby mountains. Many desert-resort locations are not so fortunate as to have a ready source
of potable water. Developers face a formidable challenge, as this limited resource must often be pumped
from great distances at a great cost. Acquiring water-source access rights from public utility companies
can also be quite challenging.
Golf courses at desert resorts are in high demand, and they require huge amounts of water to operate
and maintain. Water-treatment plants must be considered when planning resorts where water is scarce.
Treated wastewater, or graywater, can be used to irrigate the resort's landscape and golf-course
fairways. Advances in water filtration systems, including microfiltration, ultrafiltration, reverse
osmosis, and ultra-violet disinfection, can now successfully render even sewer water safe to drink.
However, the psychological barrier to using filtered wastewater remains an obstacle, especially in
luxury-resort locations where just finding odor-free graywater in their toilet bowl is objectionable to
many guests.
Desert-resort developments must also be planned carefully with natural drainage systems in mind.
The parched soils of desert landscapes are easily saturated with rain and shed large proportions of
groundwater along the paths of least resistance. The seemingly innocuous river beds that may remain
dry for months can become pathways for flash floods after a rainfall or mountain snowmelt.
Landscape design principles for desert resorts range from preserving the existing desert ecosystem
to complete transformation of the landscape into a desert oasis. Indigenous plants require significantly
less water than non-indigenous species. Native species are durable, require less attention, and stabilize
soils against erosion. Xeriscaping is a landscaping approach that reinforces the natural equilibrium of
the ecological system, an integral aspect of ecoresort developments that emphasize the uniqueness of
the desert, particularly its diverse ecology.
Located in Canyon Point, a beautifully austere desert in a remote area of Utah just north of the
Arizona border, the Amangiri Resort has been designed to embrace the rugged ecology that for centuries
has been home to the native Navajo and Hopi tribes. Dinosaurs are known to have flourished in the
region and footprints and fossils dating back 160 million years are common. True to the principles of
ecotourism, the 34 private guestrooms are housed in a compact cluster of low-profile buildings
representing a minimal invasive insertion into the arid landscape. In deference to the harsh Utah terrain
and in order to blend the hotel in with the area's Entrada Sandstone, the architects devised a unique
concrete mix of local sand, cement, and aggregate that approximates the coloration and density of the
surrounding geological formations.
Practically all the precipitation that falls in the most arid areas is returned to the atmosphere by
evapotranspiration. Clear skies and low humidity cause extreme daily and seasonal temperature ranges
as the sparsely covered land surface is heated quickly by solar radiation and then rapidly cools at
nightfall. Adobe construction is extremely durable, sustainable, and accounts for some of the oldest
existing buildings in the world. In hot climates, adobe buildings offer significant advantages compared
with wooden buildings, because of their greater thermal mass. Adobe walls provide a heat reservoir that
levels out the heat transfer through the wall to the living space. The massive walls require a large and
relatively long exposure to heat from the sun before they warm through to the interior and begin to
transfer heat to the living space. After the sun sets and the temperature drops, the warm wall will then
continue to transfer heat to the interior for several hours, due to the time-lag effect. Thus, a well-planned
adobe wall of the appropriate thickness is very effective at controlling inside temperature through the
wide daily fluctuations typical of desert climates.
At the Miraval Arizona Resort, located in a pristine portion of the Sonoran Desert near Tucson,
Arizona, sustainable elements are inherent throughout the design. Adobe brick and rammed-earth walls
provide a thermal mass that collects heat and cools interiors during the day and then re-radiates it to
warm the interiors at night. A highly reflective high-albedo roof coating reduces the absorption of solar
energy and heat transfer into the buildings. In planning the resort, native plant species were selected to
match the unique Sonoran habitat and do not require irrigation. The architects carefully located the low-
profile buildings to preserve the existing landscape, which is covered with old-growth saguaro cacti. As
this grows only one inch per year, the largest on site, with eight arms, has been estimated to be more
than 120 years old.

Amangiri, Canyon Point, Utah (left)

Located within the Grand Circle, surrounded by the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Grand Staircase,
and Zion National Parks, the 600 acre (240 hectare) site for this luxury desert resort supports a harsh
but austerely beautiful ecosystem, encompassing a remarkable diversity of plants and animal species.
The owners engaged three inventive Arizona architects to collaborate on the design—Marwan Al-
Sayed, Wendell Burnette, AIA, and Rick Joy, AIA. For this particular project, the trio of friends formed
a company, 1–10 Studio, named after the freeway that connects their offices in Phoenix and Tucson.
Miraval, Tucson, Arizona (below)
Coyotes, rabbits, javalinas, snakes, raptors, and dozens of other bird species make their home here. At
the base of the Catalina mountain range, 35 miles (56 km) north of Tucson, a vast watershed drains the
central valley, passes through the site and continues south. Ocotillo, saguaro, and barrel cactus mix with
acacias and mesquite. Mithun Architects' LEED-Silver certified resort balances intimate luxury with
rugged surroundings using simple, durable, and natural materials suited to the arid climate.

Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Constructed next to a 200 ft (61 m) high sand dune on the largest uninterrupted sand desert in the world,
the 206-key resort serves as a luxurious oasis in the midst of an extraordinarily hostile environment.
The architects, Dubarch, specified traditional desert building systems, such as rope joints between the
walls to allow them to expand and contract in the heat.
Equally remote but in stark contrast to the compact array of contemporary low-lying structures of
the Amangiri, the 206-key Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort is relatively massive, measuring 2.5 km end to
end and populated with towers, turrets, and serrated roofs of distinctly Arabic architectural style. The
resort is located in the Liwa Desert, part of the Empty Quarter, the world's largest uninterrupted body
of sand and one of the earth's hottest, driest, and least hospitable environments. It is difficult to imagine
a more difficult place to build a hotel. Taking cues from the indigenous architecture of the Bedouin fort
structures of the Abu Dhabi region, the design of the hotel complex reinforced local building design
and traditions while delivering extravagant luxury and superbly opulent accommodations in one of the
harshest deserts on the planet.

Golf Resorts
Introducing golf courses to new resorts can significantly improve their overall perception and bottom
line, beyond golf's own direct contribution. For example, while golf is preferred over other resort
activities by one out of six vacation travelers, its value is far greater in relation to the aura it brings to
the resort and increased occupancies through cross-marketing the hotel with the popular sport. The
benefit of the “golf touch” to the resort is analogous to what the “boutique touch” is to the urban
makeover. In some cases these two ideas are combined, as seen in the Finca Prats Hotel Golf and Spa.
This environment provides the intimate experience of a boutique hotel that also includes the golf
experience as one of its amenities.
Golf: invented by the Romans, named by the Dutch, and born of Scottish working classes, its
dedicated enthusiasts span every level of skill and background, increasing the game's grip to megatrend
status. While practiced and played as vigorously as any sport, for

Finca Prats Hotel Golf and Spa, Lleida, Spain

The 40-room design/golf hotel includes a fully equipped spa, two restaurants, indoor pool, and a
playroom for children. Guestrooms are on the top floors of the buildings, providing views of the first
tee and 18th green of 18-hole Raimat Golf Club.
many golf is more of an experience than a game, which reinforces its role as a key element in the
planning, marketing, and design of upscale and luxury resorts. Golf components increasingly attract
extended-stay and limited-service hotel brands—small wonder, given that there are over 16,000 golf
courses in the United States and approximately 30,000 worldwide.
Although golf may be virtually non-existent in some global markets, it is omnipotent in many of the
most lucrative, and has a large development potential in many of the world's expanding markets. The
presence of golf in North America has become saturated with the expectation that golf course
development will slow significantly in this geographic area. Cuba, South America, Portugal and Spain,
Vietnam, India, and China are all considered prime areas for golf course development, which would in
turn provide ample opportunities for a variety of golf-centered resorts for the upscale and luxury
markets.
Research shows that many of the best links now are at luxury resorts. While the venerable early
Scottish courses once boasted dormitories (“dormies”) for their employees, few golf clubs provide
guestrooms for members or guests and fewer public courses provide overnight lodging, an early
exception being one of the world's most admired courses, Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, and its
superb hotel resort. The potential exists for golf club resorts, including their application to golf
developments, in uncharted regions. The expanding interest in golfing across a wide range of
socioeconomic backgrounds may provide a fertile market for golf resort developments that center
around public courses with moderate to lower-priced accommodations.

Design and Planning Considerations

Program elements of golf course facilites and hotel facilities are highly complementary and provide
ample opportunity for synergistic design. The golf clubhouse is best located near the hotel lobby and
should contain or be adjacent to a cocktail lounge and restaurant overlooking the course. Public space
should spill out onto a viewing platform in clear sight of the first tee and the eighteenth-hole green. The
size of the viewing platform should be determined according to the number and frequency of high-
profile tournaments held at the course. The retail store of the pro shop located near guest circulation
provides an excellent opportunity to attract impulse purchasing.
Golf clubhouse, locker rooms, cart and bag storage must be carefully planned so that circulation to
other hotel amenities is not disrupted by cross-traffic. These facilities need to be located at ground level
or even below grade, where gentle ramps lead up to the golf trails. Sufficient accomodations for golf
staff and caddies need to be provided.

Abu Dhabi Golf Club Resort Hotel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Designed by GREC Architects, the luxury golf resort hotel is set within an award-winning 27-hole
course just outside the UAE capital. The main facilities of the resort focus on the world-renowned
tournament golf course, but amenities are not limited to golf-centered activities. Several themed
restaurants, ballrooms, business and meeting facilities, pools, and an extensive spa form a small resort
campus.
 Front desk check-in will involve separating the guests' golf bags and gear from their other luggage
by bringing them down to the cart and bag storage area. An additional 40 percent of area in the luggage
room should be provided. Locker rooms and showers for guests are less important, since the hotel
guestrooms serve that need, but some may be provided for the purpose of ambience.
In addition to the accommodations and conveniences provided for the guests and the ecological
impact of the facility, consideration for the necessities of the grounds and equipment maintenance and
storage are integral details for the development of golf resorts. Providing for both convenient and
efficient access to the supplies and equipment needed while considering the impact of these structures
on the overall aesthetic of the design can be significant contributing factors to the success of a golf
resort. Golf course maintenance facilities must include a cart “barn” for storage and maintenance of
vehicles such as tractors, mowers, and pick-up trucks in addition to the golf carts. Access and storage
areas for mulch, specially formulated sand, and soil and grass pallets must also be included, together
with a chemical storage area with all safety features as may be required, such as explosion-proof light
fixtures, emergency eye-wash fountains, and good ventilation.
There is a growing interest in creating golf resorts that reflect a direct relationship to the surrounding
environment. In some cases, as with the Steigenberger Golf Resort and Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort
and Spa, the grounds and buildings replicate a historical and cultural reference that enhances the overall
experience of the guests during their stay. In other instances, as with the Hersham Golf Club, this
relationship is considered from the perspective of the ecological impact of the facility itself. Design
considerations reflect the designer's intention to conserve natural resources and to be sensitive to the
surrounding ecosystem.
Architect Michael Graves's design for the Golf Resort El Gouna displays an architectural character
that is inspired by the essence of rural Egyptian buildings. The result is a resort that blends with its
natural surroundings. Home of an 18-hole golf course, this resort has 208 guestrooms, suites, and villas.
A unique feature is the hotel lagoon, which is available for dives.
Embracing the rich history of the Tamayame, with 350 pueblo-style guestrooms, the Hyatt Regency
Tamaya Resort and Spa is situated at the base of the Sandia Mountains in New Mexico. Designed by
HKS Architects, the resort is situated in the landscape to maximize views of the nationally ranked golf
course and the mountains, cottonwood groves, and the Rio Grande River beyond.
In one of the more unusual and creative golf resort designs, Reardon Smith Architects have created
a 198-room luxury subterranean resort hotel as an addition to the existing Hersham Golf Club in Surrey,
England. The design features three garden courtyard areas set beneath the ground surface. Appearing
as large sand-traps, these

Steigenberger Golf Resort El Gouna, El Gouna, Egypt

Architect Michael Graves's design for the El Gouna Golf Hotel displays an architectural character
derived from the cultural context of Egyptian rural buildings. Surrounded by a broad lagoon that falls
between the hotel and the 18-hole championship golf course, the resort offers 208 guestrooms, suites,
and villas. The main building steps down toward a long lap pool with wide terraces, orienting views of
the golf clubhouse and pyramid-shaped restaurant on the other side of the lagoon. Clusters of
guestrooms are built around the edge of the peninsula and overlook the golf course.

Hersham Golf Club Hotel, Walton-on-Thames, United Kingdom

Designed to be the world's first underground luxury hotel, the 198-room property was subject to strict
planning guidelines within London's Green Belt. As an addition to the existing golf club, this unique
approach to sustainable development sets back from local residential areas and is positioned within an
enclave of existing woodland to further obscure it from view.

Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa, Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico
HKS Architects' layout for the hotel guestrooms and public spaces was driven by the site's bountiful
views of the mountains and the Rio Grande River. Twin Warriors Golf Club, the resort's nationally
ranked Gary Panks-designed golf course, was routed in and around 20 ancient cultural sites.
serve as light wells, allowing an abundance of natural light into the hotel guestrooms. Hotel facilities
include restaurants, bars, business amenities, underground parking, and, of course, the golf clubhouse.
The carbon footprint of this hotel is reduced through combined heat and power generation, heat
exchangers, ground source heat pumps, graywater recycling, and rainwater harvesting.
Spa Resorts
Spas are the oldest form of resort. Bathing in natural springs for the purpose of ritual purification,
healing specific ailments, inspiring visions, or relaxing the body and spirit has roots in dozens of
cultures worldwide. Today, “taking a cure” is more than just a soak in a mineral bath: the International
Spa Association reports that in 2009 there were 143 million visits to spas, generating over U.S.$12
billion in revenue from treatments as diverse as mud wraps, hot bamboo massages, Vichy showers,
Turkish steam baths, and sitting in salt caves to relieve bronchitis. In the United States alone, the number
of spas has grown by almost four times since 1999 and spa development has exploded on five
continents, particularly Asia where spa growth is projected to be in the double digits. Spa resorts are
clearly big business.
Spas' overriding virtue of providing psychological as well as physical restoration is unquestioned.
This has long been recognized, from the Baths of Caracalla in ancient Rome to hip retro Palm Springs.
In addition, many guests select spas because of their health education programs that focus on total
wellness. Destination spas—those operations that make such programs the primary focus of multi-day
stays—combine state-of-the-art wellness treatments and education with luxurious accommodations and
first-class healthy cuisine. Hotel amenity spas are more focused on day use only, and while they may
offer an educational component to their services, they primarily offer one- to two-hour treatments by
appointment to hotel guests, and in many cases to the general public.
In the early days of the twentieth-century spa resort boom, spas tended to have a strong thematic
component evocative of a real or imagined warm-weather setting. Spas being developed today are much
more diverse in design and attempt to capture a strong sense of place by relying on vernacular
ingredients, techniques, and architecture. An excellent example of this approach is the Hotel Therme
Vals at the foot of Alp Vallatsch in Switzerland. Although there was a long history of a spa in this
location, the resort struggled until the 1980s, when the village of Vals bought the property, with its
utilitarian 1960s hotel rooms. Eventually architect Peter Zumthor was retained to transform the spa
facility into a site-specific setting that, according to Zumthor, “focuses on the quiet, primary experience
of bathing.” The spa's roof, jutting out from the side of the mountain below the main hotel block, forms
an extension of the lawn and opens up to reveal the pool below in a way that resembles an archeological
dig and invites exploration. The overall effect is dramatic yet calming, the perfect ambience for a
mountain spa.
Hotel Therme Vals, Vals, Switzerland
This striking destination spa was designed by Peter Zumthor. Sixty thousand carefully cut pieces of
local quartzite stone were employed to form a serene enclosure for the mineral spring pools.
Development and Planning Considerations
Spa resorts are primarily considered part of the luxury segment, although spa-going is becoming more
prevalent with a broad range of travelers. The luxury brands Four Seasons, Aman, Oberoi, Mandarin
Oriental, and Ritz-Carlton have all incorporated award-winning spas in their resorts, and now upscale
chains such as Sheraton and Hilton are rapidly rolling out house-brand spas in their properties
worldwide. Spa concepts managed by third-party operators like ESPA, Steiner Leisure, Clarins, and
Red Door have strong brand recognition outside the hotel brands with which they are affiliated, and
new spa brands are entering the market every year.
In addition to the spa facilities themselves, the spa resort provides luxury accommodations, including
outdoor recreational features similar to beach, golf, and tennis resorts. But spa resorts may also serve
outside members and visitors as well as hotel guests. Therefore, their reception facilities and parking
areas may be up to twice the size of those at other resorts.
The spa resort often requires a separate reception area for the health spa, which should be easily
accessible to guests from the hotel lobby. A special spa elevator may be provided, serving the guestroom
floors and allowing guests to move freely between their room and the spa without moving through the
lobby. However, in some properties the formal check-in desk is being eliminated in favor of a more
intimate and personalized approach. St. Regis' Iridium spa concept has taken this a step further and no
longer includes locker rooms in its program: guests are escorted from a pre-treatment lounge to a private
spa where they change, store their possessions, have their treatment, and may shower afterwards, all in
the same suite. Gender-specific spa areas should each have access to shared spaces where couples can
lounge together and proceed to couples' treatment rooms. The growing popularity of groups attending
spas together has inspired special areas for these guests so that they do not disturb other spa-goers.
There are even children's spas, where kids can get treatments on their own or side by side with a parent.
The space allocation for the spa is largely a function of the hotel size and type as well as the intended
market. Spa resorts that encourage day use of their facilities tend to have 150–250 sq ft (14–23 sq m)
of spa space per guestroom key. Destination spas have much more because of the wider range of
treatment options and other amenities that these properties provide: 600 sq ft (56 sq m) or more per key
is typical. Urban hotels with amenity spas tend to allocate only about 50–60 sq ft (5–6 sq m) per key to
the spa. The number of treatment rooms varies as well: resort spas average about one treatment room
for every 10–20 keys, whereas destination spas may have as many as one for every three guestrooms.
Providing retail space associated with the spa is a vital component of a successful spa operation. As
much as 40 percent of a hotel spa's revenue can come from the sale of skin- and hair-care products and
spa-related clothing items.

Design Considerations
Spa facilities are designed for multi-sybaritic experiences ranging from tension-relieving massages to
progressive-resistance exercising and health and beauty consultation. Dressing areas should be
spacious, comfortable, and safe underfoot, generously mirrored, and luxurious, with ample backup areas
for storing and issuing robes, slippers, soaps, hair-dryers, and so on. In many spas, the dressing area for
each gender will have dedicated sauna, steam, and whirlpool facilities. The central wet areas containing
hot and cold plunges and hydro-massage spa baths should bring in natural light whenever possible and
be surrounded by other hydrotherapy features to simplify plumbing. The cost of these areas continues
to increase, so many properties are downsizing or eliminating pools and providing chilled lounges
instead of cold plunges. Dry treatment
Enchantment Resort and Mii amo Spa, Sedona, Arizona
Gluckman Mayner Architects relied on the colors and light of the famous Sedona landscape in the
design of this destination spa, which is routinely ranked as one of the world's best.

The Lodge at Woodloch, Hawley, Pennsylvania

This luxury destination spa and resort by architecture firm Cooper Carry makes use of soaring windows
to capture natural light and highlight the changing seasons in the surrounding Pocono Mountains.
Banyan Tree Sanya, Sanya, China
The resort's 3,980 sq ft (370 sq m) two-story spa pool villas each offer a 600 sq ft (55 sq m) private pool
and a second-story outdoor massage area that overlooks a manmade lagoon.
areas for massage, facials, and nail services should be kept separate from wet areas. Proper detailing of
the finishes and equipment throughout the spa requires expert consultation. Examples of these design
details include: (1) designing tiled ceilings at a slight slope to properly carry off condensate; (2)
providing screened terraces or pavilions for outdoor massages for singles and couples, where the climate
permits; (3) building sophisticated temperature and humidity management, lighting, and music systems
so that the operator can carefully control and customize the ambient environment; (4) incorporating
hospitality support spaces for making and serving hot and cold infusions and light snacks; and (5)
planning for administrative and back-of-house functions within the spa footprint to facilitate third-party
operations.

The Marina Hotel

Since its debut in the early 1980s, the marina hotel has advanced greatly in technology and amenities.
But interest in expanding knowledge of the oceans promises to be the key impetus to future
development. “Our marina teaches the guests and visitors valuable information about the oceans,”
observes the dock master of Atlantis, one of the world's premier marina hotels.
Case study examples envision resorts with marinas and marine habitats, many of which may be
booked through vacation ownership exchange privileges. Research indicates that yachts and second
homes remain the leading status symbols. The boom in luxury marinas is due to the increased number
of yachters, just as the boom in vacation ownership, to a large extent, is aided by the symbolism of the
second home. While vacation ownerships are limited second homes, they are close enough to satisfy
the typical buyer.
Mid-market marina development is slowed by improved drystorage technology as well as by people
moving up to larger boats, causing vacancies in slips 20–30 ft (6–9 m) long. But larger boats are more
efficient and provide greater satisfaction. As a solution, developers propose new waterfront hotels for
places such as Marina del Rey in Los Angeles, and larger mixed-use marina, hotels, and additional
recreational amenities for areas near the approaches to New York City's suspension bridges, which still
await City approval.
Planning and Design Considerations
Developers try to closely integrate hotels with marinas wherever possible. This is important to ensure
convenient access to the marina, provide efficient catering to boats, and better dramatize the marina and
water themes in the hotel. Whether a boat rental facility and starting-out point for sports sailors, stopover
resort for inter-coastal boating excursions, or convenient vacation center for water sports enthusiasts,
the marina hotel hosts local boaters from surrounding communities who sail or motor over to dine out
or spend the weekend. Others dock boats permanently at the marina, driving to the resort to use their
yacht for weekend sailing.
Planning the hotel location in relation to the marina is of prime importance. At the Tianjin East Point
Sheraton, architects Woods Bagot situated the two towers to maximize views of the marina and the
seaside. The hotel is connected to the marina via a seaside promenade and a string of retail outlets and
restaurants. The Marina + Beach Towers project, designed by Oppenheim Architects, literally spans the
narrow spit of land between the oceanfront and back bay, where the hotel integrates with the marina.
As a destination resort for yachters, the marina hotel is more luxurious than beachfront developments,
as well as extended-stay hotels and some vacation ownership sites. This should be reflected by 25
percent more luxury suites and a higher standard of furnishings. In addition, marina hotel guestrooms
should have balconies overlooking the water. The ultimate size of the dock is a function of the local
boating market. For example, in a coastal resort area with a tropical climate, the marina should contain
at least two boat slips for every five guestrooms. Full access to golf and tennis is required to attract

Sheraton Tianjin Hotel, Tianjin, China

As the first phase of a master-planned redevelopment project for East Port of Tianjin, the complex
includes a 630-room Sheraton hotel, a destination retail/ entertainment complex, a yacht club, and a
marina. The sweeping form of the yacht club opens up to the marina and twists up to form an iconic
beacon.
Marina + Beach Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Twin hotel towers lean together, sheltering a richly landscaped botanical garden that opens to
restaurants and entertainment venues and leads to the beach on the ocean side and to the marina on the
bay side.

Viceroy Hotel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Set half on land and half on water, with two 12-story towers under a spectacular glass sheath, Asymptote
Architecture's design for the 499-key hotel includes eight restaurants, a rooftop cabana, a business
center, a spa, a gym, and two rooftop swimming pools. A steel and glass bridge passes over the
racetrack, connecting the Formula 1 race circuit to the Yas Marina and Yacht Club.
Viceroy Hotel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
vacationers, satisfy all members of a group or family, and provide destination attractions for yachters.
The marina facility must include retail shops for boating supplies, fishing and water sports gear,
groceries, a clothing boutique, and self-service laundry, as well as fuel supply and repair shops. Large
complexes may decide to include a major boat overhaul facility if none is available nearby.
The marina administration office provides navigational facilities and expert personnel to assist
guests. Its docks are equipped with standard boat-servicing outlets for electricity, communications,
water supply, and waste, as well as general boat maintenance if not otherwise available in the vicinity.
Some developers may test the feasibility of building a private yacht club adjacent to the hotel, to create
another visual element and amenity for guests.
 On Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina is operated by world leader in luxury marinas, Camper &
Nicholsons Marinas. Located at the heart of Yas Marina Circuit, the marina has a capacity for 143
yachts from 33 ft to 295 ft (10–90 m), and additional visitor berthing for super-yachts up to 492 ft (150
m). Yas Hotel has two 12-story towers: one is built over a Formula 1 race track, the other over the Yas
Marina. The towers are linked by a steel and glass bridge that passes over the race track and by a
spectacular curvilinear glass sheath that spans the two towers with more than 5,000 diamond-shaped
glass panels.
Since technical advances have reduced demand for boat slips under 30 ft (9 m), adversely affecting
revenue at many marinas, long-range trends at marina hotels are toward larger boats because of their
ease of maintenance and provision of greater satisfaction. A form of “shared-yacht” ownership,
paralleling vacation ownership, may make yachting dramatically accessible to the vast number of
middle-class boaters.

W Singapore Sentosa Cove, Singapore

Situated on the eastern end of Sentosa Island, the 290 acre (117 hectare) Sentosa Cove development
offers Singapore's only true oceanfront residences. At the heart of the development lies One15 Marina
Club, a mega-yacht marina club with moorings for some 204 yachts. With 320 hotel rooms and 236
signature residences, the W Singapore is set on a 6 acre (2.4 hectare) peninsula with yachts moored on
two sides. A shell-shaped roof hovers above rooftop garden terraces on the retail and entertainment
center, while the bowed form of the six-story hotel anchors the peninsula.

Ski Resorts and Mountain Resorts

Following the development of efficient snow-making equipment and safe, user-friendly ski gear in the
1970s, interest in cross-country and downhill skiing continued to climb each season. And with
consistent demand, ski lodges matured into full-fledged, year-round hotels, complete with spas, gourmet
food, entertainment and conference centers. These, increasingly, were managed by upscale brands,
happy to maintain the ski lodge's traditional ambience. With the introduction of retail base camps
needed at large-scale resorts, the original ski lodge has become a “village resort for all seasons.” These
newer ski resorts match the full range of comforts and services offered by other types of resorts,
including indoor-outdoor pools and whirlpool baths, tennis courts, trails for hiking, mountain biking,
and scenic excursions. Also, they increasingly attract summer and shoulder-season tourists and
conference attendees, as well as many non-skiing guests in the winter.
In addition, the major hotel companies are expanding in the vacation ownership arena, including at
sites suited to the needs of skiers and their families who are attracted to the vacation ownership concept.
While the slopes and the larger resort environment generally are high quality, what attracts buyers most
is the value of the residential unit, along with the economic advantages and pride of ownership. Not
surprisingly, the first of the new “buttoned down” family vacation prototypes at ski areas were launched
by Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton, and Four Seasons at the long-established Lake Tahoe, Vail, and Aspen ski
resorts.

Planning and Development Considerations

Because of valid concerns regarding natural preservation in rapidly expanding ski areas, strict planning
and environmental controls are the rule in new developments. At the same time, larger-scale ski resorts
are needed to satisfy the increasing demands for recreation as well as to meet complex ecological
requirements. But most agree that large-scale developments can be planned better to blend in with the
natural landscape. Also, through phased development, authorities can more easily monitor the
development against exceeding approved densities or ignoring environmental controls. For example,
The Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe, in Truckee, California, requires no more than 20 acres (8
hectares) to create a village setting including retail, dining, entertainment, and service facilities for
guests and visitors.
As most guests travel by air to ski resorts, lodges should be located within a two-hour drive of a
major airport and, better, close to a commuter airport. While the majority of guests complete their
journey by van or tour bus, up to 40 percent drive or rent cars at the airport. Because of heavy snow
conditions and to avoid the negative visual impact of unrestricted open parking, developers generally
provide parking below the hotel, thereby preserving the views and contours of the natural terrain.
At ski resorts, as at an ecotourist retreat, vacation village, or country inn, one of the most inviting
elements of the lodge's arrival experience is its natural unspoiled environment. Therefore, parked buses
and building signage which intrude on the natural landscape should be avoided. As guests arrive, skis
are checked outside the lodge and routed directly to a central ski-storage area, often by a special outside
ski elevator. The lodge generally is located on a sloped site, with its ski facilities, including storage,
service, and ski shop areas, on a lower level accessible to the ski run-out and remount area behind the
lodge. A 200–300 ft (61–91 m) wide area at the base of the chairlift is needed to accommodate any
waiting lines to assemble classes.
Ski slopes usually are located on the shaded side of the mountain for maximum retention of hardpack
snow base, with the lodge oriented so that guestrooms have maximum sun exposure and views of the
ski slopes. While balconies and roof terraces are popular at ski lodges, as they are at beach resorts, they
are more costly to construct owing to snow loads and the greater waterproofing required. Guests
strongly prefer upper-floor rooms with panoramic views. Wherever possible, rooms with dormer
windows and sloped ceilings should be designed into lodges, as market research indicates that such
features are highly desired.

Design Considerations
Designers of ski lodges find rich inspiration in traditional mountain vernacular architecture. The
prevalent architectural style of Rocky Mountain ski resorts follows the characteristics of U.S. rustic
tradition, with such noted landmarks as the Ahwahnee Inn in Yosemite Valley, Old Faithful Lodge in
Yellowstone Park, Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, and Paradise Lodge on Mount Rainier. Architect
Robert Stern, in his design of the Aspen Highlands Village, adopted the style and employed native
stone, logs, and rough clapboards to form solid walls and broad eaves to shed Aspen's powdery snow
and protect residents from the strong Colorado sunlight. By contrast, in the Goldenkey Ski Hotel in
Turkey we find a contemporary interpretation of a classic alpine lodge with steeply pitched—albeit
bright red-painted metallic—roofs to shed the build-up of heavy snow. In a similar yet more
sophisticated mode, architect Matteo Thun crafted a wonderfully modern interpretation of a traditional
Bavarian wooden lodge in his design of the Vigilius Mountain Resort in northern Italy.
Arrival at a mountaintop ski resort and circulation from the resort to the ski slopes can take many
forms, usually dictated by location and terrain. At the St. Regis Deer Crest in Park City, Utah, guests
arrive by car or taxi at a generous porte cochère, check in at the arrival pavilion, and ride up a steep
incline in a funicular to the main hotel building. They then travel back down to the arrival complex to
access the ski slopes, which are within a short walk or ski ride.
A very popular concept that has gained significant weight in the marketing of resorts and
mountainside condominiums, as exemplified by The Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch resort, is the
provision of ski-in/ ski-out access. Guests are attracted to the pure notion that they can don their skis at
the lodge and ski directly to the slopes and back, without having to board a crowded bus or some other
mode of intermediate transportation. The Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe, with its slope-side location mid-
mountain on Northstar Resort, provides

Ritz-Carlton Club, Aspen Highlands, Colorado

Designed in traditional mountain vernacular architecture, the ski lodge sits below a 12,500 ft (3,800 m)
mountain with stunning vistas and 125 challenging trails. This ski-in/ski-out resort is just 8 miles (13
km) from the spectacular peaks of the Maroon Bells, part of the White River National Forest with six
peaks rising above 14,000 ft (4,350 m).
Goldenkey Kartalkaya, Bolu, Turkey
Architects LEA Invent designed a contemporary interpretation of an alpine ski lodge with three wings
set around an inner garden, and positioned to take maximum advantage of daylight and the view of the
Köroglu mountains. Each of the 41 guestrooms was carefully placed with a different relationship to the
views.

Vigilius Mountain Resort, San Vigilio, Italy

On a pristine Vigiljoch peak in South Tyrol with views of the Dolomite Mountains, the eco-resort is
only accessible by cable car or on foot. With 36 guestrooms, six suites, two restaurants, a library, a
lounge, conference rooms, and a spa, the design of this exclusive mountaintop refuge employs
sustainable principles, including an accessible landscaped roof, and adjustable shutters on the façade
control solar energy.
St. Regis Deer Valley, Park City, Utah
Employing a pair of 15-passenger cable-hoisted tram cars on steel rails, the funicular is based at the
resort's Snow Park Building and ascends over 230 ft (70 m) in just 90 seconds to the primary hotel
building, which houses the majority of resort's amenities, guest rooms, and private residences, with
convenient slope-side access directly on to the Deer Hollow ski run.
Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch, Avon, Colorado
The 237-room ski lodge includes a 21,000 sq ft (1,950 sq m) spa, restaurants, a meeting space, and a
54-unit Ritz-Carlton Club comprising of two- and three-bedroom residential units. The building is
constructed with 7 miles (11 km) of logs and 6 million lb (2.7 million kg) of moss rock, recalling the
iconic architectural traditions of the grand National Park lodges of the Rocky Mountains, such as the
historic Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone.

Montana Trails Lodge, Big Sky, Montana

Located at the gateway to the celebrated Big Sky Ski Resort near Yellowstone National Park, where
snow enthusiasts see 400 inches (10 m) of annual snowfall, Bitnar Architects' design for this 52-room
mountain resort hotel took inspiration from the great traditions of 1920s National Park architecture.
skiing guests with perfect ski-in/ski-out access, complete with luxury “ski valet services” by the resort's
“mountain concierge.”
The mountain location and ski focus help determine many details of the design solution. Developers
and operators prefer fireplaces in the main public spaces and also, as practicable, in hotel suites and
condominium and vacation ownership units. However, the number of fireplaces in some locations may
be restricted by environmental regulations, which might limit them, say, to a few specific suites. Air-
conditioning, on the other hand, may not be required if summer temperatures are comfortable, as is
often the case at higher elevations. In the rooms and suites, showers might be substituted for bathtubs
in some units. Durable-finish materials must be used throughout the interiors to avoid the damaging
effect of ski boots. Hard-surface stone flooring should be used at entrance areas because of heavy boot
traffic and dampness. However, for acoustical reasons, dense carpet is required in other public areas, to
cushion the boot steps.
Bar and lounge areas should be designed to enhance the unique camaraderie that flourishes at ski
lodges among skiers of all ages. But multiple outlets may be necessary to meet the differing needs of
diverse age groups. The main cocktail lounge or a lobby bar, offering a fireplace, comfortable
furnishings, mountain views, and entertainment generally is for more affluent middle-aged guests. But
another bar nearby may attract the more raucous skiers. It has a dance floor and popular music, and
doesn't absolutely require

Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe, Truckee, California

Hornberger + Worstell Architects designed the resort as a series of linked pavilions tucked into the
contours of the hillside. Each pavilion steps down with the hillside, terminating with a grand octagonal
lobby at the center of the massing. Great care was taken to protect the natural form of the landscape and
to integrate the building seamlessly into its forest setting.
 Case Study
The Arrabelle at Vail Square, Vail, Colorado
Architect: 4240 Architecture Inc.
Interior Designer: Slifer Designs

Located in the heart of Vail Square at Lionshead Village, Vail, Colorado, the Arrabelle ski
resort hotel is situated at the base of Vail Mountain and Ski Resort, a short hop from the Eagle
Bahn gondola, which transports skiers to the crest of the mountain. Founded in the early 1960s
by veterans of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division, which once conducted survival
training there, Vail has grown into one of the world's best-known ski resorts. But the aging
village was not keeping pace with Aspen, its more glamorous rival. As a central component to
a redevelopment project totaling a quarter of a billion dollars, The Arrabelle at Vail Square is
the focal point connecting the ski slopes to the cafés, galleries, and boutiques in a European-
style village setting. The Arrabelle complex includes a 36-room hotel, 66 condominiums, a spa,
and a conference center, in an assortment of connected buildings clustered around a series of
narrow plazas lined with shops and restaurants. The composition, designed by 4240
Architecture Inc., is reminiscent of streetscapes you would find in Innsbruck, Prague, or
Salzburg. Separate buildings with a variety of Bavarian-themed façade treatments are all
connected by a series of bridges and tunnels. An oval ice-skating rink links the complex to the
village square and opens vistas to the slopes above. A third-floor bridge arches over the ice
rink and frames a picturesque view from the square to the mountainside. In the summer, the
ice-skating rink becomes a public plaza with fountains and is used as an outdoor concert area.
The first level of the southeast quadrant of the ensemble, the section closest to the gondola, is
dedicated to ski activities, with a ski shop, ski club, and café. Skiers can pick up their gear at
the ski shop and make their way directly to the slopes without having to board a crowded bus,
making the Arrabelle a true ski-in/skiout destination, but with the unique attribute of also being
an integral part of a lively resort village.
Hotel SnowWorld, Landgraaf, Netherlands
The 100-room ski resort, located in the hilly landscape of South Limburg, is directly attached
to the world's largest indoor ski slope. SnowWorld Landgraaf has five slopes with nine lifts.
The longest ski slopes in Landgraaf are 1,700 ft (520 m) and feature a six-seater chairlift.
outside views. Finding ways to combine the diverse age groups, as they review the day's ski
runs, contributes to the lodge's pleasant atmosphere.
While lunch is at most a light snack, dinner at ski lodges is considered an important social
occasion for more discussion of skiing experiences and re-energizing for the next day.
Restaurants should have natural light, with outdoor decks for daytime use, and raised interior
levels to enhance views. An ideal restaurant mix includes an upscale restaurant, a three-meal
café, and an optional self-serve indoor-outdoor kiosk for light daytime snack service.

The Ecotourist Resort

Clearly the problem of man and nature is not one of providing a decorative background for the human play, or even
ameliorating the grim city; it is the necessity of sustaining nature as source of life, milieu, teacher, sanctum, challenge and,
most of all, of rediscovering nature's corollary of the unknown in the self, the source of meaning.
(Ian McHarg, Design with Nature, New York: Doubleday/
Natural History Press, 1969, p. 19)
The world's heightened concern for the survival of the planet and a new awareness of the
preciousness of threatened ecosystems and cultures have fueled the global emergence in the
past decade of ecotourism as one of the strongest growth areas in the travel industry. Travelers
range from passionate advocates of ecological responsibility to those wanting to experience
unspoiled nature, its wildlife, and indigenous cultures up close. Most travelers are eager to
escape their homogenized settings and experience the local environment or its people.
Therefore, ecotourist resorts specialize in catering to these needs in varying degrees.
Interest in sustainable principles has taken on new proportions in nearly every segment of the
hospitality industry with LEED certification through the United States Green Building Council
(USGBC) and BREEAM certification through the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC).
Environmental sustainability is now regarded as an essential element in exhibiting to travelers that the
hotel company is fulfilling its obligation to be environmentally responsible. The movement reaches its
apex with ecotourism and is manifested in the design of eco-resorts.
The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) was founded in 1990 and defined ecotourism as
“Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of
local people.” TIES promotes the principles of ecotourism in order to:
•Minimize impact
•Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect
•Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts
•Provide direct financial benefits for conservation
•Provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people
•Raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climate

Ecological Responsibility
Ecotourism, sustainable development, and green architecture in many ways are descendants of the
environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s when “back to nature” was the call. Overthirty years
ago, The Whole Earth Catalog provided a sourcebook of tools for living off the land for a generation
who embraced the principles of ecological responsibility. It provided detailed technical information on
alternative energy and fuel sources, recycling, organic agriculture, and other non-polluting, eco-friendly
technologies. Stanley Selengut, a civil engineer who has been called the godfather of ecotourism resort
development, utilized many of the ecological principles of sustainable design in the creation of an
experimental resort called Harmony in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Harmony was designed to run on solar
and wind power and to leave its hilly oceanfront site as undisturbed as possible. Floor tiles were made
from slag and discarded glass, carpeting from last month's plastic bottles. Rooftop solar panels provide
hot water, and photovoltaic collectors, augmented by windmills, provide power. Passive systems such
as cross-ventilation, heat-resistant glazing, and a wind-scoop at the roof peak help to make the interiors
comfortable. Gutters catch rainwater, which then is stored in cisterns built into the foundations and
available for later use. Interior wallpaper is made from recycled newsprint. Occupancy sensors detect
lack of motion and turn off power in unoccupied rooms. Selengut maintains that ecotourism has much
to do with providing a valuable educational experience to the traveler. According to him, “The qualities
needed for successful ecotourism are more attuned to the entertainment industry than real estate
development. Most resorts try to protect guests from experience, but we try our best to put them into
the experience.”
With ecotourism also referred to as “soft-path tourism,” an important goal is to provide experience
without disruption. There is a responsibility incumbent on both the developer and the tourist to prevent
damage to fragile ecosystems and to avoid negative influence on indigenous cultures. For such
conservation groups and trade organizations as The International Ecotourism Society, the goal is to set
the standards of ecotourism, and to support responsible travel to natural areas where the environment
and its wildlife is being conserved and the well-being of the local population is being sustained. This
usually means encouraging resorts that utilize recycled or locally produced building materials, employ
solar or alternative energies, provide environmental education, are designed to blend in with their
surroundings, donate part of their profits to local conservation efforts, recycle waste and wastewater,
serve locally grown and produced food and beverages, and sell and display handicrafts of local artisans.
“Ethnotourism” or “eco/ethnotourism” are terms used to emphasize the cultural and spiritual
dimensions of sustainable development and to promote the experience and conservation of regional
culture and heritage. Consequently, archeologists and anthropologist have become important
consultants of the eco/ ethnotourist resort's design and development team.

Site Considerations
At the Amandari Resort in Bali, Indonesia, the designers transformed a deforested mountain area into
a beautiful Balinese romantic courtyard and garden, utilizing a design principle called Site Repair, as
delineated by Christopher Alexander in his pioneering book on design methodology, A Pattern
Language. In proposing the concept of Site Repair, Alexander states:
Buildings must always be built on those parts of the land which are in the worst condition, not the best. And, on no account
place buildings in the places which are most beautiful. In fact, do the opposite. Consider the site and its buildings as a single
living eco-system. Leave those areas that are the most precious, beautiful, comfortable, and healthy as they are, and build new
structures in those parts of the site which are least pleasant.
(C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa, and M. Silverstein, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1977, Pattern No. 104—Site Repair, p. 567)
Saffire Resort, Coles Bay, Australia
Echoing Christopher Alexander's design pattern for Site Repair, the luxury eco-resort has been built
using core principles for “the protection of healthy sites” and the “healing of damaged sites.” The
original site was a caravan park that had suffered a great deal of degradation and erosion. Drawing from
the concept of Coastal Sanctuary, the site was restored with 30,000 native plants to encourage a return
to its natural form. The resort employs the ecological practices of bushfire management, collection and
conservation of rainwater, and minimal use of night lighting of landscaped areas.
Juvet Landscape Hotel, Alstad, Norway
Architects Jensen & Skodvin designed a masterpiece of modern architecture, harmoniously situated in
the midst of a rugged natural landscape. Set on a sheer river bank, among birch, aspen, pine, and nature-
sculpted boulders, each of the seven rooms is a detached structure with one or two walls constructed of
floor-to-ceiling glass. Every room design is unique and gets its own individual view of a dramatic piece
of landscape, yet all are perfectly private as no room looks at another.
Great (Bamboo) Wall, Beijing, China
Architect Kengo Kuma explored the metaphorical qualities of bamboo in a 10-room eco-resort in a
forest adjacent to the Great Wall of China. In sharp contrast to the Great Wall's brick and stone, a
material manifestation of severing ties with outside civilizations, bamboo is a symbol of cultural
exchange, perfectly suitable for the work of a Japanese architect in China.
Hotel Remota, Patagonia, Puerto Natales, Chile
The 72-room eco-resort hotel lies at the base of the Patagonian Mountains on a sea channel 125 miles
(201 km) from the Pacific Ocean. The main hotel building is flanked by two guestroom wings forming
an elegant grassy courtyard and framing a magnificent view out over the water to the vast rugged peaks
of Torres del Paine National Park.

Arrebol Patagonia Hotel, Puerto Varas, Chile

Situated on a sloping, forested hill along Llanquihue Lake, this building, designed by architect Harald
Opitz Jurgens, is clad in alercewood cut into rugged brick-like shapes to fit in unobtrusively with the
surrounding woodland. With two volumes, one public and one private, the 22 guestrooms are placed on
the uppermost part of the site with views of a lake, while the public spaces, the lounge, restaurant, and
meeting rooms are located on the main level.

Tierra Atacama Hotel and Spa, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Located on the Altiplano of the Atacama Desert, within view of the Licancabur volcano, the 32-room
eco-resort displays an architectural vocabulary that recognizes the precarious balance between nature,
design, and the needs of travelers. Sustainable systems emphasize the value of water by recycling
wastewater to supply the hydroponic garden, an irrigation system that follows ancient techniques for
supporting local plant-life, and a desalination plant to supply potable water to the hotel.
Architect Kengo Kuma designed a 10-room boutique eco-resort in an ecologically sensitive forest
near the Great Wall of China. The Great (Bamboo) Wall Hotel straddles two hills and conforms to the
intricate undulation of the terrain, nestling comfortably into a shallow swale. The resort “wall” is made
of vertical stalks of bamboo permitting light and wind to pass through with minimal interruption.
A special breed of ecotourist resorts are located in the most remote and extreme environments and,
therefore, for the more adventurous tourists often are the most beautiful to visit. The Hotel Remota was
designed by Santiago-based architect Germán del Sol in a rugged and remote Patagonian landscape,
outside Puerto Natales, Chile, at the base of the Patagonian Mountains, a range with giant majestic horn-
shaped peaks, glacier-fed lakes, and primordial forests. Weather in Patagonia can be quite intense, with
sustained winds sometimes reaching in excess of 70 mph (113 kph). The hotel serves as a base camp
for explorations into the spectacular surrounding wilderness of the nearby Torres del Paine National
Park. The orientation of the building means that the guestroom wings frame the view over the sea
channel to the vast peaks beyond. In another example of Site Repair, the original grass that was removed
to make room for the hotel footprint was retained and reinstalled on the building roofs, in a 24 inch (61
cm) insulating layer.
The Tierra Atacama Hotel and Spa is located in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, one of the
driest places on earth, with relative humidity often as low as 2 percent and occasionally approaching
zero. As a result, the sky is remarkably clear and the sunlight very strong. Building orientation and wide
overhangs are necessary to

Anantara Xishuangbanna Resort and Spa, Xishuangbanna, China

Nestled along a sweeping curve of the Luosuo River and surrounded by verdant tropical landscapes,
the 103-room luxurious eco-resort is designed in a contemporary interpretive style integrated with the
rustic natural beauty of its exotic rainforest locale.
shield the guests from the intense sunlight. Appropriate to these intense site conditions, the design of
architects Rodrigo Searle y Matías González uses stone, mud brick (adobe), and rammed earth, utilizing
one of the oldest and most sustainable and ecological building systems ever devised. In his book Earth
Architecture Ronald Rael says, “It is assumed that earth is a fragile, ephemeral material, while in reality
some of the oldest extant buildings on the planet are made of earth” (Princeton: Princeton Architectural
Press, 2009, p. 9).

Luxury Ecotourism
At the luxury end of the ecotourism spectrum, we find finely crafted resorts which practice good
principles of eco-sensitive construction and fulfill many of the credentials recommended by The
International Ecotourism Society but are, nevertheless, primarily luxury resorts where the guest is
pampered and there is little sense of roughing it with nature. Not all visitors to ecotourist resorts wish
to be thrust into the teeming wilderness or to be immersed in the customs and rituals of a distant culture.
Many want the stimulating and illuminating exposure to the wonders of nature without compromising
the creature comforts of a luxury resort.
Anantara is a hotel company, founded in 2001, whose portfolio includes a number of luxury resorts
that draw their strength from the rich cultural traditions, historic heritage, and natural beauty of their
destinations throughout Asia and the Middle East. The Anantara Xishuangbanna Resort and Spa is set
on the banks of the Luosuo River in the midst of the Hengduan Mountains, in Yunnan province, an
idyllic mountainous setting fringing northern Laos. The region is home to the indigenous Dai people,
who are renowned for their folklore and colorful festivals such as the water-splashing celebration called
Songkran. Xishuangbanna is rich in nature, including rainforests, rare plants, and wildlife such as the
Asian elephant, which is still found in the wild. The resort draws its architectural inspiration from
traditional Dai architecture, with simple clean lines and use of bamboo throughout. Visitors enjoy
comfortable contact with the rainforest from covered porches while pampered with luxury amenities or,
if they wish, avail themselves of a deeper experience on guided tours into the rough.

Case Study

Southern Ocean Lodge, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

Architect: Max Pritchard Architect
Interior Designer: Max Pritchard Architect
On a remote south-coastal plain of Australia's exotic Kangaroo Island, architect Max Prichard
designed a sinuous string of 21 guestrooms perched 130 ft (39.5 m) above sheer limestone
cliffs overlooking the Southern Ocean. Widely acclaimed as Australia's Galapagos, Kangaroo
Island is home to an abundance of native wildlife including koalas, sea lions, fur seals, ospreys,
parrots, penguins, wallabies, and, of course, kangaroos, making it a favorite destination for
ecotourism.
Respectful of the ecologically delicate setting, the composition of structures is purposefully
low-scale, tucked neatly into the scrubby coastal bush. The material palette was kept simple,
with locally quarried limestone, glass, and blue-gray steel. The main lodge is an organic-shaped
pavilion at the crest of a hill and includes the reception lobby, restaurant, bar, and “Great
Room,” with floor-to-ceiling windows opening to dramatic views
of the rocky coastline. The guestrooms are connected to the east by a 600 ft (180 m) long single-
loaded breezeway, ensuring that each room has an unobstructed view of the ocean. At the far
end of the breezeway is the Osprey Pavilion. With 1,300 sq ft (120 sq m), this deluxe suite
enjoys 180-degree views, an open fireplace, and a plunge pool with a terrace. To the west of
the main lodge, accessed by a winding boardwalk, is a freestanding cylindrical structure
housing the spa retreat.
The architects held a series of public forums with local residents to allay concerns about a
resort development on their unspoiled landscape and to reassure them that use of ecofriendly
materials and construction methods would have minimal environmental impact on the site. A
number of sustainable features were incorporated into the development, including rainwater
harvesting, rooftop photovoltaic panels, and hot water provided by geothermal energy.
Wastewater and sewage are treated by an organic, worm-based system and dispersed through
an underground irrigation system. Owing to the remote location, employees are housed in an
on-site staff village with seven freestanding cabins, each containing four bedrooms and
clustered around a commons building.
 The hotel industry continues to expand its long-term worldwide interest in advances in green
architecture and eco-sciences such as hydroponics, as exemplified by the CuisinArt Resort and
Spa's hydroponic farm established on the Caribbean island of Anguilla. The state-of-the-art
hydroponic process provides fruits, vegetables, and edible flowers free from pollutants and
pesticides, produce used for preparing meals in the resort's restaurants.
There are still great realms of empty ocean, deserts reaching to the curvature of the earth, silent, ancient forests and rocky
coasts, glaciers and volcanoes, but what will we do with them? In the quest for survival, success and fulfillment the ecological
view offers an invaluable insight. It shows the way for the man who would be the enzyme of the biosphere—its steward,
enhancing the creative fit of man-environment, realizing man's design with nature.
(Ian McHarg, Design with Nature, New York: Doubleday/ Natural History Press, 1969, p. 19)
Wilderness Lodges and Wildlife Reserves
A special breed of ecotourism seeks to provide its guests with unforgettable adventure by thrusting them
into dense primeval jungles and exotic rainforests where they interact with tigers, bears, rhino, and
elephants, or onto rugged coastlines populated by migrating whales and dolphins. With overpopulation
and depletion of natural resources plaguing our fragile planet, such wilderness resorts provide an
increasingly rare opportunity to enjoy the pristine beauty of the wilds. Many visitors to wilderness
resorts are looking for a sense of adventure and an element of danger, with the wonder of riding an
elephant through a bamboo jungle or the rush of a long-tail boat ride up a winding rainforest river.
Singita was founded in 1925, by James Fawcett Bailes, who bought a large piece of land in
Mpumalanga province, South Africa, with the goal of preserving it and protecting its magnificent
wildlife. It is now known as the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, on the western border of the Kruger National
Park. In 1993, his grandson built Ebony, the first Singita property, on that site, as an exclusive game
lodge offering unsurpassed luxury and wildlife experiences.
Singita Pamushana Lodge in Zimbabwe is a mission-oriented luxury eco-lodge dedicated to saving
endangered species within the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve. These include the roan antelope, the sable
antelope, and the black rhino, which is on the verge of extinction. The lodge comprises six luxury suites
and one villa, each offering spectacular views of the Malilangwe Dam. Each suite features en suite
bathroom and shower, as well as an outdoor shower, private plunge pool, double-sided fireplace, mini-
bar and fridge, room safe, air-conditioning, overhead fans, private lounge, direct-dial telephones, and
game-viewing deck with Swarovski spotting scope. The main lodge area offers an indoor dining room,
open dining room, teak-deck dining areas, bar, library, open-air lounge, wine cellar, two heated
swimming pools, and a Jacuzzi, all overlooking the Malilangwe Dam and sandstone hills.
Anantara Golden Triangle Resort and Spa, Golden Triangle, Thailand
Guests of this wilderness resort, perched high in the lush hills of Thailand's border, may choose to spend
the day pampered at the luxurious accommodations of the main lodge or experiencing the more
adventurous elephant camp, designed along the lines of the traditional mahouts' villages, found in the
hills of northern Thailand in the days when logging employed the majority of Thailand's elephants.
The Princesse Bora Lodge and Spa, located on Sainte-Marie Island off the coast of Madagascar, is
involved in the observation of humpback whales and works closely with CetaMada, an association
concerned with the protection of these marine mammals. Thanks to this collaboration, CetaMada has
acquired unique knowledge concerning humpback whales. The Princesse is committed to the economic
well-being and social life of Sainte-Marie Island. Most of the staff (approximately 90 employees) come
from nearby villages. The resort favors the use of local products to sustain the local economy and is
also involved in educational projects, in particular with the local school of Vohilava.
Singita Pamushana Lodge, Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve, Zimbabwe
Set within a remote wilderness bounded on the west by the rich riparian woodland flanking the Chiredzi
River and on the east by Gonarezhou (“place of the elephants”) National Park, the seven-key lodge
incorporates the natural environment and the forest-like architecture, with spectacular views of the lush
gardens and lake below.

Princesse Bora Lodge and Spa, Sainte-Marie Island, Madagascar

Built along a white-sand beach lined with coconut palms and facing a beautiful lagoon, the 20-key eco-
lodge offers executive beach, luxury, and comfort villas, all interspersed in a tropical garden.

Planning and Design Considerations

As with island resorts, the remoteness of these eco-adventure lodges requires special consideration to
provisions, access, staffing, and infrastructure. It is characteristic of many of these resorts to be very
small and provide fewer than 20 guestrooms or tents. The back-of-house and staffing requirements are
therefore relatively small compared to most isolated island resorts, although the remoteness may require
significant storage capability. If possible, it adds to the ambience and guest experience if qualified staff
can be found in nearby villages, as with the Princesse Bora Lodge. A significant investment can be
bringing sufficient electrical power to the resort, since the noise of a generator would disturb the local
wildlife.
Getting the guests to and from the resort can be a challenge but can also contribute to a significant
part of the guests' ecoexperience. Whether arrival is by Jeep or Range Rover on a narrow mountain road
or by longboat up a jungle-lined river teeming with

Four Seasons Tented Camp, Golden Triangle, Thailand

Amid exotic bamboo jungles, where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Burma converge, the luxury
resort offers 15 tented accommodations that allow adventurous guests to immerse themselves in a
wilderness experience, recalling the romantic spirit of nineteenth-century explorers.
crocodiles and piranha, the opportunity to set the stage for great adventure should not be overlooked.
Buildings and structures at jungle lodges tend to be very sparse and simple, aiding the perception
that this is an encampment that can be picked up and moved to another location at a moment's notice.
It is important that support facilities are kept out of sight. The Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden
Triangle, located in dense jungle overlooking the Ruak River where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and
Burma converge, offers 15 tented accommodations, each named after local hill tribes. The resort is
designed to echo the romantic spirit of nineteenth-century explorers. Each tent is interwoven with
indoor and outdoor living areas. An outdoor deck measures 398 sq ft (37 sq m) and features a daybed
and two massage beds built on a wooden platform, covered by the extended roof. A luxurious sleeping
area features a bed with mosquito net. An open-plan bathroom is incorporated into the living area,
featuring a custom-made, two-person, hand-hammered copper bathtub with hand shower in the center
of the tent. An outdoor rain shower and separate WC are adjacent to the living area. In an effort to
preserve the sounds of nature and the forest environment, televisions, DVD players, and radios are not
provided.

Multi-resort Destination Complexes

According to a 2011 Marriott survey for its SpringHill Suites brand, 89 percent of U.S. travelers choose
a vacation destination first and then go looking for the right lodging package, so it is logical that resort
hotels tend to cluster around beautiful and popular settings. When this clustering happens in a strategic
and planned way, the result is perhaps best described as a multi-resort destination. The best-known of
these is Orlando, Florida. When Walt Disney started acquiring property in the area in 1963, he
envisioned a sister theme park to his successful Disneyland in California and a novel “Experimental
Prototype City of Tomorrow.” Almost fifty years later, Orlando has become a vacation behemoth, with
over 51 million visitors in 2010 alone, coming from all over the world to visit dozens of theme parks,
shopping malls, and other attractions, spending close to U.S.$30 billion in the process. On the Disney
property itself there are 31 hotels (eight of which are operated by a third party), all carefully planned to
attract different market segments and offer unique—but all very “Disneyfied”—vacation experiences.
While the Orlando model may not be replicable or even desirable in many markets, the idea of
developing a series of resort properties in a single location has caught on, particularly in the Middle
East and Asia. One good example is the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, which is the most massive land-
reclamation project to date, creating a 9.6 sq mile (25 sq km) mega-resort with hotels, attractions,
entertainment venues, retail, and a large variety of residential developments. Pressure for more
beachfront development because of the phenomenal growth of Dubai inspired developer Nakheel to
make more beach by dredging up sand from the Persian Gulf to create the palm-shaped project. A 6.8
mile (11 km) outer crescent serves as a breakwater to protect the 16 residential “fronds” and is the site
of much of Palm Jumeirah's commercial development, which is connected to the mainland by a 3.4 mile
(5.4 km) monorail. Already huge on its own, Palm Jumeirah is actually just a small part of a planned 2
billion sq ft (185.5 million sq m) of new development that Nakheel intends to build in Dubai. There are
also dozens of other mega-resort complexes being proposed for this small emirate, now the business
and tourism hub of the Middle East.
On the other side of the Asian continent is Resorts World Sentosa. Master-planned and designed
largely by architect Michael Graves, the project includes six hotels and a wealth of entertainment
options in three distinct zones on Sentosa Island, off the coast of Singapore. Resorts World Sentosa
attracts families to its theme parks and shopping, gaming enthusiasts to its casino, and conventioneers
to the 7,300 seat underground Compass Ballroom and 25 other meeting rooms. The designers made
every effort to highlight the natural beauty of the island and the project has earned a BCA (Building
and Construction Authority) Gold Green Mark rating for its environmental initiatives.
A multi-resort destination on a smaller scale is Mayakoba on the Riviera Maya in southeastern
Mexico. Developers OHL wanted to protect the mile-long beach and retain the pristine jungle setting,
and therefore constructed most of the project's infrastructure about a third of a mile (500 m) back from
the shoreline. Three low-rise luxury hotels flank a Greg Norman-designed championship golf
Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore
Resorts World Sentosa is a strong example of an Asian integrated resort which combines lodging,
entertainment, gaming, convention and retail space in a single complex. The development targets
multiple markets through the six different hotels on site, from the art-themed Hotel Michael—named
for project architect Michael Graves—to an invitation-only, luxury all-suite property.

Mayakoba, Riviera Maya, Mexico

Three luxury hotels, high-end residential villas, championship golf facilities, and a flawless stretch of
Caribbean beach make up this carefully planned destination resort along the southeastern shore of the
Yucatan. The development was the first project in Latin America to be recognized as a Rainforest
Alliance Verified Destination in light of the development team's care in respecting the many natural
attributes of the 600 acre (240 hectare) site.
course that winds sinuously around the property. Two of the hotels also have villa components, located
along the beach and separated from the main hotel areas by dense forest and manmade lagoons that tap
into underground water already on the site. Local materials form an important element of the design
that Three Architecture, designers of two of the project's hotel properties, calls “a resort in and of the
jungle.”
 Large resort projects like these are complicated to plan and execute, particularly because of the
varying nature of the design criteria for each component of the complex. Lodging and attractions have
their own planning requirements and must be well integrated into the master plan from the beginning
of the development process.

Master-plan Design Considerations

Multi-resort destinations can vary as much as do any individual resorts. These developments can
provide needed expansion of recreation amenities as well as benefits to local economies. They extend
the existing social and physical infrastructure by contributing vital support to airport development as
well as roads and necessary services. However, sound guiding principles must be followed to avoid
overcrowding, congestion, and cultural and environmental problems. This can be accomplished by
designing large-scale master plans which preserve and enhance the regional ecology, maintain
reasonable density standards, and mitigate vital concerns for traffic, utilities, clean air, pure water, and
natural landscaping.
A major destination resort needs a vast site with adequate space to allow future growth, including
resort hotels, and to protect itself from competitive businesses in the vicinity and within the region. The
master plan confirms the sites of the resorts and limits their size, number, height, and the maximum
volume of future developments. It also establishes a model system of architectural controls, based on
historic inspiration, environmental goals, and research, so that the project's design balance between
architectural variety and contextual unity will be continued in any new developments. Master-planning
a multi-resort destination offers the advantage of a single-minded direction for the entire project. The
alternative is to break large projects into numerous sites, each under a different ownership, with no
central strategy or possibility of reaching agreements on design guidelines, for example, or when and
whether to expand.

Accommodation Planning Considerations

There is usually a variety of types of lodging at multi-resort destinations, reflecting the diversity of the
resort's visitors. Many prefer the total experience and convenience of staying within an integrated resort,
offering easy access, longer hours, and package pricing. Walt Disney's original concept of providing
the most desirable themed lodging concepts “inside the gate,” to enhance and be enhanced by the resort,
ultimately proved the most successful course. Each multi-resort destination development company
needs to consider its strategy for creating lodging within the complex and whether to establish its own
management company.
The decision on what type of resorts to build, the number of rooms, rate class, and operational policies
will vary depending on the market study for the complex as well as a separate analysis of each of its
elements. Familiarity with new hotel types will assist the developer in determining the most appropriate
concepts and brands for a given project.
As with any resort, lodging that is part of a multi-resort destination project needs to offer a
transporting experience. Landscaping, views, the arrival sequence, and access to widely dispersed
amenities within a given hotel's grounds all require detailed consideration as part of the master plan.
Although there may be opportunities for shared support resources across several hotels within the
destination, the trend toward having different operators for each hotel component makes true economies
difficult. Brand identity needs to be carefully married to the overall vision for the development,
emphasizing the value of having recognized hotel brands on board sufficiently early in the development
process.
One of the boldest and most influential approaches to multiresort destination lodging, the “vacation
village,” introduced a super-casual atmosphere reflecting the socioeconomic changes of the mid-
twentieth century, when Club Med introduced the concept with the following entreaties: “an antidote
for civilization …”; “respite from the frantic pace …”; “an avenue to other civilizations …”; and “hotels
offer you a room, Club Med gives you an entire village!” The vacation village model has influenced all
hotel design, even outside the resort category. A strong sense of place, multiple on-site amenities to
keep guests on the property, the bundling of features into single-price vacation packages, and a carefully
orchestrated guest experience from booking to departure are hallmarks of the original vacation village
concept which have been adopted by other kinds of hotel developments.
Long walking distances, normally a source of guest complaints in spread-out low-rise hotels, can
become an architecturally exciting, enjoyable experience in the context of a village design approach.
Planners can make walking a feature of the resort and encourage it by planning the facilities in the same
way that anchor stores are positioned in a large mall. For example, if the entrance lobby is at one end
of the resort, a campanile might be designed to create interest at the opposite end, with pools, snack
bars, and sports and other activity centers widely spaced en route. A central plaza is the meeting place
and focal point, with dual areas, one shaded and trellised for daytime use, and another more open to the
sky for the evenings. With the village broken into varied courtyards on different levels, even an 800-
room resort can easily maintain a smaller-scaled, more personal atmosphere.
To further enhance walking experiences, the design needs to provide more than beautiful vistas, lush
indigenous landscaping, and authentic statuary. Since smooth walkways bear urban connotations,
surfaces are given varying textures appealing to the tactile senses. For ambient sound, cooling fountains
are mounted on walls at turns in walkways or set freestanding in courtyards. Outside illumination is
provided by wall sconces and path lighting, rather than high-intensity floodlights, to avoid harsh
shadows. Earthy colors are used with bright accents that reflect local decorative themes and artwork. In
these idyllic surroundings, guests are made more aware

Binh Tien Resort, Nha Trang, Vietnam

This multi-destination resort features over 800 keys across four different hotels, 161 residential villas,
and a wealth of recreational facilities including a casino, two beach clubs, and a large marina. As an
additional amenity, an 18-hole golf course was positioned as a buffer between the resort and the adjacent
nature reserve but still offers at least one beachfront hole.
of their senses, becoming more responsive to aesthetic themes and detailing.
Multi-resort destination complexes increasingly will include village-inspired designs as essential
elements to maintain variety and reduce density, as required in large-scale integrated beachfront
developments.

Attraction Development and Planning Considerations

A key component of many multi-resort destinations is one or more theme parks. Research comparing a
theme park to a non-themed amusement park of the same size and capacity shows that a theme park is
superior in attracting visitors, generating revenue, and enhancing satisfaction. Theme parks exhibit
these attributes:
•Greater geographical attraction
•Longer length of stay
•Enhanced food and beverage sales
•Enhanced retail, logo, and themed merchandise sales
•Improved overall experience and increased repeat business.
Spending on retail items and food and beverages, when appropriately themed, increases in proportion
to the length of stay, with higher-quality theming capable of significantly increased margins. Similarly,
the number of days visitors spend at a park is proportional to the distance they travel for the unique
experience. Not surprisingly, asset values of theme parks are positively affected by the quality of the
themes. As leisure venues and vacation destinations, theme parks offer an escape from the routine. Thus
Universal Studios' multi-park resort stated the obvious when naming its venture “Universal Escape.”
Themes for most leisure parks and resorts fall within one of the following categories:
•Historic places and cultures are normally readily researched and widely appreciated.
Depending on the theme, it can be costly to achieve quality and authenticity. Site conditions
may require extensive area development of landscape, hardscape, topographical, and visual site
control. The Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen is a very early example of this type of park; others
include World Showcase at EPCOT in Orlando, Disney's California Adventure, Taiwan Folk
Village, Port Aventura, and the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii.
•Fantasy characters and places provide flexibility to create a unique atmosphere for escape
from reality. Beloved characters from fiction or animation serve as a springboard for design
ideas, and fantasy locations offer tremendous freedom to the design team for creating ever more
elaborate environments. Some of the most prominent parks in the world fit into this theme
category: Islands of Adventure, Florida; Caribbean Bay, South Korea; Parc Astérix, France;
and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney parks worldwide.
•Subject-focused themes are always strong when well defined and clearly identified. The
subject of the park establishes the architectural vocabulary and thematic atmosphere. It is
important that the theme subject should not be too trendy or quickly outdated. For example,
parks with a future theme often are out of date by the time the project gets off the drawing-
board and is constructed, although Disney has celebrated the “retro” aspects of its 1955 vision
of Tomorrowland in today's park. Prominent subject-focused theme parks include Universal
Studios (films), SeaWorld (oceans), Ferrari World Abu Dhabi (luxury cars), and Disney's
Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort, Florida (animals).
•Activity-focused theme parks often have a limited theme, and in those cases it could be argued
that activity alone does not justify the theme. However, the general media and public perceive
most amusement parks and waterparks as theme parks. Certainly, activity-focused parks can
be themed as an enhancement for the activity. Enormous waterparks like Wet'n'Wild in
Australia or the indoor ski hills at SnowWorld in the Netherlands or Ski Dubai are prime
examples of these kinds of parks.
Within these four theme categories are a vast number of theme park types which, when appropriately
combined, can attract and even develop new target markets.
Ideation begins with a series of brainstorming sessions between the developer and the design and
economic consultants specializing in themed entertainment experiences. Practiced interdisciplinary
consultants explore the project's objectives and a myriad of potential solutions, including details such
as how to encourage different age groups to benefit from each other's presence. This think-tank method
is also used in developing trend analyses.
Once the concept is approved in sufficient detail, including a workable budget and source of
financing, the full technical team of specialists turns the desired concept into reality. Throughout the
design and planning process, the key factor for success is to focus the product on the best guest
experience within realistic budget parameters. To do this, the design team must have a clear definition
and understanding of the target markets, including seasonal shifts and related promotional and yield
management systems. The park should be designed to allow flexibility of live show content and capacity
levels, as well as shifts in merchandise content and food and beverage selections. The greater the ability
to satisfy the market, the longer that market group will be in the park and the more they will spend.
The key to a positive guest experience is the attraction mix. The attractions, whether shows or rides,
are measured in several ways beyond the given expectation of being a quality entertainment experience.
The team considers: the mix of attraction types, so that a good variety of experiences is provided; the
attraction's age group appeal; and how many people per hour the attraction can accommodate, measured
by its hourly entertainment capacity units (ECUs). The calculation of ECUs is most readily understood
by using a theater attraction as an example. A theater that can seat 500 people and process the guest
entry, seating, safety orientation, film presentation, and guest exit in a total of 20 minutes has an hourly
ECU of 1,500 (500 people x 3 cycles/hour = 1,500 ECU). At times, new attraction concepts have to be
significantly modified to achieve overall ECU demands, because guests will only tolerate queues of a
certain duration. Designing attractions within attractions is one way of addressing long queues.
Another measurement of overall park capacity is based on the average density of guests per acre or
hectare. One rule-of-thumb is 700 to 1,000 guests per acre (0.4 hectare) of actual park area (excluding
parking). If park area densities fall too far below 400 guests per acre, this may generate an impression
of the park being unsuccessful or having a less energized atmosphere. Indoor theme parks normally
become a unique challenge, with economically driven demands for around 1,500 visitors per interior
acre. The market in Japan seems to have the record, with popular expo parks reaching average
attendance densities of up to 2,000 guests per acre.
Daily guest attendance is never consistent. Even in major year-round tourist destinations such as the
parks in and near Orlando, Florida, attendance patterns fluctuate within seasonal markets. With the
given fluctuation of daily attendance, parks are planned and designed based on the “design day” and
“design hour.” The design day is neither the annual average daily attendance nor the peak day average
attendance; rather, it is a more sophisticated figure based on an analysis of critical attendance days
within the annual attendance pattern. Sometimes, a rule-of-thumb of the 10 to 15 busiest days can
provide a preliminary design-day number. The design-day attendance is then used to establish the
design hour, which is a function of the park's operating hours and the visitor's average length of stay,
based on the park's overall ECUs. The tighter the margin between park operating hours and guest length
of stay, the closer the design-hour attendance is to the design-day attendance.
The design-hour attendance is the primary park sizing guide. Everything, from the more macro
figures such as in-park acreage/ density, total park ECUs, restaurant and retail mix to micro
measures such as restroom capacities and wheelchair/stroller rentals, is sized based on the design-hour
attendance.
 The park's size and attraction mix has the most to do with determining a guest's length of stay.
Attractions with extremely high ECUs may process guests too quickly and reduce length of stay,
whereas attractions with too limiting an ECU will create congestion and result in such a negative guest
experience that visitors may leave early out of frustration. Another rule-of-thumb is that guests should
visit about 1.5 attraction experiences per hour; therefore, to generate an eight-hour length of stay, each
guest should see about twelve attractions in addition to food and retail experiences. If the park's design
hour is 10,000 people, then the overall park's hourly ECU would be 15,000 to 18,000, depending on the
overlapping age appeal of the attraction mix.
After the development and design team have established the major capacity and overall use
characteristics, they proceed with the preliminary conceptual plan for the park. One of the most critical
success factors is the placement of attractions within the park. Some common strategies include:
•Locate some of the most appealing “must see” attractions on the extreme edges to draw guests
through the park past impulse retail, and less popular attractions.
•Offer within each sub-theme area attractions which appeal to a variety of age groups.
•Place the attractions so that the overall hourly ECU count is evenly distributed, to avoid
congestion and ensure an even distribution of guests throughout the park.
The physical layout of the park is strongly influenced by site conditions, theme parameters, operational
policies, and cultural differences. There are several overall planning models commonly used in theme
park design.
•Hub and spoke plan: This was developed by Walt Disney for Disneyland in Anaheim,
California, and is still considered one of the best models for theme park planning. In its original
form it had the entry/exit spoke flanked with appropriate retail shops. This spoke channeled all
arriving guests to the center of the park, where a visual icon punctuated the hub and became an
orientation element seen from multiple vantage points in the park. At DisneySea in Tokyo, this
element is Mysterious Island. From the central hub, each of the other spokes are circulation
gateways to the various sub-theme zones of the park. The advantage of quickly bringing visitors
to a central location and then exposing multiple gateway options is excellent for swift and even
distribution of guests into all sub-theme areas. Often included with the hub and spoke plan is
an outer-rim circulation loop connecting the sub-theme zones.
•Loop plan: This plan is used at Islands of Adventure (IOA), Universal Escape, Orlando,
Florida. In the case of IOA, the loop surrounds a central water amenity; however, some loop
plans place general service and maintenance functions in the center, for ease of operations. A
major challenge of loop parks is that once visitors establish a direction of travel there is no
choice, whether they might want to revisit a favorite attraction or jump across the center. Where
there is a single entry to the loop, attractions opposite the entry point (regardless of popularity)
often do not operate at full capacity during the opening hour, and somewhat later they have
extensive queues because both circulation directions converge. Some parks with the loop layout
try to move guests to sub-theme zones beyond the entry point by using various modes of group
transportation, but that is rarely as effective as a central pedestrian entry point to all sub-theme
zones.
•Figure eight plan: Essentially two loops, this plan has many of the attributes of the hub and
spoke. Generally, designers make the crossover of the figure eight—where the two loops
connect—the entry point, where it acts as a central hub to distribute guests in four directions
through the sub-theme zones.
•Random plan: Unconventional or random plan strategies are often a result of unusual site
conditions or external planning forces which dictate an unusual approach to park planning
design. An example of this is the Fantasy Island Water Park on Sentosa Island in Singapore, in
which an irregular site had several utility easements cutting across it. Planning was further
complicated by the requirement for both a primary entry and a secondary gate for a future
monorail station. Designers determined that the random plan would integrate the lost-
civilization theme and archeological-dig storyline.
While economic viability remains the key threshold factor, high-profile attractions with
accompanying lodging are a continuing megatrend in an industry where attendance numbers are
rebounding strongly from the 2008–2010 recession and new projects of all types are being proposed
worldwide.
City of Dreams Resort, Macau, China
This $2.1 billion development features over 2,200 rooms in four hotels—Crown Towers, Hard
Rock Hotel Macau, Grand Hyatt Macau, and an apartment hotel—as well as a 420,000 sq ft
(39,000 sq m) casino and an elaborate array of entertainment, dining, and retail facilities on its
28 acre (10.6 hectare) site. The project joins as many as 11 additional casino, lodging, and
entertainment developments proposed for the Cotai Strip integrated resort.
 CHAPTER
8
Casino Hotels

While the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado, briefly experimented with gaming at the
turn of the nineteenth century, it wasn't until 1947 that the first successful casino hotel, The Flamingo,
was built in Las Vegas. It was reputed to be owned by the underworld, but from this dubious start
gaming developed into one of the most popular segments of the U.S. hotel industry. Overa span of
seventy years, the U.S. casino hotel industry transformed the Las Vegas desert into the world's largest
multifaceted resort. It conceived theme parks laced with hotels and tied to convention centers, shops,
and shows by a variety of arcades, skyways, and people-movers, traversing geographic themes from
New York to Paris, Rome, Venice, Egypt, North Africa, and Mandalay, and in recent years has moved
towards modernist developments that combine traditional casino entertainment with dramatic
residential space. This “integrated resort” development trend has since expanded to new markets
worldwide, particularly in Asia. The Cotai Strip in Macau is planned to connect as many as 20 hotel
projects from many of the world's leading luxury hotel brands, interspersed with expansive retail,
entertainment, and dining facilities.
New gaming licenses have made Singapore a destination for international casino guests, while South
Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam lead six additional Southeast Asian nations that have recently introduced
casino gaming. There is also substantial gaming growth in Europe, Australia, and Latin America.
Despite this explosion in international casino development, the United States still has by far the
largest number of gaming properties. Las Vegas alone has an inventory of over 145,000 hotel rooms,
7.5 million sq ft (700,000 sq m) of meeting space, and over 2 million sq ft (185,810sq m) of gaming
areas, along with hundreds of other demand-generating attractions. However, significant international
developments are challenging Las Vegas for gaming supremacy in a single location. Today, the second-
largest gaming market in the world is Macau, with over 25 million visitors annually, 90 percent of
whom come from China. In 2011, gaming revenue in Macau was more than double that of Las Vegas.
Native American tribes also continue to be a development force, with over 400 casinos in 28 U.S.
states. Many tribal casinos are limited to a Class II gaming license, which restricts them to games of
chance played against others, such as bingo and poker, rather than against the house. However, Class
III licenses have become more common and many of the major casino-operating companies have
formed partnerships with Native American groups to create casino resorts that rival any in Nevada or
Atlantic City in terms of casino floor space, restaurants, and entertainment.
Revel, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Built on one of the largest beachfront sites in Atlantic City, Revel features the tallest hotel tower in its
market. The exterior was designed by Arquitectonica.
Most casino hotels in the past have focused heavily on simulacra of the exotic. But the opening of
CityCenter in Las Vegas in late 2009 and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in 2010 has shifted
development impetus away from heavily themed casino resorts toward cuttingedge design; these hotels
represent the vanguard of a current trend for involving world-class architects in new gaming
developments. Casinos are now taking more design cues from the boutique hotel segment than from the
theme park industry. The goal for many projects built in the second decade of this century will be to
create an aspirational environment that will both age well and appeal to a broad market.

Development Considerations
The strong economy and favorable financing opportunities in the early 2000s led to an
explosion of casino development in major gaming markets and on tribal land in the United
States. Locations that had previously restricted gambling were spurred by this growth to change
legislation to permit a variety of gaming options, a situation that presented casino projects with
significant competitive pressure. The deep recession of 2008–2009 offered additional
challenges to casino developers. In many markets there is now an oversupply of lodging
capacity that keeps room rates down and discourages new development.
Because of this oversupply, many developers are turning to the acquisition and repositioning
of existing properties. This development approach is particularly attractive in markets like
Atlantic City, where declining gaming revenues have made new casino construction difficult
to finance. Casinos being created today need a broad range of on-site demand generators—
lavish retail complexes, spas, multi-pool outdoor recreation areas, and large nightclubs and
show lounges—to offset reductions in gaming revenues and to fend off competition from non-
hotel gaming sites in neighboring markets and a burgeoning online gaming culture. These
elaborate facilities have pushed casino hotel development costs ever higher, making it difficult
for all but the largest development groups to get projects built. Some projects

Vdara, Las Vegas, Nevada

Unlike most other Las Vegas hotels, the Vdara condo-hotel does not have a casino. The tower,
designed by Rafael Viñoly, is made up of three nested arcs that appear to slide past each other.
have included a condominium component as an additional source of financing and to grow
demand for the casino's revenue-generating amenities, although this strategy became
problematic during the mortgage crisis in the late 2000s.
Not surprisingly, lucrative gaming revenues often enable casino hotels to offer guestrooms
at highly competitive rates, thereby attracting not only more gaming customers but a variety of
other guests as well. Elaborate entertainment and some of the world's finest resort facilities act
as magnets to international tourists and convention groups and provide an attractive discounted
vacation for families. However, these features make major casino projects an enormously
expensive proposition, and have led to the development of non-gaming hotels that offer far
fewer amenities than a typical casino but are still within easy reach of other properties'
offerings. These hotels often are less expensive to build because they have minimal investment
in such high-cost spaces as food and beverage outlets and entertainment facilities. One example
of this approach is Vdara at CityCenter, a 1,495-room condominium hotel that has only one
lounge bar and restaurant, one fast-casual food outlet, and no casino space, yet is physically
connected to Bellagio and ARIA, both massive full-service casino hotels. The resulting high
proportion of guestroom space relative to total building area allows Vdara to reduce operating
expenses and offer an alternative to those travelers who prefer to stay in a quieter location but
still be close to gaming, dining, and entertainment facilities.
The management of casino properties is dominated by a small group of specialized operators,
limiting the number of traditional hotel brands that have a presence in gaming locations in the
United States. Some of these operators have developed brand identities of their own and are
capitalizing on their name recognition as they expand into new markets, while Asian casino
development often features a combination of such well-known gaming brands as Sands and
MGM with luxury lodging brands including St. Regis, Four Seasons, and Grand Hyatt.

Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, Nevada

A casino façade on the visually chaotic Las Vegas Strip must offer wayfinding cues to channel
circulation into the property, while at the same time supporting elaborate exterior lighting
systems and dynamic promotional signage. Planet Hollywood's façade—retrofitted onto an
existing building—adds visual interest to the casino exterior while achieving all of these
functional goals.
 Planning and Design Considerations
Because casino hotels need to provide many additional amenities to promote the gaming operation,
these projects require a greater ratio of non-revenue-producing space than any other hotel type. In
addition to more traditional non-revenue-generating spaces in the back-of-house, additional resources
that upscale casino hotels must provide to be competitive include elaborate “high-roller” suites and
villas traditionally furnished free to high-stake players, star suites for big-name entertainers staying at
the hotel, and gourmet “hold tables” in restaurants on or near the gaming floor permanently reserved
for quick service to high rollers who want to spend the maximum time at the tables. To compensate,
casino hotels typically are models of functional efficiency in planning the hotel operational areas, and
are designed to minimize construction and operating costs in the back-of-house as well as in some of
the public areas. Here, quality concepts and attention to design detail are vital elements in the hotel's
success. Because guests spend a much longer time in hotel public areas in casino properties than in most
other types of lodging operations, floor plans should encourage and reward guests' exploration and
finishes must enhance the sense of place evoked by the overall project theme. In some markets, visiting
a variety of hotels' public spaces is a big part of the casino vacation experience and the public has
increasingly high expectations for the quality of casino design.

The Casino Gaming Floor

The amount of gaming space provided in a casino hotel varies, depending on the market. In locations
that have a high proportion of day-trippers who do not stay overnight, 250 sq ft (23.2 sq m) or more per
key of casino floor is typical, whereas in Las Vegas this number is much lower—roughly 30–40 sq ft
(2.7–3.7 sq m) per key—due to

Designing Casino Hotels

Roger Thomas, Executive Vice President—Design
Wynn Design and Development
Las Vegas, Nevada
In the beginning, the casino was the driving force behind the hotel—everything was designed and
pricing was gauged to feed the casino. But with the advent of the Mirage in 1989, the rooms, restaurants,
bars, retail, and entertainment ceased to be adjuncts to the casino and in today's resorts carry equal
weight in the design process and in the revenue stream.
At Wynn, we don't think these are different aspects—they are all integrated parts of the resort
experience. The balance and flow of the parts is paramount in everything we do.
As designers, our job is to create memories and places of possibility. I call what we do
“evocatechture.” For each project we don't do a theme or replicate something that's been done before.
Instead, we develop our own unique design vocabulary to create drama, mystery, wonder, delight—
emotions that you'll remember and tell others about.
We design our projects from the guest's point of view, considering the experience from the entrance
all the way to the arrival at the most intimate space: the guestroom. We think hard about the way each
area is used, how it should look, how the guest gets there. In our designs, we like to create
“neighborhoods,” each with a specific focus of gaming, food, beverage, retail offerings, and other
services, everything that our guests need and want within easy access of their hotel elevator.
 From the guest's point of view, wayfinding can be a real problem in a large casino resort, and we
spend a lot of time and effort in anticipating questions about directions before guests ask them, and in
creating legible, clear signage placement accordingly.
We also consider all the practical aspects of casino and resort operations. Our table-game areas are
intimate and personal, owing to many factors including ceiling height and individual chandeliers over
each table. This created the problem of obstacles to security cameras, which we overcame through
research and development in a full-scale working model of the casino for Wynn. We were able to test
our ideas and prove that all aspects of the design worked for licensing officials. It was expensive, but
worth it for the unique look and better patron experience.
In designing something as massive and expensive as a casino resort, we do not follow trends; if you
are capturing the latest design trend, you're already out of date by the time it is built. Casino resorts
have a development time frame of three to five years, so their design needs to be classic and unique,
revealing new thought rather than following others' innovations.
the high proportion of convention and family vacationers who visit the city but may not participate in
gaming. Casino space is generally contiguous rather than dispersed throughout the property.
The casino floor has to balance excitement and engagement with security. The goal is to create an
open area with good sight-lines while offering a wide range of playing locations to suit the preferences
of all types of players: some prefer more personal space while others thrive on the energy of close
quarters, while still others may want a smoke-free environment. Slot machines typically are clustered
in a small configuration of not more than 10 machines each, and table games are generally laid out in
groups of 8 to 12, with each group centered around a supervisor or “pit boss.” The growing popularity
of poker has made tournament space an important consideration; many casinos have a flexible area on
the gaming floor that can be roped off and set up for temporary events. Finally, high-limit gaming areas,
where the minimum bet can be $5,000 or more, need to be conveniently located for VIP guests but
separated from the main casino. In most jurisdictions, these areas must be visually open to limit the
possibility, or even the perception, of illegal activity.
No other building contains security monitoring systems equal to those of a casino. Called the “live
peek” in Atlantic City and the “eye-in-the-sky” in Las Vegas, the system of concealed pan-and-tilt
cameras is monitored by security guards in a special screening room. It also records the gaming action
at each table so that events can be closely reexamined if any complaints or suspicions of cheating arise.
Recent improvements in camera technology have given the designer more freedom in ceiling height,
with ceilings as high as 40 ft (12 m) now possible, whereas earlier cameras could not perform accurately
at this range. In addition, the layout of the gaming tables is carefully designed to facilitate surveillance
of the dealers and players by non-uniformed security guards, or “floaters,” generally positioned at the
ends of each line of tables. Smaller European-style casino hotels often are less security-conscious, with
less extensive digital surveillance; these hotels exhibit a more casual arrangement of tables rather than
the straight-line layout favored by U.S. gaming operators. Overall security usually is maintained jointly
by a government agency and the casino management, with control offices located in the main cashier
station (the “cage”) and in a high-tech monitoring room. A security cell must be provided on the
premises for detaining suspects. Some properties provide special back-of-house break facilities for the
dealers, containing men's and women's restrooms, dressing facilities, and a private dining room adjacent
to the gaming area.
One of the largest design constraints on the casino floor is the “money path,” which leads from the
cage, to “hard” and “soft” counting rooms for coins and paper money, respectively. The money then
proceeds to a special money-truck loading dock via a heavy-load elevator under rigorous surveillance.
Because of the tremendous weight of coinage in slot machines, the gaming floor itself used to have
special structural needs. However, today's slots are primarily digital and coins rarely are seen, making
the machines lighter in weight; this offers the operator additional flexibility to modify the layout as
playing patterns change. Highly themed slot games that use multimedia to generate interest and
encourage play are becoming more popular and can be used strategically to draw users to particular
parts of the casino floor. The placement of

Casino Public Area Schematic

This plan illustrates many of the design issues that designers face when planning a casino hotel. Usually
the hotel is attached at one end of the casino floor, oriented to allow unobstructed views over a
landscaped area or pool. The convention space or meeting rooms are located at the opposite end to draw
traffic back and forth through the gaming areas. The food and beverage venues are strategically located
around the perimeter of the floor to create activity around the edges. These are serviced from a service
level below.
City of Dreams Casino, Macau, China
Dedicated gaming floors such as this VIP gaming lounge for high-limit and high-profile guests are
standard in most casinos. Local gaming laws may require that a visual connection between these spaces
and the main gaming floor be maintained, so designers must develop creative solutions to balance
privacy with clear views of play.

Crown Casino, Macau, China

The interiors for this 180,000 sq ft (16,725 sq m) casino were designed by Remedios Studio and won
the first annual International Gaming Award for Best Casino Interior Design.
The Venetian, Las Vegas, Nevada
The Venetian and its sister hotel, The Palazzo, represent the epitome of the themed Las Vegas mega-
resort: over 7,000 oversized keys, a 120,000 sq ft (11,100 sq m) casino, more than 500,000 sq ft (46,500
sq m) of high-end retail, and over 1.8 million sq ft (167,000 sq m) of convention space, when combined
with the adjacent Sands Expo Convention Center. The design reflects the architecture and culture of
Venice while supporting the operational needs of the largest resort of its kind in the world.
the cage, traditionally near the middle of the floor, is no longer so important, as slot winnings are
redeemed at freestanding kiosks that double as bill-changers and ATMs.
Because some guests prefer to play slot machines alongside the gaming floor and others prefer them
in dedicated areas, slots usually are located fairly evenly in both places. Slot areas should have ceiling
heights of at least 12–16 ft (3.7–4.9 m) to accommodate promotional signage above some of the games.
Carousels with circular groups of slot machines occupy about 20 sq ft (1.9 sq m) per machine as opposed
to 10 sq ft (0.9 sq m) for conventional linear layouts. In some markets, additional space also must be
provided for poker tables and sports-book betting operations. Such traditional games as keno and
roulette have been converted to digital form and are now interspersed with slot machines. It is likely
that more interactive digital games will continue to develop and will substantially influence future
casino-floor design.
The number and type of table games varies with the location. In a casino hotel in the United States,
a ratio of about five blackjack tables to each roulette and craps table is average. Typically, baccarat and
high-stakes poker and blackjack tables are provided in a high-limit room, with more added at a ratio of
about one for every 50 other gaming tables. While blackjack and roulette tables may be combined in
any grouping, the other gaming tables are located in separate groups. Based on the above ratios, the
area required for the gaming floor will average approximately 250 sq ft (23 sq m) per table. Hotel
casinos planned with more widely spaced table layouts have, with few exceptions, proven less inviting
to gaming customers, who generally prefer a more crowded atmosphere; of course, the tighter spacing
also saves on construction and operating cost. In Asian and European hotel casinos, the ratio of types
of games changes, with the number of card game and baccarat tables generally doubling and craps
games cut by about half. Tribal casinos may offer a bingo facility as well as more typical casino games.
Dining, Lounge, and Entertainment Facilities
To keep players on property and to attract other guests to the hotel, casino hotels typically have a much
higher number of food and beverage outlets than traditional hotels. In Las Vegas, one food and beverage
operation for every 150–160 rooms is typical. Casino hotels in Asia generally have an even higher
number of food and beverage outlets. For example, Galaxy Macau has over 50 restaurants and lounges,
about half of which boast Asian themes.
Bars and lounges should be well integrated directly with the gaming floor to enhance the ambience
of both areas and stimulate business from one to the other. This also simplifies bar service to the gaming
tables. Restaurants also should be convenient to the gaming area and, if on a different level, accessible
by escalator, with good visibility from both the gaming and entrance lobbies. Cafés, grab'n'go outlets,
and buffet dining areas should be open to the main public spaces, with entrances to the signature and
specialty restaurants directly off the main lobbies and circulation concourses. Famous entertainers and
elaborate dinner shows are expected in the largest casino hotels, but major show rooms are usually
impractical for small- or medium-sized casino hotels, which generally provide cabaret entertainment
lounges rather than the more costly dinner shows.

Convention Facilities
With the trend toward combining large trade shows with related corporate and association conventions,
today's 1,000-room and larger casino hotels more than meet the requirements of the convention market.
These groups, including family incentive groups, increasingly seek out resort locations for their events;
in recent years, about 10 to 15 percent of visitors to Las Vegas have been convention participants.
Therefore, the casino hotels' additions of luxury spas, chef-driven signature restaurants, and
sophisticated entertainment programs position casino hotels to increase their penetration of the
convention market.
Although meeting space requirements should be driven primarily by market needs, properties like
The Venetian Macau that cater to large conventions can have over 300 sq ft (27.9 sq m) of meeting
space per guestroom key. A more typical ratio for resort-type casino hotels is between 25 and 40 sq ft
(2.3–3.7 sq m) of meeting space per key. As with other convention hotels, casino projects with
significant meeting space typically have a dedicated porte cochère for the arrival of convention
attendees, as well as loading facilities on the same level as the primary event spaces.

Guestrooms
Casino hotel rooms are larger and more luxuriously planned and appointed than those in suburban or
downtown hotels. Guestrooms in casino properties built in the first decade of the twenty-first century
average about 550 sq ft (50 sq m), with many five-star properties boasting typical rooms of over 700 sq
ft (65 sq m). Because of its gaming revenue, the casino resort can provide greater luxury in every room
compared with non-casino properties at the same price point. Soaking tubs, large stall showers, floor-
to-ceiling windows, and sophisticated in-room technology for controlling lighting, window treatments,
and entertainment systems have become standard in higher-end projects. Even though most casino
guests are traveling for leisure purposes, the provision of adequate workspace with internet capability
remains important, particularly in properties with substantial meeting space, as guests alternate work
with leisure activities.
Casino guestrooms typically receive heavy usage, so material choices should be able to stand up to
considerable traffic and abuse as well as engage a range of age groups. Depending on the market, a high
proportion of queen-queen or double-double rooms may be appropriate. For these high-occupancy
rooms, luggage storage and closet space need to be carefully planned.
 High-roller or VIP suites are a typical addition to the casino room mix, giving these hotels a high
percentage of suites relative to other types of properties. Suites may offer two or three bedrooms
attached to a large central living space, as well as the potential to connect to smaller facilities
accommodating a high-profile guest's entourage. Amenities might include dual rainfall showers,
freestanding tubs, in-room dining supported by a substantial wet bar, and a powder room off the living
space. These units typically are restricted to key-access floors and supported by dedicated guest services
and housekeeping staff.
At the very highest level of accommodation are luxury villas, which have been added to several of
the most prominent casino properties at costs well above U.S.$1,000 per sq ft (U.S.$10,750 per sq m).
While these villas may sometimes be rented, more often they are provided as an incentive to very high
rollers. Enormous balconies, private pools, saunas and hot tubs, movie theaters, billiard rooms, and 24-
hour butler service are just some of the features that make these villas—some well over 10,000 sq ft
(925 sq m)—the ultimate luxury experience.
Greater guest sophistication and increasing expectations will continue to put pressure on casino
hotels to incorporate up-to-date designs and amenities and remain current as technology changes.
Casinos are becoming segmented psychographically rather than demographically. Efforts to appeal to
a younger clientele while still attracting older gaming customers will present design challenges.
Sustainable initiatives are likely to grow beyond the high-profile LEED-certified flag-bearers, such as
CityCenter and The Palazzo in Las Vegas, to become a factor in planning any casino project. Guests
increasingly will demand smoke-free areas, hypoallergenic guestrooms, and transparent sustainability
efforts on the part of the operator that do not compromise the excitement or escapist atmosphere that
gaming customers seek.

Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada

One of older properties on the Las Vegas Strip, the Flamingo received a mid-century modern update in
2007. The resulting “GO” room concept, designed by Cagley & Tanner, features a brown, white, and
flamingo pink color scheme that makes witty reference to the swinging heyday of Vegas while offering
twenty-first-century amenities.

Case Study
 The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas, Nevada
Architect: Arquitectonica

Most Las Vegas casinos are erected on vast sites with plenty of working room. The 2,995-key
Cosmopolitan has more in common with a city hotel than a classic Vegas mega-casino: the
tight 8.7 acre (3.5 hectare) site forced the design team to make some unorthodox space-
planning decisions. Unlike most casino hotels, the project is long and narrow, with two
guestroom towers sitting on top of a five-story podium that contains 300,000 sq ft (27,870 sq
m) of retail, dining, and entertainment space and 150,000 sq ft (13,935 sq m) of meeting
facilities, topped by three elevated pool areas and several outdoor lounges.
The tight site forced back-of-house functions to be even more efficient than they are in a
typical casino. Several administrative functions are housed off-site in leased space 3 miles (2
km) from The Strip. Uniform-issuing is completely automated to reduce labor and space. Valet-
parking areas make use of vehicle lifts to maximize all three dimensions of space in the
underground parking garage; valet drivers bring each vehicle to a camera station, where the car
is measured and the appropriate available space for that particular car is identified by computer.
Even though space was at a premium, standard guestrooms start at a generous 610 sq ft (57
sq m), made visually larger in many cases by 6 ft (1.8 m) wide exterior terraces, a rarity in the
Las Vegas market. The project was originally envisioned as primarily a residential
development with a relatively small number of hotel rooms, but the market crash of 2008 and
a change in project ownership just as interior finishing on the building was beginning prompted
the move to an all-hotel model and explains the large bay size and many of the room
configurations. Remnants of the original condominium building program are
apparent in the limited porte cochère area and a more intimate feel to the hotel lobby. These
tighter spaces set the hotel apart from other large casino projects on the Las Vegas Strip but
introduce functional challenges for the operator.
The exterior was created by Arquitectonica, and features a 52-story angled double-loaded
tower on the west side of the podium and an equally tall rectangular tower on the east side. A
host of designers participated in the interior design of the hotel and restaurants—Bentel &
Bentel, Jeffrey Beers, David Rockwell, and Adam Tihany among them—under the
coordination of the Friedmutter Group, who served as executive architects. Contemporary art
is featured throughout the hotel, and nowhere more strikingly than in the main lobby, where
eight 6 ft × 6 ft (1.8 m × 1.8 m) columns delineate the queuing space while displaying
continuously changing digital art commissioned by the hotel.
Most of The Cosmopolitan's 14 restaurants share a circulation “hub” that acts as a gathering
place and waiting area with a neighborhood atmosphere. This space evokes a retro-classic
Vegas feel through vintage artwork and furnishings along with black-and-white photos of
1960s Vegas personalities, a pool table and football game, and lounge-style seating that
encourages interaction. On a lower level, more dining options share space with a retail complex
that features eclectic brands not available elsewhere in Las Vegas. Each food and beverage
operation, including the buffet, has its own dedicated kitchen area. Several
lounge bars are divided between the casino floor and the main pool area, a space that can be
configured to double as a venue for outdoor concerts and special events. A rooftop nightclub
and dayclub, featuring its own outdoor lounge space and pool scene, sits on the top of the
podium.
The ground-floor casino is nearly 100,000 sq ft (9,290 sq m), more limited in space than
casinos in other hotels of similar size, and unique in that it has floor-to-ceiling windows looking
out onto the famed Las Vegas Strip. Its centerpiece is the Chandelier, a multilevel bar designed
by David Rockwell, with over two million beaded crystals and housing three unique lounge
experiences offering cocktails prepared using molecular gastronomy techniques. A further
innovation is The Cosmopolitan's “casino cabanas,” semi-private rentable units with plush
lounge furniture, separated from the casino floor by drapery.
Completed at the end of 2010, The Cosmopolitan is likely to be the last major casino
development on The Strip for several years.
JW Marriott, Indianapolis, Indiana The Marriott hotel, one of five corporate properties
adjoining the convention center, dominates the Indianapolis skyline (see pages 192–195).
 CHAPTER
9
Convention Hotels

Among the largest lodging properties today are those hotels and resorts which are designed to host
conventions and other national and international meetings. In North America, most of the larger cities
have several hotels in the 750 to 1,500 guestroom range, while surprisingly few international cities
outside Asia boast even one hotel of this size. In the United States and Canada, the foundations for
group business are the large corporate, association, and SMERF (social, military, educational, religious,
or fraternal) meetings, while in Europe, for example, the convention market focuses on the international
trade shows held in such cities as Berlin and Milan. These major industry events often occupy more
than one million sq ft (92,900 sq m) of exhibit space and fill every hotel in the city—many of them
older, relatively small properties—but don't require the kind of meeting and banquet space that is the
essential characteristic of a major convention hotel. However, with the growth of professional
associations worldwide, there should be a dramatic increase in the demand for larger convention hotels.
The French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, among the first to identify the United States' appetite
for group participation, would not be disappointed by the mass-meeting activity held in today's
convention-oriented hotels and conference centers. Cities such as New York and Las Vegas, for
example, host about four million convention guests every year and, worldwide, the number of people
attending meetings and conventions is well in excess of 100 million. Even resort areas, such as Orlando
or Scottsdale, have become major convention destinations. In addition, smaller standalone resorts find
that they need to cater to meeting and group business in order to fill guestrooms mid-week and in the
shoulder and off-season. In major cities, on the other hand, the convention market extends year-round,
with the few slow periods around the main holidays.
Given the increasing importance of the group market, and the ability to attract meetings at a wide
range of locations—downtown, suburban, airport, and resort, for example—the early 2000s saw the
explosion of a variety of distinctly different convention hotel types. Smaller cities of up to 250,000
people may have a convention-oriented hotel in the range of 300-400 rooms, with a ballroom for 800-
1,000 people. Major cities push these numbers much higher, and most hoteliers would define a
convention hotel as having a minimum of 500 rooms, for regional and small national meetings, up to
1,500 or more rooms at major destinations or for headquarters hotels adjoining the largest convention
centers. With the development of airport hubs around the world, developers have built convention-
oriented properties outside the major cities, to ease the burden on travel into center-city and because
large sites are more available
Table 9.1 Orlando, Florida, selected convention hotels

Location Hotel Guestrooms Number of Ballroom area in

meeting sq ft (sq m)
rooms
Hotels adjoining the Rosen Shingle Creek 1,500 68 95,000 (8,825)
Orange County
Convention Center

Hilton Orlando 1,417 63 48,100(4,470)

Rosen Centre Hotel 1,334 33 35,000 (3,250)

Peabody Hotel 891 32 26,700 (2,480)

Rosen Plaza Hotel 800 22 26,000(2,415)

Convention hotels Walt Disney World 2,265 83 54,300 (5,045)

within Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin*
World

Disney Coronado 1,967 46 60,200 (5,590)

Springs

Disney Yacht and 1,217 21 38,000 (3,530)

Beach Club*

Disney Contemporary 1,041 33 44,800(4,160)

Grand Floridian 877 16 18,200 (1,690)

Convention hotels Loews Royal Pacific 1,000 22 41,500 (3,855)

within Universal Resort
Studios

Loews Portofino Bay 750 23 15,000(1,390)

Hotel

Other Orlando Orlando World Center 2,000 73 105,000(9,750)

convention hotels Marriott Resort

Gaylord Palms Resort 1,406 61 46,700 (4,340)

and Spa

Hilton Bonnet Creek 1,001 68 36,000 (3,345)

and Waldorf=
Astoria*

JW Marriott Orlando 1,000 46 29,600 (2,750)

Grande Lakes Resort

*Two hotels marketed and operated together.

Estrel Hotel & Convention Center, Berlin, Germany
The1,125-room Estrel Berlin is the largest convention, entertainment, and hotel complex in Europe.
With suites as large as 970 sq ft (90 sq m), and divisible convention hall of 50,500 sq ft (4,700 sq m),
few venues in Europe can compete for the largest or most important meetings. The complex can
accommodate 3,500 people for a banquet, or 1,000 people at the Festival Center, directly connected to
the hotel by a glass-enclosed bridge.
outside the downtown areas. And, increasingly, conventions are held at resort areas, where guests can
take part in non-meeting activities or where families can spend a day on vacation while one parent is
busy.
There are many examples of convention hotels which combine these elements. For example, in
Orlando, Florida, which after Las Vegas has the second-largest number of hotel rooms in the United
States, the Orange County Convention Center is immediately surrounded by several large hotels with
800 or more guestrooms, all within a few minutes' walk. Each one alone might host a substantial
meeting, but together they provide a sufficient base of overnight rooms for nearly any major convention.
And within miles, both Disney World and Universal Studios continue to expand their convention-
oriented properties, in order to attract groups who find it appealing to combine meetings with the theme-
park experience. Historically, hotels in Orlando had catered to the family market, but with the
substantial expansion of the convention center in 2004 more luxury hotels opened. Table 9.1 suggests
how large these clusters of major convention-oriented hotels may be, especially when the destination is
widely favored.
As Table 9.1 shows, the number of hotel rooms is only part of what defines today's convention hotel.
In addition, the property requires a major ballroom and substantial amounts of exhibition and multi-
purpose meeting space, totaling some 50–100 sq ft/ guestroom (4.6–9.3 sq m), or about three to four
times the amount of meeting space that is normal for most business-oriented hotels. In addition, these
hotels offer multiple food and beverage outlets, expanded health and fitness facilities, and a much higher
number of suites, typically about 3 percent but sometimes approaching 5–8 percent of the total number
of guestrooms.
Table 9.2 Convention hotels operating data

Number of rooms
 <500 500–1,000 >1,000

Average size (rooms) 298 751 1,423

Occupancy (percent) 59.6 66.8 69.8

Room revenue $28,097 $38,505 $43,611

Source: PKF Consulting. Trends® in the Hotel Industry, USA Edition. New York: PKF Consulting, 2010.
Table 9.3 Full-service hotels operating data

Number of rooms

<150 150–300 >300

Average size (rooms) 119 214 440

Occupancy (percent) 63.0 62.7 66.2

Room revenue $23,890 $30,283 $35,058

Source: PKF Consulting. Trends® in the Hotel Industry, USA Edition. New York: PKF Consulting, 2010.

A large convention hotel today requires a minimum of 1,000 rooms committed to the convention,
without which large groups may not consider booking a hotel. Management companies insist on another
200–400 rooms to avoid turning away repeat transient travelers during peak convention periods.
Secondary cities may have convention-oriented hotels about half this size. The convention hotel's
smaller counterpart, the conference center (see Chapter 10), caters to smaller groups who require only
50–200 guestrooms and who prefer single-purpose conference and training rooms. While the
convention hotel can accommodate varied meetings of all sizes, it focuses primarily on larger groups,
whereas the conference center provides a more intimate atmosphere, and such dedicated spaces as an
amphitheater and dozens of breakout rooms needed by smaller groups.
Many older convention hotels, unable to expand, have been made obsolete because of the growth in
the size of association and other large organizational meetings. Increasingly higher attendance at
conventions and trade shows—especially at the popular destinations— often spills over into several
hotels clustered around a “headquarters” hotel. This has created opportunities for larger-capacity
meeting and exhibit halls in such lead hotels, in some ways duplicating or replacing the older city
convention centers and municipal auditoriums.
The interest in convention hotels is easy to understand. Group business, and especially the large
meetings market, grew at over 5 percent a year in the late 1990s; data from Meetings and
Conventions magazine show that the total number of meeting attendees nearly doubled from 1985 to
2009. However, the economic downturn in the early twenty-first century slowed growth dramatically.
According to STR, the number of group rooms sold actually declined from 2002 to 2010. And
convention-hotel room occupancies in 2010 were about 5 percent below those of a decade earlier. Still,
cities and hotel companies seek to develop convention-oriented hotels because not only do they greatly
increase tourism business, but both occupancy percentage and room revenue in large convention hotels
generally outpace those of smaller properties. Tables 9.2 and 9.3 report 2009 data, from the height of
the recent economic recession (note that the number of rooms differs in the two tables); industry experts
project that guestroom occupancy and revenue numbers will grow dramatically in the second decade of
the century.
Planning and Design Considerations
Convention hotels are among the most difficult building types to plan and design because the usual
complex functional requirements are exacerbated by the size of the program—1,000 rooms or more,
substantial public areas including a large clear-span ballroom, and increased back-of-house spaces. In
urban downtown locations this is made even more difficult by small sites and restrictive zoning. In
selecting a site, the development team needs to recognize the major planning considerations for a
successful convention hotel and test the site against these key criteria:
•Test the site for FAR (floor area ratio) to accommodate total hotel area at program ratios such
as 850–900 sq ft (80–84 sq m) per room.
•Separate hotel entrances including main lobby, ballroom and exhibit hall, restaurants,
employees, hotel receiving, and exhibit unloading.
•Provide sufficient public arrival space for cars, taxis, and shuttle buses.
•Provide sufficient service space, including for unloading of exhibits.
•Create a lobby space of sufficient size for the market and appropriate to the site.
•Allow sufficient clear-span for the hotel ballroom, often as much as 125 ft (38 m) or more,
outside the guestroom column structure.
Because of the scale of new convention hotels, these criteria, while similar to those for smaller
downtown or airport hotels or for larger resorts, create new challenges for the development team. In
addition to many more guestrooms and suites, the total amount of public and support space, the size of
the ballroom, and the number of elevators often are two to three times those of other major hotels which
don't focus on the convention market.

Urban Convention-center Headquarters Hotels

As the major destination cities build new convention centers or expand older ones (see Table 9.4), many
with one million sq ft (92,900 sq m) or more of exhibition space, they also provide one or more sites
for an adjacent “headquarters” hotel, usually connected directly to the convention center. Because they
operate at relatively high occupancies and rate compared with other first-class hotels in the same market,
Table 9.4 Major American convention centers

Name City Exhibition space in sq ft Number of meeting

(sq m) rooms

McCormick Place Chicago, IL 2,600,000 (241,500) 173

Orange County Convention Orlando, FL 2,500,000 (232,200) 84

Center

Las Vegas Convention Las Vegas, 2,150,000(199,700) 144

Center NV

Georgia World Congress Atlanta, GA 1,600,000 (148,600) 106

Center

Morial Convention Center New Orleans, 1,500,000(139,300) 140

LA
Sands Expo and Convention Las Vegas, 1,300,000(120,700) 25
Center NV

Source: Cvent.
these projects often are awarded on a competitive basis. These hotels, connected to the convention
center, don't need as much dedicated function space, because they benefit from the symbiotic
relationship with the public facility next door. In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the city provided a site for
a new 500-room headquarters hotel adjacent to the new convention center. The Sheraton Hotel was
designed to complement the exhibition and meeting facilities in the convention center and therefore has
a relatively small 27,000 sq ft (2,500 sq m) of its own ballroom, banquet, and breakout rooms, in
addition to other amenities.
Looked at closely, most city convention centers don't generate sufficient operating profit to stand on
their own. Instead, the case fora public convention center is usually made on the basis of visitor
spending—on hotels, restaurants, transportation, and retail shopping, and the related sales and other
taxes generated—as well as the many thousands of jobs created in the community.
Boston opened a new convention and exhibition center in 2004. The city held a competition to
identify an operator for a convention

Westin Boston Waterfront, Boston, Massachusetts

After Starwood won the competition for the convention headquarters hotel in South Boston, it
redesigned the project, reducing the number of guestrooms and ballrooms, and reflagged the hotel from
Sheraton to Westin.
headquarters hotel, to be built adjacent, won by Starwood's Sheraton brand. Architects initially designed
a 1,200-room hotel with two gigantic ballrooms but, when it appeared that the project was too large for
the demand, Starwood reduced the program to about 800 rooms and eliminated the larger ballroom,
intending to build a second phase later; they also rebranded the project as a Westin Hotel, assuring
higher room rates.
Often, cities partner with hotel companies to build a hotel connected to the public convention center.
The original McCormick Place South Hall opened in Chicago in 1996 with 3 million gross sq ft
(containing 840,000 sq ft of exhibition space and 143,000 sq ft of meeting space, including two
ballrooms). Two years later the city opened the 800-room Hyatt Regency nearby, and in 2001 the
convention authority added a 24,400 sq ft (2,260 sq m) conference center, serviced and controlled by
the hotel and connected to it by a pedestrian bridge. In 2007 the city nearly doubled the size of
McCormick Place, adding the 2.3 million gross sq ft (213,677 sq m) West Hall (containing 470,000 sq
ft [43,664 sq m] of exhibition space and 240,000 sq ft [22,297 sq m] of meeting space), maintaining its
standing as the largest convention facility in North America,. To keep pace, by 2013 they will add 470
keys to the hotel, including 10 new suites. Because of the great size of McCormick Place and its
extensive meeting space, the Hyatt Regency required very little function space of its own. While a
convention hotel in every respect because of its market orientation, and with great demand for breakout
rooms, the hotel space program was much closer to that of a transient hotel. (And building the additional
conference center increased the availability of smaller meeting rooms.) However, the hotel suffered
from several operational problems: high occupancies were hard to maintain because of the convention
booking cycle at McCormick Place, which differs from those of hotels; some concessionaries in the
convention center didn't provide a “hotel-quality” experience for guests; and labor union issues arose
over the use of space.
The public-private partnership is often difficult to navigate, and the economic downturn beginning
in 2008 hasn't helped. Both residents and competing hotel owners are vocal in not wanting to provide
public financing for private development, yet cities need to initiate convention-center and hotel
construction several years ahead of any economic upturn. Although the Oregon Convention Center
Urban Renewal Area plan was adopted in 1989 and the convention center opened in the early 1990s,
Portland has struggled for over two decades to develop a headquarters hotel. Initially intending to
provide at least 800 rooms, more recently the city has sought a
Table 9.5 Convention-center headquarters hotels

Hotel City Guestrooms Number of Ballroom area in sq ft

meeting rooms (sq m)

Hilton Americas Houston, TX 1,203 43 39,100(3,600)

Hilton San Diego San Diego, CA 1,190 56 34,100(3,150)

Bayfront

Marriott Marquis Washington, 1,175 30,000 (2,750)

DC

Hyatt Regency Denver, CO 1,100 35 30,000 (2,750)

JW Marriott Indianapolis, 1,005 54 40,500 (3,750)

IN

Grand Hyatt San Antonio, 1,003 29 31,000(2,850)

TX

Omni Dallas Dallas, TX 1,001 24 31,700(2,900)

Marriott Marquis Nashville, TN 1,000 40,000 (3,700)

Sheraton Phoenix Phoenix, AZ 1,000 17 29,000 (2,650)

Downtown
Westin Boston Boston, MA 793 22 15,000(1,350)
Waterfront

Baltimore Hilton Baltimore, MD 757 44 26,700 (2,450)

Westin Convention Pittsburgh, PA 616 23 11,000 (1,000)

Center

Hilton Omaha Omaha, NB 600 21 10,000(900)

Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois

The Hyatt Regency attached to McCormick Place has gone through many renovations and expansion
projects since first built, to keep the hotel facilities current with the needs of the market.
phased development starting at 400 rooms. Over the same time, Virginia Beach, Virginia, among other
locations, has been vainly trying to develop its convention headquarters hotel. Cities recognize that they
lose convention business by not having a headquarters hotel, yet the projects continue to be difficult to
finance. Even with the meetings industry in turmoil, cities regularly announce major expansion plans
to existing centers—several have been expanded 10 times, or more. Recently opened or announced
headquarters hotels are listed in Table 9.5.
Many experts believe that the number-one factor in attracting conventions to a city is having a good
headquarters hotel convenient to the convention center. Many cities face the question of whether they
should provide public financing for a convention center and/or convention headquarters hotel. For
example, the question became a major campaign issue in the last mayoral election in Kansas City,
Missouri: some candidates believed that providing assistance for a 1,000-room headquarters hotel
involved too much financial risk, while others saw the hotel as being crucial to attracting outside visitors
and a primary catalyst in dramatically boosting convention business. It seems clear that a large, well-
designed hotel convenient to a convention center offers a substantial value to visitors that can't be
overlooked.

Urban Convention Hotels

The traditional convention hotel is a major chain-operated property in one any of the large convention
cities—New York, Chicago, Washington, San Francisco, and so forth—many with 1,000–1,500 rooms
or more. While they may be convenient to the convention center, these projects aren't usually directly
adjacent to the city facility and don't depend only on that business, but market to midsize groups (500–
1,000 or more people) who need large amounts of meeting, dining, and breakout space. Based on the
projected growth of the convention market, new convention hotels with over 1,000 rooms and over
50,000 sq ft (4,640 sq m) of meeting and exhibit space are being announced in major cities. If sites
weren't so difficult to acquire, operators would consider doubling the meeting space by providing a
second major ballroom and additional breakout rooms. If still more site area were available, many would
add a major exhibit hall.
Ideally, convention hotels are better located on large sites where most of the function space spreads
out over only one floor. Therefore, the goal at airport and suburban locations, or in major urban renewal
sites, is to acquire a parcel four or more times the size of the largest

Case Study
JW Marriott Hotel, Indianapolis, Indiana
Architects: HOK Group and CSO Architects Interior Design: Simeone Deary Design
Group

The new 34-floor JW Marriott hotel, fondly known as “Big Blue,” in Indianapolis is a visible
marker on the city skyline. The 1,005-room property, at 34 floors the tallest hotel in Indiana,
features the largest ballroom in the Midwest, 40,500 sq ft (3,700 sq m). One stated goal for the
hotel design was to help make Indianapolis one of the largest convention destinations outside
Las Vegas and Orlando. The iconic JW Marriott anchors the 7 acre (2.8 hectare) Marriott Place
development, a collection of five Marriott properties offering business and leisure travelers
multiple lodging options—the JW Marriott Indianapolis, plus a Courtyard, SpringHill Suites,
and Fairfield Inn, as well as the renovated Marriott Indianapolis Downtown. This gives a total
of 2,248 rooms connected by skywalks to the expanded Indianapolis Convention Center and
close to the Lucas Oil Stadium, home to the NFL Indianapolis Colts, and Conseco Fieldhouse,
home to the NBA Pacers and frequent NCAA games. The hotel includes two major ballrooms,
the larger on the third floor, and 54 meeting rooms totaling over 104,000 sq ft (9,600 sq m) of
flexible function space. The elegant hotel tower, a gently curving double-loaded slab, includes
980 king and double-double rooms plus 25 suites, featuring 40 inch high-definition plasma-
screen televisions and an ingenious plug-in panel designed to reduce clutter on the desktop.
Marriott Marquis, Washington, DC
The new 1,175-room Marriott Marquis, attached to the Washington Convention Center,
includes a 30,000 sq ft (2,750 sq m) grand ballroom, plus 75,000 sq ft (6,950 sq m) of additional
meeting rooms, and a major indoor event terrace, and expects to qualify for LEED-Silver
certification.
Table 9.6 Gaylord entertainment convention hotels

Hotel City Guestrooms Meeting Ballroom area in sq ft

rooms (sq m)
Gaylord Palms Orlando, FL 1,406 61 46,700 (4,330)
Gaylord Texan Dallas, TX 1,511 70 50,000 (4,645)
Gaylord Washington, 2,000 82 50,000 (4,645)
National DC
Gaylord Nashville, TN 2,881 102 55,300(5,130)
Opryland
ballroom. A compromise may be possible, for large projects, to put some smaller meeting
rooms, as well as food and beverage outlets and back-of-house areas, on another floor, but the
major function space should be configured as compactly as possible. In addition, both cities
and private developers are creating downtown entertainment districts (see pages 31–43) which
further fuel tourist and convention activity. Sites near the waterfront, shopping, cultural
attractions, or new entertainment districts offer alternative sites for convention-oriented hotels,
despite their distance from the convention center.
The Gaylord Entertainment Company operates four major convention hotels throughout the
United States (Orlando, Dallas, Washington, and Nashville), ranging from 1,406 to 2,881
rooms, with ballrooms between 46,000 sq ft and 55,000 sq ft (4,330–5,130 sq m), and recently
announced a new 1,500-room project in suburban Denver (see Table 9.6). The Gaylord
National, outside Washington, DC (see pages 197–199), features 470,000 sq ft (43,600 sq m)
of flexible convention, banquet, meeting, and exhibit space, plus additional terraced function
lawns overlooking the Potomac River. A self-contained hotel and convention center, it doesn't
rely on major meetings held at the Washington Convention Center, where a new Marriott
Marquis Hotel has been constructed.
Downtown sites large enough to support major convention hotels of over 1,000 rooms are
rare. Consider that the hotel requires a clearspan ballroom and adjoining pre-function areas,
placed where they do not fall beneath the guestroom structure. Therefore, a site to
accommodate a major ballroom of 120×250 ft (36 × 76 m) and public and service functions
that surround it, in addition to the guestroom tower, may require a site of more than 60,000 sq
ft (5,500 sq m), or half a full New York City block. In fact, a normal rule-of-thumb in urban
locations is to seek a site that is at least 2.5–3 times the size of the largest ballroom. While
careful planning at the schematic stage may allow the developer to build on a smaller site, this
requires the architect to place the ballroom on an upper or lower level, requiring additional
elevators or escalators, and a junior ballroom on still a

Case Study
Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland
Architect and Interior Designer: Gensler

Because so many national associations are headquartered in Washington, DC, it is among the
largest meeting destinations in the country. Gaylord, which also operates gigantic self-
contained convention properties in Nashville, Dallas, and Orlando, opened a 2,000-room hotel
and convention center at National Harbor, on the Potomac River outside Washington, DC, in
2008. The property includes a massive 178,000 sq ft (16,500 sq m) exhibit hall, four ballrooms
ranging between 51,000 and 8,800 sq ft (4,700 and 800 sq m), with 28 to 20 ft high (8.5 to 6
m) ceilings, as well as 112 other rooms for small meetings and breakout sessions. The facility
includes 17 covered loading bays and extensive communications connections throughout the
meeting and exhibit space. The ballroom pre-function areas add nearly an additional 50 percent.
The hotel's design is an H-shaped guestroom tower centered around a terraced atrium lobby
with views across gardens and the Potomac River. Immediately next to the hotel is the
convention center, with its exhibit hall on the ground floor and two huge ballrooms above.
Additional ballrooms are on the second level of the hotel; smaller meeting and conference
rooms are spread throughout the lower three floors. The seven restaurants and lounges provide
guests with a wide variety of dining options, and retail outlets are spread throughout the
property's public areas.
 Case Study
Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel, San Diego, California
Architect: John Portman & Associates
Interior Designer: Joseph Wong Design Associates

The hotel, an urban resort located directly on the waterfront and adjoining the city convention center,
features a public promenade that connects it to the bay. Both the bayfront setting and warm climate
permit the activation of landscaped outdoor terraces, available for private parties, adjacent to each level
of the function space. The hotel entrance is elevated one level above grade, providing heightened views
of the bay, a 4.3 acre (1.7 hectare) public park, and the city skyline. Public art is featured, from the porte
cochère through the lobby ceiling sculpture, to the F&B outlets, function areas, and guestrooms. The
steely blue palette of the tower glazing reflects the color of the bay.
The 1,190-room hotel contains 50 meeting and breakout rooms on four floors, including ballrooms
of 34,000 and 24,000 sq ft (3,150 and 2,200 sq m). Oversized freight elevators and wide doors allow
vehicles to reach the fourth-floor Sapphire Ballroom. The well-zoned hotel has two restaurants on the
lower floor and a bar on the lobby level, each with its associated outdoor seating— the casual restaurant
terrace featuring a fire pit—that overlook the boat activity on the bay. The ground floor also includes a
full-service spa/health club and outdoor pool and deck.
Grand Hyatt, Washington, DC
With building heights limited in Washington, DC, by ordinance, architects struggle to organize the hotel
elements in a compact mid-rise building. The exploded diagram illustrates how the 900-room Grand
Hyatt's atrium lobby, with restaurants and lounges overlooking the central water feature, covers two
floors of underground convention space, cleverly solving the structural tension between large-span
meeting rooms and the guestroom structure. The smaller meeting rooms and support functions fill the
zone around the ballrooms, where the guestroom structure does not permit a major column-free space.
Centara Grand, Bangkok, Thailand
The luxury 505-room hotel and convention center retain their own identity within the larger
CentralWorld Plaza development. The podium contains several levels of parking, the hotel convention
facilities, and other public spaces. The iconic hotel tower unfolds into a lotus flower-like crown, serving
as a dramatic landmark on the urban skyline.
different level. This stacking of the function rooms complicates the design of the vertical circulation,
requires additional egress stairs, and forces duplication of back-of-house service areas.
Building in Washington, DC (and many other cities) is further hindered by strict height limitations.
Many hotel developers, therefore, excavate two or three levels underground in order to provide enough
floor space to make a project feasible. The Grand Hyatt Washington, with 900 guestrooms and 58 suites,
has about 40,000 sq ft (3,700 sq m) of function space, including two midsize ballrooms, reached by
escalators leading down from the lobby entrance to basement floors. The ground-level hotel atrium
essentially falls directly above the ballroom space, with guestrooms ringing it on four sides filling the
city block. Many Washington, DC, hotels have function space on lower levels.
In the late nineteenth century, the first urban convention hotels, such as the Willard in Washington
and The St. Regis in New York, were able to provide open, column-free ballrooms only by placing
them on the top floor. This approach was structurally efficient, and the rooftop ballrooms it produced
are still much admired for their dramatic views. But with the increased capacities of today's meeting
and banquet facilities and the extensive elevators and egress stairs that now are required, this solution
is no longer practical. Wisely, cities are implementing special zoning districts to help developers
assemble the larger sites needed to satisfy the demand for major new convention-related hotels.

Orlando World Center Marriott, Orlando, Florida

The 2,000-room resort sprawls over many acres; it features 10 restaurants and lounges and 450,000 sq
ft (44,550 sq m) of event space on one level. The 105,000 sq ft (10,350 sq m) Cypress Ballroom is the
largest column-free resort ballroom in the country.

Suburban or Resort Convention Hotels

Suburban, airport, and resort destinations also offerthe opportunity to capture convention business.
Frequently, these projects are physically removed from nearby attractions and, as a result, need to be
fully self-contained. The Hyatt Regency at O'Hare Airport, one of the early John Portman-designed
atrium hotels, has seen the market grow up around it, including the suburban Donald E. Stephens
Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois, but originally it was a dedicated airport convention hotel.
More descriptive of this type are resort projects in such cities as Palm Springs, California, and Orlando,
Florida.
Among the largest and most successful is the Orlando World Center Marriott, which added 500
guestrooms and the mammoth Cypress Ballroom, 105,000 sq ft (9,750 sq m), with a 145 ft (44 m) clear-
span, in the early 2000s. The Cypress Ballroom, often used as an exhibit hall, is the largest column-free
resort ballroom in the country. The hotel features three other ballrooms, as well as many small meeting
and breakout rooms and extensive pre-function areas, many outdoors. While both Orlando and Las
Vegas continue to offer opportunities for large convention hotels, many with themed designs, these
projects cannot universally be applied to other locations.
Each of the principal hotel management companies tries to have a presence in each of the major
markets. While some chains traditionally may have been oriented more towards resort or downtown or
airport locations, as they have matured the companies have become more similar in the distribution of
their properties. That is, each of the major companies—Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Sheraton, Westin, and
so forth—includes a blend of resort, business, and convention hotels and competes head-to-head in most
locations, including for the convention market. In some cities they collaborate. In New York, for
example, where none of the biggest hotels is particularly close to the Javits Convention Center, the
Hilton (2,086 rooms), Marriott Marquis (1,946 rooms), Sheraton (1,746 rooms), and Grand Hyatt (1,336
rooms) frequently work together, along with other hotels, to attract and serve major city-wide
conventions.

Planning Public Areas

As with every hotel, planning the public space begins with thinking through the arrival sequence. In
planning major convention hotels, architects need to consider the volume of arrivals or departures likely
at peak times, as well as the need to accommodate shuttle buses to the convention center or other
attractions. Therefore, for a 1,000-room hotel it may be necessary to have as many as four lanes at the
porte cochère, in order to avoid congestion.
In fact, all spaces need to be somewhat oversized: lobbies must accommodate greater numbers of
guests checking in or out; elevators must transport guests within confined periods of time; restaurants
and lounges experience dramatic peaks around the convention schedule; and recreational facilities are
taxed when sessions are not being held. Lobby planning guidelines of 15 sq ft (1.4 sq m) per guestroom
may be 1.5 times the norm for suburban or small city hotels, which don't generate substantial group
business. Restaurant capacities increase because of high double occupancy in the guestrooms, and
lounges are oversized to accommodate demand in the late afternoon and evening from meeting
attendees. Guests are more likely to shop during a convention than they are on other business trips, so
retail space may approach the amount found at resorts.
Of course, the main feature of convention hotels is the function space: exhibit hall, ballrooms,
meeting and banquet rooms, and small breakout rooms must be designed to meet very particular needs
of a wide range of business and social activities. Convention hotels don't do the same amount of social
business that smaller city hotels do, so the rooms can be designed more fully for meetings. And, unlike
conference centers which provide very purpose-specific meeting space for their guests, convention
hotels generally provide more generic, multi-purpose rooms, with a high number of subdivisible walls
creating flexible arrangements of space.
While the program is different from other hotels, the planning principles are much the same: creating
a sense of arrival, separating public and service activities, making spaces and functions easily locatable,
and so forth. The interrelationship of the key convention spaces must encourage the flow of attendees
mainly between the ballroom and the exhibit hall, or between the ballroom and the meeting and breakout
rooms. If any of these elements is on a different floor, the architect must provide an open stairway or
escalators and a visual connection between their pre-function areas. Where the climate offers the
opportunity, foyer spaces must open onto plazas and pool decks, and small and midsize rooms,
especially, might have their own access to outdoor terraces. Resort convention hotels might be designed
with one side of the ballroom featuring a series of sliding panels that can open the space fully to the
foyer, and to a terrace beyond.
Experienced architects know that early schematic designs must look forward and incorporate features
to protect hotel operations from modifications during later design development which will reduce the
functionality of the project. For example, in the schematic design of the ballroom area, there are
essential considerations for the architect:
•Provide extra-wide service corridors. During later design development, the usable width of
the corridors is reduced by the partition storage areas, banquet-service equipment, audiovisual
equipment, egress requirements, structure, and mechanical/ electrical provisions.
•Provide an oversized pre-function area. Later additions of such support functions as public
toilets, coat rooms, grand stair or escalators, and meeting registration, etc., reduce the usable
space.
•Provide sufficient structural support for hanging divisible partitions.
•Provide oversized back-of-house support space. Most programs underestimate the space
required for furniture storage, audiovisual storage, pantry/prep areas, back-of-house staff
space, partition storage, and so forth.
•Plan two-story or higher space. Consider such impacts of the high-ceilinged ballroom as
blocking windows in the surrounding areas on the next level. Allow for a deep roof structure.
•Provide control rooms for projection and lighting, with direct views to the front of the
ballroom, perhaps by using the mezzanine space above the pre-function area.
•Provide additional service/freight elevators. Banquet service places high demands on service
flow, and the service elevators supporting the guestroom tower are insufficient for banquet
service.
•Provide truck space for loading and unloading of exhibits. Any use of the ballroom or meeting
space for exhibits requires truck

Case Study
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Architect: Safdie Architects
Interior Designers: CL3 and Safdie Architects (hotel atrium and corridors)

The Marina Bay Sands, an integrated resort developed on Singapore harbor by the Las Vegas
Sands convention and casino operator, is a wildly extravagant U.S.$S8 billion development. In
what is now the largest hotel in Singapore, the 2,561 guestrooms are organized into three 56-
story towers, capped by an iconic SkyPark with its infinity-edge pool overlooking the distant
city and harbor. The entire project sits above a convention podium, its five floors containing
over 1.2 million sq ft (111,000 sq m) of exhibition and meeting space. (See other images on
the front of the dust jacket.) Additional public amenities in the podium include a casino, the
ArtScience Museum, two 2,000-seat theaters, over 50 different dining outlets—from casual to
gourmet in a range of cuisines—and several hundred retail shops, as well as an outdoor-event
plaza overlooking the water.
The Marina Bay development draws on the company's experience in Las Vegas and Macau,
and redefines Singapore's standing among the major meeting destinations in Asia. The project
was developed within guidelines established by the government to assure orderly growth of the
entire site, maintaining aspects of the city grid, establishing lower buildings along the
waterfront, and sustaining view corridors between the high-rise hotel towers, set back from the
harbor edge.
 Five floors of high-ceilinged convention and exhibition space anchors one end of the
podium; at the opposite end are the lotus-inspired ArtScience Museum, with its retractable roof,
and the two theaters; the central section is a Las Vegas-style casino plus arcades of retail shops
and restaurants. The water edge is animated with an event plaza and “floating” crystal
pavilions— one a nightclub, one a retail store. The three hotel towers are capped by the
SkyPark, a huge cantilevered platform containing two rooftop restaurants, a nightclub, an
executive lounge, landscaped gardens, and an observation deck with 360-degree views of the
city skyline and harbor. The principal feature of the SkyPark is the 480 ft (145 m) infinity-edge
pool, engineered to withstand high wind forces.
Omni Hotel, Dallas, Texas
(A) Following an often acrimonious debate, construction has begun on the cityowned
convention-center hotel in Dallas, expected to open in early 2012. (B) The 23-floor 1,000-room
Dallas Convention Center Hotel features 110,000 sq ft (10,200 sq m) of event space in 39
meeting rooms.
space far in excess of what usually is available at the hotel receiving area. Plan for easy display access to the ballroom
through full-height garage doors.

Convention hotels require the latest in computer networking and audiovisual technology,
including teleconferencing capability throughout the function space, in part to meet the special
needs of customers when they launch new products. The hotels generally require projection
booths, sophisticated sound systems, flexible lighting, and soundproof movable partitions to
subdivide function rooms. Where there is demonstrated demand, convention hotels may need
to include such additional features as space and equipment for simultaneous translation and a
movable stage in the ballroom.
Food and beverage operations need to be flexible to serve meeting attendees and their
families throughout the day. Many convention hotels feature multiple F&B outlets, including
celebrity chefs or specialty restaurants. The 2,561-room Marina Bay Sands integrated resort
complex in Singapore has over fifty dining options, most in the adjoining convention, casino,
and retail complex; the 2,000-room Gaylord National in Washington has seven outlets, many
more than most urban hotels in the United States. Even with the frequent banquet events, there
is high demand on food and beverage facilities at convention hotels. The high number of people
and the restricted schedules place an especially high burden on outlets to improve their ability
to serve guests quickly and increase turnover. This creates special demands on the food-service
consultants and hotel architects to conceive outlets to meet the guest needs and plan the back-
of-house areas appropriately.
IBM Palisades, Palisades, New York
With over 48,000 sq ft (4,450 sq m) of function space, including 43 conference rooms, a
ballroom, and tiered classrooms and amphitheaters, the IBM Palisades complex offers the
perfect distraction-free learning environment for strategic planning, management development,
and training sessions.
 CHAPTER
10
Conference Centers

To the layperson, one of the more confusing distinctions about hotels is between the related terms
“convention” and “conference.” But to a hotelier, a convention attracts several hundred to many
thousands of attendees, while a conference caters to relatively small groups seeking a more intimate
venue and close personal interaction. Although a few important conference properties were established
in the early twentieth century—Asilomar was founded on the northern California coast in 1913—it
wasn't until the second half of the last century that major universities and corporations saw the need for
dedicated educational or training centers. Even then, the movement started slowly with Arden House,
initially operated by Columbia University in Woodbury, New York (1950, now operated by the Open
Space Institute), among the first, followed by such notable examples as the Harrison Conference Center
in Glen Cove, New York (1968) and Doral Forrestal in Princeton, New Jersey (1979, now operated by
Marriott). By late in the century, conference centers had demonstrated a successful product that was
widely accepted and offered promise for continued growth.
Distinct from other types of lodging properties that cater to groups, a conference center is designed,
first and foremost, to provide an environment conducive to effective meetings, especially for groups of
fewer than 50 people. (In Europe the conference center may be much larger, intended for international
meetings of several thousand people, much like convention centers in the United States.) In the United
States, conference centers provide a dedicated, distraction-free, comfortably furnished, and
technologically equipped facility with, importantly, the added feature of a professional staff to provide
a high level of service both to the meeting planner and the conference attendees. At such a center, all
aspects of the facility design, conference support services, food and beverage program, and recreational
amenities enhance and further the goals of a meeting.
The rapid development of conference properties paralleled a corresponding period of substantial
growth in the number of (and attendance at) meetings, from the smallest workshops to the largest
national conventions. Various studies by the trade press and independent research organizations show
that, although all segments of this market were increasing, the smaller corporate management, training,
and sales meetings were growing the fastest. For example, while the number of association meetings—
usually the meetings with the largest attendance—actually decreased over the last few years of the
twentieth century, corporate meetings in the United States increased by nearly 10 percent, to about
835,000 annually, with an attendance of over 50 million people and expenditures in excess of $10
billion.

The Small Meetings Market

The conference center industry is at a point where its specialized lodging product has gained wide
acceptance; the positive experience from the 1980s into the early 2000s has educated both meeting
planners and attendees. At the same time, the demand for venues for small conferences is rapidly
increasing. Recent studies of the number of small corporate and association meetings estimate that there
were 800,000 small conferences, with fewer than fifty people, held in the United States in 2000, plus
an additional 50,000 held by U.S. organizations overseas. One operator saw an increase in 2010 of
outbound bookings by British companies of 50 percent to continental Europe and 25 percent to North
America. In addition to these small meetings, which ideally are held in the more intimate, better-
serviced conference centers, the properties frequently accommodate groups as large as 200–300 people.
Most experts anticipate that the number of small conferences and training programs will continue to
grow, even during periods of economic downturn, for several key reasons:
•Corporations are facing an increasingly competitive environment, and their employees are
being challenged to understand new manufacturing, marketing, and financial techniques and
concepts.
•The growing trend toward consolidation in many industries requires that company
management meet to meld cultures and business practices.
•Omnipresent legal and regulatory issues necessitate frequent educational seminars.
•Increasing reliance on technology and computerization makes it necessary for businesses to
continually train and update employees.
Conference and educational planners struggle to find the ideal meeting or training environment for their
particular program. They increasingly find that dedicated conference centers or hotels at universities
offer a setting and services that can't be matched by traditional multi-purpose hotels and resorts. These
new facilities must be programmed and designed to accommodate a particular mix of conference
sessions.
•Training programs are the most common type of small meeting, often incorporating a high
level of audiovisual support. Some companies may feature fairly standard video presentations,
while others involve the trainees in intensive role-playing exercises and group sessions, which
may be videotaped and played back for critique and discussion. While these events average
only a few days, many training programs can last several weeks. Although a typical class size
is about 20, many training meetings include as many as 30–50 people. Depending on the degree
of involvement of the corporate human resources and training staff from a particular company,
the training site may be selected because of its proximity to the corporate headquarters. As
companies in the early twenty-first century recognized the increasing importance of training,
many bypassed the proximity issue by building their own dedicated training center, complete
with guestrooms and extensive classroom and meeting support areas.
•Management meetings include executive conferences and management development sessions.
These generally range from about two days to five days and are designed for groups of 10–50.
The meetings often are very intensive, and planners may schedule recreational and social
activities to offer an opportunity for relaxation. As a result, organizers usually select resort or
suburban conference centers with extensive recreational facilities.
•Professional and technical meetings are similar to the training and management sessions in
many ways but may only run two to three days. The size of the meeting depends largely upon
the topic and sponsor. Many are held at universities, where the faculty of business,
management, or engineering schools serve as workshop instructors; however, all types of
conference centers attract at least some small number of technical meetings.
•Regional and national sales meetings ideally are held at conference centers because of the
need for highly sophisticated audiovisual presentations and the desire to keep the attendees
focused on the session theme. These meetings generally last three to four days and vary in size,
with national meetings reaching as many as several hundred attendees. Sales meetings have
many objectives, among them increasing employee motivation and enthusiasm, familiarizing
employees with new product lines or sales strategies, and reasserting corporate goals and
philosophies. Many larger sales meetings are held in hotels and resorts, but the small and
midsize regional meetings are ideal for conference centers.
•Incentive trips and other types of meetings are also good candidates for using conference
centers. Incentive trips, which usually last about a week, generally are held at major resort
hotels or popular destinations. Companies that offer incentive trips as a reward to sales or
management personnel tend to include business meetings during the event, although their
intensity and rigor varies. Resort conference centers, especially those with on-site golf or
skiing, and those properties near popular destinations are best positioned to attract this business.
Product introductions, smaller association meetings, and other specialized types of conferences are a
less important part of the conference center market—these often involve hundreds of people, may be
fairly short in duration, and do not generate the food and beverage and rooms revenue essential to
supporting the more expensive conference center operations.

Types of Conference Centers

Conference centers fall into distinct categories. These distinctions are based for the most part on the
ownership, market orientation, and usual mix of facilities. Of course, many conference centers exhibit
the characteristics of several different categories; many of the corporate conference centers, for
example, compete with executive properties by soliciting general meetings. Also, like other lodging
properties, an older conference center may find that its market
Table 10.1 Conference-centercharacteristics

Type of Typical meeting uses Facility characteristics

center

Executive Mid- and upper-level training and Suburban locations; 200–300 midsize to large
management development; guestrooms; multiple dining and beverage outlets;
management planning; sales moderate number of midsize conference rooms;
meetings large number of breakout rooms; moderate
recreational facilities.

Resort Mid- and upper-level Resort destination or suburban locations; 150–400

management meetings; incentive large guestrooms; multiple dining and beverage
trips; sales meetings outlets; small to moderate number of conference
rooms; additional banquet rooms; extensive
recreational amenities (especially outdoors).

Corporate Technical and sales training for Suburban or headquarters locations; 150–400
low- and mid-level employees; guestrooms (size varies); limited dining
management development alternatives; extensive training or conference
meetings; outside conferences if rooms to meet corporate objectives; specialized
company policy permits rooms; auditorium; moderate to extensive
recreational amenities.
 University Executive education for middle On-campus location; 100–200 midsize guestrooms;
managers; scientific meetings and limited dining and beverage options; small to
continuing education programs moderate number of conference rooms;
amphitheater; auditorium (at continuing education
centers); recreation usually located elsewhere on
campus.

Not-for- Religious, educational, and Often at remote locations; 25–100 rooms; single
profit government staff training; dining room; small to moderate number of generic
association and foundation conference rooms; large multi-purpose room;
meetings limited recreation (primarily outdoors).
Table 10.2 Facilities comparison by conference-center type

Executive Resort conference Corporate University conference

conferencecenters centers conference centers centers

Guestrooms Average to large-size Large to very large Small to average-size Average-size rooms; few
rooms, few suites; club rooms, 5–10 percent rooms; few or no suites; case study or
floor suites suites; commons area commons area on each
on each floor floor

Public areas Large lobby with lobby Average lobby with Lobby size highly Small to average-size
lounge; conference dining view over grounds; variable; lobby lounge lobby; reading room or
and specialty restaurant; conference dining, if corporate policy quiet lounge; conference
entertainment lounge and specialty restaurant, and permits; conference dining and private dining;
game room recreation dining; dining and private cocktail lounge
entertainment lounge dining; game room

Conference Ballroom; large variety of Large ballroom; Auditorium; large Executive education:
areas conference rooms and many moderate number of number of similar amphitheaters, breakout
breakout rooms; boardroom meeting and breakout classrooms; computer rooms and faculty offices
rooms; amphitheater or special-purpose Continuing education:
rooms; offices for auditorium and many
trainers classrooms

Recreation Swimming pool; racquet Many outdoor facilities; Gym or pool; racquet None (use university
areas courts; health club/spa pool; health club/spa courts; health club facilities)

matures and may need to reposition itself to continue to attract business. Doral Arrowwood, for instance,
north of New York City, was conceived as a corporate center by the financial giant Citicorp in the early
1980s. It then evolved into an executive facility (late 1980s), added a strong resort orientation (early
1990s), and in 2001 opened new guestroom and meeting wings dedicated to the training needs of Pfizer,
a leading pharmaceutical company, thus reverting to its original corporate heritage. Table
10.1 identifies the principal types of conference centers, the typical meetings they attract, and their
general physical characteristics. Tables 10.2 and 10.3 compare the space program and conference
facilities among the four major conference center categories.
Table 10.3 Schematic design program by conference-center type
* Floor area figures are provided in sq ft (sq m) per room.

Executive Conference Centers

The executive conference center presents the most typical facility and usually falls in either the mid- or
high-price category. Oriented toward corporate meetings, including both training and management
development sessions, the executive centers feature a relatively large number of conference rooms—as
many as 20–30 meeting rooms for 200–300 guestrooms. Most executive centers are located in the
suburbs around the larger cities, such as New York, Washington, Atlanta, and Chicago, or close to a
major airport hub. The late 1990s saw similar growth of executive conference facilities in the major
business centers of the U.K., Scandinavia, Japan, and Australia. With increasing competition and land
costs, the main concern of both developers and operators should be whether a proposed facility has the
potential to attract weekend conferences or social business, both of which are necessary to ensure
profitability.
The late 1990s saw growth in executive conference centers when several major urban convention
hotels added a wing or renovated one or two floors to create the more intimate conference environment
that their otherwise extensive function spaces failed to provide. The Sheraton New Orleans, with 1,100
rooms and 90,000 sq ft (8,360 sq m) of function space, constructed a five-story addition to house a new
executive conference center. The facility offers eight additional high-quality meeting and boardrooms,
totaling 17,000 sq ft (1,580 sq m), with added conference services and amenities typical of the best
conference centers:
•Flexible controls for lighting, power, audiovisual components, and climate
•Comfortable ergonomic chairs and oversized tables
•State-of-the-art high-speed communications capabilities and multiple dataport outlets
•Tackable walls and presentation railings
•Permanent walls rather than divisible partitions for superior acoustics
•Support functions including private group office space, conference concierge, refreshment
kiosks, upgraded restrooms, and public telephones

Case Study
The Alexander, Indianapolis, Indiana
Architect and Interior Designer: Gensler

Dolce Hotels and Resorts, the major New Jersey-based conference center operator, is developing a 157-
room center-city lifestyle hotel and conference facility in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, a model it
expects to be a prototype for future development in other locations. The property, located on a parking
lot between the headquarters of Eli Lilly (and several other large employers) and the city's retail and
commercial core, is expected to attract a mix of individual business and leisure guests, along with
meeting groups. In addition to the guestrooms, the public-private joint venture includes 57 extended-
stay units in a second building, 15,000 sq ft (1,390 sq m) of meeting space, a major-branch YMCA, and
additional office, retail, and parking space.
The well-zoned building features largely commercial space on the ground floor, lobby and
conference space on the second floor, and four levels of guestrooms. The center will include a Cisco
TelePresence video-conference room, to connect with people in other locations, and a boardroom with
its own private balcony overlooking the city skyline. The four restaurants, including the second-floor
bar with its several terraces, are unusual for a conference center of this size, but should attract local
customers in addition to the hotel guests and conferees. The hotel's own small fitness facility will
complement the state-of-the-art YMCA.
The striking building, designed around a downtown brick plaza, incorporates an efficient double-
loaded-slab guestroom structure above two floors of modern hotel facilities. The glass-walled lobby
incorporates large comfortable seating groups and a stone fireplace.
The Dolce management company is developing a prototypical executive conference hotel in
Indianapolis. Located just east of Conseco Fieldhouse and within a short walk of the convention center,
surrounded by four of the city's largest employers, the 157-room boutique hotel is expected to operate
as a specialized meetings venue and social hangout for local professionals. Part of a much larger
development, the hotel includes retail, a full-service brasserie restaurant, and 15,000 sq ft (1,400 sq m)
of function space on the second floor, including a subdivisible ballroom and eight breakout rooms.

Resort Conference Centers

The resort conference center has grown in prominence in two distinct and opposite ways: many evolved
from executive properties by marketing and promoting their expanded recreational facilities, while
other centers changed from a resort by adding a meeting complex to better fill low shoulder and off-
season periods. The resort centers are designed for the same type of management meetings, as well as
for sales and incentive groups. Resort conference centers vary in size: many new properties have
approximately 300–400 rooms, in order to support the recreational infrastructure, but a more recent
trend is for projects to have only 150–200 traditional hotel guestrooms but include nearby time-share
rental units (see Residential Hotels, Condominiums, and Vacation Ownership, Chapter 11). The resort
centers usually have somewhat less meeting space than do executive centers, but offer more food and
beverage choices and substantially larger recreational facilities. New resort centers are being built in
suburban locations where there is sufficient land, and in the more traditional resort destinations, such
as the Arizona desert and along the California coast.
Corporate Conference Centers
The corporate conference and training center is the largest physically—in the late 1980s a few
corporations opened properties with more than 1,000 rooms. However, these became tremendously
difficult to fill during recessionary periods and were expensive to maintain; also, corporate
consolidations made many of these obsolete. Although some corporations now are building facilities
with 150–250 rooms, new projects tend to be in the range of 250–400 rooms. Corporate centers contain
much more meeting space than do other conference center types because of the need to meet very
specific training needs. Many major corporations, especially those in telecommunications, insurance,
pharmaceuticals, and financial services, struggle with the decision of whether to build their own
suburban residential center (or urban day-meeting complex), or to rent space at executive centers or at
another site. Fortunately, they all realize the importance of training and employee development to their
success.
The major distinction among corporate centers is whether the facility will be used for training or for
management development. Training centers may be very large, with many hundreds of guestrooms, or
companies may build a series of smaller centers for different product lines or service needs. The training
centers tend not to have a ballroom or even many large meeting rooms, with perhaps only one room
larger than 2,000 sq ft (185 sq m). They do, however, feature a large number of mid- and small-size
conference rooms: the 233-room Dolce Atlanta-Peachtree center, originally built by Pitney Bowes, has
over 60 small training rooms. Management development centers, on the other hand, have more midsize
and large rooms, fewer small conference rooms, a high number of breakout rooms, and one or more
amphitheaters for special presentations, equipped with the latest audiovisual technology, including
distance learning capabilities.
At Dolce Palisades, IBM built a customer education centerto train and update users of major IBM
systems. Now open to the public, its 50,000 sq ft (4,650 sq m) of conference space includes a main
auditorium with rear-screen projection, 24 additional meeting rooms, and 34 breakout rooms. Major
spaces include three multimedia amphitheaters with touch-screen controls and response keypads,
another dozen rooms with fixed tables, two computer labs, and smaller flexible meeting rooms. Ten
elegant, glass-enclosed refreshment pavilions overlook a large pond in the center of the site.
The 206 guestrooms are organized along wide, multi-story galleries in a serpentine structure
somewhat removed from the rest of the complex. The oversized single-occupancy rooms feature a
wood-grille divider between the bed area and the dressing room, and all are equipped with personal
computers. The project is beautifully sited and detailed, with stone, metal, and wood trim throughout
the lobby, dining and lounge areas, recreational center, conference and training core, and guestroom
wing.

University Conference Centers

The university conference center meets three different needs: the more luxurious facilities are designed
for dedicated business or medical school executive education programs; some provide lodging for
campus visitors and educational conferences; and still others cater for growing continuing education
programs, one of the principal missions of public universities. The university centers generally are no
larger than 150–200 rooms and feature amphitheaters or a large auditorium, as well as the more typical
conference rooms. These centers exist because the large research universities realize that their
reputations depend, in part, on the types of executive and adult education programs they run, and on
their ability to bring business executives to campus on a regular basis. In addition, the more progressive
colleges and universities attempt to keep in close touch with alumni and prospective donors.
In a few cases, the university will partner with a local corporation to create a special educational
conference center, intended partly for the university and partly for the use of the company. At the
University of Texas, AT&T, as a communications partner, helped fund the construction of a campus
hotel and executive education center that has become a major contributor to a vibrant campus/business
exchange in central Texas. One opportunity of university centers is
IBM Palisades, Palisades, New York
Top: The guestroom areas, in a separate four-story serpentine wing, are organized around a large
circulation atrium encouraging participants to leave their rooms and socialize. Bottom: The 206
guestrooms, the majority overlooking the wooded site's artificial lake, feature a handsome wooden grille
dividing the bed area from the dressing room.
just this—to enhance the educational mission of the institution and drive both economic and social
progress in the region. In other cases, a company will offset some of the construction cost in return for
naming rights; The Statler Hotel and J. Willard Marriott Executive Education Center at Cornell
University is of this type.

Not-for-profit Conference Centers

The not-for-profit conference center is the most variable conference center category. It may be owned
by a religious or educational organization, association or foundation, research center, or private
humanitarian or arts group. The facilities reflect the particular mission of an organization and may offer
the public or specific interest groups the opportunity to meet in a spectacular mountain setting, for
example, or near a historic landmark. For example, the National Arbor Day Foundation's 144-room
Lied Lodge and Conference Center in Nebraska is dedicated to environmental stewardship: the
American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) has honored the center for “a culture of integrating
environmental management practices that improve everyday operations and the bottom line, while
maintaining quality service and meeting guest expectations.” The center features a fuelwood plant for
heating and cooling, and is open as an educational demonstration site.
Lied Lodge and Conference Center, Nebraska City, Nebraska
Operated by the Arbor Day Foundation, the center focuses on forestry management and the exposed
timbers in the lobby reinforce this theme. The Adirondack-style 144-room Lied Lodge hosts programs
emphasizing conservation and environmental stewardship.

Case Study
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, University of Texas, Austin
Architect: HKS and Lake|Flato Interior Designer: Wilson and Associates
The 297-room AT&T Executive Education and Conference Centre (EECC), including 21 oversized
suites, has become the place to hold business or educational meetings in central Texas. The block-
square conference center, fully accredited by the International Association of Conference Centers
(IACC), is located at the southern edge of the Austin campus, within sight of the State Capitol and the
university's carillon tower. Not only is it convenient to the university, state government and agencies,
and corporations in downtown Austin, but it is an attractive destination for both leisure guests and
conferees. The LEED Gold-certified hotel, featuring many specialized high-tech meeting spaces, also
includes many sustainable features. For example, the courtyard functions as a green roof above
underground parking, and the landscape drip-irrigation system reduces potable water consumption;
native plant species use little water.
As with other university-based conference centers, the EECC offers visitors the chance to interact
with university experts from all departments. The Courtyard Gallery regularly presents a wide range of
artwork produced by faculty and alumni from the College of Fine Arts. The building also houses the
Campus Club, the university faculty club, whose dining room fills the east side of the lower-lobby level.
Other food and beverage outlets include the Carillon, a conferee and public dining room along the north
edge of the complex and accessible from the courtyard, a sports lounge near the entrance, plus a quick-
service coffee bar in the lobby.
The flexible 40,000 sq ft (3,700 sq m) of meeting space offers 37 rooms ranging from a 300-person
multimedia amphitheater and divisible ballroom to tiered and traditional flat-floor classrooms with
superior connectivity, plus 12 breakout rooms to support small-group work. The hotel guestrooms,
many overlooking the central courtyard and others with rooftop terraces or balconies overlooking
University Avenue and the carillon, feature wireless internet and other technology touches that guests
now expect and depend on.
Local Austin graphic designer fd2s provided directional and destination signage and, in addition,
provided graphic identities for the several food service outlets. They also created custom carpet patterns
for the ballroom, incorporating elements from Texas history and the university.
Joint-venture Conference Centers
Hybrid centers should appear in the future as corporations, government, and education look for
collaborative opportunities. Florida's historic Biltmore Hotel developed the Conference Center of the
Americas, in a joint venture with the city of Coral Gables and the University of Florida system. It adds
40,000 sq ft (3,700 sq m) of meeting space, including two tiered amphitheaters and 15 other conference
and breakout rooms, to the older resort facilities. One emphasis is expected to be conferences focused
on doing business in Latin America, in addition to statewide and regional government conferences,
executive education programs, and a variety of non-degree courses.
Planning and Design Considerations
There are significant differences in the physical organization of conference centers and those of more
traditional hotels and resorts. Many of these differences are related to the conference center's principal
planning objective: to separate the conference and training areas from the other functions in order to
eliminate distractions and intrusions during a meeting. Dining, lounge, banquet, and recreational areas
usually are located away from the meeting wing, in connecting structures, or even in separate buildings.
Other objectives include the architectural massing and careful siting of the facility to enhance the
residential scale and create a feeling of closeness with the environment. Roadways, parking areas, and
surrounding activity are screened. Moreover, the architects must design a particularly efficient building.
Given the additional floor area programmed for meeting and recreational facilities, it is essential that
architects keep non-essential space to a minimum.

Planning the Guestroom Areas

Because of the major focus on the public areas and, especially, on the conference core, the architect
must deal with the guestroom areas in a straightforward manner. For example, the usual program for
the guestrooms calls for fairly standard rooms of 300–350 sq ft (28–32.5 sq m), typical three-fixture
bathrooms, a small number of suites, and few extra amenities. The architect should attempt to organize
the guestroom wings along double-loaded corridors to reduce the amount of public circulation space
(see Chapter 15).
The rooms at the smaller end of the range are in facilities designed for single occupancy, generally
at the more price-sensitive corporate and university centers, but this may be shortsighted in that they
are less adaptable for more upscale markets in the future. These facilities also have few suites, certainly
no more than three per 100 rooms, and no “club floor” or executive level, as do upscale business hotels.
On the other hand, the executive and resort centers, as well as the management-oriented corporate
centers, provide rooms fully competitive with those in the best hotels at 350–400 sq ft (32.5–37 sq m),
include four-fixture bathrooms, allocate up to 5 percent suites (resort centers as many as 10 percent),
and feature additional amenities in order to meet the demands of the non-conference guests throughout
the year. The layout of these guestrooms must recognize the need for meeting attendees to work on case
studies or other training materials in their rooms, often involving group discussion. University centers
may provide group study rooms on the upper floors, just for this reason, to accommodate the focus on
group discussion and project work. Often, these rooms are treated similarly to suite living rooms, but
with the focus on working space rather than lounge or entertainment activities.

Planning the Public Areas

In contrast to their fairly typical guestroom areas, conference centers are far from typical when it comes
to planning the public areas and, especially, the function space. Like convention hotels, the conference
facilities frequently provide two major entrances, one the lobby entrance for the overnight guests, the
other the function entrance, here intended for the day conferee. Unlike many hotels, conference centers
generally do not market or position their food and beverage operations to the general public but prefer
to reserve them for the conference attendees, to support the learning objectives of the meeting. Beverage
outlets are common, but understated. Many university and some corporate centers, as a general policy,
do not provide any bar or lounge spaces, although these may be found as part of a game room or informal
pub operation.
The emphasis, of course, is on the meeting areas. The planning and design objectives specific to the
conference core include the following:
•Locate the conference core, whether in the form of classrooms, breakout rooms,
amphitheaters, or other special-purpose rooms, away from other public functions to minimize
distractions.
•Dedicate the conference core to the meeting functions; provide a separate area for such social
activities as banquets and receptions in the general vicinity of the food and beverage operations.
•Provide a conference foyer, with direct access from outside or from the main hotel lobby.
•Incorporate necessary public support functions, including meeting registration, conference
concierge, restrooms, and coat and phone areas.
•Design and equip each conference room to enhance the meeting purpose. In general, provide
spacious, brightly daylit, high-ceilinged rooms which incorporate flexible lighting and
audiovisual systems, comfortable furnishings, and individual climate control.
•Place assembly and refreshment areas throughout the conference core to provide opportunities
forfrequent informal gathering and to allow greater flexibility in scheduling breaks. Include
outdoor terraces where the site and weather permit.
•Locate service-support functions such as conference services offices, pantry space, and
audiovisual equipment, furniture, and other storage rooms nearby.
Conference center operators demand that the architect design the other principal areas to support the
meeting focus. For example, most facilities include a dedicated dining room for the conference
attendees. This is designed to allow clusters of people coming out of a session, often groups as large as
six to eight, to find a table and seat themselves, serve themselves from a lavish buffet, and leave as they
are ready—in contrast to guests waiting for a host to seat them (often at a number of small tables), then
waiting for the server and the meal and the check. Larger conference centers, and most executive and
resort properties, usually provide a more upscale specialty restaurant and, increasingly, an additional,
more casual room with an informal snack or grab'n'go menu.
The recreational areas are considerably more extensive than in most hotels: the typical conference
center will include an indoor pool, health club with exercise and aerobics rooms, basic spa facilities,
and, frequently, racquetball courts. University-based centers may have limited recreational amenities,
given budgetary constraints and the knowledge that nearby on campus are myriad recreational facilities.
Resort and some executive conference centers may have multiple golf courses, extensive tennis
facilities, and other recreational amenities to rival the best in the country.

Planning for Operations

Equally important to the success of a conference or meeting are the types of services that the conference
center provides: a conference coordinator assists the meeting planner with arrangements during the
weeks leading up to the conference; the conference concierge provides the meeting participants with
information, messages, and such business-center services as typing, faxing, copying, and express mail;
audiovisual technicians not only provide and, if necessary, operate the audiovisual equipment but may
even produce a custom videotape or CD-Rom for a particular session or as a record of the meeting; and
many centers have their own closed circuit television production studio, graphics print shop, and
photographic darkroom.
Most conference centers price their facilities based on the “complete meeting package,” or CMP.
This offers the meeting planner a single daily rate, including lodging, three meals in the conference
dining room, 24-hour use of conference rooms, refreshment breaks, and standard audiovisual support.
The only extras are for special event dinners, such specific audiovisual requests as the production of a
tape, and golf greens fees. The CMP also includes continuous refreshments, permitting the instructors
increased flexibility in scheduling a break. The refreshment centers generally feature a wide selection
of hot and cold beverages, pastries and fruit in the morning, and various snacks in the afternoon. This
typical arrangement of the conference dining room and continuous breaks necessitates fewer decisions
by the meeting planner in terms of cost, schedule, and exact number of attendees. It also offers more
flexibility and choice to the attendees themselves, and gives the operator greater certainty in planning
staffing and food purchasing.

Exclusive Resorts, Papagayo, Costa Rica

Each of Exclusive Resorts' 19 private Poro Poro residences on Costa Rica's Peninsula Papagayo
was meticulously designed and finished to make the most of the cliffside development's
breathtaking ocean views, blend seamlessly with the surrounding landscape, and provide a
wealth of resort-style amenities including private pools, hot tubs, and more.

CHAPTER
11
Residential Hotels,
Condominiums,
and Vacation Ownership
Since their inception, the grand downtown hotels have attracted a number of affluent guests who, being
able to afford the luxurious service and carefree lifestyle offered by these exquisite facilities, chose to
make their accommodations more or less permanent. The hotels in turn welcomed these often-
prestigious residents, as having them enhanced the hotel's image and ensured occupancy. That trend of
special guests staying for months, even years, in the comfortable security and pampered luxury of their
favorite suite at their favorite hotel has carried through even today, while at the same time the market
for permanently owned residential apartments with luxury hotel services has flourished.
Built in 1884 as one of New York City's first cooperative apartment houses, the Chelsea was later
converted to a hotel, yet has maintained a high ratio of permanent residents to this day. The hotel has a
long, rich history of former residents who were celebrated writers, artists, and performers: Thomas
Wolfe, Dylan Thomas, Brendan Behan, Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, Sarah Bernhardt, Arthur
Miller, Jackson Pollock, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, and Dennis Hopper—even Sid
Vicious of the Sex Pistols. Many were said to have drawn a special inspiration while living at the
Chelsea Hotel. Arthur C. Clark and Stanley Kubrick chose a room in the Chelsea as their workshop
when writing the screenplay for their movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Residential hotels reached their peak of fashion in major U.S. cities during the Roaring Twenties,
with affluent celebrities, artists, and others who could afford to savor hotel services. Examples in New
York City include the St. Moritz, Hampshire House, Ritz Tower, New Netherland (now the Sherry
Netherland), and Hotel des Artistes. With a few exceptions, such as The Pierre, these hotels had small
exclusive lobbies and limited public space, setting themselves apart from hotels that primarily catered
to transient guests and had grand public rooms. What these hotels lacked in their public spaces they
made up for in the large opulent private suites in the tower. Considered one of the last gasps of the Great
Boom, The Carlyle was built as a residential hotel just before the stock market crash of 1929 and
followed the same formula, with its opulent but residential-scaled lobby, designed by Dorothy Draper.
Composer Richard Rodgers was The Carlyle's first permanent resident and U.S. Presidents Truman and
Kennedy made the hotel their New York headquarters.
The Waldorf=Astoria was the first hotel to separate residential and hotel components in a major
mixed-use building, creating the concept of luxury towers within a hotel and serving as a model for
many contemporary developments. The Waldorf Towers section of the building was accessed by private
elevators from an elegant residential-scale lobby off East 50th Street and from the mid-block driveway
that tunnels through the building. Housing large luxurious apartment suites which today are sold as
“boutique” hotel rooms, the Towers was architecturally sculpted to resemble the notable twin-tower
residential buildings that line Central Park, but actually was a single tower that rises to a height of 625
ft (190 m) over the 25-story base of transient hotel rooms and sumptuous public spaces. Service
elevators thread through the base to the hotel's vast system of kitchens and back-of-house areas bringing
services to the Towers. Famous former residents of The Waldorf=Astoria include General Douglas
McArthur, the Duke of Windsor, Henry Kissinger, and President Herbert Hoover, who, in 1931,
delivered a radio address from there on opening night.
Hotels with residences are once again popular with developers, and several different models have
been created in response to specific tax laws and market conditions. The financial structure of these
projects is attractive to residents, hotel owners, and operators for the following reasons:
•Developers: The developers can leverage the appeal of the hotel brand to help finance the
hotel from the sale of the residences, thereby avoiding direct interest charges, including those
accrued during construction, if the units are pre-sold.
•Residence owners: The residence owners can take advantage of normal personal-tax write-
offs for interest and real estate taxes or depreciation of rental property.
•Operator: The hotel operator can manage the residences efficiently for the owners, while
gaining additional revenue for the hotel company in the form of management fees and user
fees.
During the housing boom of the early 2000s, many older hotel properties were converted to or replaced
with condominium

Four Seasons Resort, Vail, Colorado

Referencing classic European mountain resort design, the property features a separate entrance for
owners and guests using its two-, three-, and four-bedroom private residences.
developments. Smart developers retained hotel functionality in these projects, as the overbuilding of
condos and a lack of new supply of hotel rooms in markets like New York are now making condo-to-
hotel conversions more attractive.

Hotels with Condominiums

The mixed-use development model, in which condominiums are built above, below, or beside transient
hotel rooms and sold to individuals who may use hotel services such as housekeeping or room service,
remains the most prevalent approach to combining residential and hotel uses. As with other mixed-use
projects, the components of the complex benefit synergistically in their interaction with each other and
add value to the project as a whole. But the key to the success of the development is the inclusion of a
five-star hotel chain. Many luxury brands have embraced this approach to extend their presence in high-
profile markets. Most of these projects are in either urban centers—largely in the U.S., Middle East,
and Asia—or exclusive resort destinations.
Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences, San Francisco, California
The transformation of the former San Francisco Chronicle Building into luxury residences involved
stripping off white enamel siding, added in the 1960s, to reveal the original Burnham & Root façade
dating from 1889. A new tower addition was clad in a contrasting material, increasing the building area
while maintaining the focus on the beautiful sandstone and brick of the older structure.
In San Francisco, Ritz-Carlton has its luxury residences located a few blocks from the main Ritz-
Carlton San Francisco hotel in a classic Burnham and Root building, providing a more intimate and
exclusive setting for these high-end units. Four Seasons uses a more common approach to combining a
hotel with residences in Vail, Colorado: the property there has private residences and hotel rooms in the
same building, with condominiums available to purchase whole or through a fractional ownership
arrangement.

Planning and Design Considerations

Mixed-use projects that combine hotel and residential space with other uses are among the more
complicated structures being built today. Highly complex programmatically, the circulation between
hotel guests, condominium owners, office occupants, sports club goers, shoppers, and those attending
special events requires careful, detailed planning on a grand scale. Residential condominiums that share
a tower with hotel rooms usually have a dedicated entrance and elevator lobby for condominium owners
that is separate from the main hotel lobby. This entrance may have a staffed door and reception area
and will certainly offer owner-only services like mail handling, storage lockers, and in some cases valet
parking. The Ritz-Carlton Guangzhou has a residents' lounge and business center that is separate from
those available to hotel guests, and, like many luxury developments in Asia, has a VIP elevator that is
distinct from the condo-only elevators, for the sole use of those owners with the most prestigious units.
Offering dedicated elevators for residents is generally a requirement for projects like these, which often
means that the hotel's core is considerably larger than would be the case for a transient-only hotel of the
same type and size.
Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences, Guangzhou, China
Apartment residents and destination-club guests have their own auto drop-off, lobby, front desk, lounge,
and elevator bank in this combined five-star hotel and luxury residential building. Residents can easily
access hotel services while at the same time enjoying dedicated facilities well away from busy public
spaces.
Early on, the developer needs to decide what level of finish to provide in the residences. The
advantages of providing fully furnished units versus raw empty space, where owners can design and
custom-build their own unit, will have to be carefully weighed and will depend on the particular market.
Residence owners usually are given access to hotel services like housekeeping, room service, and
concierge on a fee-for-use basis. Therefore, the connection between the hotel's back-of-house spaces
and the residential core requires consideration. Basic services like waste collection, exterior
landscaping, security, and common-area maintenance are handled by the hotel and included in monthly
or annual fees.
The market for luxury living accommodations continues to grow as consumer preferences gain in
sophistication, leading to increased demand for the type of personalized service offered in serviced
St. Regis Hotel and Residences, Singapore
Two 23-story crescent-shaped residential towers flank a 299-room five-star hotel in a clever reflection
of the Singaporean national flag.

W Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

In what is arguably the most iconic location in its market—the corner of Hollywood and Vine—the W
Hollywood was designed to reflect the movie industry and celebrity culture in a modern way: even the
façade plays a role, as it can be used as a projection screen. The hotel and residences are housed in
separate towers but residents have full access to hotel services and amenities.
luxury apartments in prime markets. Global economic growth will also drive travel demands of major
corporations, who will look to residential hotel products to house staff on long-term temporary
assignments; these companies may purchase blocks of condominiums in strategic locations.
Condominium Hotels
Another model that combines hotel rooms with condominiums is the condo hotel. In condo hotels,
residential owners allow their condominiums to be rented out as hotel rooms when they are not in
residence. The hotel operator maintains the condos as part of the hotel's room inventory and provides
housekeeping and other typical hotel services to the guests using the unit. Any revenue from guest use
of the condo, after the hotel operator's expenses and fees are deducted, is shared with the condominium
owner.
The advantages of these kinds of properties are similar to the traditional residential condominium
model: developers can get cash

The Signature at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada

This three-tower condo-hotel development offers exclusive non-smoking guest accommodations and
access to all the amenities of the nearby MGM Grand, but with a quieter and more residential setting.
Each condominium in The Signature at MGM Grand is privately owned and is included in the hotel's
inventory when the owner is not in residence.
up front from condo buyers to help finance the project; condo buyers get an asset that they can use and
sell; and hotel operators can earn fees and offset some costs through assessments on condo owners. The
difference here is that in a condo hotel the condominiums are considered part of the hotel's inventory,
whereas in the pure residential model those units remain the sole purview of their owners.
Condo hotels may have many of the same mix of amenities and design features as hotels that offer
residential condominiums: a separate entrance, reception, and parking area for condo owners and a mail
room and storage areas for condo owners' use. However, in order to facilitate guest use of the
condominiums when they are in the hotel's overnight inventory, condo elevators must be accessible to
regular hotel guests.
Condo hotels enjoyed a building boom in the 2000s but many projects foundered in the economic
crisis. Developers are required to promote these projects as second homes for personal use rather than
as investments, but many speculators purchased units in the hope of making more than enough to cover
their mortgages and carrying costs. These buyers were often disappointed, as hotel occupancy and rates
in some markets dropped precipitously and a huge number of condominiums flooded the market. It will
take substantial economic recovery before these kinds of projects are likely to become common once
again.

Vacation Ownership Resorts

Introduced in Europe in the 1960s and named for a resource-sharing practice in the information
technology industry, “time-sharing” was a simple economical method of easing family vacation costs
by sharing beach or mountain apartments in blocks of two to four weeks. But as the concept spread, it
fell prey to unbusinesslike promotions and aggressive sales tactics which disaffected consumers for
years. Eventually, when regulated, marketed, redesigned, and managed by experienced hotel companies
and renamed “vacation ownership” in the 1990s, blocks of time in resorts that could be pre-purchased
and traded once again became a popular and viable lodging option.

West 57th Street by Hilton Club, New York, New York

This 161-room hotel in the very heart of Manhattan is newly constructed and combines mid-city
convenience with a more intimate and homelike atmosphere than a typical New York transient hotel.
Like many other urban vacation ownership properties, West 57th Street by Hilton Club does not offer
a restaurant on site but does have its own spa, fitness facilities, and business center.
Marriott Vacation Club Grande Vista, Orlando, Florida
With over 1,600 units, this vacation ownership resort is near to major demandgenerators in the
southwestern Orlando area but offers a quieter, more residential feel than many regular hotel properties
in its market. The units include one-, two-, and three-bedroom villas with fully equipped kitchens and
in-room laundry to support family vacation travel.
Developers appreciated the cash flow, while buyers liked locked-in vacation prices as well as having
the potential to trade for alternative destinations, especially since the introduction of “points” systems
for these kinds of transactions. Even with the global recession that softened resort demand in the late
2000s, vacation ownership has retained much of its appeal. A 2011 Ernst & Young research report noted
that there are over eight million vacation intervals owned in the U.S. alone, and 45 percent of recent
buyers are repeat customers who purchase additional units from the same developer or chain. The
prospects for vacation ownership projects look strong, particularly as markets like China and India
benefit from rising incomes and a growing middle and upper class.
For operators, the primary advantage of the vacation ownership system is that time-share properties
enjoy significantly higher occupancies than other resorts: in 2009, time-share resorts had an average
occupancy of 80 percent, compared with typical hotel occupancies of 58 percent. Therefore, hotel chains
can improve their occupancy figures by converting units in desirable destinations that have lower than
normal usage into vacation ownership properties. Consequently, hotels consider vacation ownership as
being complementary to their business rather than competing with it.
It is important to note that the term “vacation ownership” can incorporate various types of shared-
ownership resorts. Most often, “vacation ownership” refers to a time-share, but some use the phrase to
describe any lodging that has pre-sold, shared usage. Table 11.1 provides a guide to the various forms
of residential and shared-usage lodging products and how they typically differ.

Development and Planning Considerations

The most successful vacation ownership projects affiliate with an established hotel chain: some of the
biggest names in the vacation ownership field are familiar hotel companies such as Hilton, Hyatt,
Marriott, Starwood, and Wyndham. Many consumers do not have the time or inclination to
independently research their purchase and feel safer choosing a well-known brand. It also may help the
buyer understand the product better and faster. Vacation ownership developments are ideal for
combining with mixed-use commercial or resort projects since their owners typically visit more often,
bring family members or friends with them, stay longer, and spend more per unit than regular hotel
guests. It is no surprise, then, that Disney has made vacation ownership a significant component of its
development strategy.
Obtaining development financing is easier for vacation ownership projects: they are considered safer
investments than hotels, since the
Table 11.1 Categories of shared-usage lodging products

construction loan is often paid back by the development company from the sales of the units. This often
occurs before the property fully opens. Long-term hotel debt, on the other hand, is paid back over many
years from the property's cash flow. Operating profits are more predictable for vacation units, whereas
hotel occupancy is subject to greater variation. And while hotel rooms must be sold every night,
vacation ownership units are sold in advance for longer blocks of time; in many time-shares, unaffiliated
overnight guests are welcomed on a space-available basis as an additional source of revenue.
Vacation ownership resorts share many planning characteristics with transient resorts, including a
strong sense of place or theme, multiple on-property food-service and recreation options, and an
emphasis on attractive views and landscaping, while urban locations have very similar public spaces
and back-of-house areas to those found in city hotels. Where vacation ownership projects differ from
transient hotels is in the room size and amenities. Because of the longer length of stay typical of the
time-share guest, vacation ownership units are designed more like condominiums, often with full
kitchens, two or more bathrooms, balconies, and more generous storage space. Many have multiple
bedrooms or connecting “lock-off” suites to accommodate extended families and friends traveling
together. In the luxury segment, these units may be indistinguishable from a high-end, standalone
vacation home. With landscaped balconies, irregular façades angled toward the views, and stepped low-
rise building forms, vacation ownership resorts emphasize the individuality and privacy of the units to
an even greater extent than do other resort designs.
Fractional Ownership, Residence Clubs and Destination
Clubs
In the classic time-share model, buyers purchase blocks of time but do not have any equity in
the properties themselves. Fractional ownership is the practice of buying a deeded share in an
expensive asset, originally aircraft but today applied to a vacation home or desirable city
apartment. In a fractional ownership resort, buyers have a fee-simple interest in a portion of a
condominium or home and may use the unit for a predetermined number of days or weeks each
year, negotiated in advance with the other owners. Typically, these units are scheduled and
maintained by a luxury hotel operating company in exchange for annual owners' fees. Owners
can purchase individual services during their stay, such as housekeeping, catering or kitchen-
stocking. Fractional ownership is generally less costly than owning a vacation home outright
but still offers the benefit of being able to sell one's interest in the property at market value.
A residence club takes the fractional ownership idea one step further. Residence club buyers
purchase membership in a club that owns a number of vacation homes, and with that
membership obtain the right to stays in any of the club's destinations, which are usually in
luxury resort or sought-after city locations. Developers are careful to make these properties
look and feel as residential as possible and to incorporate top-of-the-line furnishings and
amenities, as
Exclusive Resorts, Papagayo, Costa Rica
Inspired by the idea of “luxury living in the treetops,” the spacious Exclusive Resorts
residences at Peninsula Papagayo offer private infinity-edge pools, hot tubs, dual master suites,
sumptuous outdoor showers, expansive outdoor living areas, and fully custom interior finishes
combining indigenous woods, natural stones, and the works of local artists and artisans to
infuse each home with true Costa Rican style.
47 Park Street—Marriott Grand Residence Club, London, United Kingdom
This 49-suite neo-Georgian fractional ownership property is located just off Park Lane in the
desirable Mayfair district. Residences offer either one or two bedrooms and are each equipped
with spacious living areas, gourmet kitchens, and period artwork.
fractional and residence club buyers are generally high net-worth consumers with high
expectations for luxury and service. The homes in fractional developments are typically at least
three bedrooms and many are well over 5,000 sq ft (465 sq m), with private pools, decks,
outdoor fireplaces, and expansive gourmet kitchens. In order to maintain a feeling of
exclusivity, these developments tend to have only a small number of units in any one location,
in contrast with time-share resorts, where there might be hundreds of condominiums in a single
resort.
Another model is the destination club, which is a non-equity variation on a residence club.
Members buy the right to book a set number of nights in any of the club's collection of luxury
homes in resort and city destinations but do not have an ownership position in the real estate.
Various forms and definitions of residential-style lodging are still evolving as developers
look for creative ways to finance projects and consumers seek high-value travel experiences.
For example, it is not uncommon for the terms “residence club” and “destination club” to be
used interchangeably, or to have variations in how projects identified as a “club” are actually
structured. Limitations on foreign ownership of real estate in some countries make time-shares,
clubs, and fractional ownership into viable alternatives to buying a vacation home, and the
potential for investment gains often adds to the appeal of purchasing a residence for leisure or
business use within a hotel development. The challenge for designers of these properties is to
create facilities that can combine the best attributes of a home and a resort and to be able to
move between the two as market conditions change.
St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, United Kingdom
The original Midland Grand Hotel, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1873 for the
Midlands Railway Company, is listed as a Grade 1 London landmark. The building underwent
a £150 million renovation and restoration project where existing public rooms were
meticulously restored, with some, like the Ladies' Smoking Room, retaining their original name
but now used as a venue for private events. All details of the grand staircase with its cathedral-
like ceiling were restored, down to the fleur-de-lis hand stencils, wrought-iron balustrade, and
patterned carpet.
 CHAPTER
12
Updating Existing Hotels

Hotels are continually being updated. Renovation work and refurbishing are necessary for the financial
health of hotels and, each year, more money is spent on these activities than for the construction of new
hotels. About every five years there is the need to replace worn-out soft goods, such as wall coverings,
carpets, and drapery. Case goods, including beds, furniture, and some equipment, require replacement
every 10 years. Modernized mechanical systems, up-to-date lighting, new plumbing fittings and other
extensive changes are called for every 15 to 25 years.
In addition, hotels frequently alter existing spaces, such as enlarging a successful restaurant, adding
an exercise facility or business center, or converting an underutilized nightclub to another use. In cases
where there is no available space, owners might consider constructing an addition to the existing hotel
in order to meet market demands and realize greater profits. Overtime hotels lose their luster—styles
need to be updated to reflect current tastes. A fresh look to an existing hotel is often essential in order
to compete with a new or recently renovated hotel nearby. Targeting a growing segment of the public
interested in sustainability leads to renovations that make a hotel more ecologically friendly, often with
the goal of obtaining LEED certification. Improvements in operational efficiency, and to back-of-house
facilities to provide better services and to boost staff morale, are also reasons to renovate.
Such work is often performed while the hotel remains in operation and with as little disruption to
service as possible. All efforts should be made to keep noise, debris, and general inconvenience to
guests at a minimum. Construction projects undertaken in an operating hotel are more costly than when
the hotel shuts down. This is because of limited hours the crew can work, partitions required to block
off areas under construction, complimentary goods and services provided to guests, and temporary
facilities set up for those that are out-of-service. However, closing a hotel, or even a portion of
operations, can also have drawbacks, including loss of revenue and valued employees, and making
regular guests seek out competitors. Planning must be carefully done. Renovation of guestrooms often
is scheduled in stages, with blocks of rooms or floors done in sequence while the rest remain in service.
Renovations of a major scale involve the complete overhaul of an existing hotel or the conversion of
another building type for use as a hotel. Reflagging an existing hotel, changing from one hotel brand to
another, usually requires alterations to meet a new hotel company's rigorous brand standards, which
might include new bathroom configurations, additional public spaces, or upgraded back-of-house
facilities to facilitate a new level of guest services.
Table 12.1 Renovation cycle of existing hotel

Stage Cost/room Scope

6-year $6,000– Replace carpet, fabrics (upholstery, bedspreads, drapery),

refurbishment 15,000 vinyl wall covering, repaint
12-year major $25,000– Repeat above plus upgrade systems and equipment
overhaul 40,000 (computers, life-safety, kitchen, laundry)

50-year “gut $60,000 + Repeat above plus change functions, circulations, etc.;
renovation” consider exterior renovation

The main factors favoring total renovation over new construction are savings in construction expenses
(“gut” renovations generally cost 30 percent less than building from the ground up), the lack of prime
and spacious sites (particularly in urban areas), time savings (although not always the case), and
continuing appreciation for historic architecture by the public. (See Table 12.1.)

Hotel Renovation
In periods of economic downturn, hotels often postpone renovation work and sometimes defer
maintenance. When good times return, cash is available to do things that have been put off or
just to take advantage of having money on hand as an incentive to upgrade facilities. In order
to substantially change the look of a hotel or to undertake a major renovation that requires that
the building be totally emptied, a liquidation sale can be a way to generate income by selling
off furniture, equipment, lighting fixtures, and other items that still have some life but will not
be used in the newly renovated hotel.
The existing building places serious constraints on most renovation projects and these must
be addressed during the design process. While initial building surveys strive to be as complete
as possible, contractors or others on the team inevitably discover unknown existing conditions.
Sometimes the builders uncover magnificent details which the owner or designer wants to
incorporate into the finished project. At other times, serious deterioration is only made evident
after demolition. Both budgets and schedules for renovation projects can be substantially off
their initial projections as a result of these unforeseen conditions. This is a gamble for all
renovation projects and contingencies must be built into design, documentation, and
construction budgets to cover these possible costs. In 2007 London's Savoy Hotel closed for
what was estimated to be a £100 million renovation. However, because of the need for
unanticipated major structural stabilization the actual cost grew to £220 million, which was
borne by the owner.
Hotels reflect the economic circumstances of their communities. Prosperity in the
industrialized nations at the end of the twentieth century has brought about the transformation
of many urban neighborhoods. The once working-class district of Shoreditch in London's East
End has recently been gentrified by artists and web-technology industries. Many industrial
buildings have been put to new use, including a formerly vacant 1893 Victorian warehouse on
Boundary Road, which is now the Boundary Hotel. Designed and developed in 2008 by Sir
Terence Conran with his wife Vicki, and in partnership with Peter Prescott, guestrooms have
been individually inspired by Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand, Eileen
Grey, the Bauhaus, Shaker design, the cartoonist Heath Robinson, and others to whom Conran
pays homage, and for a clientele that is familiar with modern design. The small 17-room
Boundary, with restaurants, a café, bakery, and food hall, integrates an old building into its new
neighborhood.
In an effort to spur development in a certain area, to protect a historic building, or to
encourage sustainable development, governments may offer tax credits for private developers
to renovate an existing building. These subsidies can offset risk and help with financing. Such
sites should be pursued for possible hotel development. The environmental cost of tearing
down a building to construct a new one on the same site is considerable. Portland, Oregon, has
an impressive record as a city committed to sustainability and green architecture. It offers
financial incentives and technical assistance to developers. Sage developers were able to take
advantage of this in transforming a 1980 office building that had been vacant for 17 years into
Marriott Courtyard, the city's first LEED Gold-certified hotel. Being part of a public
redevelopment scheme from the beginning also may include the advantage of saving time, as
these projects often find it easier to secure necessary approvals from city agencies.
The individual business traveler and business conferences are primary markets for most
hotels today. Many hotels are turning over more space for meeting rooms and business centers.
In addition, guestrooms are being modified to be business-friendly, with two phone lines, large
desks, task lighting, and flexible layouts that allow rooms to be used for small business
meetings. Couples who travel often include one who uses the room to work and the other who
uses the room for leisure. Converting two small rooms into a suite or providing a separate
dressing area between the sleeping area and bathroom are ways that hotels today find to balance
the needs of couples staying for mixed purposes. Many older hotels were built with guestrooms
that are considered too small by today's standards. Detroit's 33-story Book-Cadillac Hotel
opened in 1924 as the world's tallest hotel, with 1,136 guestrooms. Tough years led to
liquidation in 1986, after which the building was shuttered. An infusion of $200 million
allowed the Book-Cadillac, now part of the Westin chain, to reopen in 2008. The small rooms
were combined to make 453 spacious new guestrooms and 67 condominium apartments on the
top floors.
Hotels which need to complete the renovation or remodeling in time to meet the high season,
to set new rates, or to accommodate a special event bringing in many guests now can get turn-
key packages from companies that bundle together design, purchasing, and consulting services.
These firms provide all items for a standard guestroom at a lower cost and in less time than can
be accomplished with the traditional design process. While this might not be an option for hotel
owners who take a personal interest in every detail,

Westin Book Cadillac Hotel, Detroit, Michigan

A $176 million interior makeover of the hotel was completed in 2008, designed by Forrest Perkins. As part of the
renovation, much of the original décor of the Grand Ballroom (renamed the Venetian Ballroom) and Italian Garden was re-
created. A three-story addition with a ballroom and conference spaces was added on a vacant adjacent site and a 13-story
department store was razed for a new 10-story parking garage.
it does answer to those who are satisfied with a good look that is completed quickly and saves
money. Working from basic choices set up in showrooms, the owner has limited options for
customization. These are cosmetic renovations that do not involve mechanical, plumbing, or
electrical modifications or spatial changes that require services of engineers and architects.
When hotels change possession, they are often renovated to publicize the new ownership
and appeal to a new clientele. The 16-story Gramercy Park Hotel was built in Renaissance
Revival style to the design of Robert T. Lyons in 1925 and extended in 1929 by Thompson and
Churchill. With spacious guestrooms and generous facilities, the hotel maintained an
understated luxury, and was patronized by guests from the upper-middle class and those
wanting to keep a low profile. In 2003, Ian Schrager purchased the 185-room Gramercy Park
Hotel and, under the direction of artist/ filmmaker Julian Schnabel, completely transformed the
interiors. The new décor emphasizes lush materials, jewel-like colors, and custom furniture,
expressing Schnabel's play on early twentieth-century wealthy bohemian style. Guests are still
given coveted access to the private park, which has not changed since its inception.
There are occasional renovations that do not succeed in meeting the expectations of their
patrons. Even before materials have become worn, the owners find it necessary to make
changes that would be appreciated by their guests. New York is a city that prides itself on
change. In recent years the pace at which it reinvents itself has accelerated dramatically. While
from the exterior much of New York's building stock remains the same, interiors are frequently
being updated. This is especially true for its hotels, which are often competing to have the latest
design. However, the one hotel that has resisted this trend is the Algonquin. Built in 1902 on
West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan, the 174-room Algonquin Hotel did not make its
reputation until 1919, when a group of young writers and critics, known for their wit, gathered
daily for ten years at the Round Table. A 1998 renovation that bordered on the cliché was not
at all to the liking of the hotel's fiercely loyal clientele, who do not look kindly upon tinkering
with their memories. Now part of Marriott's Autograph Collection, the Algonquin underwent
its most recent renovation in 2008. The challenge for designer Alexandra Champalimaud was
not to replicate the past, but to maintain its highly valued character while discreetly providing
up-to-date amenities and new lighting. (See Table 12.2.)
Gramercy Park Hotel, New York, New York
With a retractable roof 16 stories above the city, the Gramercy Terrace recalls the celebrated rooftop garden life popularized
at the turn of the century in New York City at such places as Ziegfeld's Club at the New Amsterdam Theatre, Stanford
White's rooftop garden at the original Madison Square Garden, and the Astor Hotel in Times Square.
Algonquin Hotel, New York, New York
A New York landmark since 1987, the Algonquin was made a National Literary Landmark in 1996 by the Friends of
Libraries USA, a rare distinction for a hotel. Interior designer Alexandra Champalimaud spearheaded a $4.5 million
renovation in 2008 that touched virtually every corner of the famous hotel, including upgrades of the historic lobby's
furnishings, the famed Oak Room, Blue Bar, renowned Round Table Room, and all suites and guestrooms.
New York Marriott Marquis, New York, New York
The Times Square hotel undertook a $39 million makeover that included 1,900 guestrooms and suites, the Broadway
Lounge, the Broadway Ballroom, and a new atrium restaurant and bar. Crossroads restaurant and bar at the base of the
hotel's vast atrium includes a dazzling two-story mirrored spiral structure integrating a 20-seat bar and including a halo of
color-changing kinetic lights on the top that shine down onto the bar and up at the open-sided guestroom corridors above.
“The interior architecture and design we created for the New York Marriott Marquis is designed to reflect the energy and
excitement of Times Square,” says Stephen Perkins, AIA, ISHC, principal and co-founder of Forrest Perkins.

Table 12.2 Existing hotel checklist

Mechanical systems
Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems
Temperature and humidity control
Fresh air control and filtration
Mechanical noise and vibration control
Energy efficiency
Zone control
 Environmental systems
Life-safety systems (review updated local codes)
Sprinklers, standpipes, hose racks, fire extinguishers
Smoke detection, fire alarm, voice annunciation, fire command station
Emergency power generator, lighting, fire pumps, elevator recall
Kitchen hood protection (dry foam), computer room (halon)
Smoke-proof exit stairs (pressurization, ventilated vestibules)
Fire-resistive walls around guestrooms, stairs and between floors, fire-rated doors, closers
Fail-safe locking systems
Corridor smoke purge
Energy conservation
Computerized energy management systems
Heat-recovery systems (kitchen and laundry hot water and exhaust)
Air-purifying systems (exhaust recirculation)
Insulating windows (double and solar glazing)
Lifecycle energy analysis
Motion sensors, lighting controls in guestrooms
Vestibule and revolving doors
Alternative energy sources (solar, wind, photovoltaic)
Variable air volume system
Long-life energy-conserving light bulbs
Vertical transportation systems
Passenger elevators
Service and freight elevators
Escalators
Conveyors
Telephone and communications systems
Computerized least-cost routing, accounting, wake-up call, and so on
House and public phones, telex and fax service, cable and satellite dish, closed circuit TV,
HDTV
High-speed internet connections
Light dimming systems
Meeting and banquet spaces
Restaurants
Lounges
 Lobbies
Guestrooms
Management systems
Computerized hotel management systems
Room status, guest histories
Accounting, auditing, inventories
Data storage
Billing, point-of-sale charging
Automatic barcode systems
Reservations
Safe-deposit boxes
Time stamps
Security systems
Card-locking systems, door peepholes, security latches
TV surveillance of entrances, service dock, elevators, escalators
Wireless communication
Alarms for exit stairs, cashier
Cashier's vault, safe-deposit boxes (front desk)
In-room vaults
Security lighting
Entertainment systems
In-room movies, closed circuit TV
Satellite TV, AM/FM bedside control, CD, HDTV, video players
Cable
Health club equipment
Exercise equipment
Sauna, steam-bath, whirlpool
Swimming pool
Lockers, showers, plumbing fixtures
Guest bathroom accessories
Pulsating shower heads
Lighted makeup mirrors
Towel warmers
Heat lamps
Shoe polishers
 Whirlpools and steam-baths
Audiovisual systems
Projection
Sound
Translation
Movable partitions
Meeting rooms
Ballroom
Soundproofing
Guestroom door gaskets
Windows
Meeting rooms
Repair shops and equipment
Carpentry
Plumbing
Electrical
TV, video, CD
Parking systems
Automatic entrances
Car elevators and ramps
Directional signs
Paving surfaces, landscaping, lighting
General
Interior fixed-décor signage
Interior furnishings
Kitchen and bar equipment
Laundry and dry-cleaning equipment, laundry chute
Waste disposal systems, compactor
Rate the existing condition of each item on a scale from 0 to 3, estimating the cost of new
additions or upgrades as required to meet current standards.
 Case Study
The Jefferson Hotel, Washington, DC
Architect: Forrest Perkins Interior Designer: Forrest Perkins

Many buildings in the United States are named after its third president. However, perhaps none
comes as close to embodying his theories on architecture and design as the Washington, DC,
Jefferson Hotel, located in a quiet neighborhood just four blocks from the White House. The
eight-story Beaux-Arts design of Jules Henri de Sibour was constructed in 1922 as the Jefferson
Apartments and converted into a hotel in 1955.
In 2007 The Jefferson Hotel underwent a two-year complete renovation that saw most
interior spaces demolished. Back-of-house operations were shifted to a newly acquired nearby
townhouse, allowing for the consolidation of many small rooms into large spaces to be used
for meetings and catering. Structural modifications were required to make these spaces column-
free. Awkward circulation was rationalized; slow, undersized elevators were replaced; new
accessible restrooms were added; the entry vestibule was enlarged, with an air lock to conserve
energy; the kitchen was expanded; and other modifications were made to improve organization,
to provide new services and features, including a spa, for the hotel, and to bring it up to current
building codes. Floor slabs to a previously acquired adjacent building were demolished and
new slabs were constructed to align it with the main building, so that inconvenient steps
between the two could be eliminated.
The peeling away of plaster on the ceiling over the existing lobby revealed a magnificent
vaulted skylight, which was restored and brings natural light to what is now a dining area for
the hotel's much-praised restaurant, Plume. While many public spaces have been opened up,
architectural features ensure that The Jefferson Hotel retains its intimate scale. Original
documents with Jefferson's signature, the presence of numerous books, plus
French-style period furniture, artifacts, and fittings work together with the architecture to create
an ambience that captures the spirit of Jefferson.
All 99 guestrooms and suites underwent complete transformation. The re-created rooms
have been embellished with details replicating eighteenth-century design and are furnished
with antiques. The intent was to re-create the hotel's interiors according to the neoclassical
principles that had inspired Jefferson.
Discreet placement of new technologies to respond to the needs of twenty-first-century
guests does not detract from the overall eighteenth-century character of the hotel. All efforts
have been made to provide a setting where a person in Washington, DC, on business will have
all that is needed to conduct his or her affairs, but will also feel welcomed as a guest in a private
home, one in which Jefferson himself might have had a hand.

Restorations
Restoration is a special category of renovation in which the intent is to re-create the original
structure. Original building elements are retained or, when this is not possible, they are
replicated. Most legislation for landmark structures stipulates that building exteriors be
restored, but allows the owner discretion with respect to the interior. Restoration work usually
involves the expertise of preservation architects who prepare documentation regarding the
original design, along with proper materials and methodologies needed for stabilizing,
restoring, and cleaning historic buildings. Piecing together the design of a building long after
its completion can be a difficult task. Usually the original architect's drawings no longer exist;
if they are available, they reflect the intention of the architect and not necessarily what was
actually built. Boston's Liberty Hotel, which incorporates a former jailhouse, built in 1851, as
its lobby and for several public functions, has a magnificent towering central space that was
once crowned by a cupola, torn down in 1949. Having access to the drawings of Gridley James
Fox Bryant, architect for the jail, allowed the construction of a new cupola based upon Bryant's
original design, which had been built in modified form owing to budget constraints in the
nineteenth century and which only came into existence in 2007 as part of the restoration. Old
photographs are helpful, but they usually document only a portion of the building and do not
positively identify materials or define spaces. Probes to uncover elements hidden by subsequent
renovations are a rich source of discovery—even a fragment of an original element can reveal
a great deal. Still, there are frequently gaps where there is no positive evidence or clue of the
original component. In these instances, the preservation architect relies on his or her knowledge
of other similar buildings in order to make educated assumptions.
 Once the historic building is understood and documented, the painstaking reconstruction
work begins. In the past, buildings, especially those meant to last, were built by craftsmen,
many of whose expert skills are no longer part of today's building industry. While the growing
movement to restore historic structures has brought a revitalization of many building crafts, it
can still be difficult to find qualified artisans. Because of their specialized skills and the labor-
intensive nature of their work, restoration projects are usually more expensive and time-
consuming than new construction. In some cases, the designers go to great lengths to find
replacements for original materials, often custom-making some items, which can involve
fabrication by special molds made from surviving original building elements to re-create lost
ones. While much depends upon the condition of the existing structure and the elaboration of
its architecture, these projects call for a strong commitment by the owner. Such undertakings
have great prestige and are much appreciated by today's public, who have come to highly value
historic architecture.
By a strict definition of terms, totally restoring a hotel to its original condition is rarely
possible or even desirable. No matter how significant the architecture, no guest wants to be
without the latest comforts and technologies. Additionally, hotels must provide new facilities
to meet present-day demands. When the Dolder Grand Hotel opened in 1899, most people came
for the fresh mountain air near Zurich and the disciplined regime of its Curhaus (health spa).
The small ascetic guestrooms were adequate and in keeping with the character of this city resort
and the cultural sensibility and economic situation of the Swiss in this era. However, restoration
of the Dolder Grand in 2008 had to respond to a new wealthy clientele with a different
sensibility and expectations. The hotel today caters not just to locals, but also to international
travelers who come to enjoy the impressive architecture in a spectacular setting, along with a
new relaxing and extravagant spa. While the exterior of the original Dolder Grand has been
restored to look as it did in the first years of the twentieth century, the new rooms, which are a
consolidation of smaller ones that reduce the key count by more than half, reflect the luxury
and amenities of affluent guests.
The guestrooms in London's Midland Grand Hotel were not especially small and had high
ceilings, fireplaces, expansive windows, and ornate details, but, as with most hotels built in the
late nineteenth century, they lacked private bathrooms (there were only eight bathrooms for its
300 rooms!). Restoration of the hotel, which opened as the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel in
2011, included guestrooms with their historic features, but necessitated the elimination of more
than half of them to accommodate private bathrooms, which are large and well appointed,
appealing to travelers in the twenty-first century.
Today's global economy includes many countries that have been outside the international
exchange of business and culture for many years. For nearly four decades China was cut off
from other nations. In 1929, when Shanghai was divided into four concessions by the British,
French, Americans, and Japanese, Victor Sassoon, a British businessman, built Sassoon House
on a prime location on the Bund overlooking the Huangpu River. Designed by Palmer and
Turner Architects, who incorporated both European and Chinese styles and motifs, it originally
housed the Cathay Hotel, the most celebrated hotel in Shanghai. The Cathay drew an
international clientele and reflected the cosmopolitan character of the city at that time, when it
was the cultural and commercial center of the Far East. When the People's Republic of China
came to power in 1949, the hotel was used as offices, in 1956 becoming the Peace Hotel. In
2007 it was restored to its former splendor as the Fairmont Peace Hotel and is once again a part
of the international life of Shanghai, though without foreign occupation in a city where China
is now dominant.
 If a much-loved hotel in good condition suffers unexpected damage from a fire or other
disaster, people are anxious for its restoration as soon as possible. The Taj Mahal Hotel, which
opened in 1903, is one of the great hotels constructed in a British colony. It was financed by
Jamsedji Tata, a wealthy Bombay industrialist, as a place where Indians of all castes and
Europeans could socialize at a time when most hotels and restaurants were segregated. Today,
Mumbai is at the center of India's global economy and The Taj plays host to Indian elites and
others from all over the world, continuing the vision of its founder. On November 26, 2008,
The Taj Mahal Hotel was involved in a series of attacks in central Mumbai by armed militants
who held the hotel under siege for over 60 hours. Hostages were taken and at least 167 were
killed. There was extensive building damage, especially to the palace wing, where fires raged.
As testament to the spirit and resilience of the hotel, which stands as a symbol of the city and
of

Case Study
The Liberty Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts
Architect: Cambridge Seven Associates Interior Designer: Champalimaud Design

The south slope of Beacon Hill has always been one of Boston's most desirable residential
locations. But in the nineteenth century the north slope became home to some of the city's
poorest immigrants, and it is at its foot that the Charles Street Jail was constructed in 1851, in
accord with the Auburn Plan, which allowed for the segregation of inmates according to sex
and severity of committed offence. The original building plan was cruciform, with four wings
extending from a central atrium of dramatic height. With 30 large arched windows allowing
maximum light and ventilation, it was a model of enlightened prison reform.
However, in 1973, after a rebellion by inmates, the Charles Street Jail was deemed by the
courts to be unfit for occupation because of overcrowding, which violated the constitutional
rights of the prisoners. The final remaining prisoners were shifted to Suffolk County Jail in
1991, and Massachusetts General Hospital, which borders the site to the north, acquired the
property. Their request for proposals required that historic elements of the building, which was
listed in the National Register of Historic Places, be retained.
 Today all of Beacon Hill is an expensive neighborhood and its proximity to Boston
Common, Faneuil Hall, the financial district, the State House, and other downtown locations
make it especially desirable. The jail was now sitting on a prime piece of Boston real estate.
High brick security walls with barbed wire and a guards' gate had isolated the building from
the neighborhood, but once these were demolished the former jail building could become an
accessible part of the city.
In 2001, developer Richard Friedman initiated a project that would reuse the jail as part of a
new luxury hotel. He was able to take advantage of $15 million in tax credits from the city of
Boston, with approval from the Massachusetts Historical Commission. The architectural firm
Cambridge Seven Associates, working closely with perseveration architect Pamela Hawkes
and various public conservation agencies, was retained to balance the needs of a clientele very
different from the prison's inmates with the historic 1851 building. After five years of extensive
restoration and new construction, and at a cost of $150 million, the Liberty Hotel opened in
2007.
Soaring to a height of 90 ft (27 m), the octagonal atrium of the jail is a most spectacular
space from which four wings radiate and which is surrounded by three levels of metal catwalks
that once accessed the cells. These have been modified as balconies to reach meeting rooms, a
ballroom, a restaurant, a bar, and a few new guestrooms. The atrium has been adapted to make
the hotel lobby.
Select portions of the original jail were restored to give visitors an idea of what the building
looked like. However, while it contains an important part of Boston's history, the Liberty Hotel
is not a museum.
The furnishings in the old jail are mostly contemporary in style, with many making reference
to the past. The reception desk is decorated with stencils that recall nineteenth-century lace
embroidery; carpets are woven in an old New England style, with traditional patterns that are
transformed in scale; a new wrought-iron chandelier and vintage lighting fixtures have been
selected; and historical scenes are depicted in a ceramic art installation between the escalators
leading up to the lobby.
The hotel plays with the jailhouse theme by locating its bar, Alibi, in the former drunk tank,
naming its restaurant “Clink,” where staff wear uniforms with prison numbers 1851 and 2007
(important Liberty Hotel dates), exhibiting fictional mug shots on corridor walls, and replacing
the “Do not disturb” sign with “Solitary.” A former exercise yard has become a courtyard
garden for outside dining. Guests today can work out in the health and fitness center located in
the new tower.
While the Charles Street Jail had 8 × 10 ft (2.4 × 3 m) cells for 220 inmates, the Liberty
Hotel has significantly larger accommodations for just 18 guests in the historic structure.
Abutting the north wing, an additional 280 luxuriously appointed guestrooms are located in a
new 16-story tower, which offers many rooms commanding views of the Charles River and the
city. The brick tower is modern in design and stands in contrast to the mid-nineteenth-century
Quincy granite jail.
 Case Study
Dolder Grand Hotel, Zurich, Switzerland
Architect: Foster + Partners
Interior Designer: United Designers Ltd

In 1899, the 220-room Dolder Grand Hotel and Curhaus (health spa), designed by Basel
architect Jacques Gros, opened in a country setting on the Adlisberg hill, close to central Zurich.
Especially popular with local residents, the Dolder Grand operated as a seasonal hotel until
1924, when it opened year-round. Over the decades there were many modifications, including
the 1964 addition of a modern wing with 60 rooms, robbing the hotel of its original symmetrical
design. Unable to secure needed investment, the Dolder Grand closed its doors in 1990. New
owners, coming up with 80 million, commissioned Foster + Partners architects to produce a
master plan.
All additions to the 1899 building were removed and the historically protected exterior of
the main building, along with several public rooms, was restored. Excavation allowed for two
basement levels that provide back-of-house services and an extension under the main entry
driveway, which, because of the site's steep slope, offers great views for a new restaurant and
function rooms. Public spaces on the main level were reorganized to work with repositioning
the main entry from the north side, where it was moved in a 1924 renovation to make room for
a new restaurant, to its original south-side location, where guests can take advantage of
spectacular views of Zurich, the lake, and the Alps beyond. Foster marks the new restored entry
location with an immense deep-red canopy.
Foster + Partners designed two symmetrical steel-framed sinuous wings in a soft silver color
to frame and highlight the old building, now restored to its original ochre and red color, with
its fanciful black roof. Generous new guestrooms, all with balconies, bring the total number to
173, fewer than the number in 1899 because the original spartan rooms in the old building were
consolidated to meet the needs of today's affluent guests. The all-glass triple-glazed façade of
the new addition is shaded by automatically operating awnings and stencil-cut aluminum
screens in a tree pattern, which link it to the surrounding woods. With 70 geothermal wells
sunk nearly 500 ft below ground, Foster's 230,000 sq ft (21,368 sq m) addition, which doubles
the size of the hotel, uses less than half as much energy as the original.
 Also part of Foster's additions are a business center, event space, conference rooms, a
ballroom, and a new 43,000 sq ft (3,950 sq m) spa with Japanese therapies, which brings the
Dolder Grand back to its origin as a urban health resort. There are only 240 parking spaces,
discouraging private automobiles. Guests are encouraged to make use of public transportation,
including the Dolderbahn rack railway, whose upper terminus is near the hotel and which
connects to the Zurich tram system. The hotel also operates a shuttle bus to downtown Zurich.
Opening in 2008, after three years of construction, the Dolder Grand is once again a place
where city residents can come for rest and relaxation, and it also meets the high standards of
wealthy international travelers.
Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China The historic Cathay Hotel has been returned to its
former glory. Managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts and designed by Hirsch Bedner
Associates, the hotel's 270 guestrooms, six restaurants and Jazz Bar, once popular with the
expatriate community, have been skillfully restored and once again made part of the
international life of Shanghai. The Presidential Suite occupies the tenth-floor penthouse where
the hotel's flamboyant creator and former owner, Victor Sassoon, once lived.
the nation, parts of the hotel were again operational in less than a month after the attack. And
in August 2010, after an extensive $40 million restoration and renovation by a team of Indian
and foreign design and restoration professionals, The Taj Mahal Hotel was brought back to its
former glory, with expanded services and as a showcase for its extraordinary collection of
Indian artifacts.
Landmark hotels are at a premium and are usually very profitable for owners, who are able
to capitalize not only on the valuable historic architecture but also on a name that resonates
strongly within the community. Photographs of the hotel in its heyday and a roster of famous
people who once were guests can be incorporated into promotional brochures and public
relations literature. They can also be displayed in the hotel to give present-day guests the feeling
that they are reliving history by seeing themselves in the same spaces as existed in the past.
San Diego's Hotel del Coronado has hosted 16 U.S. presidents, Prince Edward and Wallis
Simpson, Thomas Edison, Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, and a long list of Hollywood stars
including Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, Esther Williams, Humphrey Bogart, Frank
Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, Brad Pitt, and Madonna. The hotel has also been featured in several
films, such as Some Like It Hot. This connection plays an important role in marketing the hotel,
including publication of a book that the hotel sells. Architects Hornberger + Worstell undertook
a 500,000 sq ft (15,200 sq m) renovation of the largest wood-framed structure in the United
States. The project included seismic upgrades of the historic smoke stack and of the main
historic building, building code upgrades throughout, the addition of double-loaded corridors
to reach guestrooms, and the addition of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) to
guestrooms. The project also included remodeling of the poolside guestroom buildings, the 389
guestrooms in the main historic building, the International Banquet Room, and the Ocean
Terrace Restaurant and kitchen.
London's Savoy Hotel opened in 1889 as Britain's first luxury hotel. Managed by César Ritz
and with Auguste Escoffier, who

Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, India

In the aftermath of the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai that left the landmark hotel badly
damaged, a $40 million renovation was undertaken and the hotel restored to its historic palatial
splendor. Enhanced security systems employing real-time intrusion-detection and threat-
assessment technology are now in place to guard against such events in the future.
developed modern French cuisine, as chef, it was an immediate success, attracting a high-
profile clientele. After years of decline, the hotel opened again in 2010 after a major restoration.
The renovation sought to continue its commitment to the latest technologies, albeit in a discreet
manner so as not to distract from its well-appointed new interiors. The interiors, by Pierre Yves
Rochon, are in two styles that reflect The Savoy's high days of glamour. Edwardian rooms
facing the Thames have suites named after well-known guests, including Winston Churchill,
Maria Callas, Claude Monet, Charlie Chaplin, and Katharine Hepburn. Art Deco rooms on the
Strand have suites named after Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra, Richard Harris, and Noël
Coward. The Savoy hopes to attract the same type of wealthy patron as it did in its early years.
One aspect of luxury hotels constructed prior to World War II is that they were built to last.
Materials were substantial and details often integral to the structure of the building itself. The
cost of
Hotel del Coronado, San Diego, California
Architects Hornberger + Worstell were engaged to produce a master plan that defined the
hotel's future growth. The architects undertook a two-phase restoration project that included
seismically upgrading the overall structure of the hotel's grand Victorian building.
The Savoy, London, United Kingdom
It has been described as “the most ambitious hotel restoration project ever undertaken in
London.” The hotel has been virtually rebuilt as architects ReardonSmith worked closely with
the structural engineer and contractors to bring the building back to its original framework. The
magnificent dome that now floods the Thames Lounge with natural light had to be uncovered
and restored, and a number of changes were needed to accommodate the brand requirements
of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.

removing this work was prohibitively expensive, and renovations to these hotels in the mid-
twentieth century tended to conceal this elaborate decorative aspect. For example, in an era that
valued neither historic architecture nor high ceilings, designs often included dropped ceilings
to permit the easy installation of mechanical systems, totally concealing the interior detail.
Columns, moldings, and other elements were often encased in easily maintained materials. In
peeling back these later renovations, architects can discover missing original details.
However, in many instances, such treasures are gone or damaged beyond repair. In the last
twenty years many manufacturers have introduced into the general market reproductions of
many historic building elements, fittings, and fixtures that have been made according to
original specifications or in newer materials. This is especially important for lighting. It was
not until the twentieth century that electrical lighting was commonplace. Candles gave way to
gas lighting in the nineteenth century, but obviously no one now would consider lighting a
hotel, even an impressive historic one, by either of these means. While electrical lighting
continues to be used today, new lamps provide increased illumination and are more efficient
that those of even a decade ago. There are manufacturers who make lighting fixtures that look
antique but are illuminated by the latest advances. The construction industry, too, has become
more familiar with working on historic structures and there are now, in almost every
community, those who specialize in this field.
While it takes longer for a hotel with a name long synonymous with quality to lose its
reputation, it can happen. A lax attitude toward new demands and to the quality of interiors is
seriously detrimental to the financial operation of the hotel. Many nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century luxury hotels were built primarily to serve the wealthy leisured class who
sought to “get away from it all.” Today, business is the main reason that people travel, and they
have different requirements and are often able to pay a premium for quality accommodations
and service. Hotels in the United States have catered to this class of traveler for some time, and
now hotels everywhere are making this adjustment. New wireless technologies are able to
satisfy the many needs of business travelers without making hotels over to a business-only
ambience. In addition, the leisure traveler today wants to be not “away from it all” but
connected, via the internet, to family, friends, hometown news, personal finances, etc. Hotels
today are more and more able to accommodate both classes of guests.
Many existing buildings, even some that were originally hotels, have serious drawbacks in
meeting the needs of present-day hotels. In the case of historic buildings it makes good sense
to build a sound working relationship with government authorities in charge of landmark
issues. Meeting the requirements of landmark authorities involves much negotiation and many
compromises. Their mission is to protect the historic integrity of the building, and they can
often help to secure waivers from the building department that might allow for valet parking,
a curb cut for a loading dock, or other such need.
Building codes and legislation affect all renovation work. It is a challenge in a restoration to
incorporate new code requirements so that they do not distract from the interior design. Life-
safety codes and codes for the disabled are of foremost importance. In the United States, the
Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act of 1990 prohibits federal employees from staying in hotels
which lack sprinklers and smoke detectors. For hotels with federal employees as frequent
guests, this was a strong incentive to install such devices. Special provisions for the disabled
have extended well beyond providing accessibility for people who use wheelchairs. The
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 broadens the definition to include individuals with
such disabilities as sight and hearing impairments, arthritis, heart conditions, emphysema,
amputated limbs, and AIDS. Wide ranges of modifications are necessary to meet their
requirements. While most codes only come into effect when new or renovation work is
undertaken, some require that buildings comply by a certain date.
For buildings in earthquake zones, seismic upgrades are a major factor in renovation work.
Many hotels on the West Coast of the United States are required to provide seismic upgrades
for their buildings, including historic structures, such as the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego
and The Nines in Portland, Oregon. While this is costly and time-consuming, it can be done
without compromising the integrity of historic features.
Reflagging
Reflagging an existing hotel typically refers to the changing of a hotel brand to adapt to current
market conditions. Rebranding can occur between two brands within the same hotel company,
as with the Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort and Spa, which was changed from another
Starwood Hotels and Resort brand, the Sheraton Yankee Trader; or changing the franchise to
a different company's brand, as with the New Orleans Roosevelt, a Hilton Hotels
Waldorf=Astoria, which was rebranded from a Fairmont property following Hurricane Katrina.
In order to compete with the new upscale properties sprouting up along Fort Lauderdale
Beach Boulevard, new owners and Starwood Hotels and Resorts decided to transform the
underperforming though historically popular beachfront destination, Sheraton Yankee Trader.

Westin Beach Resort and Spa, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Mathes Brierre Architects with Forrest Perkins transformed the former Sheraton Yankee Trader
to meet the strict Westin brand standards for guestrooms, public spaces, and back-of-house
functions. Guestroom windows were enlarged to broad full-height sliding-glass doors that open
to painted steel balconette railings, giving guests the impression of standing at a private balcony
overlooking the sea.
The Roosevelt New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana (above and facing)
After horrific conditions caused the New Orleans Fairmont to close its doors following
Hurricane Katrina, developers undertook a massive renovation project and rescued this
landmark hotel, bringing it back to its historic luxurious glory as part of the Waldorf=Astoria
Collection. The renovation included restoring the legendary Blue Room and the trademark
Sazerac Bar, made famous by the official Louisiana state cocktail.
Mathes Brierre Architects, with interior designers Forrest Perkins, were charged with
redefining the twin-tower property to meet Starwood's more deluxe brand-standards for a
Westin hotel, and to expand its conferencing facilities by adding two 10,000 sq ft (3,040 sq m)
ballrooms and an expansive third-level outdoor “entertainment” terrace overlooking the
Atlantic shoreline. The addition of a Westin Heavenly Spa was a brand-standard requirement
of Starwood in the reflagging of the resort hotel.
For much of the early twentieth century, the original Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans served
as the social and political epicenter of the city. In the 1930s a twelfth-floor suite of this
magnificent grand dame was the city headquarters for the legendary Louisiana governor Huey
P. Long. After new owners acquired the Fairmont flag in 1965, many locals nostalgically
continued to call the famed hotel “the Roosevelt,” even though its official name was the New
Orleans Fairmont Hotel. The dramatic events and conditions following Hurricane Katrina in
August of 2005 caused severe damage to the infrastructure and resulted in contamination of
every floor of the hotel. The property was in a shambles. With superb foresight that New
Orleans would soon recover from the immense devastation, Sam Friedman of Dimension
Development purchased the building in 2007 and courageously undertook a $170 million
renovation. Two years later, it opening its doors, reflagged as The Roosevelt New Orleans, a
Waldorf=Astoria hotel. The reopening of The Roosevelt
InterContinental Paris Avenue Marceau, Paris, France
The Crowne Plaza Paris Champs Elysées was reflagged following a major interior renovation.
Designed by Bruno Borrione, part of Philippe Starck's team, the hotel is a mix of French
classical and urban contemporary design, combining classically inspired features such as
Venetian Renaissance frescos with modern furniture and décor.
became an inspiration for New Orleans's continued economic and physical recovery as the
hotel has regained its prominence among the city's finest hospitality destinations.
Reflagging can also take the form of converting an independently operated hotel to a well-
known hotel brand, or vice versa. For example, Le Royal Monceau, near the Champs-Elysées
in Paris, was operated independently from its opening in 1928 and enjoyed a rich history of
catering to artists and celebrities. Deciding that it had long ago lost its appeal to its original
market base, the new owners chose to upgrade the hotel's reputation with the well-known
elegance and luxurious renown of Raffles Hotels and Resorts. By hiring Philippe Starck,
designer extraordinaire, to redesign the hotel, the owners have reinvented the hotel for a new
generation.
The motivation to reflag a hotel can be based on a number of reasons:
•A developer may decide to purchase a property and reflag it to a particular franchise company
with which he or she has a strong relationship, based on multiple successful ventures.
•Poor performance and lack of profit is often the cause of seeking a new brand that can bring
better fees, concessions, and returns.
London NYC, New York, New York
Frank Williams and Associates designed New York City's first all-suite hotel in 1985, which
at that time was the tallest hotel in the city. Originally branded the RIHGA Royal by Royal
International Hotel Group Associates of Osaka, the 514-suite hotel was reflagged the London
NYC after a major interior renovation by London-based designer David Collins. The new name
is meant to suggest an amalgam of both its namesake cities, worldly sophisticated, and with an
incomparable cosmopolitan energy.
•A shift in market conditions, where a location becomes saturated with a particular segment,
can prompt the need to differentiate with a fresh new brand.
•Desire on the part of the hotel company to establish its brand in a particular location may lead
it to offer significant incentives to the current owner.
•Seeing the opportunity to attract an untapped market segment for a particular location may
prompt the developer to find a new flag.
Branding up by converting a property from a lower price tier to an upper price tier is far more
common than the reverse. Branding up can increase business because of the added services and
amenities, which will appeal to a higher room-rate clientele. The 55-room Crowne Plaza Paris
Champs-Elysées was reflagged the InterContinental Paris Avenue Marceau following a major
interior renovation. The design, by Bruno Borrione, combined classical and modern design,
each exuding a richness befitting the Comte de Breteuil, whose Paris residence is one of the
three heritage buildings from different periods that share a central courtyard and make up the
hotel. Public spaces and guestrooms have been refitted with luxury items that would be familiar
to their affluent clientele. By upgrading the hotel to the InterContinental brand, the owners
sought to associate it with the InterContinental Paris, which has always been one of Europe's
great hotels.
The high cost of renovating a property to meet new and upgraded brand standards is a
significant consideration when deciding to rebrand a property and requires due diligence on
the part of the owners to avoid unnecessary and unexpected costs. Such costs might include:
stiff termination and liquidated damages fees from the former franchisor; fees for failing to
rebrand in a timely manner from the new hotel company; loss of revenue during the transition
during a period of time with no affiliation; and the cost of re-identifying all logo items,
including directional signs, highway signs, hotel signage, folios, stationery, and toiletries.

Additions
Small-scale additions allow hotels to meet changing demands and increase profits. The need
for supplementary guestrooms, a conference facility, fitness center, or countless other items
can be met by additional construction. The addition must complement the hotel's layout and
organization—new public areas connected to the lobby, guestroom floors located close to
existing elevators, or service areas adjoining the current back-of-house on lower floors. On
urban sites, where there is the impetus to add extra floors on top of a building, one must
consider the carrying loads of the existing structure, plus the capability of elevators to be
extended and their adequacy to serve more guests. The original late nineteenth-century
Victorian warehouse that became Terence Conran's Boundary Hotel had space for just 12
guestrooms. In order to accommodate five duplex suites, each of which is created by a different
designer in their own individual style, the original mansard roof of the warehouse was
The Boundary Hotel, London, United Kingdom
The small 17-room Boundary Hotel, with restaurants, a café, bakery, and food hall, integrates
itself into a neighborhood of artists and gallery patrons, who are familiar with modern design
and can appreciate Terence Conran's latest endeavor. The original mansard roof of the
warehouse was demolished and replaced by a two-story addition incorporating five new duplex
suites.
demolished. It was replaced by a new two-story structure, faced with louvers concealing private
terraces, which sits in marked contrast atop the original red-brick building, reflecting a new use
for the former warehouse and the area's recent transformation. On the new roof there is a grill
restaurant, set in a garden with an open fireplace and offering 360-degree views of London.
An addition can also be to an adjoining site. The combining of two buildings can give a
totally new identity to an existing hotel. In 2003, the London Carriage Works, built in 1860 in
the style of a Venetian palazzo, became the very successful Hope Street Hotel in Liverpool. In
2007, the owners acquired an adjacent 1960s office building owned by Merseyside Police and
developed it to add 41 new guestrooms, three duplex suites, conference rooms, and a new
reception area. With a modest budget of £4.5 million and a concern for the environment, it was
decided to reuse the existing structure. Foundations on sandstone were sound, but the original

Hope Street Hotel, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Designed by Falconer Chester Hall, the Hope Street Hotel addition is a strong twenty-first-
century presence on a very special street in Liverpool's Georgian quarter, with many listed
Victorian buildings and framed by the Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals. The new
addition calls attention to the Hope Street Hotel in a way that a more contextual addition would
not.
Westin Beach Resort and Spa, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
In order to meet growing demand for meeting space in Fort Lauderdale Beach and as part of
the rebranding of the hotel, a 50,000 sq ft (4,645 sq m) banquet facility was added to the south
wing of the hotel, including two 10,000 sq ft (929 sq m) ballrooms and a large rooftop
entertainment terrace, perfect for weddings and outdoor parties.
Table 12.3 Hotel addition checklist

Evaluate capacity of existing areas to accommodate added traffic:

Entrance drives and parking
Lobby and front desk
Food and beverage outlets
Guest circulation (including elevators)
Service circulation (including elevators)
Kitchen, laundry, loading dock, employees' facilities
Recreation facilities (including health club)
Internet service capacity
Obtain data on existing conditions:
As-built drawings
Site surveys including existing utilities and landscaping
Legal and zoning restrictions
Soil tests
Detailed inspection of existing structural and mechanical conditions
Evaluate engineering systems to be used:
Connections to existing structure and foundations
Structural constraints of site
Energy analysis, including existing mechanical and electrical systems and capacity of plant
and utilities services
Reevaluate renovation needs of existing hotel in terms of matching higher standards of new
addition:
Architectural upgrading of the exterior (for example, entrance canopy, balconies, façade
materials, windows, roof treatment, signage, paving, landscaping)
Interior upgrading (furniture, furnishings, finishes, fixtures, equipment, lighting, graphics)
Guestroom amenities
Public space interiors
 Life-safety, security, communications, audiovisual, and computerized hotel management
systems

building was four stories and in some parts only two. The five-story addition, topped by the
three duplex suites and function rooms with views across the Mersey and to the Welsh
mountains beyond, required that as little weight as possible be added to the existing structure.
Existing reinforced concrete columns were strengthened for greater carrying capacity for the
new steel extension. The mostly glass façade added less weight than a masonry one, like the
1860 building, would have done. (See Table 12.3.)

Adaptive Reuse
For a long time, buildings constructed for other purposes have been converted into hotels. Irish
castles, English country manor houses, French chateaux, and Rajput palaces in Rajasthan,
India, have all been adapted as hotels. These grand residential buildings lent themselves well
to conversion. In fact, the intent was not to stray too far from the original. Part of the appeal of
this transformation was that guests found themselves welcomed into the homes of aristocrats,
gentry, maharajas, and other persons of high social rank whom they would not likely visit under
other circumstances. This helped to compensate for shared bathrooms, no air-conditioning and
the lack of other amenities generally available at more typical hotels. Guests could take meals
in the formal dining room, lounge in drawing rooms, read in the library, and stroll in the private
grounds just as the original residents did. Guests could think of themselves as members of a
privileged class enjoying themselves at home. Some hosts continued to live on premises and
established these elaborate bed-and-breakfast accommodations in order to earn the monies
needed to maintain their stately properties, while others ran them as businesses. Ownership
often passed into the hands of other individuals bearing no relationship to the original owners,
and most continue to be run as relatively small-scale operations.
Today, with a high demand for accommodation, especially in urban areas, and a dwindling
number of new sites on which to build or existing hotels to be renovated, a wide range of
building types are being converted into hotels. Many of these have little or no relation to
lodging and some were not intended for human occupancy at all. They vary greatly in scale,
category, and location.
The quality of materials and craftsmanship of landmark buildings cannot be equaled today
and the grand scale of their public spaces lends itself to dramatic entrances and lobbies. Such
features give these hotels a palatial presence. The lavish budgets that these hotel projects have
available for renovations, especially for properties in prime locations, allow for sensitive
restorations that please the city authorities who oversee landmark issues. Between 1911 and
1922, the headquarters for the Port Authority of London, which oversaw the city's ports, was
constructed at 10 Trinity Square, on a 3 acre (1.2 hectare) site visible from the Thames. In
2006, Singapore-based KOP Properties acquired 10 Trinity Square with plans to adapt it into
a 120-room luxury hotel, with 37 privately owned residences on the four floors above. From
the exterior, this Grade II-listed building will remain as originally designed. During World War
II the Port Authority headquarters was bombed, but damage was limited to the central rotunda.
In 1976 a nine-story office tower was built in the court by Willis Insurance, who purchased the
property from the Port Authority in 1971, when London's ports had fallen into steep decline.
The new plans, by the architectural firm of Woods Bagot, call for the removal of all non-
original elements, including the Willis tower, and extension of the building floor plate inward
to focus on a new circular glazed atrium. The lower two floors will be capped by a suspended
double-glazed skylight separating the hotel from the private apartments above. This bold
intervention is called the “whirlpool” for the way the new roof canopy slopes down to the
chamfered main entry-tower pavilion, and it adds two new glazed stories set back over the
double mansard of the existing building. At ground level, the new construction will be barely
visible. In addition to restoration of the exterior, several grand historic interior spaces of the
old Port Authority will also be restored and used for new hotel functions.
Office buildings are frequently considered likely candidates for hotel conversion. The soft
market for office space in many cities, compared with the tight market for hotels, makes such
transformations especially attractive to developers. The most sought-after are buildings of
historic value. Few office buildings of landmark status come on the market today. Most are
1950s and 1960s structures in need of overhauls, but
Kruisherenhotel-Maastricht, Maastricht, Netherlands
The Kruisheren monastery in central Maastricht, the oldest continuously occupied city in the
Netherlands, was converted to a luxury design hotel. From the exterior, the buildings look
untouched since the early sixteenth century. From the exterior, aside from the bold red-and-
white painted shutters for the upper windows, the clue that marks the monastery's new use is
the highly polished copper tunnel on a side of the church that is now the main public entrance.
Inside the former church are the hotel reception area, conference rooms, library, shops, and a
coffee bar. A restaurant is positioned on a constructed mezzanine in the nave, under soaring
Gothic vaults with traces of original frescos, with clouds of light floating from fixtures that can
change color. The hotel has 60 guestrooms, 50 in the cloister, seven in the gatekeeper's lodge
and three in a small new addition.
not economically or functionally suitable to remain as office buildings. These structures often
have footplates too small and ceiling heights too low to allow for renovation into office space
that meets today's market demands. Yet, as hotels, these buildings sometimes can be suitable.
They often have a high proportion of windows to floor area—ideal for guestroom layouts—
and a ceiling height, relatively low for offices, which is entirely suitable for guestrooms. With
cost savings over new construction, an obsolete office building can be the beginning of a new
hotel. In 2000, Marriott expanded its Courtyard brand in Portland with a 13-story banal office
building that had formerly belonged to Toronto National and had stood vacant for 17 years on
a prime site in the financial district. Not only were the interiors demolished for a new use, but
the façade, which had ribbon windows not suitable fora hotel building, was selectively
demolished in order to install windows more appropriate for its new use. Also, the new façade
design made the three additional floors match the floors below. Unlike landmark buildings,
whose pedigree the hotel owners

10 Trinity Hotel, London, United Kingdom

Plans call for London's original Port Authority Headquarters to be transformed into a 120-key
luxury hotel with 37 condominiums. The exterior of the building is protected under a Grade II
listing by London's landmark authorities, but architect Woods Bagot's plans call for a major
structural overhaul of the building interior, including the reintroduction of the original domed
central rotunda.
wish to promote, the owners of hotels converted from nondescript post-war office buildings
seek to conceal the use of the original building by gutting all the interior spaces in a total
makeover. Such conversions have so far been limited to mid-level accommodation, unlike the
five-star option that landmark buildings can offer.
Often inherent in many buildings not originally planned as hotels is the disparity between
existing conditions and optimal or, in some cases, even minimal hotel standards. The
guestroom is most critical. In prime urban areas, where demand for new hotels greatly exceeds
sites available for new construction and few existing hotels are available for upscale
renovations, many buildings which do not obviously lend themselves to hotel conversion are
being considered. Many large department stores have left center-city locations for suburban
malls, following their customers and wanting to take advantage of ample parking and easy
deliveries. Optimally, department stores have expansive floor plans to display large qualities
of goods, where views to the exterior are considered distractions to shoppers. In contrast, hotel
rooms are best arranged on floors that have access to natural light and, if possible, views. The
14-story Meier and Frank flagship store in downtown Portland was built in the early twentieth
century. In 1982, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. After being taken
over by Federated Department Stores in 2005, it was rebranded as Macy's, which occupied the
lower five floors and basement. The upper floors were adapted into a hotel. A seven-story
atrium was cut into the full-block building and two floors were added to create The Nines
Hotel. The interior was effectively gutted in order to lay out 333 guestrooms and to provide
spaces for hotel functions. A street-level welcome lobby brings guests to the seventh floor.
Interior guestrooms face the 7,000 sq ft (650 sq m) lobby, with a ballroom below.
After decades of neglect and abandonment, many neighborhoods in successful cities are
undergoing a renaissance, and hotels are playing a major role in this transformation. An influx
of new people and money is transforming districts that had not previously been attractive to
visitors, especially those from out of town. Today, some are new destinations for artists,
tourists, and shoppers.
It is highly unusual to find two components of the same original building complex that are
each adaptively converted to hotels, albeit ones that are not connected and not owned or
operated together. The National Maritime Union, founded in 1937, commissioned New Orleans
architect Albert Ledner to design a headquarters for them on Seventh Avenue and 12th Street
in Greenwich Village, and a larger

Courtyard by Marriott, Portland, Oregon

After sitting vacant for 17 years, the Toronto National Building was transformed into a 256-
room hotel, the first Marriott property to receive LEED Gold certification. It is a primary
example of how a midscale hotel can achieve a high level of environmental performance; the
entire façade was replaced, three stories were added to the building, and an adjacent building
was rebuilt to become part of the hotel.
The Nines, Portland, OregonMany factors influenced ForrestPerkins and SERA Architects
in converting the former department store to a luxury hotel, including historical considerations
and related tax credits through the National Park Service; environmental approaches required
for LEED certification; brand standards and expectations from Starwood Hotels and Resorts;
and operational efficiency necessary to Sage Hospitality.
The Maritime Hotel and Dream Downtown Hotel, New York
The corner of 17th Street and Ninth Avenue has two adjacent yet independent hotels, once part
of the same building complex that housed the annex to the National Maritime Union. The
Maritime Hotel underwent a minimally invasive transformation, reusing most of the existing
configurations for guestrooms and public spaces. The Dream Downtown hotel underwent a
more extreme makeover involving an entirely new façade on 16th Street, a re-clad façade on
17th Street, and all-new guestrooms and public spaces.
annex, that would include dormitory rooms and other facilities for visiting seamen, on Ninth
Avenue between 16th and 17th Streets in the Chelsea district of New York. The Joseph Curran
Annex was completed in 1966 and faced the Robert Fulton Houses, a large public housing
project that was completed in 1965. With its 5 ft (1.5 m) round porthole windows and sloping
façade on 17th Street, the Annex was truly a unique building. By 2002, the neighborhood just
south of the Annex, known as the Meatpacking District for its slaughterhouses and packaging
plants, along with drug dealing and prostitution, had been transformed into an area with high-
end boutiques, art galleries, expensive restaurants, and an active nightclub scene. In 2003, the
Ninth Avenue-facing wing of the Curran Annex was converted to The Maritime Hotel, playing
a part in this new downtown scene. The quirky design of the building appealed to the new
owners, who wanted a hotel “not like New York's other hotels.” Rather than combine the
dormitory rooms to make larger ones more in keeping with the standards of hotel guests, small
sailors' quarters were made over in a style reminiscent of the tight quarters one finds on luxury
ocean liners. The remaining block-through part of the Annex, which spanned from 16th Street
to 17th Street, continued to be operated by Covenant House, a substance-abuse support facility,
until 2011, when it too was converted to a fashionable hotel. The Dream Downtown, designed
by Handel Architects, accentuated the syncopated rhythm of the 17th Street façade with a
seemingly random addition of porthole windows, and encased the façade with a gleaming
stainless steel cladding. (See Table 12.4.)
Table 12.4 Adaptive reuse: examples of structures converted to hotels
 Case Study
The Waterhouse at South Bund, Shanghai, China
Architect: Neri and Hu Design and Research Office Interior Designer: Neri and Hu Design
and Research Office

Neri and Hu Design and Research Office designed a 19-room hotel adapted from a 1930s
dockyard building. The hotel, named The Waterhouse at South Bund, opened in 2010 in the
Shipiupu district, facing the Huangpu River, in Shanghai.
Respecting the industrial character of the area, the architects have retained the timeworn
façade of the original building, onto which they placed a two-story rooftop addition clad with
Cor-Ten steel, whose rusted appearance evokes old ships in the dockyard. However, overscaled
minimal projecting dormers, and large cutouts at the rooftop bar that offer dramatic views of
the river and Pudong, distinguish The Waterhouse at South Bund from its neighbors as the
work of very sophisticated architects.
The entry is of rusted steel but in a markedly new design. Also on street level, two large
portions of the original façade have been replaced with wide expanses of glass. They both offer
views into the inner courtyard—one through the lounge and the other through the restaurant,
where long communal dining tables draw one visually into the space. This play between inside
and outside is carried on in varying ways throughout the hotel.
The inner courtyard, onto which most guestrooms face, is an abstraction of a traditional
Chinese lane that has been extended vertically. The shuttered windows have inner mirror faces
that heighten the fractured views guests experience throughout.
The Waterhouse at South Bund
 There has been no effort to restore this dockyard building as it was in the 1930s. Instead, the
accumulated crust of eight decades remains. This is an approach that has been taken with other
structurally robust old industrial and manufacturing buildings, in cities where changing
economies have left many of them vacant, to adapt them into artists' studios, galleries, and
museums.
The hotel interiors continue to highlight the accumulated layers of the building's past.
Exposed wall surfaces are left raw, to be appreciated as one would a work of art. New materials,
some of which have been recycled from demolished areas, are of muted hues that do not distract
from the rough patina of the walls. A three-story space has been claimed for the lobby, with
exposed structural steel reinforcement, and a contrasting clean white ribbon is formed by a
bridge that crosses the space at an incline to connect unaligned guestroom corridors above. A
rare appearance of strong color comes when the low sun reflects a luminous golden red-rust
glow on the Cor-Ten steel, which can occasionally and unexpectedly be glimpsed from inside,
in addition to from the roof.
With numerous narrow connecting stairs and several level changes, one can imagine the
original hodge-podge of spaces. The architects work with this to create guestrooms that are
highly individual, eccentric, yet decidedly modern. In one, a glass-enclosed tub commands the
room as if part of an artist's installation. Sly insertions into the floor slab and walls of private
rooms allow narrow glimpses that break down the boundary between private and public areas.
Visitors to The Waterhouse at South Bund are able to share the wonderfully excited feeling
that the owner and architect found on first viewing an old building that would become their
new project. Neri and Hu have used space, light, and an appreciation of the existing
construction to craft a unique building of rare invention that should have strong appeal to
travelers who understand and appreciate this aesthetic. It should also help to revitalize a district
in a way that does not destroy its architectural heritage. (See Table 12.5.)
Table 12.5 Ages of famous hotels

Hotels over 100 years old

Hotel Les Trois Rois, Basel, Switzerland
Cour St. Georges, Ghent, Belgium
Hotel Krone, Solothurn, Switzerland
Hotel d'Angleterre, Copenhagen, Denmark
Grand Hotel Sauerhof, Baden bei Wien, Germany
Hotel de Crillon, Paris
The Continental, Paris
Hotel des Trois Couronnes, Vevey, Switzerland
The Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath, England
The Palace Hotel, San Francisco
The Strater Hotel, Durango, Colorado
Le Chateau Frontenac,
uebec City, Canada
Banff Springs, Alberta, Canada
Chateau Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada
St. Louis Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana
The Chelsea Hotel, New York
The Cincinnatian, Cincinnati, Ohio
Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York
Grand Hotel, Point Clear, Alabama
Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, Michigan
Hotel del Monte, Monterey, California
 The Capital Hotel, Little Rock, Arkansas
The Jefferson Hotel, Richmond, Virginia
The Mission Inn, Riverside, California
The Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Colorado
The Savoy, London
The Tovar Hotel, Grand Canyon
Hotel del Coronado, San Diego, California
Claridge's, London
The Connaught, London
The Willard, Washington, DC
The Ritz, Paris
The Oberoi Grand, Calcutta, India
Hotels over 75 years old
The Ritz, London
The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, Colorado
The Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston
The Plaza, New York
The Old Faithful Inn, Yosemite National Park, Wyoming
The Fairmont, San Francisco
Huntington House, Pasadena, California
The Shelton Hotel, New York
The Biltmore, Los Angeles
The Taj Mahal Hotel, Bombay, India
The Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee
The Bellevue-Stratford, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The St. Regis, New York
The Seelbach, Louisville, Kentucky
The Mount Washington Hotel, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
The Sagamore, Lake George, New York
The Breakers, Palm Beach, Florida
The Drake Hotel, Chicago
The Chicago Hilton and Towers
 Case Study
The Waterhouse at South Bund, Shanghai, China
Architect: Neri and Hu Design and Research Office Interior Designer: Neri and Hu Design
and Research Office

Neri and Hu Design and Research Office designed a 19-room hotel adapted from a 1930s
dockyard building. The hotel, named The Waterhouse at South Bund, opened in 2010 in the
Shipiupu district, facing the Huangpu River, in Shanghai.
Respecting the industrial character of the area, the architects have retained the timeworn
façade of the original building, onto which they placed a two-story rooftop addition clad with
Cor-Ten steel, whose rusted appearance evokes old ships in the dockyard. However, overscaled
minimal projecting dormers, and large cutouts at the rooftop bar that offer dramatic views of
the river and Pudong, distinguish The Waterhouse at South Bund from its neighbors as the
work of very sophisticated architects.
The entry is of rusted steel but in a markedly new design. Also on street level, two large
portions of the original façade have been replaced with wide expanses of glass. They both offer
views into the inner courtyard—one through the lounge and the other through the restaurant,
where long communal dining tables draw one visually into the space. This play between inside
and outside is carried on in varying ways throughout the hotel.
The inner courtyard, onto which most guestrooms face, is an abstraction of a traditional
Chinese lane that has been extended vertically. The shuttered windows have inner mirror faces
that heighten the fractured views guests experience throughout.
The Waterhouse at South Bund
 There has been no effort to restore this dockyard building as it was in the 1930s. Instead, the
accumulated crust of eight decades remains. This is an approach that has been taken with other
structurally robust old industrial and manufacturing buildings, in cities where changing
economies have left many of them vacant, to adapt them into artists' studios, galleries, and
museums.
The hotel interiors continue to highlight the accumulated layers of the building's past.
Exposed wall surfaces are left raw, to be appreciated as one would a work of art. New materials,
some of which have been recycled from demolished areas, are of muted hues that do not distract
from the rough patina of the walls. A three-story space has been claimed for the lobby, with
exposed structural steel reinforcement, and a contrasting clean white ribbon is formed by a
bridge that crosses the space at an incline to connect unaligned guestroom corridors above. A
rare appearance of strong color comes when the low sun reflects a luminous golden red-rust
glow on the Cor-Ten steel, which can occasionally and unexpectedly be glimpsed from inside,
in addition to from the roof.
With numerous narrow connecting stairs and several level changes, one can imagine the
original hodge-podge of spaces. The architects work with this to create guestrooms that are
highly individual, eccentric, yet decidedly modern. In one, a glass-enclosed tub commands the
room as if part of an artist's installation. Sly insertions into the floor slab and walls of private
rooms allow narrow glimpses that break down the boundary between private and public areas.
Visitors to The Waterhouse at South Bund are able to share the wonderfully excited feeling
that the owner and architect found on first viewing an old building that would become their
new project. Neri and Hu have used space, light, and an appreciation of the existing
construction to craft a unique building of rare invention that should have strong appeal to
travelers who understand and appreciate this aesthetic. It should also help to revitalize a district
in a way that does not destroy its architectural heritage. (See Table 12.5.)
Table 12.5 Ages of famous hotels

Hotels over 100 years old

Hotel Les Trois Rois, Basel, Switzerland
Cour St. Georges, Ghent, Belgium
Hotel Krone, Solothurn, Switzerland
Hotel d'Angleterre, Copenhagen, Denmark
Grand Hotel Sauerhof, Baden bei Wien, Germany
Hotel de Crillon, Paris
The Continental, Paris
Hotel des Trois Couronnes, Vevey, Switzerland
The Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath, England
The Palace Hotel, San Francisco
The Strater Hotel, Durango, Colorado
Le Chateau Frontenac,
uebec City, Canada
Banff Springs, Alberta, Canada
Chateau Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada
St. Louis Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana
The Chelsea Hotel, New York
The Cincinnatian, Cincinnati, Ohio
Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York
Grand Hotel, Point Clear, Alabama
Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, Michigan
Hotel del Monte, Monterey, California
 The Capital Hotel, Little Rock, Arkansas
The Jefferson Hotel, Richmond, Virginia
The Mission Inn, Riverside, California
The Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Colorado
The Savoy, London
The Tovar Hotel, Grand Canyon
Hotel del Coronado, San Diego, California
Claridge's, London
The Connaught, London
The Willard, Washington, DC
The Ritz, Paris
The Oberoi Grand, Calcutta, India
Hotels over 75 years old
The Ritz, London
The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, Colorado
The Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston
The Plaza, New York
The Old Faithful Inn, Yosemite National Park, Wyoming
The Fairmont, San Francisco
Huntington House, Pasadena, California
The Shelton Hotel, New York
The Biltmore, Los Angeles
The Taj Mahal Hotel, Bombay, India
The Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee
The Bellevue-Stratford, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The St. Regis, New York
The Seelbach, Louisville, Kentucky
The Mount Washington Hotel, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
The Sagamore, Lake George, New York
The Breakers, Palm Beach, Florida
The Drake Hotel, Chicago
The Chicago Hilton and Towers
 PART 2
Design Guide
Viceroy Miami Hotel, Miami, Florida
The hotel shares an immense 300 ft (91 m) long infinity-edge swimming pool and 80-person
hot tub, on the 15th floor of the Icon Brickell mixed-use development project with two
condominium towers. Design was by Arquitectonica.
 CHAPTER
13
Site and Master Planning

A hotel project becomes real once the site is selected. Up until that point, the developers and architects
may have an idea of the hotel they plan to construct, but developing the exact physical concept and
design cannot really begin until the property is known. Most hotels are developed on one of the
following types of sites:
•Rural and undeveloped sites (usually for resort hotels or retreats)
•Suburban and provincial sites, often in small towns or along major roadways
•Urban sites in metropolitan business centers
Each type requires special and particular criteria, both for its selection and for the development of
designs for the building and grounds.
Viceroy Miami Hotel, Miami, Florida
The hotel shares an immense 300 ft (91 m) long infinity-edge swimming pool and 80-person
hot tub, on the 15th floor of the Icon Brickell mixed-use development project with two
condominium towers. Design was by Arquitectonica.
 CHAPTER
13
Site and Master Planning

A hotel project becomes real once the site is selected. Up until that point, the developers and architects
may have an idea of the hotel they plan to construct, but developing the exact physical concept and
design cannot really begin until the property is known. Most hotels are developed on one of the
following types of sites:
•Rural and undeveloped sites (usually for resort hotels or retreats)
•Suburban and provincial sites, often in small towns or along major roadways
•Urban sites in metropolitan business centers
Each type requires special and particular criteria, both for its selection and for the development of
designs for the building and grounds.

Resort Sites
Modern means of transportation and longervacation times, especially for Europeans, have
made it possible for people to travel long distances for their holidays. In fact, getting as far
away as possible can be a strong attraction. Exotic landscapes with pristine beaches and warm
weather continue to prove popular with today's travelers, especially those suffering during the
cold winter months in the northern hemisphere.
Resorts closer to home, especially those easily reachable by automobile, also are attractive.
While they might not be as glamorous as the exotic resorts, they can offer their guests a rich
variety of amenities in an environment which gives them an intimate experience with nature.
A local attraction, such as a lake, trails for cross-country skiing, or even a top-notch restaurant,
can entice non-resident visitors, especially on weekends. They can also be part of local support
for a project at its planning stage.
For all resorts, selection of the site is of paramount importance. Because rural tracts of land
often are large, in part to provide protection from neighboring development, a good deal of
attention must go into planning the relationship among lodging, public spaces, recreational
areas, and services. International and less developed areas present a special group of issues for
the development team, including:
•Transportation and accessibility. Select a site within two hours of an international airport and
readily accessible by road. Construction of new roads is expensive, in addition to the
Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, California
Located on the Palos Verdes peninsula and surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, resort site
design facilitates views down the Southern California coast, Catalina Island, and the coastal
mountains. The largest courtyard, the entry courtyard, features a central cooling fountain
under a canopy of date palms. With the entry lobby and most of the public space near the top
of the resort site and away from the water's edge, the guestrooms form a gentle terrace down
the site to the Pacific Ocean.

difficulty in securing permission to pass through property not owned by the hotel. In the more
remote locations where local roads might prove difficult for coaches, jeeps and sport utility
vehicles might be an alternative for shuttling guests from the airport to the hotel. Road access
also influences the ability to bring in construction equipment and the delivery of supplies once
the hotel is operational.
•Political climate. Consider international attitudes toward the destination. Nothing keeps guests
away like the possibility of violence. Even after major unrest has subsided and home countries
no longer place restrictions on their citizens traveling to these spots—and even if the strife is
limited to a narrow region of a nation not affecting the resort area—the vast number of
alternatives available to tourists today make these countries unlikely destinations. A wave of
terrorist attacks in the Russian ski resort areas of the North Caucasus Republic, near the highest
mountain in Europe, resulted in this burgeoning tourist region being closed off to travelers
indefinitely. Attacks by militants included blowing up a tower supporting a ski gondola, which
plummeted to the ground with four passengers aboard.
•Ownership. Investigate local laws influencing real estate, development, and employment.
Many countries do not permit foreign nationals to own property. Such legal restrictions can
make it difficult for hotel companies wishing to operate abroad. Partnerships with local citizens
may be necessary.
•Community relations. Establish good public relations with the local community. Tourism is a
major industry and hotels bring in substantial amounts of hard currency. Often the hotel needs
to demonstrate to government officials the financial and social benefits that the hotel will bring
to the local population. The developer may be required to improve some aspect of the local
community infrastructure, such as providing a sewage system or constructing a new school.

Atlantis Dubai Resort Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The Palm Monorail runs along the trunk of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, connecting the
Gateway station at the entry to the Palm to the Atlantis hotel at the far end. The monorail will
eventually be linked to the Dubai Metro and to the Al Sufouh Tram, designed to be an
integral part of the Dubai transport network.
In large resorts guest and visitor parking should be separated, with the guest spaces close to the
building complex. In both cases, provide a landscaped and shaded walkway between the
parking area and the hotel. In cases where visitors come to use a specific amenity, parking
should be located near the special area and away from the guestroom reception lobby.
Most resort guests are first-time users who are there to enjoy and experience the
environment. It is important that they be able to grasp the overall layout of the property in order
to get around fairly easily. If possible, the main building, housing the primary reception area
and other public spaces, should be prominently sited on or near the highest point of the site,
visible to guests as they approach it. From here, guests can gain an overall orientation to the
resort and staff can point out particular features. Special consideration should be given to views
of the resort's main attractions, such as the beach, golf course, or ski lift, from the main lobby.
While all the features of a site need not be evident at once, facilities should not be hidden or
difficult to find.
Sites can be organized with such devices as a bell tower, fountains, sculptures, or flagpoles
that stand out in the landscape as points of reference. The clues to a site's organization should
be made through spatial patterns or on-site transportation systems rather than signage, which
should serve only a secondary purpose. This is especially challenging on large sites with a wide
range of facilities. The network of paths connecting various areas should be clear. A balance
needs to be struck between the obvious, which sometimes can be boring, and variety, which
may be confounding. The expert landscape designer and architect is able to offer interesting
diversions while making the site understandable. The 114 acre (46 hectare) site of Atlantis
Dubai stretches 1 mile (1.5 km) along the outermost arc of the Palm Resort Development and
includes a complex of venues, including a vast aquatic park and three-story aquarium, 17
restaurants, luxury boutiques, nightclubs, 6,000 sq ft (5,600 sq m) of meeting and function
space, and the iconic 1,539-key conjoined hotel towers, all connected by an intricate system of
pathways and waterways.

Four Seasons Resort, Hualalai, Hawaii

Inspired by the architecture of traditional Hawaiian villages, the resort fulfills the concept
of kipuka—a lushly landscaped paradise surrounded by molten lava flows. Guest suites were
designed to blur the distinction between indoor and outdoor space, an elaborate system of
sliding pocket doors and shutters providing the ability to completely open up many exterior
walls.
Table 13.1 Recreational facilities space requirements
Children's play 1,000–3,000 sq ft (93–280 sq m); varies by age group, play
area equipment, etc.
Swimming pool 40 × 82 ft (12 × 25 m); approximately five lanes
Racquetball 20 × 40 ft (6 × 12 m); add 10 ft (3 m) at back wall
Basketball 50 × 94 ft (15 × 28.7 m)
 Volleyball 30 × 60 ft (9 × 18 m); add 8 ft (2.4 m) around all sides
Tennis 36 × 78 ft (11 × 23.8 m); add minimum of 12 ft (3.7 m) around all
sides of court
Soccer 225 × 360 ft (68.6 × 109.7 m); championship field
Golf 160 to 180 acres (65 to 73 ha); 18 holes, including clubhouse,
parking, and practice areas.
Confirm precise dimensions with local sports authority.
A major consideration in planning the landscape is maintenance. Lushly planted gardens
give pleasure to all and, especially in tropical climates, offer an opportunity to exhibit local
specimens that impress outsiders with their exotic character. However, manicured gardens are
labor-intensive. In regions where labor costs are low, this is not a major factor and the designer
can create impressive gardens, a wonderful way to embellish a special spot. Small gardens can
have a strong visual presence without excessive labor and, for this reason, they often are part
of most hotel landscape schemes. It is important that designers consider water conservation,
especially in climates where it is a scarce resource. Recycling of wastewaters and retainage
reservoirs to supply the watering requirements of the resort are possible ways to deal with this
problem.
On large sites, a more practical approach is to allow nature to continue its course, or to
enhance the natural experience through the introduction of a few select elements. Such areas
should appear pristine and do not require excessive management. Unique attributes should be
preserved and highlighted.
Both gardens and natural landscape encourage a contemplative mood. People often come to
resorts in order to “get away from it all,” at least for part of the time. All resorts should have
some quiet outdoor places where one can be alone with nature. A simple bench with a tranquil
view can be highly restorative to the human soul. Water, too, can have a calming and cooling
effect. This is a major reason ocean- and lakefront properties are so popular. Long after a day
of swimming, sailing, surfing, and other water sport is over, the calm that one experiences from
watching the surf rush up the sand or the moonlight glisten on the water's surface is totally
relaxing. Even small bodies of water can have a soothing effect. On sites lacking major water
bodies, ponds can be carefully sited to create visual interest, as well as to collect surface and
subsurface waters, drain swamps that breed mosquitoes, act as cooling devices for mechanical
systems, or provide other useful functions.
Sporting activities are a major component of most resorts. Many recreational amenities
require relatively large expanses of flat land. Table 13.1 indicates what may be considered
space guidelines for different recreational features. In calculating actual space required, add as
much as 30 percent for small groups of onlookers and circulation.
The natural landscape is an increasingly scarce and valued resource, helping to foster the
green movement throughout the world. Today, many natural environments are protected,
whether locally, nationally, or globally. It is important that resorts and even hotels on smaller
parcels of land not disrupt the ecological balance. Many jurisdictions have strict legislation
regulating construction and other activity on designated sites. Resorts, in particular, need to
exceed the strict definition of the law. The lure of a resort comes from its natural setting, and
its continued success is highly dependent upon a quality environment free from pollution.
Increasingly, resort companies realize the benefits of taking leadership roles in protecting the
environment by achieving LEED or BREEAM certification through the utilization of design
and operational initiatives (see The Ecotourist Resort in Chapter 7).
 Older travelers are a growing proportion of resort guests. With time available for extended
stays, not limited to peak times, affluent

Four Seasons Resort, Bora Bora, Tahiti

Over-water bungalows, designed in the style of traditional island houses, are perhaps the
most romantic and certainly the most intimate accommodations in the South Pacific. The
bungalows are situated on stilts over a lagoon with relatively calm shallow water. Most have
sundecks and platforms from which you can step directly into the lagoon waters for
swimming or snorkeling or to contemplate the sunset. In locations susceptible to tropical
storms the structures must be made strong enough to withstand storm surge.
retirees are a major source of revenue for resorts. The operator needs to meet their particular
needs, including provisions for less intense activities like golf pitch, shuffleboard, pools that
exclude children and fast swimmers, game rooms for playing cards, walking paths free of
obstacles, and other amenities that do not demand a high level of exertion.
Where resorts are relatively remote from a community that offers an available labor supply,
it may be necessary to provide housing, recreational amenities, and other services to attract
staff. These employee facilities must be wholly separate from the guest areas. Another
approach is to build a community for staff close by but outside the confines of the resort
property. This is particularly worthwhile where staff accommodations include space for family
members, offering a more stable workforce.
Often, in these remote locations, the indigenous population lives in remarkable harmony
with the environment. Over centuries the people have developed a language to shape their
surroundings, making use of local materials, adding unique details and embellishments, and
adapting simple technologies to their structures. Developers and designers may choose to apply
features learned from this vernacular architecture. It is possible for a modern resort, with all
the comforts a Western tourist expects, to fit in with its more humble surroundings, with respect
to both its built form and its landscape.
 In tropical climates the distinction between inside and outside is not as rigid as it is in
temperate zones. The spilling out of interior functions onto adjacent exterior spaces is highly
appealing and can occur through most of the year. In such instances, terraces become an outside
bridge between the hotel proper and the landscape. Additionally, functions that normally occur
indoors, such as meals, can be located outdoors and away from the main hotel building, perhaps
in a small pavilion that might protect yet highlight food and beverage activities. Meals set in
an exotic landscape can become special occasions. To provide better service, these outdoor
areas need a connection to the kitchen and other back-of-house areas, ideally out of view of the
guests. Setups away from the main reception areas of the hotel offer privacy and can be used
by non-resident

Four Seasons Resort, Republic of Seychelles

One of Web Structures' primary goals in designing this resort was to minimize disturbance to
the natural beauty and the ecological balance of the site. An existing lake on site has been
rejuvenated and used as a natural retention pond to retain and filter rainwater before the
overflow is allowed to enter the ocean.
groups, such as local businesses, passing tour groups, or a wedding, without disturbing resort
guests.
Most resorts and large hotel complexes are built in phases. It may be difficult to raise the
needed large sums of capital initially, and investors prefer to test the demand. If a project is
successful, then expansion often follows. The designers should anticipate how the project
might grow and adapt and plan for a range of possible future modifications. For example, the
resort might add guestroom villas, or more function space, or recreational amenities. The
master plan would, say, locate the swimming pool in the first phase so that it won't impede
future construction of additional facilities. In addition, the early phases should provide the
engineering infrastructure to facilitate later tie-ins. The most profitable expansions are of
guestrooms, which are the least costly spaces to construct. However, the entire master plan
must contain sufficient amenities and services to support such an undertaking.
 Often, the scale of a resort hotel is overwhelming, especially where it is located in a less-
developed country with a simple indigenous architecture. One way to mitigate this contrast is
to situate the hotel adjacent to a prominent feature in the landscape that can help to integrate it
to its environment. The Four Seasons Seychelles Resort, built on a rugged site on Mahe Island,
exemplifies the principles of designing in harmony with the existing terrain. The development
was carefully crafted onto this sensitive site, which stretches from a coral beach to tropical
hillsides and rock outcrops. The goal of the architects and engineers was to minimize
disturbance to the natural beauty and the ecological balance of the site. Careful analysis needed
to be carried out in order to minimize the “cut-and-fill” earthwork necessary in the creation of
approximately 6 miles (10 km) of access roads. It was important to ensure the development did
not adversely affect the natural flow of rainwater on downhill slopes. Individual structures have
been painstakingly located and then adjusted at micro level to ensure existing rock outcrops
and vegetation are least disturbed. An existing lake on site was repaired for use as a natural
retention pond to retain and filter rainwater before the overflow is allowed to enter the ocean.

Suburban Sites
Developers of hotels in suburban locations must consider the impact of adjacent properties when
selecting a site. While zoning places some restrictions, largely on use (e.g., residential, commercial,
industrial, etc.), too many communities are lax in their regulation of commercial strip developments,
where hotels and motels might best be located. And in some communities there are no zoning
ordinances. Obviously, certain ventures are less compatible than others: manufacturing businesses are
surrounded by storage yards, automobile service stations may have abandoned vehicles on their sites,
and nightclubs and bars generate late-night activity that could disturb guests' sleep. Before selecting a
particular site, the developer needs to consider the benefits or negative impacts of the surrounding
activities. Some may generate additional room or food and beverage revenues; others may detract from
the experience by their appearance, or create noise or traffic congestion. The organization of the hotel
on the site can help minimize these impacts. Often, suburban hotels focus both public spaces and
guestrooms onto a landscaped courtyard and place the parking areas around the hotel in order to provide
a buffer zone to adjacent properties.
In addition, there are landscape devices to help block out incompatible neighbors. A high wall is an
extreme solution, and it places a hard confining edge at the hotel property, making it seem blocked in.
Trees are a much better solution. They contribute to a positive perception of the property, provide shade
in summer, protect from winds in the winter, muffle noise, and filter the air. Trees are widely used to
conceal, shade, and soften the parking areas of the site. They block out car headlights that can disturb
ground-floor guestrooms. The careful selection and placement of trees can create a sense of greater
space, privacy, and mystery, especially if planted with consideration of foreground, middle ground, and
background.
Hotels in suburban and provincial areas, especially if not near a major tourist attraction, cater to a
mix of business and transient guests, in addition to people visiting residents nearby. The hotel should
reflect the economic status of its community. Except in very wealthy districts, most suburban hotels fall
into mid-range categories. The image of a hotel can be greatly enhanced by thoughtful landscape design.
Even a small well-planted entrance court gives an essential favorable first impression to an arriving
guest. An avenue of trees offers a sense of formality and importance. However, the landscape design
should be appropriate to the hotel's price range or people may think that its rates are higher than they
can afford.
Lower- and mid-priced roadside hotels that attract a large number of guests in transit rely largely on
billboards to announce their presence. The signage should be designed to reinforce the image of the
hotel and respect the environment, while complying with local restrictions. Developers should be wary
of communities that ban highway advertisements because this may reduce their ability to attract guests.
The traffic generated by hotels must be acknowledged and properly managed. Traffic is a concern to
the hotel's neighbors, especially where the hotel is in a residential district. Understandably, homeowners
do not want the noise and pollution from guests' cars and, especially, from trucks making deliveries and
removing trash. The hotel itself offers little or no benefit to local residents. These are strong arguments,
often used to stop a hotel project. It is essential that early in the project an experienced traffic consultant
develop a clear strategy for handling vehicles to help deflect reservations which the community might
have. This also is indispensable for projects located in a town center.
With the dependence on guests arriving by automobile, it is advantageous to find a site near a major
highway intersection. However, the confluence of intersecting roadways can be confusing to travelers,
and access to the hotel still might be difficult. It is nearly impossible for the developer to change existing
roads to accommodate the hotel, so one should clearly understand traffic patterns before selecting what
might appear to be an opportune site. A site that might be difficult to reach because of a complicated
nexus of thoroughfares also can be an impediment to deliveries and staff. All such judgments need to
be reviewed, even before the site is purchased.
Finding an adequate labor force is increasingly difficult. Staff for suburban hotels may drive—
increasing the demand for parking— but many depend on public transportation to reach the property.
Therefore, finding a site close to bus or train lines is important, and this may even assist hotel guests,
who can leave their car at the hotel during the day. In some locations, management may organize car
pools or provide bussing from outlying areas. It is unusual, but possible, for the hotel site to be within
walking distance of residential areas where staff might live. For further discussion on roadside inns and
motels see Chapter 4.

Urban Sites
In the denser urban areas, virtually the entire site is covered by the hotel building. The hotel is
a closed container for all its functions. Even if there is open space at ground level, it usually is
reserved for a porte cochère, fountain or artwork, and incidental plantings that soften the
building's edge—and possibly an outdoor space where guests can relax or dine. It is possible,
in addition, to take advantage of areas where the building steps back, creating a terrace, or
rooftops, for outdoor amenities. An outdoor swimming pool on the roof of a multi-story urban
building can command breathtaking views. Al fresco dining on an upper-floor terrace, with its
lush plantings and separation from the street noise and pollution, can provide a valuable asset
and differentiate an urban hotel's lounge or restaurant from that of its competitors.
In many industrialized nations, the rural and suburban areas often are relatively homogenous
with respect to income levels, while urban areas offer a striking contrast. The range of hotel
types reflects this difference. The most luxurious hotels are in major cities. Upscale hotels vie
for the most prominent sites, close to expensive shops, museums, concert halls, business
centers, parks, and other major attractions. Their guests have access to private cars and taxis.
The cities also offer a market for budget accommodations, which may be located in fringe areas
but should be close to such public
Marriott Place, Indianapolis, Indiana
Four Marriott-branded hotels share the city block, with three entrance courts and a major
loading dock. One entrance court, which serves the Fairfield Inn and has access to the
Springhill Suites and Courtyard hotels, is called Art Plaza and features a 36 ft (11 m) tall red
steel abstract sculpture of a cardinal, the Indiana state bird. The art-filled plaza has become a
public amenity for downtown residents and employees.
transportation centers as train and long-distance coach stations, or local bus and subway stops.
This convenience is especially important to travelers who carry their own baggage.
Parking in cities is increasingly restricted to limit traffic congestion, especially in the central
business cores. For hotels, valet parking, using a nearby parking garage, may be an option.
Parking beneath the hotel requires enormous capital investment and the integration of elevators,
mechanical ventilation, and sprinklers. While underground parking can cost at least five times
more than the construction of surface parking, it does provide both safety and convenience to
guests. Mid-range hotels, which have the highest required ratio of cars to guestrooms, are most
challenged by the need for and expense of providing parking on site.
Loading docks are a necessary component of hotels. Noisy, unsightly, and smelly, they
should be located well away from public entrances to a hotel, ideally on a different street, where
delivery and trash removal trucks do not meet with vehicles bringing guests to the hotel.
Security demands often mean that VIP and celebrity guests, including heads of state and their
entourages, enter a hotel by a back entrance, all too often via the loading dock area. Therefore,
where this may occur they should be well protected from view and designed for secondary
access to the public areas. For further discussion on urban hotels see Chapter 2.

Analyzing the Project Site

In understanding the larger issues that make a site suitable for a hotel or resort, the development and
design team must study more fully the characteristics of the property itself—terrain, soil conditions,
utility availability—as well as governmental regulations and other factors. The site information, along
with the hotel program and market demand data, are the major elements which form the basis for the
project design.

Site Characteristics
A first step is the topographical survey, which establishes a base map for the site. From the survey the
designer may immediately identify several design opportunities, as well as a number of constraints. For
example, the grade or slope of the land influences the eventual building location and its entrances, both
public or service, including such details as disabled accessibility, baggage handling, and truck access
to the loading areas. On a larger scale, roads and walkways must be planned for access to various site
components, recreational amenities sited, and “view corridors” established. Accuracy is essential. An
inaccurate survey can create innumerable problems in every aspect of the development: utilities,
parking, landscaping, recreational areas, entrances, structure, zoning and building codes, and so forth.
Finally, there are major cost implications in determining cut-and-fill, or the amount of excavation and
grading necessary.
The survey also maps the boundary and locates features such as existing buildings, trees, and fences.
War stories abound regarding lawsuits between neighbors who accidentally, or unknowingly, build a
fence or building on an adjoining site. Even government planning documents must be taken as
guidelines and not accepted as gospe without careful confirmation. The site survey must prove the edges
and locate all site features, natural and manmade.
The initial site survey generally does not provide information on soil type or bearing capacity. For
larger projects, and those requiring extensive foundations, additional site investigations are required to
understand soil characteristics such as erosion potential, acidity, porosity, plasticity, compressibility,
and its richness for landscaping. In rural sites, which might need both wells for water and a septic
system, the type of soil can have a great impact on the budget. Also, good topsoil should be saved and
shifted, to be reused later in the landscaping phase.
 The subsurface conditions, such as the height of the water table and the bearing capacity, are no less
important and also have serious financial implications. Early in the project, a geotechnical engineering
firm should take a set of soil borings to answer a range of questions: Is the ground rock or loose soil?
Is it uniform throughout the site? Is it relatively wet or dry? What are the natural drainage patterns?
What types of foundations are most suitable to the soil conditions? The geotechnical report should help
the architect and structural engineers make appropriate and cost-effective design decisions

Government Regulations
A second major element affecting the site and building design is the set of government land-use and
building regulations in place. Prior to acquiring the site, the developer should be familiar with the
pertinent regulations and know how they will influence the project. Most people see these as
constraining the hotel development in some way—limiting the number of floors, requiring a certain
number of parking spaces, or establishing environmental conditions. However, the regulations also
serve to protect the owner from inappropriate development on adjoining property in the future, and
establish a baseline for a good-quality project. Typical regulations include the following general
categories:
•Zoning
•Building and health
•Historic preservation
•Ecological conservation
•Community interests
Zoning codes establish the overriding parameters for site development by mandating what and how
much can be constructed. The city (or other jurisdiction) is divided into many “use” zones (residential,
commercial, industrial, etc.) with very specific regulations for each. Each of several commercial zones
identified on the map, for instance, will have different requirements for set-backs (distance between the
building and the property lines), height (number of feet or meters or number of foors), density (number
of units per acre or hectare), parking and loading spaces, and so forth. Zoning restrictions vary widely;
in rural sites, construction may be limited to
Four Seasons Firenze, Florence, Italy
The Four Seasons Firenze is set within a historic 11 acre (4.5 hectare) private garden,
Giardino della Gherardesca, in the heart of Florence. Restoration of the priceless garden
received nearly as much attention from historic preservation agencies as the historic buildings
within it.
two or three stories, or it may not even be regulated. Urban zones may vary from a maximum height of
three to six floors in residential districts to no limit in downtown business districts. In some cases, land
parcels may be combined and air rights purchased, to enable a larger development than would be
permitted on one site alone.
The zoning maps are based upon the desire of the community to control certain types of development
and to separate incompatible uses from each other. Bonuses may be given in exchange for amenities
such as public access or public space. The lack of availability of public services may limit some projects,
which impose demands on the fire department, schools, libraries, road capacity, and utilities—
particularly water supply and sewage. In smaller cities, developers have purchased new fire equipment,
such as a ladder truck, which, in turn, removed the municipality's objection to the project and facilitated
its approval.
Meeting early with the local city planning department or the building department is useful. They are
the source for up-to-date information, will render preliminary interpretations of the zoning and building
codes, and help identify other requirements imposed by additional regulatory agencies. Some
communities require consideration by a regional planning office, or oceanfront towns may defer to a
coastal commission. Projects in sensitive areas may be required to complete a lengthy environmental
impact statement, which often is used by communities as a roadblock to slow down unwanted
development. These sites may include wetlands and food zones, requiring consultation with the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. As the project moves forward, other agencies become involved, looking at
such details as utility connections, waste removal, signs, lighting, and overhanging objects such as
canopies.
 The developer should never discount the interests of the local community. It is a good practice to
draw in the community early in the planning process, to understand and address their concerns. The
developer, then, can more easily apply for needed variances or exceptions, or can request special FAR
bonuses if the city is so inclined.
The Standard, New York, New York
The idea of urban hotels interfacing with public plazas and parks takes on new meaning when
the park literally passes through the hotel. The High Line, a section of a former elevated
railroad spur, has become a popular destination for residents and tourists. The hotel has
become as much a part of the High Line experience as the linear park has for hotel guests.

Developing the Project Site Plan

In establishing the concept for the site development, it is critical that the owner prioritize the program
and goals. Some issues are more important than others, and value judgments must be made. Are views
from the public areas or guestrooms more important? Is it necessary or desirable to separate different
guest segments, say families and business travelers? How important is conserving a portion of the site
for future development? Is the budget an absolute figure? And so forth.
Who has this responsibility? The project developer must prepare a statement of criteria and
objectives, which becomes the guiding document for the entire project. The architect and other
consultants should refer back to this overriding philosophy as they proceed, over months or years, to
make countless design decisions which, together, create the resort “idea” that the guest experiences.
But it is the site plan that offers one of the greatest opportunities to influence the project, its functional
design, budget, customer reaction, and eventual success. Of course, a resort or other lodging type can
have nearly any character, depending on the location, qualities of the site, owner's objectives, market
segments, and so forth. Luxury retreats can be grand or imposing or, just as easily, homey and
comfortable; resorts can be designed in the local vernacular or in a more international style; business
hotels more often may have a corporate feel, but in Orlando, for example, as in other locations, the most
successful hotels carry a theme. While other important operational aspects can be changed, the design
is for the long term.
In addition to the character of the design feel, the architect and others need to integrate a range of
practical functional objectives. The best designs accommodate these functional and operational aspects
while they also create a special ambience, appropriate to the site and market. That balance is essential.

Accessibility and Circulation

Two key issues that are important to the guests' arrival at the site are visibility of the entrances and
appropriate signage. This can be accomplished by any of several means, including sight lines, road-
widening, lighting, divided highways, planting, and graphics. But the entrance to the site, and,
specifically, the location and number of curb cuts, must be coordinated with the city or highway
department. Larger projects and those in congested areas benefit from the analysis of a traffic consultant,
who may lead negotiations with the local authorities to obtain highway modifications for the benefit of
the project. These might include a new highway exit, turning lanes, traffic lights, or pedestrian or
vehicular bridges and underpasses.
Once the guest has arrived on site, the major objectives are to separate vehicular and pedestrian routes
and to conceal service circulation. Suburban sites may have limited pedestrian circulation except for
movement across the parking lot, but resorts require careful study and design to protect the ambience
of the locale from being overwhelmed by vehicles. All projects need to design the access to the service
areas, primarily loading, trash, and employee entrance, for maximum efficiency, while avoiding cross-
circulation or inconvenience to guests. During the conceptual design, the traffic consultant should study
the plan and indicate possible problems caused by the location of roadways, parking, and public and
service entrances.
Surface parking often is the single largest site component of a hotel development. Of course, tight
urban sites may have no on-site parking, yet alternative arrangements must be considered, including
valet service, and expensive on-site underground parking may be necessary. In several European cities,
automated high-density parking systems exist to lessen the space requirements. In North America, about
200 sq ft (18.5 sq m) per car is typically allotted for valet parking, and up to 350 sq ft (32.5 sq m) is
needed for guest self-parking, including aisles and ramps. The developer needs to consider the
importance of proximity of parking to the lobby and guestrooms, and how often guests may use their
cars, ranging from several trips per day in rural and suburban sites to infrequent use in urban locations
(see Chapter 17, Tables 17.12 and 17.13).

View
Once guests arrive in their hotel room, among the first things that they do is to open the drapes and look
out of the window to check the view. This natural instinct speaks volumes about the importance of this
feature. Dealing with guestroom views is crucial in selecting the site, orienting the buildings, developing
the building form, and designing the pattern of windows, or fenestration. Not every building is a high-
rise, not every site is blessed with 360-degree views, so something must be done to compensate the
guest. The site designer may create interesting features or manipulate the terrain in ways to enhance the
views. These may be as simple as designing small gardens or pleasant landscape vistas, or directing
views across the swimming pool or tennis courts or into an interior atrium. Where there is a truly special
view, of mountains or the beach, for instance, and if project budget and orientation permit, the building
may be constructed as a single-loaded corridor scheme, with rooms only on the view side and the
hallway on the other.

Utilities
Although not a particularly glamorous aspect of project development, the impact of such utilities as
electrical power, telephone, water, and sewerage must be understood early on. In urban locations these
can be assumed to be present, as are, perhaps, natural gas and high-speed data lines. But rural locations
and small island sites may have a limited utility infrastructure. What is the source of these services?
What are the factors that govern their acquisition? Are they available in the quantity required on site,
or is it necessary to upgrade existing services or bring in completely new ones? After an analysis of the
costs from the local utility company, the developer may determine that it is better to have an on-site
plant to take care of the project's needs. In some locations, utility deregulation has forced utility
companies to compete for rates and even to purchase excess power from private users.
 The cost of these services can be a major component of the operating expenses of the hotel or resort,
generally falling between 3 and 5 percent of total revenues. Early investigation into the local cost of
electricity, gas, fuel oil, and even solar or wind power as the predominant fuel source is necessary.
Recently, and into the foreseeable future, a procedure called “peak shaving” will have an increasing
impact on the bottom line. This is most effective where demand charges for electrical energy are high,
and may involve the use of multiple fuel sources. During peak-rate periods for electricity, the system
automatically cycles certain equipment off and on to lower demand, or shifts power to alternative
sources such as gas or solar.

Four Seasons Resort, Langkawi, Malaysia

The 91-key tropical beachfront resort is surrounded by thick jungle, lush foliage, and
dramatic cliffs. The guest pavilions and villas are skillfully arranged around a series of pools
and lagoons, contributing to the tranquil atmosphere of the luxury resort.

Natural Landscape
Understanding how to use the natural landscape to benefit the site and building designs is important in
increasing guest appreciation of the project and reducing construction and operating costs. The
topographic plan identifies areas where excessive slope might mandate expensive grading and the
construction of retaining walls. But, also, these areas may offer among the best for views and, with
proper landscaping, can be among the memorable areas at a property.
Plants of all types—trees, shrubs, grasses, gardens, and so forth— provide obvious yet significant
benefits to a site. Consider a barren site and how much more pleasant a landscaped courtyard or simple
lawn is by comparison. Trees and large plants offer cooling shade and protect guests from
uncomfortable glare. They offer handsome visual effects—defining views, providing a sheltering
canopy and flowering buds, screening unwanted elements—at the same time as contributing to nature
by sheltering small animals, encouraging ground cover, or retaining soil and moisture. Deciduous trees
change with the season, offering a variety of effects, while conifers provide year-round shelter, useful
as a windbreak or snow barrier in the colder months.
The soil on the site can readily support the indigenous vegetation, but the landscape architect will
have to determine whether it is suitable for the new landscape plan and how well it is likely to survive
the rigors of construction. Any major trees on the site may be worth
Table 13.2 Checklist of site and outdoor furnishings

Seating: Permanent, moveable

Lighting: Overhead, bollards, in ground flush, ornamental, directional, architectural

Trees: Grates, guards

Bollards: Illuminated, vehicular

Fencing: Ornamental, territorial, security

Utilities: Sewer covers, site drains

Waste receptacles: Built-in, freestanding, material choice

Signage: Directional, destination, informational

Bicycle racks

Gazebos

Kiosks

Planters

Clocks

Flag poles

protecting. The designer might decide to make special efforts to save unique plant specimens; otherwise,
suitable replacements will have to be selected. There is an art to arranging the landscape environment,
to selecting plants for particular aesthetic and functional requirements, as well as planning the
circulation and building and other functional elements of the site.
One opposite but related element is the design of the small site structures and the selection of
complementary site furnishings. These items, listed in Table 13.2, are best when they seem to disappear
into the landscape, whether through color, material, or clever position, yet they need to be present to
serve a variety of guest functional needs.
Four Seasons Resort Langkawi illustrates the goal of blending indigenous architecture with lush
tropical vegetation to obtain a distinctive look. Presiding over a 1 mile (1.5 km) expanse of Tanjung
Rhu cove, Langkawi's most beautiful beach, the resort is fringed by silvery sands, lush rainforests,
mountain landscapes, and emerald waters. Individual pavilions are scattered throughout, with exquisite
landscaped gardens in the style of a native village. The seamless blending of Asian, Indian, and Arabic
influences creates a uniquely Malaysian milieu, while each pavilion offers timber floorings, soaring
ceilings, open-air verandas, and views to the Andaman Sea or tropical gardens.
Table 13.3 Security options

Electronic surveillance, including intelligence-enabled camera network

Emergency command station near entrances and loading dock and connected with a central
command-and-control center

Alarm or enunciator panel located at command station with backup panel in security office

Security-guard staff

Staff trained in security awareness

Trained voluntary fire-protection team

Fire alarm system

Fire annunciation system (activated by floors or controlled by telephone switchboard)

Design of site and buildings to include good surveillance and architectural barriers

Site lighting

Staff ID procedures

Roadways with clearance for emergency vehicles

Security alarms on walk-in refrigerators and freezers, liquor, golf, silver and china storage

Real-time intrusion-detection and threat-assessment technology

Security
Security threats to the hotel industry come in two basic forms: the casual petty criminal/intruder, and
the more serious professional intruder, or terrorist. Terrorist attacks targeting hotels and resorts, as with
the attacks on The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai and the North Caucasus ski resorts in Russia,
have brought about a heightened concern for security against these dangerous threats in addition to the
customary concerns over theft, robbery, and personal assault. This is of particular concern where the
hotel or resort is a frequent host to political figures and dignitaries who are prime targets for militants.
The hotel or resort operator must strive to create an environment in which the guest feels safe and secure
without any security features being too obvious, utilizing cutting-edge convergent IT and security
technologies. (See Chapter 19.) The developer needs to give early thought to establishing a security
plan for the site, and may seek the help of a consultant to identify threats and devise strategies for
control. Among the common security and safety issues which the team must address are overall guest
and employee security and safety, general crime reduction, fire and life safety, and emergency medical
response. Table 13.3 lists many of the specific ways in which security may be achieved. Strategies
include monitoring access to the site and buildings where traffic is relatively light, and minimizing the
number of entry points. The perimeter areas should be designed using the natural characteristics of the
site landscaping, supplemented by walls, fences, TV surveillance, and motion detectors to discourage
intruders.

Four Acres Hotel and Residences, Scottsdale, Arizona

Located along the Arizona Canal with 134 hotel keys and 46 residential units, the design by
Ronnette Riley Architect and Mathes Brierre Architects called for two crescent-shaped
towers connected by a broad promenade and banquet facilities. The pool deck is located over
the ballroom, with fountains feeding a waterfall that cascades over the glass-enclosed
promenade and into a lush garden pond below.

Professional Documentation
The site development aspects of a major project—say, a suburban hotel, conference center, or resort—
plays a major role in the design studies and eventual building plans and construction documents. The
previous discussion has touched on some of the types of special consultants who might be called on for
their expertise—many more are needed for the hotel itself—and who contribute to the creation of a
series of documents needed for construction. These include:
•Site plan showing all features
•Grading plans or contour maps
•Utility layouts
•Planting schemes
•Lighting plan
•Construction details
•Vehicular and pedestrian circulation plans
Armani Hotel Lobby, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Located in the iconic Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, is the first hotel designed by
Italian fashion leader Giorgio Armani. The “stay with Armani” experience is exemplified by
the clean design, fine finishes, and many amenities in the luxury hotel. Guests can participate
in the Armani lifestyle experience by taking home items purchased from the designer's in-
house retail outlets.
 CHAPTER
14
Programming and Development

On its surface, the idea of developing a lodging property seems fairly simple: the developer conceives
a new project, buys the land, hires the architect, acquires financing, builds the structure, and opens the
hotel or resort—to great success. But, in reality, it is more complex and fraught with risk. Part 1 of this
book describes the tremendous variety of competitive hotel types—which one is best for a particular
site and market? How are the market needs assessed? Who is the customer and what facilities does he
or she really need and expect? What skills are needed in the design team and what specialized
consultants should be hired? And so forth.
Therefore, developing the successful hotel requires bringing together the experience of scores of
professionals from real estate, finance, design, construction, hotel operations, and many other
disciplines, whose work then must be coordinated and channeled to complete the project—defined by
the market requirements and the architect's design—both on time and on budget. The bubble diagram
(see overleaf) suggests one simple way to conceive a project: programming, design, cost estimating,
construction, and operations. It is easiest to describe the development process as a linear one, complete
the first step, then proceed to the next, and so forth. But it seldom happens that way. Development is
messy, with lots of false starts and circling back to reassess a decision. The diagram implies just that.
At each step you may need to consider altering some of the previous decisions, to change the market
orientation, for example, or to reduce the project scope in order to save money. This chapter will discuss
some of the key aspects of development—project sequence, feasibility, and facilities programming—
and will introduce the concept of prototype development.
Project Sequence
Hotel projects follow the same general sequence as other development projects, but with some
important nuances. The future hotel operator, for instance, usually is involved from nearly the
first step, influencing the site selection, space program, choice of consultants, and so forth.
Therefore, it is best to consider how the principal management companies or “brands,” the
organizations with the development and operating experience, think about a new project, and
incorporate their methods.
Most of these companies have real estate professionals and architects on staff, who field
perhaps dozens of inquiries a day from developers with an idea for a new hotel or the desire to
reposition

Development flow chart

Based on market data and other research, the design team continually refines program,
budget, and design, utilizing development software to perfect new projects and prototypes.
an existing asset. The prospective operator needs to carefully assess the developer's experience
and financial wherewithal and balance this against the company's own strategic goals. Does it
have an appropriate lodging product to meet the developer's goals? Does it want to expand in
that region? At that particular site (airport, downtown)? At that quality level? And so forth. If
some of these can be answered in the affirmative, the technical staff from the management
company may help coordinate and provide guidance and feedback during some of these basic
steps:
•Evaluate the prospective site
•Complete a feasibility study
•Select the architect and design consultants
•Prepare a facilities program:
—Concept statement
—Area program
—Operational description
—Project budget
•Obtain financing
•Review the hotel design (schematic, design development, construction documents)
•Monitor construction and the hotel opening
One of the first steps, of course, is to confirm the location and particular site and assess its
suitability for a hotel. This is partly carried out in the feasibility study from a market standpoint,
but, equally importantly, the site needs to be evaluated from a design and construction
perspective. Often, the operator's technical assistance staff will visit the site to assess its
accessibility, visibility, and overall suitability for a hotel.

Feasibility Analysis
Among the first steps that the developer of a new hotel must take is to prepare a market study
and financial projections. The study, usually assembled by a consulting firm and further refined
by the management company's senior operations staff (if the hotel is to be chain-operated), has
two key aspects. First, it assesses present and future demand for lodging and such other hotel
services as meeting areas, restaurants and bars, and recreational facilities. Second, it estimates
operating income and expenses for 10 years after the hotel opens.
There is no single formula for success. Projects with optimistic feasibility studies may do
poorly, while occasionally those built despite a negative report do surprisingly well. However,
the more successful projects combine several ingredients: good location, continuing strong
demand, the proper mix of facilities, and professional management. To some extent, the
prototypical feasibility study common to the hotel industry critically assesses all these factors.
What these studies don't consider is the impact that outstanding design—whether architectural,
interior, or landscape—can make on a future property's success.
Feasibility studies often have differing objectives. Most are used to increase the confidence
of others in a project's success and to obtain permanent financing. Thus, often, it is a basic
component of the developer's package to prospective lenders. But feasibility studies also may
be used to obtain an operating franchise or management contract or to attract equity
participation. Similar reports but with different emphases may be used in negotiations with city
officials to support a developer's request for a zoning variance, or to reinforce his or her
contention that the project will increase local sales and real estate taxes and add new jobs.
Occasionally, in recent years, feasibility studies have been commissioned by a municipality,
public
Testing Hotel Feasibility
Steve Rushmore, MAI, FRICS
President and Founder, HVS
Mineola, New York
When designing a hotel the architect and development team need to create a project that
ultimately is feasible economically. Unless the hotel's owner is more ego-driven than
economically motivated, most investors are looking for a substantial return on their invested
capital. Since feasibility means different things to different people, let me provide my
perspective, as a hotel consultant who has completed thousands of studies on this topic.
The process I like to use for determining whether a proposed hotel is economically feasible
is to compare the total project cost (including land) with the hotel's estimated economic value
on the date it opens. A feasible project is one where the economic value is greater than the cost.
Accurately estimating the total project cost is a relatively simple process for the architect and
development team. However, determining the economic value is much more complicated.
 The first step in the valuation process is to perform a market study where the local hotel
demand is quantified and allocated among the supply of existing and proposed lodging
facilities. The allocation of roomnight demand is based on the relative competitiveness of each
hotel in the market. The end result is a projection of demand captured by the proposed subject
hotel, which is then converted into an estimate of annual occupancy. A similar procedure is
used to project the average room rate.
The second step is to project the hotel's operating revenue and expenses based on the
previously estimated occupancy and room rate, providing an estimate of annual net operating
income. Most consultants use a 5–10 year period, meaning the calculation needs to be repeated
for each year.
The last step is to convert the projected net operating income into an estimate of value using
a weighted cost-of-capital discounted-cash-flow procedure. The end result is an estimate of
economic value that can be compared to the total project cost.
Some consultants, for the last step, will substitute a net present value (NPV) calculation or
determine the internal rate of return (IRR). However, I prefer using the economic value
approach because you end up comparing “apples with apples”—i.e., cost with value.
As you can see, this process of determining economic value requires local market
knowledge, hotel financial expertise, and experience with valuation methodology. Luckily for
architects and hotel developers, there are two simple rules-of-thumb that will provide a rough
approximation as to whether a project is economically feasible.
The first thumb rule tests the cost of the land to determine whether it exceeds a supportable
economic land value. The following formula calculates economic land value:

To illustrate this, assume that a proposed hotel is being considered on a parcel of land that can
be acquired for $3,800,000. Zoning permits the development of 200 rooms. Basing our estimate
on local market conditions, we believe the proposed hotel should achieve a stabilized
occupancy of 70 percent and an average room rate of $150. Using these inputs, the economic
land value would be calculated as follows:

The calculation shows that the economic land value is above the cost of the land, so the
developer is not overpaying for the land. If the land cost was $4,000,000 or above, the
developer would need to reevaluate the project, because this price is not supported by the hotel's
underlying economics. If additional rooms were added or a higher-quality hotel were
developed, the value would perhaps be positive. This economic land value formula works well
in most markets; however, for prime center-city locations the 0.04 factor can be modified
upward to 0.08.
The second rule-of-thumb is the average rate multiplier formula. This is a very simple way
to approximate a hotel's total economic value. The formula is as follows:
Using the numbers from this example produces an economic value of $30 million. If the hotel's
total development cost is much over $30,000,000, there could be a problem with its feasibility.
In most cases, if the development cost is significantly higher than the economic value, it is
because the local market's average room rate is too low to support the contemplated
improvements. In these situations, the proposed plans and specifications need to be scaled back
in order to produce a lower total project cost, which might then create a feasible project.
One additional point of reference looks at the percentage relationship between the hotel's
land cost and the economic value. In this example, the value of the land is approximately 13
percent of the overall economic value of the hotel ($3,832,500/30,000,000 = 13 percent). This
relationship should be no more than 15 to 20 percent. In parts of the world where labor costs
are much lower, this percentage relationship can be higher.
Using these hotel feasibility rules-of-thumb combined with a professionally prepared study
will ensure that the architect and developer are creating an economically viable project. Of
course, there are numerous exceptions that may need to be considered in the evaluation. Before
abandoning a project because the rules-of-thumb don't produce the desired results, it is
advisable to call in a professional hotel consultant to prepare a fuller analysis that will either
verify or dispute the conclusions produced by the rules-of-thumb.
agency, or—in developing countries—the national government, in an attempt to attract new
private development.
Only infrequently do these studies actually assess the feasibility of a project. This is because
any calculation of relative success depends on much more than the objective analysis of the
lodging market. Not only does it depend on accurate projections of future conditions, but it also
must take into account such confidential factors as the developer's investment strategies and
tax status.
Assuming the study doesn't go beyond projecting net operating income (NOI), or cash flow
available after fixed charges (real estate taxes, property insurance, reserve for replacement, and
management fee), the typical outline includes:
•Local area evaluation: Analyze the economic vitality of the city or region and describe the
suitability of the project site for a hotel.
•Lodging market analysis: Assess the present demand for lodging (and other revenue
generators) and future growth rates for each of several market segments; identify the existing
supply of competitive properties and anticipate additions to the supply; and assess the
competitive position of the subject property.
•Proposed facilities: Propose a balance of guestroom and public facilities, including
restaurants, bars, meeting and banquet rooms, retail shops, recreation facilities, and parking.
•Financial analysis: Estimate income and expenses for the hotel over a 10-year period to show
its potential cash flow.
However, these sections are not treated in equal detail in the typical study. The parts that have
the most direct relationship to the architectural solution—the site analysis and the facilities
program— are the least highly refined. The supply-and-demand analyses and the financial
projections, on the other hand, are the most specific, understandably, since the study is prepared
by market and economic consultants. Unfortunately, too often the study does not give full
enough consideration to trends beginning to influence the market and their possible impact on
the project design. The following discussion and the accompanying tables, adapted from an
actual report, highlight the principal aspects of a typical hotel feasibility analysis.
Analyzing the Local Area
As a prelude to the market analysis, most feasibility studies present data illustrating the economic
climate in the area—from the entire city or region to the particulars of the specific project site. Many
critics consider them no more than “boiler-plate,” yet they are helpful in providing necessary
background to lenders from outside the local community and in establishing a relative sense of the
different lodging markets. In broad terms, the local analysis includes:
•Growth trends in population, employment, income, tax receipts, new construction, airport
data, etc.
•Major public and private facilities, including those for education, health, government,
transportation, religion, tourism, etc.
•Travel and visitor analysis, including volume and percentage of traffic by car, air, train, bus,
and ship, as appropriate
The emphases of the study should reflect the probable type of hotel project. For example, a resort hotel
would be only marginally concerned with industrial and commercial influences, perhaps as secondary
markets for off-season periods. Instead, it should focus on natural attractions and recreational
opportunities in the area, and on airline and highway networks from the principal feeder markets. For
the same reason, area analyses for hotels sited near a university, a major medical complex, or a high-
tech development should deal with trends influencing these specialized demand-generators—perhaps
high-level training sessions—rather than with those of the larger industrial and commercial sector.
The area evaluation also should include a detailed site analysis. In addition to the obvious site
description—size, boundaries, topography, and so forth—the analysis should emphasize visibility,
accessibility, and suitability to hotel use. The first two are most critical for motel and other roadside
properties that attract predominantly highway business, much of it from travelers without previous
reservations. The suitability discussion may emphasize such site advantages or potential constraints as
views, natural features, proximity to local attractions or businesses, adjacent uses, room for expansion,
zoning, and utility availability.

Analyzing the Lodging Market

The largest part of the feasibility study is the analysis of the demand for guestrooms and other
hotel services and the enumeration of existing competitive hotel rooms. The study must
acknowledge future shifts in demand, as individual market segments expand or contract and as
neighborhoods undergo change. Making assumptions about these future changes, as well as
about growth rates, improves the sophistication of the analysis but adds considerably to its risk.
Table 14.1 Existing lodging demand by hotel and market segment

Table 14.2 Future area-wide lodging demand by market segment

Therefore, the developer must be prepared to analyze and review the consultant's assumptions.
The demand for lodging can be calculated in two complementary ways. In one approach, the
consultant assembles estimates of the need for guestrooms from interviews and meetings with
local business people representing the various generators of lodging demand: industries,
government and commercial offices, universities, medical centers, amusement parks, and so
forth. For the most part, the demand is separated into three major market segments: convention
and other group business, individual commercial business, and leisure travelers. Occasionally,
the report may identify airline crews or senior-citizen tour groups, for example, where these or
other specific markets are a key component of the business. It analyzes each segment
thoroughly in terms of its weekday/weekend characteristics, seasonality, price sensitivity,
amount of double occupancy, and, most importantly, its anticipated growth over the succeeding
several years. At the same time, the report should assess the potential for group meeting
business, restaurant and spa demand, and requirements for other hotel services and amenities.
The second, and quicker, way to estimate total demand—although with important
limitations—is to know the current year's occupancy rates at the competitive hotels. Totaling a
simple calculation for each hotel (number of rooms × average occupancy percentage × 365
days) results in a figure that represents the annual area-wide demand for guestrooms.
Unfortunately, the use of average occupancy rates fails to take into account daily or seasonal
fluctuations in demand and, importantly, does not identify the “fll days,” when the local hotels
are at 100 percent occupancy and must turn away potential guests. Also, not all operators are
willing to provide accurate data on their business.
The consultant estimates future demand for each segment by extending the current-demand
figures using various growth rates. These inflation factors—critical to the conclusions of the
market study—are based on identifiable trends, economic projections, and the consultant's
judgment and experience. A simplified market segment analysis, including the application of
growth factors, is shown in Tables 14.1 and 14.2.
Similarly, the consultant prepares a table which sets out the competitive hotels or
“competitive supply,” showing their physical characteristics (number of guestrooms; capacity
of restaurants, bars, meeting and banquet areas; amount of recreation facilities and parking)
and fundamental operating statistics (occupancy percentage, “rack” or listed rates, average
rate—the result of group discounts or promotional rates—and double occupancy). In smaller
communities, or where there are few or no competitors in the subject property's class, less
competitive hotels may be added to the analysis. The consultant should adjust the supply
analysis for future years to reflect the construction of additional hotels, the expansion of
existing properties, the renovation and repositioning of lower-quality hotels, as well as any
anticipated deletions from the market.
Table 14.3 Future lodging demand by hotel and market segment in Year +2
The existing total demand comes from Year +2 in the previous table.
The proposed hotel's fair share of each market segment is 30 percent (300 of 1,000 total rooms);
its own market share depends on its relative location, facilities, chain affiliation, etc.
This example shows that the proposed hotel will do best (120 percent penetration) in the Group segment.

Next, the consultant establishes the competitive standing of the proposed hotel by assessing
its location, size, facilities, rate, and quality level versus the existing properties. This part of
the analysis focuses on guestroom occupancy percentage and average room rate. The concept
of “fair share,” which assumes that a new hotel will attract at least its proportionate share of
the aggregate market demand, is at the center of the competitive evaluation. On occasion, the
consultants may propose that a particular hotel will capture more (or less) than its fair share of
a specific market segment because of its location, facilities, chain affiliation, or, perhaps,
nothing more than its newness.
This refinement of the aggregate demand figures allows the consultant to begin to assign
occupied guestrooms to area hotels in proportion to their current standing, as modified by the
introduction of the new property into the marketplace. Commonly, guestroom occupancy
during the first two or three years is several percentage points below a stabilized or target
operating year, because the hotel needs this time to develop its full sales potential. The third
year is frequently used as the standard to represent the probable operating results in a stable
year. Table 14.3, carrying forward the earlier example, illustrates how hotel occupancies
dramatically suffer when additional rooms are added to the market.
In addition to guestroom occupancy, the feasibility report projects estimated average room
rates for the new hotel, based on existing rates at similar quality hotels inflated to “future
dollars.” The average rate is expanded to represent total room sales for each year, and this
figure, based on numerous assumptions and estimates, provides the basis for many of the
financial projections, briefly discussed later in this chapter.

Defining the Proposed Facilities

Feasibility consultants include in the body of the report a general description of the proposed
facilities. As illustrated here, this description includes the following elements, outlined in only
the broadest terms:
•Number and mix of guestrooms and suites
•Number of restaurants and lounges with their capacities
•Amount of meeting and banquet facilities, with their capacities or floor area
•Health club and other recreational facilities
•Parking
•Additional amenities, such as retail shops, entertainment, and any special services
The facilities description, substantially based on the supply-and-demand analysis, is the one
section of the report that most directly influences the pre-design and planning phases of the
hotel development project. It establishes the number of guestrooms and lists the major public
facilities that provide the order-of-magnitude framework for the preliminary space program
(see Table 14.4). Although the report briefly describes the public areas, it neglects entirely the
back-of-house service areas and administrative offices.
Some developers feel that the typical definition of the public areas isn't detailed enough.
They request that the consultants identify specific operational and design features that will help
assure the hotel's
Table 14.4 Proposed facilities list
Guestrooms Units Bays
King 150 150
Double-double 125 125
Accessible (king and double-double) 10 10
Suite (one-bay; connects to two guestrooms) 9 9
Suite (two-bay; connects to two guestrooms) 6 12
Club-floor executive lounge 0 4
Manager's residence 0 0
Total 300 310
Food and beverage outlets Seats
Three-meal restaurant 120
Specialty restaurant 80
Cocktail lounge 0
Lobby bar/lounge 90
Total 300
Function rooms
Ballroom 700
Meeting and banquet rooms, total 400
Boardroom (included above) 0
Total 1,100
Other public facilities
Indoor swimming pool
Health club, sauna, exercise room
Retail shops 2,000 sq ft (185 sq m)
Parking 350 spaces
success, and that they discuss how these influence the positioning of the hotel. Many studies,
though, do little more than suggest that the property “will be developed as a first-class hotel
and be expertly managed and promoted.”
It is common for the hotel management company, the future chain operator, to review the
feasibility recommendations critically and to modify them to reflect its own operating strategies
as well as its own perceptions about the local market. While depending on the feasibility report
for background material and for the objective judgment of experienced hospitality consultants,
some sophisticated developers may alter significant portions of the facilities outline or the
occupancy and rate assumptions, to better support their own image of the project.

Preparing the Financial Analysis

In addition to the main body of the feasibility study, which analyzes the local area, identifies supply-
and-demand characteristics, and proposes a project of a specific size, the full report includes a second
principal part, the financial projections. This section contains 15 to 30 pages of financial tables
projecting income and expenses for the subject property for 10 years following its opening
(see Appendix D).
The financial analysis is based on averages of hotel operations established by several major financial
services and consulting firms, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, PKF Consulting, and HVS Global
Hospitality Services. These and other international consulting frms, as well as Smith Travel Research,
regularly publish annual statistics comparing hotels by size, region, type, age, and, for smaller
properties, those with and without restaurants. The developer of a new property should be familiar with
the basic organization of, and approximate values reflected in, these industry statistics.
In selecting the feasibility consultant, the developer should seek a firm with experience and high
industry credibility. The consultant must be neutral and objective if he or she is to prepare an
independent report that will be accepted by lenders or another audience. In addition, the developer must
insist on complete documentation of sources and explanations of assumptions. The developer may
provide data that is biased in favor of the project, and other people and companies interviewed for the
study may purposely exaggerate or simply be too optimistic. Similarly, such assumptions as growth
rates, inflation, and market penetration, if even slightly in error, can substantially alter the reliability of
the study.
A well-prepared feasibility study can establish the basis, in terms of both financial and facilities
goals, for a profitable and clearly defined hotel. The developer who begins the project with a relatively
narrow focus, who instinctively defines the number of guestrooms, public facilities, quality level,
services and amenities, etc., can better target the market analysis, select truly competitive hotels, define
rate and occupancy, identify important trends, and outline the needed facilities. The developer, then,
must critique the drafts of the study and insist on a clear and logical presentation of the competitive
environment.

Facilities Programming
While the general orientation of the hotel may be known early in the project and tested during
the feasibility phase, establishing the hotel program is especially important because of the
highly competitive nature of the hotel business. The pre-design documentation for a new
project or for the major expansion or repositioning of a hotel must fully describe and define
both the space needs and the operational requirements. Without such information, the architect
and design consultants are unable to fine-tune standard rule-of-thumb numbers or to create a
unique hotel for a precise market. Much of this documentation is required to obtain a lender's
package to finance the hotel.
Complete facilities programming is much more than a list of the space requirements; it also
must address a variety of needs: location, market demand, competition, quality level,
operational features, restaurant concepts, staffing, budget, and market trends. Feasibility
consultants generally recommend a mix of certain facilities, but the hotel management
company, working with the owner and architect,
Table 14.5 Conceptual area requirements

develop the final program. Table 14.5, illustrating four conceptually different hotels, shows
how widely the program for a property can vary depending on its purpose, market orientation,
and other issues. Note that hotels of different types can vary from about 550 sq ft (51 sq m) per
room to over 1,000 sq ft (93 sq m), because of the substantially different mix of facilities.
The facilities program includes not only the area requirements but also a narrative
discussion, which defines the project in qualitative terms and outlines many of the operational
requirements and constraints.

Defining the Project

With so many designers and consultants at work on a major hotel project, it is essential to reach a
consensus on the goals and objectives of the development: What market is the new hotel supposed to
attract? What class and what type of hotel will it be? What services and amenities should it provide?
Which public functions should be emphasized? Therefore, it is helpful to prepare a concise definition
of the project to identify these issues, to outline the primary public facilities, and to provide a gross
estimate of the size of the project. The paragraph below illustrates the type of statement that clearly, yet
concisely, defines the project's intent.
The hotel will be a first-class, full-service, high-rise, convention hotel with 800 rooms and 50,000 sq ft (4,640 sq m) of meeting
space. Located in a growing retail and entertainment district near the proposed new convention center, the project should
accommodate, besides convention attendees, both the individual business traveler and weekend “vacationer.” Facilities should
include two restaurants, two lounges, a spa/health club, business center, ground-level retail, and parking for 600 cars.

The second part of the preliminary definition of a new or expanded hotel project is a fuller
summary of guestroom mix and principal public facilities. Before the developer's team can
move on to the program and later design phases, they need a precise list of the revenue-
producing areas, those on which the support and service areas are based. This list forms the
core of the expanded space program. For example, even a cursory listing of the restaurant and
banquet requirements influences the size and design requirements of the kitchen, food and
beverage storage, and employee areas. As the developer focuses on the projections for
operating income and expenses, the designers refine their summary list of major facilities to
better meet the project objectives. Such a summary might include:
•Guestrooms
—Number of room “keys” (separate rental units)
—Number of room bays (total equivalent room modules)
—Number and description of suites
—Typical room and suite dimensions
•Lobby and public areas
—Architectural image and ambience
—Amount of retail space
•Food and beverage outlets
—Capacity of each restaurant
—Capacity of each lounge
—Quality level and theme for each
•Function space
—Dimensions of the ballroom (including ceiling height)
—Amount of other meeting and banquet space
—Need for exhibition space
•Recreation facilities
—Quality level of health club/spa
—Outline of any additional facilities
•Parking requirements
—Technical requirements
—Special building systems and guest amenities
The early estimates of project size generally are little more than the application of basic rules-of-thumb.
The experienced hotel developer and architect calculate gross project floor area from an understanding
of the typical guestroom dimensions—to which they apply factors to increase the area to allow for
circulation (corridors, elevators, stairs), walls, and other unsalable space—and the relative amount of
public and support space required for a particular type of hotel. Until a more detailed program is
established, this gross approximation of project size is the critical basis for all cost estimates. In the
detailed program examples later in this chapter, the area requirements vary tremendously, depending
on the type, quality level, and architectural configuration of the hotel.

Allocating Program Areas

The development of the architectural space program does not occur at one time, nor does it
result in a static document. The early definition establishes an approximate total area for the
project; later, the architect develops a space list at the beginning of the conceptual design phase
and refines a more detailed program during the schematic and design-development phases.
Because the technical-services staffs of the major hotel-operating companies have the
experience to react quickly and accurately to requests for programmatic information, many
developers never prepare a comprehensive space program. Instead, the detailed planning and
space-use information is transmitted through a comprehensive management company design
guide or bit-by-bit during the ensuing design phases, as the architect requires more specific
technical information. But, with computer programs such as Strategic Hotel Area Program
Estimate and Evaluation (SHAPEE) now available, detailed area information can be issued
early and can be updated easily during the design phases.
 The preliminary space program permits the architect to begin the schematic studies for the
project. Usually, the management company staff prepare the list based on their own standards,
as well as on their experience with similar projects and on the market information provided in
the feasibility report. They analyze the broad guidelines established in the earlier estimates to
see whether the estimates still accurately reflect the size, class, and type of hotel. The staff then
expands these guidelines to include a list of the principal guestrooms and suites, as well as
public, administration, and service areas.
Often, the mix of food and beverage outlets or the balance between a large ballroom and the
smaller meeting and banquet rooms will be modified, to reflect the operator's knowledge of a
local market or to exploit the management company's development strategies. Thus, an
operator's programming and planning expertise should influence the project at the earliest date.
The space list prepared by the operating company begins to set the framework for a clear
understanding of the facilities and of the image the hotel will project to the public. The
operating company identifies the mix of guestrooms and suites; defines the specific restaurants,
lounges, and function areas; details the amount of administrative office space; and allocates
area to service functions—kitchens, receiving, storage, employee areas, laundry,
housekeeping, engineering, and maintenance spaces. Table 14.6 proposes a room mix,
summary space program (gross areas), and detailed space program (net areas) for hotels of
three different sizes.
Development Software
Robert E. Kastner
President, 9 Tek Ltd
Email: [email protected]
Sophisticated software programs are essential in the development and construction process.
Particularly useful are those systems that integrate multiple steps in hotel development and
build upon each other, such as software that combines the building program, construction
budgeting, and proforma financial analyses.
One example of such a program, which has been continually refined over more than twenty-
five years, is the SHAPE Software System, a series of Excel templates that allow developers
and consultants to generate detailed planning and analysis information for a proposed hotel or
resort project anywhere in the world.
The first module, Strategic Hotel Area Program Estimate and Evaluation (SHAPEE),
provides a programming template which allows the user to input such basic assumptions as
typical guestroom area, number of restaurants and their capacities, and amount of function
space. From this foundation the program generates a detailed area program (in either square
feet or square meters), expanding these public areas and adding all the back-of-house support
functions, which can be modified further as members of the design team develop a fuller sense
of the hotel and its market.
The second module, Strategic Hotel Area and Project Estimate (SHAPEST), links SHAPEE
to cost data, which calculates total project cost and other budget data on a per key or per bay
basis. The cost estimates are dependent on such hotel attributes as quality level and location.
The last module, Strategic Hotel Analysis Program Evaluation and Proforma (SHAPEPRO),
further builds on the previous modules and, by adding its own set of capital and operating
assumptions, generates a 10-year cash flow projection. The developer may find most useful the
integrated internal rate of return (IRR) and present value (PV) calculations, as well as a value-
added (V-A) analysis which allows the user to run through any number of “what-if” scenarios:
changing the space program; modifying construction, FF&E, or technical costs; or adjusting
operating assumptions. Together, these programs, and others that may accomplish similar
objectives, provide an essential tool to the developer and other members of the team.
Table 14.6 Hotel area program
Bethesda Marriott Suites, Bethesda, Maryland
Marriott has redesigned the lobby in most of its older hotels to incorporate a “great room,”
designed to be a flexible public space for greeting arriving guests, light eating, meeting, and
general socializing. It generally incorporates reception pods, individual and group seating
areas, café, and associated outdoor terraces.
Operating companies issue their programming material in a variety of forms. Many hotel
companies have developed extremely detailed space programs for different-sized hotels and
for different locations or markets. These programs specify precise area requirements. For
example, the lobby program may list area requirements for public seating, bell stand, luggage
storage, sundries shop, house and public phones, and so forth. Global Hyatt, among other
operators, provides a moderately detailed list of most functional areas and their space
requirements, but simply states that the lobby should be a “function of the architectural design,
of ample space and character appropriate to its function of welcoming guests and serving as a
popular meeting place.” These two approaches illustrate the different development strategies
of today's management companies. Still, all brands regularly modify and update their standards
to introduce new ideas and accommodate growing market trends. For example, Marriott
recently has changed its lobby concept in most corporate hotels, establishing a “great room,” a
more open space that encourages guests to work, plug in, socialize, and relax.
Therefore, a precise program depends on understanding the interconnection between a
variety of planning and design aspects of hotels. It is clear that the relative size of the guestroom
is a major determinant of total project area; it is less obvious that the eventual choice of a
particular configuration for the guestroom structure (see Chapter 15) can influence the project's
total size and budget by 15 to 20 percent.
Developing a clear project statement may help to define some of the quality, facilities, and
architectural alternatives that are basic to establishing an accurate program. The following
factors, many of which are undetermined until the schematic design phase is complete, greatly
influence the space requirements for hotels and resorts:
•Architectural configuration (low- or high-rise, shape of guestroom tower)
•Number of floors (added floors greatly increase amount of vertical circulation)
•Location of food and beverage outlets (may require various satellite kitchens)
•Location of the ballroom (may require pantry; also establishes column-free zone that affects
guestroom-tower placement)
•Availability of basement space
•Ratio of land to gross building area (affects stacking of public areas, duplication of circulation
and lobbies, and need for parking structure)

Describing the Operations

The facilities program is incomplete until the future hotel operations, as well as the basic space
requirements, are fully defined and described. Usually developed by the hotel operator, the
description of the operations includes various checklists of guest services, proposed staffing
levels, and back-of-house activities, in addition to schematic diagrams that show the designer
which spaces must be adjacent to each other. Because services vary greatly from property to
property, the complexity and importance of their description also differs.
Among the most challenging aspects of hotel design is the necessity to develop a plan that
accommodates both the great variety of guest markets and the operational requirements of the
hotel. These often are in conflict, and the cost of providing for every need is likely to be
prohibitive. Architects and operators have to make countless value-judgments: for example,
about whether the hotel will cater primarily to individuals or to groups, the relative prominence
of the several restaurants and lounges, or the importance of direct food service to the secondary
meeting rooms.
For the most part, the key planning objective is to group public functions around the lobby,
to position service functions convenient to the receiving area, and to cluster food outlets and
function rooms around the kitchen.
Many operating decisions are changing because of the increased automation and
computerization of the hotel industry. Its labor-intensive character forces hotel management to
create innovative procedures and systems to reduce the necessity for repetitive staff work while
maintaining a quality level of service. Table 14.7 identifies the range of the necessary
operational program decisions that management must make, which influence the planning and
design decisions.
One area that directly affects the guests' perception of the entire hotel is the food and
beverage operation. The operator or a qualified restaurant consultant must provide highly
detailed descriptions of each individual restaurant and lounge so that the architect, interior
designer, and kitchen planner can develop a unified design and operation. The description of
the food and beverage concept should detail every aspect of the operation, including capacity,
floor area, name and graphics, menu, theme, hours, staffing, special equipment, uniforms, and
table-service requirements. Starwood Hotels developed a series of restaurant concepts for their
hotels, some of them brand-specific,
Table 14.7 Operational program decisions
Guest services
Parking Valet or self-park? Garage or on-grade?
Luggage handling By guest or bellman? Use public or service elevator?
Front desk procedures Safe deposit?
Guestroom food service Hours, menu, cart or tray service?
Restaurant service Hours, types of service, theme dining, retail operations,
outdoor, etc.?
Recreation Hours, open to public, children, lockers nearby, food service?
Guestroom Telephone(s), TV cable/movies, wired, wireless Internet, etc.?
communications
Guestroom amenities Coffee maker, iron/ironing board?
Guestroom services Evening turndown, concierge floor or butler?
Guest security Cardkey system, fire alarm and evacuation procedures?
Staff operations
Employee entrance Timekeeper, security?
Employee uniforms Issuing, laundering, storage?
Employee facilities Cafeteria, lounge, recreation, housing?
Staff communications Cell phone, pager?
Information technology Property management system, revenue management, point of
sale, etc.?
Accounting/controls F&B control, purchasing/receiving, drop-safe, closed circuit
television?
Food preparation Central or decentralized?
Material handling
Receiving area Weather protection, separate from trash, security?
Trash and garbage Holding, compactor, recycling?
Laundry In-house, guest valet, hours/shifts?
Vertical circulation Stocking of linen rooms, rooftop restaurant, linen/trash chutes?
others internal signature concepts or third-party operator concepts. Chapter 17 includes basic
outlines for food and beverage concept checklists (see page 349).
The description of the hotel operations also should include a complete staffing program. The
number of employees and their assignments affect the space requirements in three primary
areas: administrative offices, employee lockers and toilets, and employee cafeteria. In resorts
and some international hotels, staff housing may even be required; and in Muslim countries,
prayer rooms are standard in the back-of-house and appear in some public areas. In addition,
the staffing program dictates the need or desirability for different systems and equipment in the
numerous office and back-of-house areas.

Prototype Development
The growth in hotel prototypes began in the mid-1980s and continues today as an approach for
hotel chains to launch new brands. Many of the major management companies, such as Marriott
and Holiday Inn, realized that they were saturating their traditional downtown or roadside
locations, and needed new products in order to continue to grow. Marriott launched its
Courtyard brand, to compete with mid-price roadside properties; Holiday Inn countered with
Embassy Suites and Crowne Plaza, which, although very different in their physical
characteristics, appeal to the business market, and, more recently, the mid-tier Holiday Inn
Express. In every case, the new products were based on imaginative and well-studied designs
and market concepts. The list of significant brand prototypes that are becoming virtual
household names includes:
•Embassy Suites, the largest of the early upscale all-suite prototypes; the two-room suites
initially were designed around an atrium.
•Residence Inn, the leading extended-stay prototype, acquired by Marriott.
•Courtyard by Marriott, initially developed as a roadside inn and organized around a central
landscaped courtyard, but so successful that Marriott now builds many urban high-rise
“courtyard” projects.
•Hilton Garden Inn, intended to match the success of Marriott's Courtyard developments; also
frequently developed as an urban “garden inn.”
•Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn's most successful response to the franchisees' requests for an
upscale prototype for a downtown or suburban business hotel.
•Home2 Suites, Hilton's new mid-tier extended-stay product, with large public gathering areas,
complimentary breakfast, retail market, large studio and one-bedroom suites, and including
several “green” initiatives.
•Ian Schrager's one-off boutique hotels, followed by Bill Kimpton's Palomar and Chip Conley's
Joie de Vivre brands, all early boutique hotel chains (see Design Hotels, Chapter 3).
•W Hotels, the first boutique brand by a major chain (Starwood), intended to dominate the
segment.
•Formule 1, the economically innovative product from the French operator Accor, its rooms
typically furnished with both a double bed and loft bed; it has shared public showers and toilets
in Europe but private facilities in other regions.
•Element, Westin Hotel's environmentally conscious new brand, with mandated LEED
certification, full guestroom kitchens and spa-like bathrooms.
•Hotel Indigo, IHG's entry into the mid-price boutique segment, offering the reliability of a
branded hotel.
•Pod Hotel, in New York and being developed in other North American cities, with private
bathrooms and outstanding in-room technology, for the spartan business customer.
Creating a new lodging prototype has several obvious advantages. First, the company can focus
greater research and design resources on developing one superior concept, adaptable to a wide
variety of conditions and sites. Many prototypes feature low- and mid-rise options, sometimes
with both indoor and outdoor corridor schemes, or with an atrium alternative. Also, they may
include different public area options: one version may have no F&B areas, another a small
breakfast lounge or gourmet grab'n'go pantry, while others feature a full-service restaurant, the
decision depending on the size of the hotel and its immediate surroundings. Accor's budget-
brand Formule 1 incorporates private bathrooms in most world regions, but has shared showers
and toilets in Europe.
Second, the product, through repeated analysis, should be able to better meet the customers'
expectations. The construction of the physical asset is the largest single investment over the
life of a hotel or inn, and it is imperative that it be “right” from the start.
Third, prototype development saves reinventing the wheel on each new project. The
company should be able to test-market its new concepts and closely monitor the customers'
reactions, fine-tuning the project in its successive versions.
Companies developing different prototype lodging products may proceed along either of two
separate paths. One is to develop a standard property design, and to expand it in a “cookie-
cutter” approach across a region or country. Often, the prototype includes a series of design
options to overcome excessive standardization, but the basic goal must be justified by
substantial savings in project cost or design and construction time that otherwise could not be
achieved. One example is La Quinta Inns' early prefabrication system. Very different but
equally viable is the “protopart” or kit-of-parts approach, as illustrated by Embassy Suites'
partial plans of buildings, from typical guestrooms and suites to health center, kitchen, and
laundry layouts—as well as scores of standardized details.
In the first case, the prototype system should not dictate a standardized appearance to the
extent that its usefulness is diminished. Therefore, it must provide flexibility for site differences
and alternate designs appropriate to different regions. The second example, the “protopart”
system, encourages greater flexibility for adapting the program and design to meet the
requirements set out by local authorities that, to their credit, may require the design to blend in
with its surrounding environment. Some of the original cookie-cutter products completely
reversed their initial strategy to one of encouraging flexibility in their exterior designs. Table
14.8 lists many of the significant examples of major prototypical developments in the twentieth
century, often illustrated throughout the book. Many of these don't incorporate “cookie-cutter”
design solutions; rather, they are innovations in architectural design or hotel management that
have had a major impact on the lodging industry.
Table 14.8 Influential hotel prototypes of the past century and into the future
Design concept Major originator Hotel design
The modern multi-story Ellsworth M. Statler Statler Hotel, Buffalo, New
hotel York
The mixed-use hotel- Ellsworth M. Statler Park Plaza Hotel and Statler
office building Office Building, Boston,
Massachusetts
The family roadside Kemmons Wilson Holiday Inn, Memphis,
hotel Tennessee
The super-budget motel Jean-Marc Espalioux Formule 1 prototype, France
The airport terminal Conrad Hilton Hilton Chicago O'Hare Airport,
hotel Chicago, Illinois
The medical hotel Kahler Corporation Kahler Hotels, Rochester,
Minnesota
The modern convention Tisch Brothers and architect Americana Hotel, New York
Morris Lapidus City
headquarters hotel Uris Brothers and architect New York Hilton, New York
William B. Tabler City
The modern atrium John C. Portman, Jr. Hyatt Regency Hotel, Atlanta,
hotel Georgia
The conference center Walter Green Harrison Conference Center,
Glen Cove, New York
The extended-stay Jack DeBoer Residence Inn, Wichita, Kansas
hotel
The all-suite hotel Robert Woolley Granada Royal, San Antonio,
Texas
Walter A. Rutes Embassy Suites prototype
The modern beach Morris Lapidus Fontainebleau, Miami Beach,
resort Florida
Carl Fisher Development of Miami Beach,
Florida
The fantasy resort Chris Hemmeter Hyatt Regency Hotels,
Kaanapali, Waikaloa, and
Kauai, Hawaii
The modern spa resort Allard Roen and Ward Hutton La Costa, Carlsbad, California
The eco-resort Stanley Selengut Harmony Bay Camps, St. John,
U.S. Virgin Islands
The environmental Laurance Rockefeller and Mauna Kea Beach Resort
resort architects Nathaniel Owings and (RockResorts), The Big Island,
Charles Bassett Hawaii
George (Pete) Wimberly Intercontinental Hotel,
Tahara'a, Tahiti
The vacation village Serge Trigano Club Med, France
The resort theme park Walt Disney Polynesian Resort, Walt Disney
World, Orlando, Florida
The boutique hotel Steven Rubell, Ian Schrager, and Morgan's and the Royalton,
designer Philippe Starck New York City
William Kimpton Vintage Court, San Francisco,
California
The entertainment hotel John L. Tishman and architects Westin New York (Times
Arquitectonica and D'Agostino Square), New York City
Izzo
Show business themes Quirk
Forrest City Ratner and architect Hilton Times Square, New
Beyer Blinder Belle York City
Madison Equities and architect W Times Square, New York
Frank Williams City
Educational themes The Moody Foundation and Moody Gardens, Galveston,
Morris Architects Texas
Bayindir Holding and architect Bati Tourism Center and
Oktay Nayman with HHCP Tatilya Theme Park, West
Design Istanbul, Turkey
International, theme park
consultant
Downtown resort and Tankanaka Corp. and architect Sea Hawk, Fukuoka, Japan
sports and event center César Pelli
Sports stadium hotel Wright Adjeleian Allen Rubell Renaissance Hotel at Toronto
and NORR Partnership SkyDome, Toronto, Canada
The chain hotel with a Four Seasons Hotels and Four Seasons Hotel, New York
super-luxury rating architects Pei Cobb Freed and City
Frank Williams
The mega-hotel William J. Marriott Orlando World Center Marriott
Resort, Orlando, Florida
The ultra-tel John C. Portman, Jr. The Westin Peachtree Plaza,
Atlanta, Georgia
I. M. Pei Westin Stamford Hotel, Raffles
City, Singapore
The spacetel International consortia NASA, Houston, Texas
Design Studies WATG, Irvine, California
Design Studies Space Island Group, Los
Angeles, California
Luxury boutique resort Adrian Zecha Amanpuri, Phuket, Thailand,
and Amandari, Bali, Indonesia
Lifestyle chains Barry Sternlicht W New York, New York City
Pod hotels Simon Woodroffe and Gerard Yotel, Gatwick Airport,
Greene London, U.K.
Co-branding with Gordon McKinnon Hotel Missoni, Edinburgh,
fashion Scotland
Bulgari, Milan, Italy
Multi-branded hotels Al Gulamani Hampton Inn and Homewood
Suites, Toronto Airport,
Canada
Bruce White Marriott Place, Indianapolis,
Indiana
Gaylord National, Washington, DC
The hotel has efficiently planned guestroom floors in double-loaded wings surrounding the
lobby atrium, some rooms overlooking the activity in the lobby space (see pp. 197–199).
 CHAPTER
15
The Guestroom Floor

The planning of the typical guestroom floor presents one of the greatest challenges in hotel design.
Because the guestrooms and suites generally represent between 65 and 85 percent of the total floor area
in a hotel or resort, any savings in the planning of a single level are multiplied many times. Therefore,
a major planning goal in every lodging project should be to maximize the amount of salable guestroom
space and keep to a minimum the vertical core, horizontal circulation, and necessary support areas.
In addition, there are several important architectural objectives. The architect should select a
particular plan configuration and orient the building to enhance the appearance and visibility of the
structure, to reduce energy costs, and to better accommodate possible future expansion. As lodging
demand increases the developer may want to add rooms, either by extending the guestroom wings,
adding additional floors, or constructing a new tower structure. For many projects, depending on the
location, the architect needs to consider a configuration and orientation to take advantage of views from
the guestrooms. In developing the plan itself, the designer should reduce as much as possible the
walking distances for both the guest and the housekeeping staff, provide the support functions, and seek
ways to reduce construction cost and non-salable space. Table 15.1 lists the principal guestroom-floor
planning objectives.
The program requirements for the guestroom floors are relatively few: a designated number of
guestrooms or suites, conveniently located public and service elevators, exit stairways to meet the
building code and provide safe egress, adequate linen storage and vending areas, and small electrical
and telephone equipment rooms.
The analysis of alternate plan configurations for the guestroom structure is one of the earliest design
studies for a hotel, even before the exact guestroom mix is confirmed. The conceptual program may
call for, say, 300 rooms including 15 suites, at a typical size of 350 sq ft (32.5 sq m). The architect starts
with the objective of providing a specific number of guestroom bays of a particular size and, taking into
account constraints and opportunities of a particular site, may initially select a double-loaded corridor
configuration, or a more compact vertical tower, or a spacious atrium structure—each with its myriad
variations. Low-rise properties generally are planned using a double-loaded corridor and may be shaped
into L, T, or another configuration. High-rise buildings may follow similar patterns, can be terraced into
pyramid-like forms, or can adjoin a large lobby space so that some of the rooms look into the hotel
interior. The tower plan, where the guestrooms surround a central core, can be rectangular, circular, or
practically any shape. And the atrium configuration, in early hotels such as the Hyatt Regency Atlanta
a basic rectangular plan, in
Table 15.1 Guestroom-floor planning objectives

Siting and orientation

Site the guestroom structure to be visible from the street.

 Orient guestrooms to enhance views.
Assess the relative visual impact and construction cost of various guestroom plan
configurations.
Position the guestroom structure to limit its structural impact on the ballroom and other
major public spaces.
Consider solar gain; generally north-south is preferable to east-west exposures.
Floor layout

Organize the plan so that the guestrooms occupy at least 70 percent of the gross floor area.
Locate elevators and stairs at interior locations to use maximum of outside wall for
guestrooms.
Develop the corridor plan to facilitate guest and staff circulation.
Place the public elevators in the middle third of the structure.
Provide service elevators, linen storage, and vending in a central location.
Plan corridor width at a minimum of 5 ft (1.5 m); 5′-6″ (1.65 m) optional.
Design guest bathrooms back-to-back for plumbing economies.
Locate disabled-accessible guestrooms near guest elevators.
more recent projects has taken on numerous complex shapes. These various configurations are
illustrated with selected plans throughout this chapter; a fuller discussion of the design of individual
guestrooms and suites appears in the next chapter.
What is the most appropriate configuration for the guestrooms? In densely populated urban areas,
where land costs are high and the site may be relatively small, organizing an ideal arrangement of public
and support spaces on the lower floors may be the most critical consideration. Two major planning
requirements, the preferred location of the public and service elevators and of the column-free ballroom,
often dictate both the placement of the guestroom structure on the site and its shape. At resort properties,
on the other hand, the opposite is true: the internal functional organization of the hotel elements is
secondary to the careful siting of the buildings to minimize their impact on the site and to provide views
of the surrounding landscape, beach, or mountains. Many newer resorts feature not a single building
but, instead, provide a number of villa structures that greatly reduce the perceived scale of the project
and give the guest a greater connection to the site and the recreational amenities, as well as an enhanced
sense of privacy. At airport sites, height limitations often dictate the choice of a specific plan, one that
packages the rooms into a relatively low and spread-out structure. The earlier chapters illustrate scores
of hotels and resorts and make clear the great variety of possible guestroom-floor configurations.
While the choice of a plan type is the result of a balanced consideration of site, environment, and
program requirements, the architect must realize that a particular configuration will shape the
economics of the project. In addition to these budgetary issues—the initial construction and FF&E costs,
as well as ongoing energy and payroll expenses—plan type also influences the more subtle aspects of
guest satisfaction. The most economical design may not provide the best design solution. Thus, a less
efficient plan type may offer more variety in room types, a more interesting spatial sequence, shorter
walking distances, or other advantages that affect the guest's perception of the value of the hotel
experience.

Analyzing Alternative Plan Configurations

In order for the operator to realize profits, the design team must attempt to maximize the
percentage of floor area devoted to guestrooms and keep to a minimum the amount of
circulation and service space (service elevator lobby, linen storage, vending, and other minor
support spaces). Although the architect and developer must not ignore aesthetic and other
functional issues, a simple comparison among the alternative plans of the percentage of space
allocated to guestrooms versus non-revenue-producing space can suggest more efficient
solutions. The major alternatives among plan types are described in Table 15.2.
An analysis of the plans of more than 100 different guestroom floors shows that some
patterns yield more cost-effective solutions than other types. The choice of one configuration
over another can mean a saving of 20 percent in gross floor area of the guestroom structure and
of nearly 15 percent in the total building. For example, the three principal plan alternatives—
the double-loaded slab, the rectangular tower, and the atrium—when designed with identical
guestrooms of 350 net sq ft (32.5 sq m) yield final designs that vary from about 470 to 580
gross sq ft (44 to 54 sq m) per room.
The study also indicates the effect of subsequent minor decisions on the efficiency of the
plan—pairing two guestrooms back-to-back, choosing a double- or single-loaded corridor,
grouping of public and service elevators, and planning efficient access to end or corner rooms.
Because guestrooms account for such a major part of the total hotel area, the architect should
establish a series of quantitative benchmarks for the efficient design of the guestroom floors.
The relative efficiency of typical hotel floors can be compared most directly by calculating
the percentage of the total floor area devoted to guestrooms. This varies from below 60 percent
in an inefficient atrium plan to more than 75 percent in the most tightly designed double-loaded
slab. Clearly, the higher this percentage, the lower the construction cost per room, which, in
turn, offers the developer a range of options. He or she may choose to build additional
guestrooms, provide larger guestrooms for the same capital investment, improve the quality of
the furnishings or of particular building systems, expand other functional areas, such as meeting
space or recreational facilities, or simply lower the construction cost and project budget.
The following sections describe, for each of the basic guestroom configurations, the planning
decisions that have the most influence on creating an economical plan. In some cases, it is the
number of rooms per floor; in others it is the location of the elevator core; or in another it may
be the shape of the building that is most critical. In general, the most efficient configurations
are those where circulation space is kept to a minimum—either the double-loaded corridor slab
or the compact center-core tower.
Table 15.2 Guestroom floor analysis
Each guestroom floor configuration has certain characteristics that affect its potential planning
efficiency. The table shows the basic building width or dimensions, the usual percentage of
floor area devoted to guestrooms, and the amount of area per room needed for corridors. For
example, the table shows that the offset double-loaded slab is the most efficient in terms of
maximizing guestroom area and that the atrium configuration is the least economical, largely
because of the high amount of corridor area required per room.

Slab Configuration
The “slab” configuration includes those plans that are primarily horizontal, including both
single- and double-loaded corridor schemes (see plans above). The few planning variables are
concerned primarily with the building's shape (straight, angled, L-shaped, or other), the layout
of the core, and the placement of the fire stairs. The architect must answer the following
questions:
•Corridor loading: Given site conditions, are any single-loaded rooms appropriate?
•Shape: Which particular shape (straight, “offset,” L, “knuckle,” courtyard, or other
configuration) best meets site and building constraints?
•Core location: Should the public and the service cores be combined or separated, and where
in the tower should they be positioned?
•Core layout: What is the best way to organize public and service elevators, linen storage,
vending, and other support areas?
•Stair location: How can the egress stairs best be integrated into the plan?

(facing page - far left)

Slab configurations
(A) Single-loaded plans, while more costly, are sometimes necessary for narrow sites or to
take advantage of views. (B-D) Double-loaded plans show shared back-to-back bathrooms,
and the most efficient options for elevator cores, egress stairs, and service functions. (E)
Offset slab plans offer efficiency of interior core and more variety in the building massing.
(facing page - left)
Atrium configurations
(A) Typical atrium features scenic elevators and single-loaded balcony corridors. (B) Hybrid
atrium plan combines visual excitement of atrium space with more efficient double-loaded
slab extension.
Tower configurations
(A) Pinwheel plan accommodates all typical rooms but requires extra corridor area. (B)
Cross-shape plan reduces corridor but increases building perimeter. (C) Square tower features
efficient circulation and back-to-back bathrooms. (D) Square tower provides most corner
guestrooms and minimal circulation. (E) Circular tower offers minimum area and perimeter
but substantially smaller bathrooms. (F) Triangular tower has less efficient core, but more
variety in room shape.
The high degree of efficiency of the slab plan is based primarily on the double loading of the
corridors; single-loaded schemes require 5 to 8 percent more floor area for the same number of
rooms. Therefore, only where external factors are present—a narrow site dimension or
spectacular views in only one direction—should single-loading be considered.
While slab plans as a category are the most efficient, experienced hotel architects and
management company staff have found approaches to further tighten the layout of the typical
floor. Configurations that bury the elevator and service cores in interior corners have several
advantages. They slightly reduce the non-guestroom area, substantially reduce the amount of
building perimeter, and increase the opportunities for creating architecturally interesting
buildings. The “offset slab” plan, for example, is especially economical because the public and
service elevator cores share one area and, in addition, they do not displace any guestrooms
from the building perimeter. The “knuckle” configuration, which bends at angles, creates the
potential for interestingly shaped elevator lobbies, provides compact service areas, and breaks
up the slab's long corridors.
The core design is complicated by the need to connect the public elevators to the lobby and
the service elevators to the housekeeping and other back-of-house areas. This often necessitates
two distinct core areas at some distance from each other, although in many hotels they are
located side-by-side. One common objective is to position the elevator core in the middle third
of a floor in order to reduce the walking distances to the farthest rooms. Most often, the vertical
core is fully integrated into the body of the tower but, occasionally, the designer may, for
planning reasons, add the core to the end of a compact room block or extend it out from the
face of the façade.
The actual layout of the core is another determining factor of efficiency in the typical plan.
In most slab-plan hotels, the vertical cores require space equivalent to two to four guestroom
modules. If one goal is to keep the core to a minimum, then the efficiency of the plan is
improved when the core displaces the fewest number of guestroom bays. The comparison of
many projects shows that the vertical core displaces fewer guestroom bays when the service
areas are located behind the public elevators, rather than beside them or at some distance. Many
of the more efficient configurations also feature a distinct elevator lobby. Such a foyer space
helps to isolate the noise and congestion of waiting people from nearby guestrooms. Also, those
plans which incorporate an elevator lobby tend to have fewer awkwardly shaped rooms,
thereby providing a more uniform guestroom product.
Building codes generally require egress stairs at opposite ends of the building. Each stair
tower might simply replace the last guestroom on the corridor. But, instead, the architect may
be able to integrate the stairs within the building, as part of an elevator core, at an “inside
corner” where the building turns, or within the usual bathroom zone of a guestroom bay (where
it is part of an oversized room or suite). Careful placement of the stairs provides one more
opportunity to create a more efficient overall plan by reducing gross floor area, compared with
simply attaching the stair tower to the end of the building.
One limiting factor to the number of rooms on the guestroom floor is the typical building
code requirement for hotels with automatic sprinklers that there be no more than, say, 300 ft
(91 m) between egress stairs. Therefore, another goal in planning the repetitive guestroom floor
is to create a layout that does not require a third fre stair. Experienced hotel architects have
established techniques for maximizing the number of rooms per floor and manipulating the
stairs and corridors to increase the building's overall efficiency.

Tower Configuration
A second major category of guestroom-floor plans is “tower” plans, generally organized with a central
core surrounded by a single-loaded corridor and guestrooms (see accompanying plans). The exterior
architectural treatment of the tower can vary widely as the geometric shape of the plan changes from
square to cross-shaped, circular to triangular. The tower plan exhibits very different characteristics than
the slab, but raises a similar series of questions for the designer:
•Number of rooms: How many guestrooms economically fit a particular layout?
•Shape: Which shape is most efficient and permits the desired mix of rooms?
•Corridor: How is hallway access to corner rooms arranged?
•Core layout: How are the elevators, linen storage, and stairs organized?
Unlike the other plan configurations, selection of the tower shape creates specific limitations on the
number of rooms per floor. For the most part, towers contain between 16 and 24 rooms, depending on
the guestroom dimensions, the number of floors, and the optimum core size. With only 16 rooms, the
core is barely large enough for two or three elevators, two egress stairs, and minimum amounts of
storage. On the other hand, designs with more than 24 rooms become so infated and the core so large
that the layout becomes highly inefficient.
For most guestroom configurations, the efficiency is improved by increasing the number of rooms
on a floor, with little or no increase in the core or building services. With the tower plan, the opposite
is true. The analysis of a large sample of hotel designs shows that, surprisingly, the fewer the number
of rooms per floor, the more efficient the layout becomes: the core by necessity must be extremely
compact and, as a result, the amount of corridor area is kept to a bare minimum. The more inefficient
layouts often result from adding rooms and from extending single-loaded corridors into each of the
building corners.
The shape of the tower has a direct effect on the appearance of the structure and on its perceived
scale. The efficiency of the plan is also a direct result of the shape, because of the critical nature of the
corridor access to the corner rooms in the rectangular towers and because of the design of the wedge-
shaped guestroom and bathroom in the circular towers. Those plans that minimize the amount of
circulation and, in addition, create unusual corner rooms exemplify the best in both architectural
planning and interior layout.
For circular tower plans, the measures of efficiency are judged by the layout of the room as well as
the core design. Typically, the perimeter of the wedge-shaped guestroom is about 16 ft (4.9 m), whereas
the corridor dimension may be less than 8 ft (2.4 m), thus challenging the designer's skill to plan the
bathroom, entry vestibule, and closet.
While the design of the core in both rectangular and circular towers is less critical than the
arrangement of guestrooms, certain specific issues have to be resolved. Generally, the core is centrally
located, and the vertical elements are tightly grouped. The smaller hotels, those with only 16 rooms per
floor, usually do not feature an elevator lobby, and the guests in rooms opposite the elevators must
tolerate noise from waiting guests. In a few cases, the core is split into two parts, creating a roughly H-
shaped circulation zone, and effectively providing an elevator lobby on each floor. The two fire stairs
can be efficiently arranged in a scissors configuration (if permitted by code) to conserve space.
In the larger tower plans, those with 24 or more rooms per floor, the central core becomes excessively
large. Some hotel architects have introduced a series of multi-story “skylobbies” to make this wasted
space appear to be a positive feature, or they add conference rooms on every guest floor. Unfortunately,
these solutions only show up the problems resulting from poorly conceived and designed guestroom-
floor planning. The efficient design of hotel towers requires the simultaneous study of both the core
layout and the ring of guestrooms around it, with attempts to compress both as much as possible.

Atrium Configuration
A third major category of guestroom-floor plans is the “atrium” design, which was reintroduced by
architect John Portman for the Hyatt Regency Atlanta hotel in 1967. The atrium prototype had been
used late in the nineteenth century in both Denver's Brown Palace, still in operation, and San Francisco's
Palace Hotel, destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. The true atrium configuration has the
guestrooms arranged along single-loaded corridors, much like open balconies overlooking the lobby
space (see accompanying plans). The following issues must be addressed by the architect:
•Shape: What configuration of rooms best fits the site and can be integrated with both public
and back-of-house area needs? Should any guestrooms look into the lobby volume?
•Public elevators: How are scenic (glass-sided) or standard elevators best arranged?
•Corridor: How can the amount of single-loaded corridor effectively be reduced?
•Service core and stairs: Where are these best located and integrated into the overall building
design?
Practically all atrium hotels feature glass-enclosed “bubble” elevators that provide the guest with an
ever-changing perspective of the lobby activity as well as adding animation to the space itself. Often
these are located on a bridge or platform extension, thereby increasing the amount of circulation on
each floor. In some cases, scenic elevators are placed opposite conventional ones, creating the anomaly
of two very different experiences for the guest. The location of the service elevators, housekeeping
support functions, and egress stairs, while needing to be integrated into the plan and the lower service
levels, aren't particularly critical to the efficiency of the guestroom floor.
In addition to the open lobby volume, each atrium hotel is distinguished by the plan of the guestroom
floors. While the basic prototype is square, many of the more recent atrium designs are irregularly
shaped to respond to varying site constraints. This sculpting of the building contributes to creating a
unique image for the hotel, a primary goal of those developers and architects who select the atrium
configuration and who accept the fact that, because of the single-loaded corridors, it is by far the least
efficient of the plan types. Recently, architects have sought ways to gain the prestige benefits of the
atrium while increasing its efficiency. One technique that has been successful in several hotels is to
combine a central atrium with extended double-loaded wings, as was done at the Hyatt Regency hotels
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Dallas, Texas. This effectively and appropriately draws together the
architectural excitement of the atrium space— usually on a smaller and more personal scale than in the
larger atrium volumes—with the desirable economies of the double-loaded plan. However, many
developers and architects believe that the atrium design has become a cliché—and also recognize its
tremendous cost premium (both in construction and operations)—and seek other means to create a
memorable building and guest experience.

Defining the Guestroom and Suite Program

After the architect establishes the conceptual design, including a basic configuration for the
guestroom floors, the team needs to refine and modify the earlier thumbnail guestroom program
to fit the architectural concept—or shape the building to accommodate the nuances of the
program. The room mix is based on the initial market study and, more importantly, on the
advice and experience of the hotel operating company. The guestroom program defines the
typical room module (principal overall dimensions and bathroom configuration) and the room
mix (number of rooms furnished with a king bed, with two double or queen beds, or suites).
The proposed room mix is intended to reflect the estimated demand from the individual
business, group, and leisure market segments. The details of guestroom and suite design are
discussed in the next chapter.
Design development of the guestroom floors to meet the specific requirements of the
program is among the earliest steps in refining the conceptual design. The design team studies
a wide range of possible modifications, including changing the width of the guestroom module,
the number of bays per floor, the location and layout of the elevator and service cores, and the
arrangement of suites. Frequently, misunderstandings arise over the actual number of separate
rentable guestrooms in a particular project. To avoid this, the following vocabulary should be
used consistently:
•Key: A separate, rentable unit
•Guestroom bay: The typical guestroom module
•Structural bay: The dimension between two structural columns,
Table 15.3 Typical guestroom program for 300-room hotel

typically equal to the width of one or, sometimes, two guestrooms

•Suite: Combination of living room and one or more bedrooms
Generally, the hotel management thinks in terms of “keys,” which represent the total number
of individual guestroom units available to sell. A suite containing a living room that connects
to two bedrooms totals three keys if the parlor has a full bathroom and convertible sofa and if
the bedrooms can be locked off, but only two keys if the living room and one bedroom must
be sold together. Large suites often are described in terms of the number of guestroom bays
they equal, so a hotelier may refer to a four-bay suite containing a two-bay living room and
two connecting bedrooms. Architects, on the other hand, refer to the individual rooms and to
structural bays, the former being the basis of the contract documents and the latter a chief
component of cost estimates for the guestroom portion of the hotel.
During the early development phases, the feasibility consultant projects revenues and
expenses, occupancy percentages, and average room rates based on the number of guestroom
keys and the anticipated occupancy percentage. In addition, both parking requirements and
zoning ordinances (used to control project size and density) are usually based on the key count.
However, clarification is essential in order to avoid possible misunderstandings and
delays. Table 15.3 illustrates an example of a typical guestroom and suite program and the use
of the terms “key” and “bay.”

Documenting the Guestroom Mix

Throughout the later design phases the architect and other design team members continually
modify details of the guestroom structure, perhaps in response to the owner's or operator's input
or as the result of changes in the public and service areas on the lower floors. But often it is the
result of the impact of a fuller design of the building's mechanical and electrical distribution
systems, elevator cores, or stair towers. Because it is important that the team be able to keep
an accurate count of the total bays and keys, the architect or interior designer should prepare
and regularly update a “guestroom mix analysis.”
Table 15.4 illustrates one typical approach for documenting the guestroom mix. This
technique forces the architect or interior designer to make a number of conscious decisions:
•Architectural shape: Identify each room that has a different shape or configuration
•Bed type: Label each room by its bed type (king, queen, double-double, etc.)
•Connecting rooms: Indicate adjoining guestrooms
•Suite locations: Position and label any suites
•Guestroom numbers: Assign final room numbers
•Key and bay analysis: Develop and maintain a summary table of keys and bays by
architectural shape or bed type
There are many advantages for documenting the room count. First, at the earliest conceptual
design phase the design team can test the schematic design against the major element in the
space program—the required number of guestrooms—and initiate any necessary changes.
Second, a format is established so that, as the project proceeds through the later design phases,
the designers can readily analyze the guestroom mix and maintain a precise record of the
guestroom count. Third, details of the repetitive guestroom block can be considered at a
relatively early phase. For example, the architect can study possible pairing of rooms to
increase the number of back-to-back bathrooms and to establish a repetitive pattern of set-backs
at the guestroom corridor doors. Fourth, the interior designer can identify any potential
problems such as unusually shaped guestrooms that might not easily accommodate the
necessary furnishings and amenities. In addition, other members of the team can offer better
input when changes to the guestroom tower are fully documented through the different design
phases. For instance, the engineering consultants can review the major systems in the
guestroom tower—the elevators, HVAC, and communications systems, for example—in the
same context as the rest of the design team. And, later, when suites are added to the top floor,
or offices or breakout meeting rooms displace guestrooms on a low floor, the room mix analysis
offers the design team a way to quickly confirm the total room count.
Table 15.4 Guestroom mix analysis
The guestroom floor plans illustrate the procedure for analyzing the architectural planning
and room layout for a hypothetical hotel. The two plans show the typical and suite floors,
the latter with fve different room types—not unusual as the standard room bay is modifed to
fit around elevators, stairs, or support areas; the number of different room types is increased
further by disabled-accessible bathrooms and by various suites. The following discussion
describes the necessary steps, including key plans for each floor, labeled with room shape
(I, II, etc.), bed type (K, DD, etc.), room number, and connecting doors, and a
comprehensive tally of the guestroom mix.
Architectural shape: Identify each room of a different shape or configuration (primarily
different dimensions or bathroom layout) and assign it a number. Identify different room
types by a Roman numeral in the top half of the circular code in each room. Room I is the
most typical unit; room II is the corner guestroom with a wider bay, different bathroom and
entry; room III is the disabled-accessible room (in the corner, where the bathroom can be
easily enlarged); room IV is a three-bay VIP suite (one key, with a dedicated king bedroom);
and room V is a two-bay conference suite that connects to two standard guestrooms.
Bed type: Label each room by its bed type (king, queen, double-double, queen-queen, king-
studio, parlor, accessible room, etc.) and place a simple abbreviation (K, Q, DD, etc.) on the
plan. Note that the standard room shape may be furnished in a variety of ways.
Room numbers: Assign room numbers to the bays to meet the management company's
operating standard. Determine room numbers to simplify directional signage. Maintain
corresponding numbers on different floors (leave out numbers if necessary so that consecutive
odd/even room numbers are directly opposite each other). Doing this in schematic design aids
communication among the various design professionals and reduces later confusion if the
operator were to modify the room numbering.
Connecting rooms: Mark interconnecting rooms with an open circle, for example between
rooms 17 and 19. Operating companies seek a specific number of connecting pairs of
particular types (for example, half the pairs connect K to DD).
 Suites: Position all suites, combinations of a living room and one or more adjoining
bedrooms within the typical room configuration. Three suites are shown in the example: a
two-bay conference suite that connects to both a king and double-double room (the
conference suite also counts as a “key,” or rentable unit, because it has a full bathroom and a
convertible sofa); and a three-bay VIP suite with a dedicated king bedroom that also connects
to a DD room. Often, the suites are grouped together on the top guestroom floors.
Key and bay analysis: Develop a summary table to tally the number of rentable “keys” and
room modules for each floor by bed type. Also, the table visually represents suites with a dark
border around multiple bays. The chart shows the stacking of typical and suite floors,
connecting rooms, and provides the total number of rooms for each type.

Defining the Guestroom and Suite Program

After the architect establishes the conceptual design, including a basic configuration for the
guestroom floors, the team needs to refine and modify the earlier thumbnail guestroom program
to fit the architectural concept—or shape the building to accommodate the nuances of the
program. The room mix is based on the initial market study and, more importantly, on the
advice and experience of the hotel operating company. The guestroom program defines the
typical room module (principal overall dimensions and bathroom configuration) and the room
mix (number of rooms furnished with a king bed, with two double or queen beds, or suites).
The proposed room mix is intended to reflect the estimated demand from the individual
business, group, and leisure market segments. The details of guestroom and suite design are
discussed in the next chapter.
Design development of the guestroom floors to meet the specific requirements of the
program is among the earliest steps in refining the conceptual design. The design team studies
a wide range of possible modifications, including changing the width of the guestroom module,
the number of bays per floor, the location and layout of the elevator and service cores, and the
arrangement of suites. Frequently, misunderstandings arise over the actual number of separate
rentable guestrooms in a particular project. To avoid this, the following vocabulary should be
used consistently:
•Key: A separate, rentable unit
•Guestroom bay: The typical guestroom module
•Structural bay: The dimension between two structural columns,
Table 15.3 Typical guestroom program for 300-room hotel

typically equal to the width of one or, sometimes, two guestrooms

•Suite: Combination of living room and one or more bedrooms
Generally, the hotel management thinks in terms of “keys,” which represent the total number
of individual guestroom units available to sell. A suite containing a living room that connects
to two bedrooms totals three keys if the parlor has a full bathroom and convertible sofa and if
the bedrooms can be locked off, but only two keys if the living room and one bedroom must
be sold together. Large suites often are described in terms of the number of guestroom bays
they equal, so a hotelier may refer to a four-bay suite containing a two-bay living room and
two connecting bedrooms. Architects, on the other hand, refer to the individual rooms and to
structural bays, the former being the basis of the contract documents and the latter a chief
component of cost estimates for the guestroom portion of the hotel.
During the early development phases, the feasibility consultant projects revenues and
expenses, occupancy percentages, and average room rates based on the number of guestroom
keys and the anticipated occupancy percentage. In addition, both parking requirements and
zoning ordinances (used to control project size and density) are usually based on the key count.
However, clarification is essential in order to avoid possible misunderstandings and
delays. Table 15.3 illustrates an example of a typical guestroom and suite program and the use
of the terms “key” and “bay.”
Four Seasons Guangzhou, China
The straightforward uncluttered layout of the Four Seasons Hotel and its bathrooms belies the
luxuriousness of the accommodations.

CHAPTER
16
Guestroom and Suite Design
Many hotel operators believe that the guestroom and guest bathroom make a more lasting impression
on the lodging guest than does the exterior architecture, or the lobby, or any other single interior space.
Design of the individual guestrooms and suites, while clearly more an interior layout problem than an
architectural one, is still an important part of the architect's responsibility. Along with design of the
public spaces, it is also one of the two major areas of focus for the interior designer. Because of the
guestroom's residential character, such irritating deficiencies in layout or equipment as a non-working
light switch at the room entry, inadequate mirror or counter area in the bathroom, or chair arms that
won't fit under the desk, are especially obvious to the traveler. These design details call for the
coordinated attention of the entire team: architect, engineer, interior designer, other design consultants,
building contractor, and hotel manager.
The evolution of the hotel guestroom over the past two centuries shows how design and management
professionals collaborated to design a better room. Until the Tremont House opened in Boston in 1829,
no major hotels with private rooms existed; guests were content to share rooms—even beds—with
whatever other travelers were staying at a particular roadhouse. The Tremont House's innovative use of
private and lockable guestrooms—still without private bathrooms—became an overnight success and
set the standard for a burgeoning new industry in North America.
Throughout the nineteenth century, in order to remain competitive, the industry quickly introduced
technological advances: gas—then electric—lights, voice annunciators, then telephones, and eventually
elevators, central heating, and running water. These innovations culminated in the construction of the
sumptuous Hotel Statler in Buffalo, New York, in 1908 where, for the first time in a major hotel, all the
guestrooms included private baths: “A room and a bath for a dollar and a half,” the ads proudly
proclaimed. Other design innovations of the Statler guestrooms included bathrooms designed back-to-
back for economy of the vertical plumbing runs, and such features in each room as circulating ice water,
a full-length mirror, a light switch inside the entry door, a bedside telephone, a built-in radio, and the
“servidor”—a shallow, garment-sized compartment constructed within the guestroom door to facilitate
pickup of soiled— and delivery of laundered—clothes.

Establishing Design Criteria

The layout of the hotel guestroom is intertwined with decisions that the design team makes during the
schematic design, when they establish the dimensions of the guestroom module and the structural bay,
accept a variety of non-typical room configurations, and approve a final room mix (see previous
chapter). These decisions provide the interior designer with the framework to creatively plan the
individual spaces and to give the hotel guestrooms a character consistent with the public areas.
Guestroom design entails a series of orderly steps, some of which are defined during the architectural
planning of the guestroom structure. The designer should establish or confirm the following points:
•Define the major market segments that the hotel will attract.
•Confirm the principal guestroom dimensions.
•Confirm the room mix, including the number and type of suites.
•Design the typical guestroom.
•Design each suite type and any special rooms (disabled-accessible, etc.).
•Propose an FF&E budget for the guestrooms, suites, and corridors.
The best designers recognize the specific needs of the target markets and identify features and amenities
that these groups most want and expect. In general terms, the transient business person looks for single
accommodations, the convention and group markets need double rooms, and the leisure market requires
one bed for two guests or, for families, sometimes multiple beds or adjoining rooms. For example, many
of the hotel rooms around Walt Disney World in Florida are furnished with two queen beds and a
convertible sofa, to accommodate a vacationing family of four to six. Also, because each of these market
groups uses the room differently, the designer must consider work and meeting functions in one case
and family activities in another. The principal market characteristics that influence the layout and
furnishing of hotel and resort guestrooms are identified in Table 16.1.

Room Dimensions and Configurations

The guestroom design decision which most influences the room layouts and much of the guest
reaction to a hotel is the choice of three critical room dimensions: the inside or net width, the
length of the room from the exterior wall to the bathroom wall, and the length of the bathroom.
The net width establishes the structural module throughout the building (equal to the width of
either one room or two rooms), which carries through to the public and service areas on the
lower fours. The most common room width in the United States at the end of the twentieth
century was 12 ft (3.7 m),
Table 16.1 Hotel guest characteristics
Market Guest characteristics Purpose for travel Guestroom design factors
Business
Group Single or double Conventions, King or double-double;
occupancy; 2–4 night conferences, bathroom with dressing area;
stay; 55% men, 45% professional lounge seating with good
women; somewhat associations, sales and work area
price insensitive training meetings
Individual Single occupancy; 1–2 Corporate business, King; bathroom with separate
night stay; 50% men, sales, conventions, stall shower; lounge seating
50% women; price conferences with good work area
insensitive
Leisure
Family Multiple occupancy Family vacations, Double-double, queen-queen,
(including children); sightseeing, sports, or adjoining rooms; lounge
1–4 night stay, longer family activity seating and television; large
in resort areas; budget compartmentalized bathroom;
or mid-price balcony, outside access
Couples Double occupancy; 1– Tours, clubs, King; dining area, writing
7 night stay; mid-price associations, surface; moderate storage;
to upscale sightseeing; theater, large compartmentalized
sports, weekend bathroom
packages, shopping,
vacation
Singles Single occupancy; Tours, clubs, King or queen;
young professionals to associations; culture, lounge/entertaining area;
arts, theater, standard bathroom
 seniors; mid-price to sports/recreation,
upscale shopping
Table 16.2 Minimum guestroom dimensions

* Living area is the principal room space, excluding the bathroom, closet, and entry/dressing
area.
** Budget guestroom bath may include only tub/shower and toilet; the sink often is part of the
dressing area.
initially adopted in the mid-1950s by the Holiday Inn chain as a standard for all of their roadside
properties. It was sufficient to comfortably accommodate two double beds against one wall and
a desk/dresser/luggage stand/television against the opposite wall, with an adequate aisle
between. While the typical room layout has evolved slowly over the last half-century, the
industry's standard guestroom layout today is little different from the one pioneered in 1953 by
Kemmons Wilson, the founder of Holiday Inns. To be sure, though, style, comfort, and
guestroom technology have seen major advances.
Until this development, even the newest and largest convention hotels built in the post-World
War II period incorporated a variety of room sizes, including a large percentage that were
narrower than the new 12 ft (3.7 m) standard width. These hotels, many of them still operating
and competing with properties thirty to sixty years newer, are greatly limited by the smallness
of their guestrooms. In the United States and Canada, no first-class or chain-affiliated hotels
(except for the budget inns) are built today with rooms less than 12 ft wide. Occasionally, when
older downtown or resort properties are acquired and fully renovated, the size of some rooms
may be smaller where they are limited by unavoidable architectural constraints. (See the
discussion on updating existing hotels, Chapter 12.)
In the past few years, guestroom dimensions have become generally standardized for
different quality levels of hotels or resorts (Table 16.2). While a few hotel operators have tried
to provide noticeably larger rooms than their direct competitors, the guestroom size, quality of
furnishings and finishes, and room rate remain closely linked, because of the overriding
influence of the initial cost of construction and furnishings.
The guestroom layouts on page 331 illustrate typical room design alternatives as well as a
number of more innovative and luxurious layouts. The budget chains have reduced slightly the
size of the 12 × 18 ft (3.7 × 5.5 m) mid-price room in order to lower construction costs,
shortening it to between 14 and 16 ft (4.3 to 4.9 m), still sufficient to accommodate two double
beds, and reducing the width by 4–6 inches (10–15 cm)—although a few operators of “pod
hotels” are building even smaller units. On the other hand, companies which are selling a more
luxurious room have experimented with larger guestroom spaces and, especially, have created
innovative bathroom layouts. Increasing the width of the room module to 13 ft or 13 ft 6 in (4.0
to 4.1 m) permits one major change in the room layout: a king-size bed can be positioned
against the bathroom wall instead of the side wall, allowing for a variety of other furnishing
arrangements, or the bed can “foat” in the room against an open wall/headboard.
Generally, there is little advantage to increasing the guestroom width beyond 13 ft 6 in. Even
this slightly larger space does not improve the interior arrangement, and construction costs
increase dramatically because of additional corridor and exterior wall area. However, at a room
width of 16 ft (4.9 m) or more, a new set of design alternatives arises: the bed or beds can be
positioned against one side wall and the lounge and work area against the opposite wall. Also,
the greater width permits unusually luxurious bathroom arrangements, often with four or five
fixtures, as well as a larger entry vestibule and dressing area.
Architects HKS have pioneered another common arrangement, with short dead-end
corridors leading to a pair of rooms, rather than providing a separate entry hallway for each
guestroom. In this case (see room F, page 331), the bathroom becomes wider, yet the room
module still contains an entry zone with dressing area. Also, corridor doors can be closed off
to create a pair of adjoining rooms, rather than providing a doorway in the common wall
between two rooms.
The wedge-shaped guestrooms characteristic of circular towers present their own design
problem in the layout of the guest bathroom. The smaller towers have a corridor frontage of
only 6–8 ft (1.8– 2.4 m), the larger-diameter tower a more reasonable 10 ft (3 m). Although
many of these room plans show such positive features as compartmentalized bathrooms (out
of necessity), compact foyer space, a large lounge area, and expansive window wall, today's
increasing competition in room size and upscale furnishings has made the small-diameter
cylindrical towers virtually obsolete.

Designing the Individual Guestroom

The definition of the market determines not only the most appropriate bed combinations, but also the
other guestroom furnishings for a particular hotel. But the bed is the primary defining characteristic.
Generally, hotels include a mixture of rooms with one oversized bed (most often a king), two beds
(generally double or queen beds), and suites of various types. Table 16.3 lists many of the more
common bed sizes. The selection of a proper room mix is important because it influences the hotel's
ability to rent 100 percent of its rooms and to generate the maximum revenue. For this reason, rooms
which offer more flexibility are popular with the management companies. A room with two double beds
is more flexible than a king (it can accommodate one to four people); a king-size bed plus a convertible
sofa is attractive to a single business person but can be converted to family use. Table 16.4 illustrates
typical room mix percentages for the different types of hotels and resorts.

Typical King and Double-double Rooms

The full list of furnishings can be determined by analyzing the guestroom functions—sleeping, relaxing,
working, entertaining, dressing—and their space requirements. The plan of a typical hotel room clearly
shows these several zones: the bathroom and areas for dressing and clothes storage are grouped next to
the corridor entrance; the sleeping area is in the center of the guestroom space; and the seating and work
areas are located near the window. New layouts
Table 16.3 Guestroom bed types

Room type Bed types and sizes Bed dimensions in inches (meters)
 Twin 2 twin beds 39 × 80 (1 × 2)

Double-double 2 double beds 54 × 80 (1.35 × 2)

Queen 1 queen bed 60 × 80 (1.5 × 2)

King 1 king bed 78 × 80 (2 × 2)

California king 1 king bed 72 × 80 (1.8 × 2)

Oversized twin 2 twin beds 45 × 80 (1.15 × 2)

Queen-queen 2 queen beds

Double-studio 1 double bed and convertible sofa

Queen-studio 1 queen bed and convertible sofa

King-studio 1 king bed and convertible sofa

Parlor 1 convertible sofa

Wall bed (“Sico room”) 1 wall bed (queen or king)

Table 16.4 Guestroom mix for different hotel types
Guestroom plans
(A) Economy pod room uses very little space but, at 200 sq ft (18.5 sq m), includes a
window; even smaller rooms do not (Yotel, London, United Kingdom). (B) Midscale king
room, 320 sq ft (30 sq m) shows how placing the bed against the bathroom wall increases
usable space. (C) Typical double-double room, also 320 sq ft (30 sq m) with typical
furnishings. (D) An unusual layout, with the bed in the middle of the room, its head against a
desk, 470 sq ft (43.5 sq m), also features an oversized bathroom (W Barcelona, Barcelona,
Spain). (E) Luxury casino-hotel room, 600 sq ft (55 sq m) features a large bathroom and a
separate living area, two steps lower (Venetian, Las Vegas, Nevada). (F) Architects have
experimented with short dead-end corridors providing a more direct entry experience, 420 sq
ft (39 sq m) (Terranea, Rancho Palos Verdes, California). (G) Greatly oversized resort room,
700 sq ft (65 sq m), with elegant outdoor lanai and huge bathroom, pampers the guest (St.
Regis Sanya Yalong Bay Resort, Sanya, China).
Guestroom Activity Zones
The hotel guestroom accommodates one to four or more people, sometimes with several
activities occurring at one time (for example, bathing and dressing, working and watching
TV). The designer needs to be aware of techniques for separating some activities while
combining others, in both cases increasing the flexibility and adaptability of the room to
different users. The plan illustrates the five principal guestroom activity zones: sleeping,
working, lounging, bathing, and dressing.
combine the several functions in different ways or find techniques for separating them more fully. For
example, the designer can provide suite-like characteristics in a standard room by adding a screen to
separate the sleeping and sitting portions of the space. Or the team may create a compartmentalized
bathroom by isolating the tub/shower and toilet area from the sink and dressing function. The plan on
this page shows how the functional zones in a room may overlap.
With the continuing increase in construction and furnishing costs, as well as increasing
competitiveness among hotel brands, it becomes more important to develop innovative layouts for
guestrooms— designs that combine function and comfort within realistic budgets. Basic approaches
include using fewer individual pieces of furniture, sometimes combining several functions, or scaling
them slightly smaller to give the perception of a larger or more luxurious room. The designer might
include the following:
•Queen- or 72 inch (1.8 m) king-size bed: Beds smaller than the 78 inch (2 m) king create more
open space.
•Convertible sofa or wall-bed: These provide more open space and flexibility, either as the
second bed in a queen or king room, or as the only bed in a parlor.
•Adequate luggage and clothes space: Sufficient drawers, luggage stand, and closet space
reduce the clutter of clothing and personal items throughout the room.
•Wall-mounted TV: Provide a flat-screen television mounted to the wall to eliminate
unnecessary counter space. Hide power and cable connections behind the television.
•Desk: A wheeled computer stand that rolls under the main desk offers a better height for a
guests laptop computer and provides additional work surface.
•Lounge and desk chairs: Lounge chairs designed at a height appropriate for the work desk
may eliminate the need for a desk chair.
•Mirrors: Mirrors enlarge the space visually.
•Wall-mounted bedside lamps: These permit a smaller bedside night table.
•Bathroom: Designs should increase lighting and enlarge the countertop and mirror surfaces;
compartmentalize the toilet and/ or tub/shower.
Several details in the room arrangement and furnishing do not have any best solution, although there
are more common ones for different types or categories of hotels. For example, many operators of
economy properties insist that the telephone should be located next to the beds, whereas others prefer
that it be placed at the work area. Most first-class hotels have solved the question by providing two
phones—or three, with an additional one in the bathroom. Often, one is cordless—with the base unit a
speakerphone—which enables guests to roam around their room while talking on the phone. Similarly,
the lower-priced budget inns often prefer drapes which combine the decorative drapery and blackout
into a single unit, to reduce the number of drapery tracks, whereas others insist on separate sheer,
blackout, and overdrape to allow easy cleaning and maintenance. Guests in upscale hotels—and even
at mid-level hotels in Asia—can control the several drapes by pushing a button at the bedside.
Throughout the room, the designer must balance the conflicting needs of function, safety, maintenance,
comfort, aesthetics, and budget, and, at the same time, consider the varying requirements of the several
different guest markets that a single hotel tries to attract. (See Table 16.5.)
Not every operator is trying to provide the smallest possible room or find ways to combine functions
with multi-purpose furnishings. The 3,000-room Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas opened in 1999 with
standard guestrooms of 665 sq ft (61.8 sq m), including a five-fixture guest bathroom of 110 sq ft (10.2
sq m). In floor area, this room is larger than many hotel suites, yet the room is only one bay wide. It
features, in addition to the generous bathroom, clearly separated sleeping and living areas (see plan E
on page 331).
The wide adoption of flat-screen televisions has nearly eliminated the reliance on the armoire in
guestroom design. This allows the guestroom module to be slightly narrower, although designers may
need additional floor space as they explore alternatives to the traditional desk, offering more work
surface, perhaps a computer cart, better lighting, and ergonomic seating. Also, exercise equipment may
find its way into business-oriented hotel guestrooms.
Guestroom Interior Views
Guestrooms must readily accommodate different market segments. (A-B) In high-rise hotels,
the view can be especially dramatic (W Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Hard Rock Casino,
Macau, China). (C-D) Smaller hotels and resorts often have a more residential feel (The
Study at Yale, New Haven, Connecticut; JW Marriott Ihilani, Hawaii). (E) Hotel themes may
predominate; here, the Obama Room (President Hotel, New York, New York).

Suites
The principal way that a hotel provides different qualities of accommodations is to include a variety of
guestroom suites in the room mix. A suite is defned simply as a living room connected to one or more
bedrooms. Larger hotels frequently provide a hierarchy of suites, from single-bay living rooms with a
sleeping alcove to multiple-bay living rooms with connecting rooms, including dining/ conference
rooms and one or two bedrooms (Table 16.6). Some management companies have gained a well-earned
reputation for the overall quality of their suites. Four Seasons, the Toronto-based luxury hotel chain,
offers a standard two-bay suite consisting of a one-bay living room with powder room, connecting
through double French doors to a bedroom with oversized guest bathroom.
Table 16.5 Elements required for complete guestroom design
Furnishings

Casepieces Desk, dresser, tables, chairs, nightstands, headboard, and TV

Soft goods Bedspreads, drapes, and upholstery fabrics; carpet sometimes included

Lighting Lamps at the bedside, desk, and lounge seating areas

Accessories Framed mirrors, art, planters, other amenities. (Wastebaskets, coffee maker,
iron and ironing board, and other miscellaneous items are provided by the
hotel operator)

Guestroom finishes

Floor Generally carpet over padding, although resorts may have tile (warm
climates) and suites may have wood parquet with area rugs

Wall Vinyl wall-covering preferred, or paint; baseboard and moldings if budget

permits

Ceiling Acoustical paint

Doors Wood, pre-finished, or painted—all solid core

Door frames Painted to match doors, walls, or accent color

Bathroom finishes

Floor Porcelain, ceramic, or marble tile

Walls Porcelain, ceramic, or marble tile around tub; vinyl wall-covering or paint
elsewhere

Ceiling Paint

Electrical/mechanical

Outlets Minimum of five duplex outlets: two at the beds, one each at desk, dresser,
and lounge area; require outlets convenient for guest computer and for
housekeeper

Cable Television, dual telephone lines, internet, fire alarm, or other

communications system

Mechanical HVAC integrated with room layout; bathroom exhaust

Fire protection Minimum of one heat or smoke detector and one sprinkler in each
guestroom; some areas require additional sprinklers in closet and bathroom.
All interior furnishings should be carefully checked for fire-retardant and
nontoxic finish.
 Table 16.6 Suite types

Suite type Size Count Comment

Junior suite 1.5 <2% Not programmed; the result of planning that yields oversized
bays, 1 guestrooms.
key

Parlor suite 2 bays, '5% One-bay parlor; connected to a typical king bedroom. The parlor is
2 keys a rentable key, with a sofa-bed and full bathroom.

Hospitality 3 bays, 1–2% Two-bay parlor/lounge, with pantry; connected to a typical king
suite 2 keys bedroom. The living room (with lounge furnishings) is a rentable
key, with sofa-bed and full bathroom.

Conference 3 bays, 1–2% Two-bay meeting room, with pantry; connected to a typical king
suite 2 keys bedroom. The meeting room (with conference table and limited
lounge furnishings) is a rentable key, with a sofa-bed and full
bathroom.

Deluxe suite 3 bays, 1–2% Two-bay parlor, with powder room and pantry; connected to a one-
1 key bay dedicated king bedroom. The parlor is furnished as a living
room with a small conference/dining table; the king bedroom has a
four-fixture bathroom.

Executive 4 bays, 1% Two-bay parlor, with powder room and pantry, similar to above;
suite 1 key connected to a two-bay dedicated king bedroom, with a four-fixture
bathroom.

Presidential 4–6 Only Two- to three-bay parlor, plus an additional conference/dining bay,
suite bays, 1 1 powder room, and pantry; connected to a two-bay dedicated king
key bedroom, with a five-fixture bathroom.

Generally, each parlor also connects to a typical double-double guestroom; provide one or more accessible suites of each type
with an accessible powder room.
Guestroom Suite Views
The penthouse suite at the Fairmont San Francisco, originally built in the 1920s and designed
by Moorish scholar Arthur Upham Pope, rivals many of the richly detailed mansions built in
the city's heyday. The restored space, covering the entire eighth floor of the original hotel
building, is intended to host VIP leaders and as a site for celebrity weddings. The suite
includes three oversized bedrooms, living room, formal dining room, two-story rotunda
library, a dramatic billiard room covered with Persian tiles, and an expansive terrace with
sweeping views of the city skyline.
Concierge-Floor Lounge
Luxury and convention-oriented properties often provide a concierge or club-floor lounge,
covering three to six bays (or more) on an upper floor, providing such VIP services as
express check-in and check-out, Continental breakfast, all-day beverage and snack service,
and normal concierge services. This six-bay example includes a reception area, large
permanent buffet with adjoining pantry, small guest conference room, computer
workstations, and guest lounge and dining space (JW Marriott, Indianapolis, Indiana).
The number or percentage of suites varies among hotel types. Most hotels have no more than 2–5
percent of their keys allocated to suites; first-class and convention hotels, on the other hand, provide up
to 10 percent of the total guestroom count in suites. These most likely are positioned on the upper floors
of the tower, where the suite rooms have better views, but may be stacked vertically where unusual
conditions occur. For example, suites may be used to fill any larger structural bays on the typical floor,
grow into additional area behind stairs or elevators, or are located where the building form provides
uniquely shaped rooms.
At the beginning of the 1980s, several companies in the United States recognized the growing need
of the extended-stay market and established chains of all-suite hotels. But the operators found that these
small suites also held great appeal to the traveling businessperson and family, both of whom appreciated
the separate living room and bedroom and the provision of a small kitchen. At the time, operators such
as Residence Inn, Embassy Suites, and Guest Quarters were successfully converting apartment
buildings or building new structures with suites of approximately 450 sq ft (42 sq m). In the late
twentieth century, a number of franchise companies established innovative all-suite brands, many of
them with entries in the “economy suite” segment, with accommodations no larger than a conventional
hotel guestroom, but with a small kitchenette.
Many hotels now offer concierge or club-floor levels to offer a higher-quality room and additional
amenities at a premium price. Usually representing 10–20 percent of the total room count, the club-
floor rooms are identical in size to typical guestrooms, but feature better-quality finishes, furnishings,
and bathroom amenities. More important to most guests are the additional services available in the club-
floor lounge, including express check-in and check-out, complimentary breakfast, tea, cocktails, and
evening snacks, and the more personal services of a concierge on the guest floors. The lounge space
usually is equal in size to at least three guestrooms, and in major convention hotels, with their private
conference rooms and additional business services, may displace as many as six to eight rooms. See the
plan on this page for an example of a club-floor lounge in a convention headquarters hotel.

Guest Bathroom
Nowhere in the room is planning and design more important than in the guest bathroom. In the mid-
twentieth century, with the great surge in the development of chain properties along the new interstate
highways, bathrooms grew from about 30 sq ft (2.8 sq m)—hardly big enough for the standard three
fixtures—to at least 40 sq ft (3.7 sq m). This growth in the bathroom paralleled the huge expansion in
roadside inns to serve the family market. This standard bathroom still is used today, and the 5 × 8 ft
(1.5 × 2.4 m) dimensions still comfortably accommodate the standard three fixtures. But competitive
pressure, and marketing, and guests' eagerness for something no less than they have at home, have
pushed the first-class and luxury operators to add fixtures and other amenities. By 2010 it was common
for downtown hotels, catering to a single business traveler, to offer a bathroom with a large sink/counter,
bathtub, separate shower
Bathroom Interior Views
(A) Successful guest bathrooms incorporate a strong sense of arrival, with an axial focus on
the sinks or whirlpool tub (Four Seasons Marrakech, Morocco). (B) Hyatt developed several
hotels with a wet-room, combining tub and rain shower in one space (Hyatt Regency Mainz,
Germany). (C) Resort hotels often allow the bathroom to flow outdoors, sometimes including
a plunge pool (Four Seasons Seychelles). (D) Upscale hotel bathrooms increasingly
incorporate a separate stall shower and compartmentalized toilet (Rosewood Sand Hill, Palo
Alto, California).
stall, and compartmentalized toilet: all for one person. Resort and super-luxury properties go one better,
adding a second sink and plenty of open floor space.
Designers need to study the market data to understand what features and amenities will be most
important. Is the market predominantly men or women? Single travelers or couples or families? What
are their demographics, and do they expect unusual levels of luxury in the bathroom? Several
management companies took to heart the research that showed that nearly 90 percent of travelers staying
in their properties preferred showers. As a result, in newer hotels they have omitted the tub/shower
combination and replaced it with an oversized stall shower, but still provide the tub/shower in double-
double or queen-queen rooms intended for the family segment. In the late twentieth century, Global
Hyatt opened severa hotels in Germany and Japan with unusual bathrooms, featuring a wet-room—a
space about 5 × 5 ft (1.5 × 1.5 m) with a normal tub, plus overhead rain shower—a compartmentalized
toilet, and a spacious sink counter and make-up area. The bathroom is separated from the bedroom by
sliding panels or a glass partition. The photographs on the previous page suggest how designers can use
the guest bathroom to give the guest a truly memorable overnight experience.
Accessible Guestroom/Universal Design
All hotel operators must provide accommodation and other services for guests with physical disabilities.
In the United States, the federal government in 1992 passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),
which mandates equal access to all public accommodations—not only lodging properties but retail
stores, restaurants, theaters, museums, airports, transportation services, etc. Hotels before this time had
made some token efforts to provide rooms for disabled guests, most frequently those in wheelchairs.
But the ADA broadened the definition to those with other disabilities, such as arthritis, or those who
are hearing- or sight-impaired. For twenty years these laws remained unchanged, but the government
recently made changes which took effect in March, 2012. All areas of the hotel or resort must meet the
guidelines of the ADA, not only the public areas and guestrooms but the employee areas as well. A
recent U.S. Census Bureau study indicates that over 22 percent of the U.S. population have some sort
of disability—defined as difficulty performing normal activities of daily living (or as many as 53 percent
of those over age 50).
One area where accessible design is most evident is in the “handicapped-accessible guestrooms,” a
small number of rooms which feature larger bathrooms with somewhat different fixtures—a roll-in
shower stall, for example—and a number of features intended to improve the accommodation for a
person with specific disabilities. Interestingly, many of these features are a great boon to the able-bodied
traveler: lever handles on doors and faucets, a hand-held shower, grab bars in the bathroom, large
buttons on the telephone, and more accessible outlets and switches—that is, design features which have
“universal” appeal. Hotel interior designers have begun to realize the value of universal design and are
adopting as many of these features as make economic and functional sense.
In a recent study, one franchise company surveyed some of the 20 million people with disabilities in
the United States who travel regularly, asking them what they most want from their hotel. The
respondents (73 percent wheelchair users, 5 percent sight- or hearing-impaired, and 22 percent “other”)
in particular listed many characteristics of the guestrooms (along with other comments dealing with the
hotel providing accurate information, helpful staff, and more accessible parking):
•Accessible showers
•Large bathrooms
•Enough space for easy maneuverability
•Suitable beds
•Aesthetically pleasing guestroom
•Refrigerator in guestroom
•Easy access to guestroom controls

Guestroom Technology
The early decades of the twenty-first century have seen incredible innovations in technology, much of
it appearing in hotel guestrooms. At the turn of the century, because nationwide nearly 60 percent of all
roomnights were generated by business travelers, most major management companies adopted internet
access in all their hotel guestrooms, initially hard-wired Ethernet connections, which offered connection
speeds 50 times faster than normal phone lines and, further, didn't interfere with telephone use.
Increasingly, business travelers carried laptops with them on trips, the great majority to stay in e-mail
contact with their offce or family. A side benefit was that adoption of the high-speed cable networks
freed up the existing PBX (telephone) trunk lines, lessening the burden on another essential piece of the
communications network.
But, with the advent of “smartphones,” the need in guestrooms has changed. Guests want to
customize their experience by integrating their own technology with the hotel systems. Guests now
travel with their own video content and need to connect with the television for both business computing
and entertainment. Their personal devices, increasingly, will be able to control or access room
temperature, television, high-speed Internet—even the guestroom door lock. ARIA Hotel and Casino,
part of the CityCenter development in Las Vegas, which opened late in 2009, allows guests to connect
their laptop or game console to the 42 inch LCD high-definition television. In addition, the ARIA
guestrooms offer simple touch-screen control of such features as dimmable lighting, room temperature,
television/ video systems, music, wake-up calls, draperies, and requests for services. Today, major
hotels provide wireless service throughout their properties, enabling communication and e-mail service
over a wide range of products. These new systems, some incorporating radio frequency identification
(RFID) technology, easily control door locks and energy usage, among others. As technology becomes
more fully integrated over the next few years, we can expect to see faster adoption of innovations for
such systems as:
•door locks
•door bells; hallway “privacy” and “service” indicators
•high-definition televisions
•wireless internet
•telephone
•bedside controls (clock, draperies, temperature, fan, etc.)
•energy management
•in-room safe
Of course, it is important to provide conveniently located power outlets in the room, as well as the
wiring to connect the many in-room devices and control panels. Luxury hotels look for every way to
pamper their guests, and technology plays a role here, too. Several hotels have introduced iPads to their
concierge staff, or put them into guestrooms. One, the Hotel Beaux Arts Miami, developed a proprietary
tablet application (app) for the several dozen iPads it placed in guestrooms, used primarily for ordering
room service and making spa reservations; the tablets also replace the printed portfolio that had
previously been in every room. The apps are important in helping to position the innovative brand to
the tech-savvy guest. According to the hotel's sales and marketing executive, their guests “have gone
beyond use of the phone.” Many hoteliers prefer to provide power and bandwidth, rather than try to
stay ahead of the guests in terms of changing technology.

Proposing the Guestroom FF&E Budget

Early in the process, after preparing the initial guestroom mix, the interior design frm proposes a budget
for the furnishings and interior equipment for the guestrooms and suites, representing about half of the
hotel's total interior design budget. Generally, the designer accomplishes this in several stages, each one
more focused and detailed, as the design becomes more specific:
•Concept design: Budget based on $ per guestroom or suite, $ per key for corridor finishes.
•Schematic design: Budget based on an allowance for each furniture item ($ per bedset,
nightstand, desk, etc.) prior to selecting the individual item.
•Design development: Budget with exact $ figure for most specified FF&E items, but with
allowances for artwork, signage, and accessories.
•Contract documents: Figure for each item, including input from purchasing agent to obtain
competitive pricing from vendors.
By 2010, costs for hotel guestroom interiors in the United States ranged from about $3,000 to well over
$20,000 per room, depending primarily on the quality level of the property. While the size of the room
is a factor, it has relatively minor significance. The lower-priced rooms have extremely basic
furnishings, base-grade carpet and fabrics, painted walls, inexpensive light fixtures, and casegoods with
a plastic-laminate finish. The higher-priced rooms have a more sumptuous feel, with luxurious fabrics,
wood-veneer casepieces, overstuffed furnishings, triple-matted and framed artwork, and extra lighting
to enhance the visual atmosphere. Each individual item may be at least twice as expensive, and
designers often include a number of additional accessories or extra amenities.
The sheer number of guestrooms requires that the designer be particularly conscious of seeking
economies in the layout of the rooms and the selection of the furnishings and finishes. Because of the
importance of these factors in influencing the guest's perception of the hotel as well as cost, hotel
developers often will build a full-scale mock-up to test the design before purchasing the furnishings.
This model room provides the perfect setting for the final coordination of many furnishing, room finish,
and engineering-system decisions that affect the room design and guest comfort. In addition, the model
room is used as a promotional tool to interest business or convention groups in the hotel and to provide
them with assurances of the quality of the final room product before the hotel opens.
In addition, the largest management companies may build model rooms for each separate brand at
their headquarters, and regularly update them as the markets evolve and change. Marriott, for example,
has sample guestrooms for nearly every brand in its Maryland headquarters, using them as a sales tool
to interest potential franchisees.
Renaissance Arlington Capitol View, Arlington, Virginia
The lobby of the Renaissance Hotel combines many of the features prevalent in today's lobby layouts: registration podiums,
comfortable seating, quick-service food and beverages, large-screen televisions, and space for guests to socialize.
 CHAPTER
17
Public Space Design

While the hotel guestrooms take up the majority of the floor area in virtually all hotels, it is the public
space that defines the differences among the various types. Because the lobby, restaurants and lounges,
meeting and banquet space, and recreation facilities vary so greatly (from only 5 percent in a budget
inn to 25 percent in a conference center), understanding the distinctions among the different hotel types
is crucial to programming and designing a successful project.
Table 17.1 (overleaf) identifies the key differences in public space for the different hotel types.
Convention hotels and conference centers, for example, have relatively more meeting and banquet
space; resorts and, often, conference centers include major recreational components; urban and luxury
hotels, among others, have fewer but generally high-quality food operations.
In addition to providing the appropriate mix of facilities for each type of hotel, the architect must
create an organization that meets the functional requirements of the developer and the hotel
management company. The budget and mid-price companies insist on tight and economical layouts
overall, and the limited public areas tend to be multi-purpose. The first-class and luxury-hotel operators,
while they, too, strive for some efficiency, are more concerned with the visual qualities of the building
and in providing a level of amenity; these companies frequently will accept a less economical layout in
order to accommodate more appealing and saleable architectural and interior design features.
Whatever the type of hotel, an overall objective for the planning and design of the public areas is that
they be clustered around the lobby. This arrangement assures that the hotel guests can find the various
facilities with a minimum of difficulty and provides the opportunity for functions to overlap. Hotel
atrium lobbies, especially, exhibit such characteristics, where the guest registration area, multiple
restaurants and lounges, meeting pre-function space, guest elevators, and upper-floor corridors all
occupy the same volume.
A second major objective in high-rise projects is to organize the public areas with an understanding
of their location in relation to the guestroom structure. This is important for two reasons. One, the
architect needs to plan the lobby floor so that the major guest circulation from the entrance to the front
desk to the elevators is convenient and logical. Two, the designer must position any long-span spaces,
primarily the ballroom and other larger meeting rooms, so that they are not directly under the guestroom
tower, in order to simplify the structural design of the hotel and reduce construction costs.
Table 17.1 Public space matrix
Key: “Small” means lobby <6 sq ft per room (0.55 sq m); food and beverage areas <0.7 seat per room; function spaces <2
seats per room; recreation area = small pool or health club plus limited other facilities; parking <0.7 car per room.

“Moderate” stands for lobby 6–10 sq ft per room (0.55–0.93 sq m); food and beverage areas 0.7–1.2 seats per room; function
spaces 2–4 seats per room; recreation area = pool and spa/health club plus other facilities; parking for 0.7–1.2 cars per room.

“Large” indicates lobby >10 sq ft per room (0.93 sq m); food and beverage areas >1.2 seats per room; function areas >4 seats
per room; recreation areas = extensive facilities including full spa; parking >1.2 cars per room. Some types of hotels require
additional parking for buses.

Exterior Approach and Entrances

The architectural aspects of the building, of course, are best observed on the approach to the
hotel entrance, and the details of the site and exterior design—the landscaping, the night
illumination, the entry drive, and canopy—all contribute to the guests' anticipation of their stay.
Larger hotels may develop a number of different entrances to help separate overnight guests
and visitors, to reduce the amount of unnecessary traffic through the lobby, to establish a
distinct identity for a restaurant or other facility, or to provide increased security. Resorts may
focus on the landscaping at the entry driveway and the approach to the hotel. The designers
should assess the relative need for the following entrances:
•Main hotel entrance
•Ballroom/banquet entrance
•Restaurant/bar/nightclub/casino entrance
•Health club/spa entrance
•Tour bus/airport bus drop-off
•Suite or condominium entrance.
Centara Grand at CentralWorld, Bangkok, Thailand
Many city hotels feature a canopy extending over the sidewalk to protect arriving guests from inclement weather.

JW Marriott San Antonio, Texas

Where hotels have sufficient space, the preferred arrival arrangement is to provide a covered porte cochère extending across
the driveway.
Morongo Casino, Cabazon, California
Often, a hotel will create a dramatic porte cochère to signal the arrival point.
Each entrance needs to be clearly marked according to its function with a canopy, signage,
special illumination, or other architectural treatment. Some entrances require space for waiting
taxis or buses, others require temporary luggage storage, and the condominium entrance
requires special security. Some city hotels may succeed with no more than a drop-off at the
curb, but in destinations such as Orlando or Las Vegas, the largest hotels often have four to six
lanes at the porte cochère to handle the heavy volume of arrivals and departures. The design
requirements for the hotel entrances can be summarized briefly:
•Canopy: Provide a porte cochère or covered drop-off at the main entrance and principal
secondary entrances (ballroom or restaurant) to protect guests from inclement weather; include
lighting, signage, and heat, if necessary; ensure sufficient height for buses and emergency
vehicles.
•Driveways: Predict the amount of traffic and provide a sufficient number of aisles and queuing
space for waiting taxis, loading and unloading of passengers and luggage, and short-term
standing, including valet-delivered cars and tour or airport buses.
•Parking: Make garage access convenient to and from the main hotel entrance; if there is valet
parking, establish a location for the valet office near the main entrance.
•Sidewalks: Design pedestrian areas that are sufficiently wide for handling baggage, storing
baggage carts, and providing a doorman or bellman station; at bus locations, provide space for
groups to assemble.
•Doors and vestibules: Develop a weather vestibule with revolving or automatic doors to limit
temperature differences; include access into luggage-storage room from curb; provide ramps
as necessary for both disabled guests and luggage carts.

Lobby
Among the many public areas of the hotel, the lobby makes the single greatest impact on the guest and
on visitors to the hotel. Its design—whether intimate or expansive, formal or casual—sets the tone for
the hotel or resort. Therefore, the planning of the major lobby elements and the design of the details are
crucial to making a positive and lasting impression on the guest. The most successful designs carefully
balance two key factors: visual impact and function.
For most of the twentieth century, until the Hyatt Regency Hotel opened in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1967,
most hotel lobbies were relatively small, designed along the same economical principles as the rest of
the hotel. However, in the 1970s emphasis shifted toward larger lobbies, not only in convention hotels
and mixed-used complexes, but also in smaller hotels built in suburban areas and at airports. The
beginning of the twenty-first century, with its increase in hotel specialization, shows evidence of a
return to more intimate interior spaces, especially in the super-luxury, all-suite, and conference-center
categories. Thus, among the initial questions facing the developer and architect is to decide what should
be the scale, atmosphere, and image of the lobby. Many hotel companies today are making the lobby
into much more of a social center, combining the traditional functions into one space where guests
register, eat, meet, and socialize; Marriott calls it the “great room.”

Hotel Public Space

John C. Portman, Jr.
Chairman, John Portman & Associates
Atlanta, Georgia
A century ago, the world experienced a transition from an agrarian to an industrial society. Now, early
in the twenty-first century, the world is in the throes of another transformation, into an age of
technological innovation. Design in this period will continue to refect not only changing social views,
but also evolving technology. We have only begun to sense the impact of technology and innovation
on human endeavor and its effect on work, play, travel, and perceptions of “place.”
These perceptions are influenced by the art and architecture of the environment, the natural
surroundings, and the times. It is the architect's responsibility to integrate these elements to create an
enhanced human experience. In hotels, for example, the resurgence of the hotel lobby as an active place
to see, be seen, and participate has changed from a time when it was less multi-dimensional. Public
space is becoming a public-happening place. Lounges and restaurants, shops and libraries, and special
seating groups all interact to create comfortable and convenient, yet active, environments.
Public space today is a place in which people linger as well as move into, out of, and through. The
challenge to designers is to create architecture that by its expression acknowledges the many varied
activities.
The architect must integrate public spaces, both indoors and outdoors, in such a way that people are
drawn to the space. Today, you must immerse people in an evolving diversified world. Whether the
desired effect is to calm or excite, the architect must organize guests' sequence through the hotel. From
the building approach, to entering the front door, to moving through the lobby, to continuing to their
room, guests must anticipate a build-up of the experience largely created by the hotel's design.

Program and Planning Objectives

The space program for the lobby must recognize the type of hotel and the amount of circulation within
the public areas. Larger hotels, such as convention properties and those located within mixed-use
Westin Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota
The adaptive reuse of the 1941 Farmers & Mechanics Bank space creates a dramatic lobby for the Westin Minneapolis. The
214-room hotel features a three-story multi-purpose lobby space complete with elegant wood carvings and details.

Renaissance Arlington Capitol View

The “great room” lobby of the Renaissance hotel illustrates the multipurpose design of today's hotel lobby.

projects, require tremendous amounts of space to accommodate the number of guests and visitors drawn
to the variety of facilities. Smaller hotels, and those that cater to few outsiders other than hotel guests,
require relatively little floor area. Most hotels provide between 6 and 10 sq ft (0.6–0.9 sq m) of floor
area per guestroom in the lobby, not including circulation to remote functions (see Chapter 14).
Convention and mega-hotels, and those developed as part of a mixed-use project, may require 10–15
sq ft (0.9–1.4 sq m) per room.
Locating bars, restaurants, and retail kiosks within the lobby is one way to increase the apparent size
of the space without adding additional gross area. Atlanta architect John Portman refers to this concept
as “shared space,” in which additional lobby functions create variety, not only in scale but in relative
level of activity, with fluctuating usage throughout the day. In order to accomplish this diversity
successfully, the best plans provide a clear definition of the several functions that occur within the lobby
and make their organization obvious to the guest.
The planning requirements of most hotel lobbies are similar, regardless of the type of hotel (see Table
17.2). In addition to establishing the image of the hotel, the lobby serves as the main circulation space,
directing guests to the front desk, elevators, food and beverage outlets, meeting and banquet facilities,
health club, and other public areas; as guests linger, it serves as an informal gathering space. It also
functions as a security control point, where the staff can visually supervise access to the building. The
several planning objectives for the lobby include:
•Entrances: Consider additional exterior entrances for the main lobby, banquet facilities,
restaurants, health club, or other high-traffic areas.
•Front desk location: Locate the desk so that it is immediately visible to the entering hotel
guest and so that desk personnel can visually oversee access to the passenger elevators.
•Office access: Provide entrances to the front office, safe-deposit area, executive offices, and
sales and catering offices.
•Guest elevators: Locate elevators close to the front desk and the main entrance and provide
sufficient elevator lobby space for handling luggage.
•Seating area: Provide a seating area near the desk and entrance, including some private seating
groups; locate additional seating contiguous with the lobby bar.
•Circulation: Establish clear paths to the front desk, elevators, restaurants and bars, meeting
and banquet areas; where possible, separate hotel-guest traffic from convention-oriented
visitors.
•Retail areas: Provide lease space convenient to the guest circulation areas or with exterior
frontage.
•Bellman/luggage: Position bellman station near the front desk, elevators, and front entrance;
locate luggage storage nearby.
•Support functions: Locate such accessory functions as toilets, coats, house phones, public
phones, meeting directory, and assistant manager's desk conveniently in relation to other areas.
Table 17.2 Lobby design checklist

Front desk area

Stations for registration, cashier, information
Assistant manager's desk
Bellman station, cart storage
Luggage storage
House and pay phones

Seating area
Seating capacity and type
Food and beverage service
Water feature or other visual focus
 Circulation
Access to public elevators
Access to restaurants and lounges
Access to function rooms
Access to recreation facilities
Access to retail shops and other public areas
Access to parking garage

Retail areas
Sundries shop (newsstand, toiletries, souvenirs)
Travel services (city tours, airlines, rental cars)
Clothing (men, women, specialty shops)
Gifts (jeweler, florist, toys, books) Other services (bank, copy center)
Successful lobby planning requires the designer to carefully consider the relative layout of several major functional elements
(front desk, public elevators) and many additional details (house phones, seating areas, etc.). Some relate to the lobby space
itself, others to adjacent areas, and yet others to movement through the space. The checklist identifies the essential elements
of good lobby planning.
(facing) The Nines, Portland, Oregon

Top: The adaptive reuse of the upper floors of the Meier & Frank department store included a seven-story atrium cut into the
building to accommodate the lobby, bar, and restaurant.

Bottom: Semi-private seating alcoves are arranged throughout the atrium in the 333-room hotel.
Design Objectives
The written design objectives for the lobby should provide a detailed description of the front desk,
seating area, circulation, and secondary functions. To a large extent, the architect and interior designer
must first study each area individually, solving a multitude of design and functional issues, and then put
them together. Some issues are more related to the back-of-house (front desk), others to food and
beverage (lobby bar), and others to organizing the public fow. The design of the front desk and related
activities, just one aspect of the lobby, requires making conscious decisions on each of the following
features:
•Size of desk: Provide individual workstations, each 6 ft (1.8 m) long, for registration and
cashier; assume two stations for the first 150 rooms, one more for each additional 100 rooms;
alternatively, provide dual registration pods for the reception staff.
•Queuing space: Provide sufficient space in front of the desk for guests to line up; for
convention hotels, provide at least 20 ft (6.1 m) clear of circulation.
•Assistant manager's desk: If required, provide a desk, seating, and storage near the front desk
for a concierge or assistant manager; consider making the desk a major decorative feature
within the lobby.
•Bellman station: Provide a bellman station near the front desk and main entrance.
•Luggage storage: Provide a lockable storage area adjoining the bellman station, with shelving
for checked luggage; provide direct access to the curb.
•Telephones: Include house phones close to the front desk and public phones convenient to the
lobby, approximately one per 100 rooms.
•Furniture and fixtures: Establish ambience of lobby area by providing special millwork
detailing and finishes, front desk, bellman station, assistant manager's desk, and furnishings
(lounge seating, decorative lighting, artwork) to establish the image of the hotel.
The design of the other areas of the lobby deals with fewer functional elements but requires more
manipulation of the space. The definition of circulation, seating, and retail areas usually is advanced by
such standard design techniques as level changes, floor materials, varying ceiling heights, special
lighting, signage programs, articulation of decorative details, and custom millwork. Many of these are
evident in the illustrations of hotel and resort lobbies throughout Part 1.
Westin Boston Waterfront, Boston, Massachusetts
The dual reception podiums are a requirement for most Starwood hotels.
Westin Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
The 361-room hotel features a glazed vertical atrium at the corner of the structure, holding the glass observation elevators
typical of Portman-designed projects.
St. Regis Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia
The chandeliers, curving grand stairs, and small seating areas exemplify the luxurious St. Regis look and feel.

Qasr Al Sarab, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Located in the legendary Liwa Desert, one of the largest uninterrupted sand deserts in the world, the Qasr Al Sarab Desert
Resort features stunning desert views from the lobby and guest suites.

Baronette Renaissance Hotel, Novi, Michigan

The Renaissance Hotel, located in a Detroit suburb, features a lobby with a refective stone and glass hearth and seating
clusters for small groups to work and socialize.

Food and Beverage Outlets

The hotel's restaurants and lounges offer the potential to give the property an individual identity and to
make a business or vacation trip memorable. Generally, at least one restaurant and one cocktail lounge
are clustered conveniently around the hotel lobby. These and other more specialized types of food and
beverage outlets—specialty or theme restaurants; deli and coffee/pastry shops; lobby bar and
entertainment or sports lounges—form a second, more complex category of public spaces. However,
these vary so widely in quality and character that the program and design of each outlet must be
developed individually, based on a survey of the total market and the existing competition.
Hotel food service has gone through frequent cycles of popularity with the public. Until late in the
twentieth century, and then only in the better hotels, most U.S. hotel restaurants had a reputation for
poor food and uninspired design. Their mediocrity may have been due to the fact that hotel restaurants
often were only profitable at breakfast, when the overnight guests could be depended on to fill the more
casual outlet; guests scarcely used them at lunch and hardly more at dinner. In the 1970s, in a climate
of increased competition, the industry began to recognize the marketing opportunities of improved
restaurant and lounge operations. They found that well-conceived food and beverage outlets increased
the demand for guestrooms and meetings, attracted the general public, especially at the low-volume
lunch and dinner periods, and had the potential to generate additional profits. But the cyclic nature of
the industry and resultant downsizing of staff at many hotels in the 1990s forced a new series of
economies, and challenged designers and operators again to seek creative solutions.
Some companies decided, instead, to outsource their F&B operations, selecting a local or national
brand to occupy space in the hotel, rather than run the outlet themselves. Such branding became a major
theme in the 1990s and should continue to flourish. However, it does have some downsides. Leased
operations remove the hotel operator from direct control over the product quality, introduce non-hotel
staff into the property, and greatly complicate room service and back-of-house functions such as
receiving and storage. Where it works, outsourcing can be a great success: Heartbeat, the restaurant in
the W New York, serves over 180 dinners and about 300 room-service meals each day.
Designing successful restaurant and bar operations must recognize the public's changing attitudes
toward food. For example, more people now eat outside conventional mealtimes, forgoing breakfast but
taking a larger morning coffee break or putting off dinner for a late-evening meal or snack. Travelers
appreciate restaurants that provide self-service elements—an elaborate buffet set up, or more traditional
salad bar—from which they can select items, control portion size, and better manage the time spent
dining. These considerations should be part of the market analysis, which defines both the hotel guest
and the local customer, so that the hotel's food and beverage facilities can enjoy the largest possible
audience.

Food and Beverage Concept Development

The high visibility of hotel restaurants suggests that both management and designers should think
through their detailed operations early in the development phase. However, in smaller and midscale
hotels, restaurant menus often are not developed until a few months before the hotel opens. As a result,
the restaurant may not be designed until well after the building shell is complete, when modifications
to the public area or kitchen access, or the addition of level changes, display features, or special ceiling
treatments, are impossible. The result, too often, is an unexceptional restaurant.
Experienced hotel management companies evolve food and beverage concepts in two ways. Some,
like Marriott and Hyatt International, define the operations early in the development process and
establish the type of food and service, the hours of operation, the theme and general atmosphere,
including even the outlet's name and logo. The architect and interior designer then develop a schematic
building design that accommodates these themes. Before considering the detailed planning and design
issues of hotel restaurants and lounges, designers should become familiar with such operational aspects
of food service as marketing, menu-planning, service, and food-preparation techniques. This enables
them to communicate better with the managers who establish detailed restaurant and lounge criteria:
•Market characteristics
•Concept (type of menu, style of service, entertainment)
•Design elements (atmosphere, tabletop, display elements)
•Operations (hours open, staffing, seating mix)
•Financial projections
The designer should address the components of restaurant or lounge design identified in the food and
beverage concept checklist; see Table 17.3.
 The other procedure is to establish only rough space requirements at the program phase, and to
develop the food and beverage concepts after the architect has conceived the organization of the hotel,
in light of the actual location and type of space provided. For example, the three-meal restaurant might
have one theme if it is within an atrium space, another if it overlooks the pool or a garden courtyard.
This was carried even further at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, where the developer decided to delay
establishing any restaurant concept until six months before the hotel opened. He reasoned that many
hotel restaurants are redesigned every three to five years in order to remain current. Therefore, the hotel
plan included a generic kitchen and restaurant space that was not fnally designed or detailed until the
hotel was nearly complete and almost ready to open.
A recent approach to hotel food service has been to develop a single restaurant with several distinct
moods that are appropriate to the different meal periods and levels of informality. This is especially
appropriate in smaller properties, where one three-meal restaurant must have a bright and airy feel and
include a buffet setup at breakfast, a balanced, casual, yet business atmosphere at lunch, and an intimate
or formal mood at dinner time. This can be accomplished partly by the larger design elements: placing
some
Table 17.3 Food and beverage concept checklist

General
Name of outlet
Location
Capacity
Operating hours
Market description
Financial projections
Staffing

Food or beverage concept

Menu
Style of service
Food/wine display
Bar/lounge emphasis
Exhibition cooking
Atmosphere
Entertainment

Layout (general)
Entry sequence
Seating mix
Orientation (interior display, exterior views)
Level changes
Entertainment area
Kitchen or back-of-house access

Layout (food outlets)

Host/maître d'
Cashier
Self-service buffet
Service stations
Food/wine display
 Exhibition cooking
Service bar

Layout (beverage outlets)

Bar
Bar storage
Stage
Dance floor
Special entertainment

Design/décor
Atmosphere
Finishes
Seating types
Feature elements
Window treatment
Lighting
Tabletop
Artwork

Uniforms
Uniform design

Special equipment
Exhibition cooking area

Centara Grand at CentralWorld, Bangkok, Thailand

The gourmet dining room, Fifty five, near the top of the slim guestroom tower, overlooks downtown Bangkok and offers
diners the best in Thai cuisine.
Centara Grand at CentralWorld, Bangkok, Thailand
With more than 200 interior seats, Ginger, featuring Chinese, Japanese, and Thai foods, offers hotel guests a variety of Asian
cuisines in a modern setting overlooking the city; additional outdoor seating provides an alternative venue for the typically
warm, tropical evenings.

Table 17.4 Opportunities for food merchandizing

Multiple themes: Several small restaurants, capacity of 30 to 80 seats, with distinct ethnic
or other themes operate from a single commissary (English pub, French bistro, Italian
trattoria, etc.).
Exhibition cooking: Food is prepared in the restaurant or at an area visible from the seating
areas, and is used as the source for many menu items (pizza oven, grill, bakery, pasta-making,
rotisserie, Chinese wok, etc.).
Food display: A display area, either at the entrance or located near the center of the outlet,
serves either as a source for food or as decoration (appetizers, carved roasts, desserts, wines,
special coffees, etc.).
Buffet: Display area is used for guest self-service.
Tableside service: Service carts are rolled to each table with the presentation or preparation
of individual entrees (specialty appetizers, Caesar salad, desserts, liqueurs, etc.).
Takeout: In downtown hotels, especially in shopping and tourist areas, fast service and
informal outlets with takeout counter (ice cream, pastries, deli sandwiches, coffee, other
specialty foods, etc.).
Lobby breakfast: Temporary cart or kiosk service in the lobby to sell coffee, juices, and
pastries during peak breakfast hours.
Atrium restaurant: Exposed and visible food outlet, such as a sidewalk café in the lobby,
increases awareness of the restaurant and encourages guest use, whatever the theme.
seating near windows, some around the buffet, some on hard flooring, some in an adjoining semi-private
alcove, and so forth. In addition, the operator may adjust the atmosphere from one meal to the next by
closing window blinds or dimming the room lights, modifying the use of food displays, adding music,
changing the tabletop, or dressing the staff in different uniforms.
However, larger hotels and resorts still have several restaurants, requiring individual and distinctive
themes. If a property includes only two outlets, they usually are a three-meal restaurant (the former
“coffee shop”)—and a specialty restaurant. A third operation might be a casual deli or a coffee/pastry
outlet. Few hotels today attempt to compete with local restaurateurs with a fine-dining room. Each
restaurant has its own image and, while attracting hotel guests, attempts to compete for different groups
of outside diners.
Many food and beverage concepts include conscious attempts to merchandize the food in novel ways,
such as through an elaborate display or an exhibition kitchen. Increasing the visibility of the food
choices and developing unusual food combinations can greatly increase revenues. Some of the many
opportunities for better food merchandizing are shown in Table 17.4.
Bar operations are similarly varied. While nearly every type of property except budget inns and the
smallest hotels (under 50 rooms) includes a small lounge of some type, larger hotels offer a lobby bar,
a sports bar or entertainment facility, and, occasionally, a rooftop lounge, where the view warrants it.
Additional small outlets for food and beverages may complement and support a hotel's recreation
facilities, such as the pool bar, marina bar, or the grill room at the resort's golf or tennis clubhouse.

Program and Planning Objectives

The optimal number of restaurant and bar outlets varies with the size, type, and location of the hotel,
and with the relative emphasis that the operator gives to that part of the operation. Convention hotels,
at which the breakfast meal creates the largest peak demand, usually have a large three-meal restaurant,
at least one specialty restaurant, and substantial demand for room service. Remote-destination resorts,
where the typical length-of-stay is longer and all the guests must be served three meals, plan for the
flexible use of outdoor areas— breakfast terraces and pool snack bars, for instance—in addition to two
or more outlets. Cruise ships (the ultimate destination resort) plan the capacity of the main dining room
to accommodate all passengers in two sittings for the formal “captain's dinner,” but include several
additional theme outlets for the bulk of the dining. At extended-stay hotels, where many guests stay
several weeks or longer and where they often prepare their own breakfast and dine out in the evening,
only minimal food and bar service is needed.
In Asia, where the tradition is to dine out at hotels more than at independent restaurants, the hotel
F&B operations become a major revenue generator. A hotel with 300–400 rooms may have a half-dozen
or more different-themed dining rooms and lounges. Table 17.5 illustrates the variety of ethnic or other
distinctive outlets that are common in business hotels, such as the Centara Grand in Bangkok (505
guestrooms) and the Sheraton Incheon in Korea (319 rooms).
Experienced hotel operators approach the food and beverage program with an instinct about the
relative size of the several outlets. Operators vary in their standards, but a good starting rule-of-thumb
in North America and Europe is to provide restaurant seats equal to 0.6 times the number of guestrooms,
and lounge seats equal to 0.3 times the number of rooms. This initial program objective can be increased
or decreased according to the consultants' market study and the hotel operator's further financial
analysis. Thus, a 400-room hotel might feature, instead of a 240-seat restaurant (0.6 times the number
of guestrooms), a moderate-priced food outlet for 160 people and a specialty restaurant with about 80
seats. Table 17.6 gives guidelines on restaurant and bar capacities for different-size hotels; however,
these generally need to be modified to recognize site and local market conditions, as well as regional
attitudes toward hotel dining—such as just described in Asia.
The planning requirements for restaurants and lounges are as critical as for the other public areas,
but, to a large extent, each outlet is independent of the others. Nevertheless, the following points are
essential to an effective organization:
•Provide each food outlet with direct, convenient access to the kitchen; those outlets with minor
food service may be served from pantries
•Provide each beverage outlet with service backup, from either the kitchen or the bar storage
area
 Table 17.5 International hotel F&B outlets

Hotel Cuisine Seats Comment

Centara Grand at International 204 Dining inspired by the five continents; open 24
CentralWorld, hours

Bangkok, Thailand Pan-Asian 208 Japanese, authentic Thai, and trendy Chinese fare;
(505 rooms) (60) open lunch and dinner

Gourmet 90 Gourmet dining; open lunch and dinner

dining

Urban bistro 81 Chic urban bistro, plus wine bar and martini bar;
(149) open evenings and late nights

Lobby lounge 68 Cocktails, desserts and cakes, and British tea;

open all day

Whiskey bar 170 Cocktail lounge with DJ; open evenings and late
nights

Café/deli 30 Quick-service outlet; open all day

Juice bar 10 In-spa outlet, offering fresh fruit and vegetable

juices; open all day

Poolside bar 30 Light meals and cocktails; open all day

Sheraton Incheon, International 148 Open kitchen with à la carte and buffet menus;
Songdo City, open lunch and dinner

Korea (319 rooms) Italian 86 Authentic Italian with antipasti; open lunch and
dinner, and Sunday brunch buffet

Japanese 98 Four private rooms; adds options for business

meetings; open lunch and dinner

Cantonese 138 Seven private rooms cater largely to groups; open

lunch and dinner

Lobby lounge 48 Cocktail bar with live entertainment

Cocktail bar 40 Refined cocktail bar; open afternoons and

evenings
Seats are indoors (outdoors).
Centara Grand at CentralWorld, Bangkok, Thailand
The 170-seat Globe Bar provides trendy late-night cocktails and music in a contemporary setting complete with a nightly
disc jockey.

Table 17.6 Restaurant and bar capacities for different size hotels (number of seats)
Centara Grand, Bangkok, Thailand
The Red Sky is the rooftop bar, situated behind the dramatic lotus-flower feature at the top of the guestroom structure,
featuring mostly outdoor seating overlooking the city skyline.

•Locate each outlet so that it is accessible from public flow areas; make the café visible from
the lobby.
•Pair each food outlet with a nearby bar or include a small holding lounge.
•Plan larger restaurants and bars so that sections can be closed during slow periods.
•Locate restaurants and bars, where appropriate, with exterior frontage and direct outside
access.

Restaurant Design Objectives

Design objectives follow directly from a clear and well-researched operational and marketing concept.
Based on the menu and such operational aspects as the type of service, method of beverage service,
check handling, and use of entertainment, designers create the desired mood, function, layout, finishes,
lighting, and furnishings.
Each restaurant outlet, depending on its type and quality level, must have a very different design
treatment. For example, the hotel's main three-meal restaurant needs a theme that will permit the mood
to vary from light and casual at breakfast to more formal at dinner. This may be accomplished by
providing variable lighting, changing the tabletop from placemats to table linen, closing the counter
seating, presenting a food display, or extending room dividers to make smaller and more intimate dining
areas. The design of a three-meal restaurant should include the following considerations:
•Cashier/hostess station: Provide a combined station to control access to all sections of the
room, handle guest checks, and supervise coat-check area.
•Separate sections: Divide the restaurant into two or more areas so that sections can be closed
during periods of low occupancy.
•Flexible arrangement of tables: Provide paired deuces, flip-top fours (table leaves convert a
square table into a larger circular one), to provide for large parties.
•Counter seating: Provide about 10 percent of total seats at counter for singles.
•Buffet/display areas: Provide an area for self-service buffet or food display.
•Service stations: Provide wet service stations for every 80 or so seats, to supply water and
coffee; store linen and cutlery; and hold soiled dishes.
•Adaptable lighting: Provide dimmable lighting to change the mood from breakfast to lunch to
dinner.
•Background music: Consider including soft music.
•Uniforms, tabletop, graphics, and signage: Design the accessory elements to complement the
outlet or hotel theme.
Similarly, design objectives can be established for a hypothetical higher-priced restaurant. The specialty
or signature restaurant may be open daily only for dinner, although lunch service is profitable in urban
locations, as is Sunday brunch in the suburbs. Its mood and décor may reflect a theme, developed
primarily around the menu or style of service. Decorative touches in materials, detailing, furnishings,
planting, artifacts, artwork, and tabletop design further reinforce the theme. The design objectives,
modified and refined by analyzing the market and developing a unique food concept, include the
following:
•Entry sequence: Establish a foyer space to set the mood for the restaurant.
•Maître d': Provide a host station at the entrance to the restaurant.
•Focal point: Organize all seats to take advantage of some focal point, either inside the dining
room (food display, water feature, and entertainment) or outside it.
•Seating areas: Incorporate screens or level changes to create more intimate, semi-private
groups of tables.
•Table seating: Provide clear definition to the seating areas, separating them from the aisles,
service, buffet, and host areas. Each table should have some privacy from other tables.
•Food display: Arrange a food display either near the entrance or central to the seating.
•Exhibition cooking: Based on the food concept, consider providing an open area for food
preparation, such as a wood-fired oven, grill, or Japanese teppanyaki feature.
•Entertainment: Provide a small stage and dance floor, or consider how the plan might be
modified to accommodate entertainment in the future; tables should be organized with views
toward this focal point.
•Service stations: Develop inconspicuous wet and dry service stations without compromising
staff efficiency.
•Bar or holding bar: Provide beverage service from an adjacent cocktail lounge, or a separate
holding bar designated for the specialty restaurant, or from a kitchen-service bar.
•Intimate lighting: Design the variable lighting to create a more intimate mood at dinner; allow
for brighter levels at lunch and for cleaning (fluorescent lights should not be used in any area).
•Uniforms, tabletop, graphics, and signage: Select all design accessories to complement and
reinforce the specialty theme of the room.
Table 17.7 Restaurant and bar area requirements
 Outlet type Casual Formal

Three-meal restaurant 16 (1.50) 18 (1.70)

Specialty restaurant 18 (1.70) 20 (1.85)

Fine dining — 25 (2.30)

Chinese-theme restaurant 20 (1.85) 25 (2.30)

Grab'n'go restaurant 16 (1.50) —

Ice cream/fast food 12 (1.10) —

Lobby bar 20 (1.85) 25 (2.30)

Sports bar 15 (1.40) —

Cocktail lounge 16 (1.50) 20 (1.85)

Approximate area requirements per seat in sq ft (sq m).

Most other restaurant outlets feature aspects of these two dining types. The more casual theme
restaurants may combine the counter seating and cashier functions—a “diner” outlet, for example—or
introduce some variation on a native cuisine. A deli operation might be open 24 hours in an urban hotel
and feature imaginatively designed display cases with pastries and other specialty items, sandwich
preparation areas, high lighting levels, and easily maintained finishes.
Restaurant designers need to understand the influence of different types of seating on creating
efficient layouts. Booth and banquette configurations, which reduce the amount of flow space around a
table, are more efficient but are not always popular with customers. Larger tables, say for six diners,
are more efficient overall than are deuces (tables for two), which need to be spaced for a modicum of
privacy. In addition, the type of service and general quality level influences the space programming,
which, in general, requires 15–20 sq ft (1.40–1.85 sq m) per person, or up to 25 sq ft (2.3 sq m) for
formal settings (see Table 17.7).

Lounge and Bar Design Objectives

Similar to the way the design team conceives restaurants, the hotel operating company establishes bar
and lounge concepts, the architect prepares preliminary plans to accommodate these requirements, and
the interior designer more fully develops these themes, including their furnishings and fixtures. Even
more than the restaurants, the lounge areas vary extensively among different types of hotels. In a small
downtown property, the primary beverage outlet may be a quiet and luxuriously furnished lobby bar,
whereas in a convention, casino or resort property, it may be an action-oriented sports bar or
entertainment lounge, adding a major nighttime focus for the hotel. Variation among these active
bar/lounges is usually based on the opportunities of the local market and on the expected hotel clientele.
Therefore, it is especially important that the designer be given a clear set of design objectives for each
outlet.
Le Meridien, Philadelphia
Placing Le Bar in the lobby of the former YMCA building, adaptively renovated to Le Meridien standards, both creates
energy and provides revenue to the operation.

The lobby bar developed in the 1970s as a way to create activity and excitement in the open atrium
spaces in large hotels. After it proved itself as a popular meeting place and revenue-generator, the lobby
bar became standard in most types of hotels and locations. Fully open to the lobby space, separated only
by planters, railings, a water feature, or level change, the lobby bar offers additional public seating when
it isn't used as a beverage outlet. Operators discovered, too, that they also could utilize the space for
continental breakfast or for merchandizing late-evening snacks. The designer should attempt to include
the following features in the lobby bar:
•Visibility: Provide an open area that is obvious to hotel guests and visitors.
•Seating: Furnish the bar primarily with lounge seating—sofas, lounge chairs, end tables—or
with a combination of lounge and bar seating; provide a few seats at a service bar.
•Bar: Feature a small bar for beverage service, with nearby storage or backup from the kitchen.
•Entertainment: Specify a location for a piano or other entertainment.
•Food service: Consider back-of-house access for limited food service, especially Continental
breakfast, hors d' oeuvres, and snack service.
The second beverage outlet often is some type of active bar or lounge, usually featuring a sports/video
theme or entertainment, sometimes with dancing. Quite different from the more subdued lobby bar, the
entertainment lounge is completely enclosed to reduce high noise levels, and features lower light levels
and more closely spaced seating. The designer, in developing the layout and design of entertainment
lounges, should consider the following:
•Entry sequence: Develop an enclosed entrance, to maintain acoustic and visual separation
between the lounge and the hotel circulation areas.
•Separate sections: Establish distinct zones for the bar, the video/ games area or
entertainment/dancing area, and the quieter lounge area.
•Bar (about 10 to 25 percent of the lounge area): Provide a large bar that is visible from the
entrance and is situated so that guests can view the video screens or entertainers; provide pick-
up stations for the staff, provide close-by bar storage.
•Entertainment area (50 to 65 percent): Develop an integrated section to accommodate at least
half of the guests—provide multiple video screens and display of sports paraphernalia, or create
stage and dance-floor area; add platforms to provide better sight lines throughout the space.
•Lounge area (20 to 30 percent): Design a separate lounge area, where guests can sit outside
but within reach of the active zone; consider soft lounge seating.
•Lighting: Install flexible lighting, controlled at the bar, including stage and dance-floor
lighting, as appropriate.
•Video and sound system: Provide control of all video screens at the host stand or bar; or
provide integrated sound system with speakers focused on the dance-floor area.
Developing the restaurant and lounge concepts and establishing design goals are only part of the
process. Often, the constraints of the building's schematic design greatly influence, for better or worse,
the success of the food and beverage areas. The designer needs to combine the programmatic
requirements with the operational standards to create a workable scheme. Hotel restaurants and bars,
because they face such severe outside competition, create the greatest of all interior design challenges.
While guestrooms and meeting spaces include their own important pragmatic requirements, the dining
experience—combining food, service, and design elements—or the bar scene—with its new focus on
entertainment—require more imagination.

Function Space
The third principal category of public space includes the meeting, banquet, reception, and exhibit
spaces, which form a major core in many medium and large hotels and in conference centers. Variously
referred to as “function space,” “meeting and banquet area,” or “convention complex,” the cluster of
individual spaces generally includes a large ballroom, intermediate-size banquet rooms, and smaller
meeting and breakout rooms. In fact, the principal distinctions among types of hotels often focus on the
size and mix of the function space.
Introduced in the late nineteenth century to accommodate important civic and social gatherings, hotel
function space has more recently been incorporated to meet the needs of corporations and professional
associations. The two create very different demands. The corporate group market mainly requires a
variety of relatively small but high-quality spaces for sales and management meetings, launches of new
products, and continuing-education programs for executives. The association market primarily needs
facilities for large group meetings, smaller general-purpose rooms for seminars and workshops, and
extensive exhibition space. In addition, local organizations and the public in general use hotel meeting
space for a variety of meetings, banquets, and reception functions.

Program and Planning Objectives

Generally, the hotel feasibility study recommends a mix of function space that is based on an analysis
of the demand for different types of business and social uses. Small-town hotels and chain-franchise
properties, for example, commonly offer a single multi-purpose ballroom, simply decorated, which is
intended to accommodate the full range of small meetings, civic lunches, wedding receptions, and local
product displays. It usually is not intended to attract business to fill the hotel guestrooms. On the other
hand, convention hotels and conference centers provide a wide range of facilities—large and small,
simple and elegant, with and without high-tech audiovisual equipment—as the principal attraction to
the hotel. Meeting planners select the hotel, to a large extent, for its ability to provide complete meeting
facilities, which, in turn, sells large blocks of guestrooms.
 At resort hotels where seasonal fluctuations in demand create low periods for several months of the
year, properties have added conference wings to increase the demand for guestrooms throughout the
shoulder and off-season periods. In super-luxury hotels, which have relatively fewer rooms and which
place an important emphasis on intimacy and exclusivity, developers include small but elegantly
finished meeting rooms; the function areas tend to be used for receptions and banquets, and to cater to
the surrounding community rather than to the hotel guests.
In all but the smallest properties, function space is an essential ingredient of the successful hotel. The
earlier chapters on convention hotels (Chapter 9) and conference centers (Chapter 10) illustrate a
number of successful properties of those types. But for each type of hotel or resort, not just these, the
development team must carefully establish the appropriate mix of function space, and detail the
equipment and features needed to meet the expectations of the market. Table 17.8 identifies the typical
size for different function spaces and highlights many of the key features which the designer must
incorporate into the design.
Once the program is established, the architect, interior designer, consulting engineers, and operator
must cooperate in planning the function space in order to create a saleable property. The success of
meeting and banquet sales depends on a number of functional planning considerations—which meeting
planners have learned to seek out—as well as interior décor, proper lighting, acoustical and mechanical
engineering, and other technical requirements. The key planning requirements include:
•Group all function areas together (in major convention hotels, some separation may be
desirable).
•Provide a separate function entrance from the street or parking area.
•Locate the function space close to and easily accessible from the hotel lobby.
•Locate additional function areas, such as an exhibit hall or audiovisual theater, so that they are
convenient, but not adjacent, to the ballroom foyer.
•Include adjacent public support areas: toilets, coatrooms, telephones, and a convention-
services office.
•Provide direct food-service access to the ballroom and all banquet rooms; locate the banquet
pantry on the ballroom level.
•Include essential meeting and banquet storage adjacent to the ballroom.
•Design the ballroom and other larger rooms to be independent of the guestroom tower so as
to simplify the building structure.
•Plan pre-function space to enhance wayfinding; provide dramatic visual elements at major
foyer intersections.
Table 17.8 Function room characteristics

Space and uses Principal planning requirements Program (capacity) for hotel
types

Ballroom

Meetings, banquets, Divisibility, high ceiling, direct food Typical, most types: 2 × GR
receptions, exhibits access, no columns Resort: 0.5–1.5 × GR
Convention: 2–4 × GR

Ballroom foyer

Reception, meeting Access to all ballroom sections and Typical: 0.2 × BR Resort: 0.3 ×
registration, flow support functions, access to terraces BR Convention: 0.25–0.3 × BR
Banquet rooms

Banquets, meetings, Divisibility, direct food access, Typical: 0.2–0.6 × BR

receptions natural light Convention: 0.4–0.6 × BR

Meeting rooms

Meetings, limited Permanent audiovisual systems, Typical: 0.2–0.4 × BR

banquets limited divisions Convention: 0.4–0.6 × BR
Conference center: 0.5–0.8 × BR

Boardroom

High-level meeting Separate from other meeting rooms, All hotel types: 12–20 people
built-in audiovisual, superior finishes

Exhibit hall

Exhibition Display access, floor loading, high Convention: # booths = market

ceiling, high lighting level need

Auditorium or
amphitheater

Lectures, audiovisual Sloped floor or tiered levels, fixed Convention 0.2–0.4 × GR

presentations, case theater seats or permanent work- Conference center 0.4–0.8 × GR
discussions counter, permanent AV
Key: GR = number of guestrooms; BR = capacity of ballroom.
Renaissance Arlington Capitol View
The ballroom pre-function area features a dramatic ceiling element to help orient guests.

Blackstone Hotel, Chicago, Illinois

The historic “hotel of presidents” recently underwent a complete restoration, including the Crystal Ballroom.
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas
The ballroom in the university conference center is the site for frequent campus events and festive dinners.

Waldorf=Astoria, New York

Since the Waldorf opened in 1931, one of its most iconic rooms has been the Starlight Room, originally a nightclub with a
retractable roof, where the wealthiest New Yorkers dined and danced. But more recently, the room has been reconfigured as
a meeting and banquet space overlooking Park Avenue. In this image, stacking chairs are arranged in a semi-circle facing a
podium, beneath an ornate ceiling, now permanently fixed.
JW Marriott San Antonio, Texas
Among the many ballroom design tasks is to coordinate the ceiling design. Here, the ballroom features floating ceiling
panels, curving in opposite directions below a painted-out void.

The first item in this list of planning requirements identifies the need to decide on the relative clustering
of the function areas. Convention hotels, especially those which serve as the headquarters for a major
meeting, may attract one major group or no more than four or five smaller groups at one time. For the
occasions when a single major convention is in the hotel, it is convenient to have the ballroom, junior
ballroom, and several meeting rooms immediately adjacent to each other, perhaps sharing a foyer or
pre-function area. This is the usual and preferred arrangement in small and midsize hotels of 250 to 400
guestrooms.
When multiple functions need to be accommodated, it may be preferable to separate the principal
meeting and banquet areas so that several groups can assemble simultaneously, without interference or
distraction. The 900-room Grand Hyatt Washington has function space arrayed over three levels (see
exploded plan): the main ballroom (17,500 sq ft; 1,625 sq m) and junior ballroom (8,500 sq ft; 790 sq
m) are on separate levels well below grade, and the 90-seat conference theater (5,000 sq ft; 465 sq m)
is on the lobby floor. At the 1,400-room Sheraton Centre in Toronto, the largest convention hotel in
Canada, the main ballroom and exhibition hall are on a basement floor, whereas two junior ballrooms
are in separate areas on a mezzanine level; three different organizations can easily meet without
interference or direct contact with each other. For the same reason, although at a very different scale,
small conference centers arrange their meeting rooms and breakout areas in several clusters, so that
each group is assured privacy.

Design Criteria
The coordination among the design team is especially important in the evolution of the details for the
function space. The architectural aspects (proportions, divisibility, and access), the interior design
considerations (finishes, furnishings, and lighting), and the engineering requirements (ventilation,
sound system, and fire protection) are clearly related and heavily influence each other.
 Connecting these facts are several overall issues. One is the relative specificity of the various function
areas: that is, the degree to which each is designed as a multi-purpose room or, instead, is intended
particularly for a single purpose, say a board meeting or flm presentation. The principal considerations
include size, divisibility, complexity of services, and quality of finishes. The better defined the use of a
particular room, the more specific the interior design can be. Larger hotels, and those with a clear market
orientation, such as luxury properties and conference centers, can afford to provide very specific
meeting and banquet rooms and further assure their use by groups with individual needs. The suburban
hotel, however, must use its single ballroom for so many different functions that, too often, none is
particularly well served. Table 17.9 identifies the type of architectural, decorative, and engineering
decisions that the design team must make to create a successful large function room, such as the hotel
ballroom. Many similar issues arise in designing the smaller rooms, as well.
A second consideration is planning the divisibility of ballroom and larger function rooms. Practically
all hotel ballrooms are divided
Table 17.9 Design criteria for large function space

Architectural

Divisibility Number of subdivisions and proportions of each, storage of dividing walls,

acoustic rating of dividing walls

Proportions Location of and views to head table or stage

Structure Full span, no columns

Ceiling height Projection booth, use for exhibitions, chandeliers, cost of divisible walls,
implications for second floor

Floor load Use for displays and exhibits

Access/egress Public and service access to each subsection, storage, display access,
emergency exits

Windows Desirability, blackout requirement

Interior design

Floor Carpet, patterned to assist furniture placement, portable dance floor

Walls Various finishes (paint, vinyl, fabric panels), chair rail, folding wall finish
to match perimeter, doors to cover wall storage compartments

Ceiling Complicated design needs downlights, chandeliers, track lighting,

emergency lighting, HVAC diffusers and air return, sprinklers, smoke
detectors, sound system, wall tracks in integrated pattern

Windows Full blackout capability

Lighting Combination of functional, decorative, display, and accent lighting

 Furniture Round banquet and rectangular meeting tables, stacking chairs, risers,
lectern, audiovisual equipment for function rooms; seating in foyer areas

Mechanical/electrical

All Fully separate controls in each room and subdivisions of larger rooms

Lighting Fully dimmable, control at podium, flexible track lighting where required

Electrical 208 volts available in ballroom and exhibition areas

Sound Television, telephone, microphone jacks in each area, control from sound
and light booth

Mechanical Full air-conditioning, fire protection

Plumbing Wet utilities available near ballroom and exhibition areas

Ballroom schematics
Subdividing the hotel ballroom adds functionality: (A) Small rooms at the ends of the ballroom are reached by a combined
public/service corridor outside the ballroom. (B) Larger rooms require dedicated service access, with the public reaching the
spaces through the ballroom itself.

into several sections, so that a smaller group is in an appropriately sized space, two or more groups can
use the room simultaneously, or a group can use one part for a meeting and the adjoining section for
meals. Two typical approaches for subdividing the ballroom are illustrated in the accompanying
diagram.
A third aspect of function room design is matching the room layout to the space. The larger multi-
purpose rooms usually are furnished either banquet or theater style—or are essentially unfurnished
when used for an exhibition or reception. But the midsize and smaller rooms will be furnished and
equipped in a variety of ways to meet the particular needs of a group. The designers must test the actual
capacity of each room under different furnishing configurations. Table 17.10 illustrates typical area
requirements for different seating configurations over a range of large and small function rooms.
Many designers and hotel operators have found that the single most critical element in the meeting
and banquet rooms is the design of the ballroom ceiling. When a hotel ballroom is set up for a banquet
or meeting, the tables and attendees obscure most of the floor and the lower part of the walls. The
ceiling, though, is totally visible and contains down lights, chandeliers, and track lighting, as well as
mechanical diffusers and return grilles, sprinklers, sound-system speakers, smoke detectors, and
movable wall tracks. All must be integrated into a single, cohesive, organized, and attractive pattern.
Another design aspect that too often is ignored during design development is provision for sufficient
electrical and communication services to the ballroom, meeting rooms, and, especially, the exhibit hall.
Not only electrical outlets, but telephone, television, and microphone jacks, controls for various
projectors, projection screen, and lights, and, in some cases, a wet utility panel, must be provided.
Exhibit halls, for example, should contain electrical outlets every 10 ft (3 m) in the floor, ceiling-
mounted spotlight tracks 30 ft (9 m) on centers, and convenient water and drain connections for
exhibitors.
Table 17.10 Area requirements for hotel function rooms

The approximate area requirement per seat in sq ft (sq m).

Conference centers often provide much more generous spacing, increasing these fgures by 20 to 40 percent.
Terranea, Rancho Palos Verdes, California
The ocean-front Terranea Resort is a popular location for meetings and weddings in Southern California. The 18,000 sq ft
(1,670 sq m) ballroom has its own guest entrance and function lawn.
Terranea, Rancho Palos Verdes, California
The plans of the ground floor and upper floor illustrate a relatively large luxury-resort spa complex. The semi-private men's
terrace and the café terrace overlook the spa pool, with the separate fitness room in its own building beyond. Off reception
are several popular public functions: the salon, lounge, and spa café, along with retail sales.

Table 17.11 Fitness facilities checklist

Activity Minimum overall floor area sq ft (sq m)

Swimming pool

Pool surface 800 (75)

Total including deck area 2,400 (220)

Health club

Reception 300 (28)

Hair salon 300 (28)

Lockers and toilets 20 per person (1.9)

Whirlpool/hot tub (single) 50 per person (4.7)

Whirlpool/hot tub (group) 20 per person (1.9)

Sauna 20 per person (1.9)

Exercise room

Exercise room 600 (56)

Nautilus circuit 400 (37)

Exercise equipment 50 per unit (4.7)

Spa

Reception 1,000 (93)

Offce 400 (37)

Café 600 (56)

Pantry 300 (28)

Hair salon 800 (75)

Lockers/toilets 30 per person (2.8)

Steam and sauna 200 per gender (18.5)

Lounge 400 per gender (37)

Lounge, coed 600 (56)

Treatment room, single 120 (11)

Treatment room, couples 200 (18.5)

 Other

Aerobics room 800 (75)

Gym 2,000 (185)

Steam bath 20 per person (1.9)

Loofah bath 100 per person (9.3)

Herbal wrap 100 per person (9.3)

Massage 100 per person (9.3)

Hairdresser/barber 70 per person (6.5)

These are minimum areas; many spa/pool/fitness centers are considerably larger.

Recreation Facilities
Increasingly, hotels provide recreational facilities, ranging from an outdoor pool at a roadside inn, to a
major spa or health club in downtown hotels, to extensive golf, tennis, marina, or ski complexes at
destination resorts. While surveys show that relatively few guests actually use the swimming pool and
other recreational facilities at most hotels, nonetheless, many guests expect them and it is essential that
the developer provide these amenities in some form.
To counter low use, some operators expand rather than minimize their recreational features and
profitably promote them to the community, in addition to the hotel guests. In a highly competitive
market, this is one more area in which a hotel can gain an edge over other properties. The developers
of a downtown hotel, for example, may include a full-size spa or health club to complement the
property's other business-oriented facilities; for a suburban hotel, provide an enclosed pool and related
amenities as a swim club for the community; or for a conference center, add extensive outdoor jogging,
tennis, or golf facilities to attract the high-level executive retreat. The checklist in Table 17.11 shows
the principal types of recreational facilities that a developer or operator might program into a property.
The hotels discussed in Part 1 of this book illustrate the kinds of recreational facilities that are
commonly found at different types of properties. Generally, the smaller, budget, and mid-priced motels
and hotels—those which attract a large number of price-conscious family travelers—include little more
than an outdoor swimming poo and a game room or small fitness center. Larger hotels, and especially
those with a business market or strong leisure orientation, frequently add an extensive spa or fitness
center. Resorts and other lodging types catering to longer-staying guests, and hotels in outlying areas,
where land costs are less, feature additional outdoor facilities.

Swimming Pool
Nearly all hotel management companies require the developer to include a swimming pool, although
minimum sizes vary. The pool area should be separated from other public spaces, so that guests dressed
in bathing suits need not pass through the hotel lobby. Other key planning considerations include:
•Location: Place the pool so that guests can reach it from guestroom elevators without passing
through the lobby; provide some guestrooms with views of the pool; screen any exterior views
toward the pool.
•Orientation: Position the pool so that it receives unobstructed sunlight from mid-morning to
late afternoon.
•Size: Provide a pool of sufficient size to accommodate the swimming and sunbathing needs
of the guests, but no smaller than about 20 × 40 ft (6 × 12 m), with at least 10 ft (3 m) of deck
space on all sides.
•Support functions: Provide toilets and lockers where required, towel-issue area, snack bar or
vending, equipment room, and furniture storage.

Terranea, Rancho Palos Verdes, California

The spa relaxation room is located in one corner of the second floor of the spa building, with fabulous views of the Pacific
Ocean.
Terranea, Rancho Palos Verdes, California
In the other west corner, opposite the relaxation room, is the water therapy room, dramatically placed with a balcony and
views of the ocean.

Terranea, Rancho Palos Verdes, California

The second floor of the spa building includes 21 individual treatment rooms, many with expansive views of the Pacific.
Peninsula Spa, New York, New York
The 30,000 sq ft (2,787 sq m) spa by ESPA fills the entire 21st floor of the hotel; guests are first greeted in the reception
area, then move to the men's or women's locker rooms, before passing behind the reception area to the treatment rooms. The
elegant swimming pool, fitness area, and rooftop cocktail lounge are one floor above, connected by a handsome curved
stairway.
Peninsula Spa, New York, New York
The curved shapes and figurative tree elements of the reception area set the mood for the invigorating spa experience; natural
materials and warm colors reinforce the concept of purity and balance and spa amenities are available for purchase.

Peninsula Spa, New York, New York

One of twelve massage rooms, the VIP treatment room, isolated and insulated from other rooms, offers two tables for
couples and a soaking tub.

•Safety: Do not provide a diving board; include slip-free deck surface, depth markings,
underwater lighting, safety or “pool rules” signage.
•Wading pool, whirlpool: Include additional pools within view of the swimming pool but
slightly separated.
•Indoor pool: Design either operable roof or glass walls to provide direct sunlight and
ventilation.

Spa and Health Club

A second major component of hotel recreational facilities is the spa or, in smaller properties, the health
club, a feature that for many types of hotel has become more central than the pool. The focus of the spa
is on the guest's experience, and introduces unique images, sounds (flowing water or music), scents
(aromatherapy), and more to soothe and relax the individual. At a destination resort, there might be as
many as one treatment room for every five guestrooms, dropping to one to every 50 or 100 in urban
locations. In contrast, a simple health club may feature little more than a combination of exercise
equipment (such as Nautilus or Universal machines) and such specialized facilities as whirlpool baths,
steam rooms, and saunas. Larger complexes may add a unisex hair salon, a multi-purpose room for
aerobic exercise—even racquetball courts. The spa at the Terranea Resort in Southern California is
representative of how a medium-size, upscale resort property can cater to guests and the local
community. Its 20,000 sq ft (1,850 sq m) spa, not including the adjoining fitness center and pool, has
23 treatment rooms for about 380 hotel guestrooms, plus many casitas and golf villas. See the further
discussion of spa facilities in the discussion of resort hotels in Chapter 7. The following items should
be considered during the planning phase:
•Location: Plan the spa so that guests can reach it directly from the guestroom elevators, and
local members have access from the street or parking area, without passing through the hotel
lobby.
•Program: Include the following, depending on the market:
–Reception area with attendant
–Retail sales area
–Salon
–Lockers, showers, and toilets
–Exercise room
–Sauna, steam room, and whirlpool
–Treatment rooms
–Relaxation lounges
–Spa café and support areas
•Adjacencies: Plan the complex with the control area and lounge most visible, and with the
private functions either shared (exercise room) or back-to-back (saunas and restrooms).

Parking
The provision of sufficient parking can be a crucial element in both the budgeting and
conceptual planning, for a hotel or motel. And its design often influences the guest's first and
last impressions of the property. Roadside inn developers know they must provide
Table 17.12 Parking needed for different types of hotel
Hotel type Number of Comment
spaces/room
Business 0.4–0.8 Assumes limited function space
(downtown)
Boutique hotel 0.3–0.8 Higher factor in resort areas
Suburban hotel 1.2–1.4 Heavy local meeting and banquet use
Airport hotel 0.6–1.0 Moderate rental-car use
Roadside inn 1.0–1.2 Very limited local banquet and F&B use
Resort (all types) 0.2–1.4 Varies by market, location, and proximity to urban
centers or major attractions
Convention hotel 0.8–1.4 Regional convention hotels need more parking
Conference center 1.0–1.3 If full house, minimum local use
Condominium 1.2–2.0 May need two spaces/condominium
hotel
All-suite hotel 0.8–1.2 Limited F&B and function areas
Super-luxury 1.0–1.2 Limited function areas
hotel
Mega-hotel 1.0–1.2 Limited local business; high rental-car use
Mixed-use hotel 0.6–1.2 Highly variable depending on other activities
Casino hotel 0.8–2.0 Varies by location (for example, Atlantic City
requires extensive bus parking)

Table 17.13 Parking analysis

one space per room; full-service hotels need additional spaces for employees and for any public
areas—restaurants, bars, meeting space, or recreational facilities—that attract guests from the
community. An otherwise successful hotel can be seriously affected—especially its ability to
attract local banquet business—by insufficient or inconvenient parking.
The key objective should be to provide optimum but not excessive amounts of parking.
Unless unusual conditions (sports complex, large banquet facility, retail center) exist, the
parking provision for different types of lodging properties falls within the ranges shown
in Table 17.12. Land cost is an increasing problem in suburban and rural locations, where
parking usually is on grade, often covering more land than the building itself, making it
necessary for developers to program their parking requirements more carefully. However, the
more critical concern is at downtown hotels, and at those other properties where high land costs
preclude extensive amounts of surface parking or require the construction of a garage, often
below the hotel. It is not uncommon for the developer and architect to appeal zoning
regulations, if justified, based on an analysis by traffic experts. One technique is to project
hourly parking requirements, recognizing that hotel guests, conferees, banquet guests, and
employees create peak demands on parking at different periods of the day (see example, Table
17.13).
In addition to programming the parking, the design team must consider the impact it makes
on the lasting impression the guest has of the hotel. Designers need to address concerns about
convenience, safety, and possible claustrophobia:
•Garage entrance: Locate the entrance so that it is readily accessible to the guest drop-off area.
•Hotel access: Provide a secure and convenient interior route, usually an elevator, from the
garage directly to the hotel lobby.
•Safety and security: Design the garage to be visually open, with wide aisles; provide security
cameras to scan area.
•Guest comfort: Find solutions to reduce feelings of claustrophobia, by increasing lighting
levels; raising ceiling height; painting surfaces light colors; providing art, murals, or music.
•Signage: Provide clear signage, both for drivers (to enter/exit) and pedestrians (to lobby or
street).
In mixed-use projects, the hotel should negotiate its own parking spaces, perhaps behind an
access gate, to assure that parking is available to hotel guests. Also, this permits the hotel to set
up security for that dedicated portion of the garage. Many hotels choose to offer valet parking
as a guest amenity. Equally often, though, this decision is made because of space and budget
limitations: hotel staff can park many more cars in the same amount of space and don't require
the wide aisles or other design features that guests expect.

Signage and Iconographics

The perception of a hotel goes well beyond its architecture and interior design. Such small yet critical
details as signage, graphics, tabletop items, and uniform design complete and reinforce the desired
image and marketing goals of a hotel. These elements, which should be conceived of as an integral part
of the design process, require the collaborative effort of the architect, interior designer, lighting
designer, and such specialists as a graphic consultant or uniform designer.

Signage and Graphics

The signage and graphics program not only provides guests with immediate information and orients
them to the project, but it also may help to reinforce the branding of a particular hotel. The major
components include directional and destination signage, and printed graphics. The corporate or property
identity, which later may be embedded in the signage throughout the hotel or resort, often is introduced
to the public in the advertising and promotional literature prior to the opening. Hyatt revised its
corporate logo in the mid-1990s and frequently uses elements of the design, not only in the printed
graphics but in much of the interior signage throughout the hotel. Starwood Hotels' W brand
successfully incorporates the logotype into both signage and graphical images throughout its hotels.
The elements most commonly included in a signage and graphics program are listed in Table 17.14.
Architects and designers often have challenges in creating a meaningful image for the property. For
example, frequently, the first identification that a guest may see, the building's exterior signage, is
restricted in its placement, size, color, and lighting by
Table 17.14 Signage and graphics

Exterior signage

Brand and building

identification

Vehicular Guest entrance and exit, receiving and service area, employee entrance; guest
directional signs parking, disabled parking, staff parking; taxi and public transportation

Pedestrian Lobby entrance, restaurant entrance, ballroom and meeting room access;
directional signs outdoor amenities including beach, pool, spa, tennis, golf, and boating

Interior signage

Event directory

Directional signage Lobby, retail shops, food and beverage outlets, ballroom and meeting rooms,
recreational amenities, etc.; floor identification and room direction,
emergency exiting

Destination signage Front desk, guestroom numbers, function rooms, toilets, coats, elevator
identification, F&B outlets

Printed graphics

Marketing materials All hotel advertising, marketing, sales brochures, and related items

Guestroom Room-service and guest information books; bathroom soap/shampoo and

amenities related packaging; robe and towel logos; stationery items such as note pads,
letterhead, envelopes, and pencils; also guestroom card-keys

Menus and All food and beverage menus, wine lists, tabletop merchandizing, etc.; related
restaurant/bar paper products such as matchbooks, coasters, napkins, etc.
supplies

Front office and Registration materials, guest receipts, invoices, etc.

accounting forms

local ordinances. At more expansive resorts, especially, arriving guests depend on directional signs to
guide them to the hotel lobby, or to restaurant or banquet entrances. Signs identify staff and receiving
areas or highlight disabled routes or parking spaces. These all may be subject to local regulations. Once
inside the hotel, guests rely on signage to fnd their way from the lobby to guestrooms, F&B outlets,
function space, recreational amenities, and so forth. Some architects at the schematic design phase test
the hotel organization by imagining the future signage—if it is difficult to conceive how directional
signage can orient guests and lead them through the property, then the entire architectural organization
needs to be rethought and clarified.
Both exterior and interior signage should be integrated with the hotel's architecture and interior
design, so that the design elements reinforce the theme and style of the property. This commonly is
achieved through the consistent use of color, shape, or pattern, and by repeating the same typeface and
materials that are found in the architecture and hotel interiors. At The Beverly Hills Hotel, the signage
and graphics package draws from the lush banana plants that flourish in the grounds around the hotel.
This banana-leaf motif is repeated throughout the interior decoration on wallpaper, drapery and
upholstery fabrics, and even on printed items, consistently applying the theme through a multitude of
visual elements.
The American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) has approved over 100 universal symbols
to represent such common hotel areas or services as check-in, information, restrooms, and luggage
check. These standard graphics are a good starting-point for the design of signage, since the symbols
are easily recognized internationally, but most operators wish to make their signage and graphics
programs unique and more reflective of the character of their property. The destination signage
throughout the hotel—at individual guestrooms as well as at each function room—or the identity
graphics at each restaurant or lounge are especially important.

Uniforms and Tabletop Design

Uniforms and restaurant tabletop design are two additional visual elements to which guests are directly
and constantly exposed. For many years, the hotel management company designed and specified
uniforms for the front-of-house staff, to reflect the corporate image. Increasingly, today, for first-class
and luxury hotels and resorts, companies retain an independent uniform designer to complement and
reinforce the hotel theme, service style, and local customs in the design of the uniforms. Once
Table 17.15 Uniforms and tabletop design

Uniforms

Front of house Doorman, bellman, concierge, front desk staff

Food and Hostess, wait staff, bartender, bus staff, room service
beverage

Back-of-house Food and beverage, security, housekeeping, maintenance, parking

Tabletop

Linen Tablecloths, table runner or placemats, napkins

Place setting China, glassware, tableware

Tabletop Flower or bud vases, salt and pepper cellars, tea service, cream and sugar, wine
accessories buckets, ashtrays, etc.

again, the designers creatively manipulate color, pattern, fabric, and shape to coordinate the uniforms—
or “costumes”—with the hotel's architectural and design style. The uniforms may vary as much as does
the style of the property, ranging from formal attire—even top hat and tails at some luxury properties—
to beachwear at more casual resorts. The operators of some urban boutique hotels have established
uniform design as a statement of high fashion: the sight of doormen clad in black Armani suits instantly
identifies the genre.
Tabletop design is another integral part of the guest's experience that should be conceived as part of
the overall theme of the property. The tabletop items appear in many areas outside the normal F&B
outlets: the several restaurants, lobby lounge, sports bar—even in-room dining. Consider that food and
beverage sales occur in the lobby itself, in function rooms and pre-function areas, around the pool, and
in the guestrooms and suites. The style and complexity of the tabletop often is reflective of the design
and formality of the hotel. Some of the tabletop items are standardized within each hotel company.
However, designers or corporate management, or occasionally the executive chef or the food and
beverage manager, may custom-design individual pieces for the particular hotel and its setting. Table
17.15 identifies the most common items included in the hotel tabletop program.

Art and Artifacts

Art plays a growing role in the styling of a hotel. The development of an art program is a service
firequently provided by the interior designer or an independent art consultant, and should be conceived
as an integral thread throughout the design. Art, artifacts, and antiques can create the “feeling of home”
for the business traveler or the “element of fantasy” for the leisure traveler.
Artwork appears in nearly every hotel. Budget properties certainly have framed prints in the
guestrooms and in the hotel lobby, if nowhere else. Midscale hotels introduce art and artifacts into the
food and beverage outlets and the meeting pre-function areas, and may place a framed mirror in each
guestroom-floor elevator lobby. These mid-market hotels may be able to incorporate original art fairly
economically by commissioning a local artist to create pieces, which they then reproduce in quantity
for the guestrooms or other areas. Larger hotels may incorporate sculptures throughout the public space.
Among the most lavish art programs—which sometimes approach museum quality—are those found
in traditionally styled luxury properties. The Ritz-Carlton chain, as an example, has collected
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European and American art and antiques—paintings by renowned
artists, sculptures, tapestries, decorative accessories, oriental carpets, and a variety of unique furniture
pieces—which are displayed throughout the hotel public areas. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in San Francisco
keeps a fine-arts advisor and curator on staff to document, maintain, and conserve its art and antiques
collection. In addition, staff are trained to answer the most common questions that guests have regarding
the collections.
Renaissance Arlington Capitol View, Arlington, Virginia
The hotel introduces a tree-like sculpture to separate the lobby from flow space.

The traditional art and antiques program has expanded to include new and creative uses for art, and
the term “antiques” has been redefined to include twentieth-century decorative objects, furniture, and
art from many cultures. Once just the accents which completed the feel or look of a property, art and
antiques are now often used to create the overarching theme of a hotel and have become integral to the
marketing of a property. The boutique Claris Hotel in Barcelona displays on the lobby mezzanine the
hotel owner's private collection of Greek and Roman antiquities; the guestroom art program features
additional ancient artifacts, placed in carefully lighted niches, which are a dramatic contrast with the
hotel's strikingly original and very contemporary interiors. Drawing from the neighborhood context of
New York City's many fine art galleries along 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, Chambers West 56 Hotel
features “art walls” in its public space. The entire hotel theme is expressed by the paintings, prints, and
etchings, set in a custom system of horizontal tracks of blackened steel that exhibit constantly changing
artwork.
The designer may need to consider how the art will be installed in order to prepare the space. Even
small and midsize pieces may require structural support, lighting, security, water connections, or other
preparation:
•Sculpture may require additional structural support (floor or ceiling) and coordination for
accent lighting.
•Water features require additional structural support, plumbing connections, and power for
underwater lighting.
•Paintings and mirrors may require blocking inside walls for support, power connections to
security systems, and coordination for accent lighting.
New uses for art are everywhere. In addition to incorporating a museum within the property as an
amenity or celebrating art through changing exhibitions, designers have used overscaled art as
headboards, and museum postcards as guestroom art. Today, we find art even in elevators, restrooms,
exercise rooms, and parking garages. A growing number of cities require the developer to invest 1
percent or more of the construction cost in public art. This has resulted in the commissioning of art from
major exterior sculptures for the hotel's arrival courtyard to large-scale murals, water features, or other
art for the hotel lobby.
Peninsula Shanghai, Shanghai, China
The front desk of this 235-room luxury hotel is configured to allow both a high level of
service and adequate privacy for guest transactions.
 CHAPTER
18
Administration and Back-of-house Design

The planning and design of the administration offices and other back-of-house or service areas of the
hotel, most of which the hotel guest rarely sees, are equally critical to the eventual success of the hotel.
Generally comprising between about 10 and 15 percent of the total floor area in all lodging types—
somewhat less in motels and budget inns and occasionally more in luxury hotels and resorts—the
organization of the offices and service areas greatly influences the staff's ability to meet overall
administrative needs and to provide efficient food and beverage, housekeeping, repair, and engineering
services to the hotel. The main functional areas include the following:
•Administration offices
•Food preparation and F & B storage areas
•Receiving, trash, and general storage areas
•Employee areas
•Laundry and housekeeping areas
•Engineering and mechanical areas
The provision and sizing of these spaces varies considerably from property to property, depending on
the type of hotel or resort and on its size and location. Larger hotels and resorts have extensive
administrative staffs and require substantial office suites to accommodate the complex office functions,
whereas small properties may be run out of little more than a single office. Resorts in remote areas may
need to provide their own engineering services, including the supply of electricity and fresh water, as
well as employee housing and extensive grounds-keeping facilities. In contrast, motels that don't include
a restaurant or meeting space may need no more than sufficient storage for guestroom linen, operating
supplies, and maintenance equipment.
It is essential not only to provide adequate back-of-house areas but also to plan them appropriately,
so that, for example, staff can reach all areas of the hotel without passing through the lobby and other
public spaces. Basic planning objectives include clustering the major service functions around the
receiving area and employee entrance or along a major service corridor, and grouping the food outlets
close to the kitchen or at satellite pantries, where required. The following sections discuss the
operational characteristics and planning and design criteria for each area.

Administration Offices
The effective layout of the front desk and administration offices influences the guest's impression of the
hotel. While many guests will have contact only with the front desk, others may need to meet with the
sales and catering staff or with assistant managers. Therefore, the proper planning, design, and
equipping of the hotel's office space deserves no less attention than that given to the guestrooms and
public areas. The planning and interior design of the workplace and its equipment are essential, not only
to the morale and productivity of the staff, but also to the public's perception of the quality of the hotel.
 Administrative office areas generally are divided into five clusters:
•Front desk and front office
•Executive office
•Sales and catering office
•Accounting office
•Information technology offices
Other office components, such as the human resources and purchasing functions, typically are placed
in the back-of-house close to related service areas. While locating offices together has substantial
advantages—shared reception and support areas, closer communication among the staff, and better
visibility to the guest—most hotels of over a few hundred rooms separate the administrative offices into
two or three clusters. This is done, in part, in order to locate the sales and catering offices near the
ballroom and other function space. More than anything else, though, such arrangements should not be
the result of unclear programming and hastily conceived schematic designs. Often, space near the front
desk that initially was designated for offices must be reallocated for other support functions that had
not been sufficiently recognized in the program and early design phases. Where office suites are located
on separate levels, the architect should consider adding a dedicated stairway connecting the floors.

Front Desk and Front Office

The front office, which supports the guest registration and cashier functions at the front desk, is often
the largest of the five clusters and the one with which the casual guest is most familiar. The key elements
in terms of layout are the front desk itself (or reception pods) and the work area behind it, around which
most of the other offices are clustered. It includes the following areas:
•Front desk: Provide dual-function registration and cashier stations. Alternatively, provide
free-standing pods for reception and cashiering.
•Concierge desk: May be located either near the front desk or somewhat apart. In smaller
properties, front desk staff may also serve as concierge.
Table 18.1 Front office area planning

Program

Provide 3–5 sq ft (0.3–0.5 sq m) per guestroom for the front desk and related front office
functions.
Allow 6 linear ft (1.8 m) per workstation; provide two stations for the first 150 rooms plus
an additional one for each 100 rooms.
Planning

Locate the desk so that it is easily visible from the entrance.

Locate the desk in sight of the guest elevators.
Locate self-service kiosks in sight of the desk.
Allow sufficient queuing space to accommodate high-volume periods.
Position the luggage storage and bellman nearby, or with good visual connection with the
desk.
Provide a fire control room near the front desk or hotel main entrance.
Position the front desk where it is not constrained by structural columns.
Plan the front office so that both reservations and telephone operators are near the guest
registration area.
Place the safe-deposit room so that a cashier can handle guest requests.
Consider placement of luggage carts before and during service.
Design

Design the front desk so that the cashier and registration functions can be staffed flexibly.
Screen guests' views into office work areas.
Recognize requirements for support functions: brochure display, house telephones,
concierge or assistant manager, and bell station close to front desk.
Provide decorative focus at the desk: counter material, lighting, treatment of back wall, and
signage.
Consider design elements to assist with queue management: floor finishes, temporary or
permanent queuing guides.
•Front office work area (includes printing, copying, mail, etc.): Provide work area immediately
adjacent to the front desk, with built-in work counter and files.
•Front office manager: Provide private office convenient to the work area.
•Reservations and telephone: Provide space with counter work area and acoustic partitions for
telephone operators and reservations staff, convenient to the front desk; include security and
alarm monitoring systems.
•Reservations/revenue manager: Provide semi-private office adjoining the reservations work
area.
•Safe-deposit area: Provide secure space with safe-deposit boxes and, adjoining, a small guest
viewing room with counter and chair.
•Counting room: Provide secure space where F&B outlet and retail managers count receipts
and place the deposit in a drop-safe or pass it directly to cashier.
•Fire control room: Provide space next to the front entrance with dedicated alarm panels for
use by the fire and life-safety personnel in responding to fire and other emergency situations.
•Support functions: Provide for such accessory needs as toilets, storage, coats, and pantry.
In smaller hotels, where employees may be cross-trained to perform a variety of duties, such functions
as telephone and reservations need to be convenient to the front desk, because on the night shift only
one person may be on duty. Increasing payroll costs in all types of hotels and resorts have made it more
important for management to rethink how they staff departments. Smaller hotels, for example, may
locate a modest sundries shop or F&B outlet immediately adjacent to the reception area, so that the desk
clerk can double as the shop cashier. Also, instead of locating a business center at some distance from
the lobby and needing to staff it throughout the day, companies increasingly place it next to the front
desk, enabling further sharing of staff duties. Even in hotels where self-service kiosks or other
technologies streamline the registration and check-out process, some form of front desk is still
recommended to provide information and assistance.
In planning the front desk, as with many other areas in the hotel, collaboration among the members
of the design team is necessary. First, the brand or operator specifies the hotel's front desk requirements
(full desk, podiums, self-service kiosks, or seated check-in); second, the architect establishes the general
location of the desk and the offices; third, the interior designer may modify the details of the plan for
design or functional reasons and propose a series of finishes and lighting; fourth, the technical staff
from the operator specifies and locates the information technology in the workspace. See Table 18.1 for
an outline of the front office planning and design issues.

Executive Office
The executive office is the smallest of the five administration clusters. In smaller hotels, the operator
may choose to combine it with the front office, the general manager assuming the duties of rooms-
division manager. In larger hotels, the executive office includes the following:
•Reception area: Provide reception/waiting area for visitors; include receptionist desk, visitor
seating, and appropriate display.
•General manager: Provide large private office for the general manager, appropriate to the size
of the hotel.
•Executive assistant managers: Provide private offices for the senior staff, including the
rooms-division manager, food and beverage director, marketing director, revenue manager, etc.
•Administrative support: Include space for one or more administrative assistants with
necessary support functions (copying, printing, etc.).
•Conference room: Include private conference room for 8–12 people for use by the senior staff
or for meetings with visitors; include small pantry for coffee/refreshment service.
•Support functions: Provide space for storage, toilets, coats, pantry, etc.
The general manager in large hotels may be highly visible, greeting dignitaries and hosting special
visitors. Thus, this office and its adjoining conference area may begin to resemble public reception and
lounge areas. Where this is the case, the offices need to be larger and should be located where guests
can readily find them and where security can be assured. Some senior managers prefer that their office
is located near the receptionist, whereas others insist on it being more remote, even on another level,
away from the distractions of the office routine. The rooms-division and food and beverage managers,
who share in policy decisions, usually are clustered with the general manager rather than with their
respective departments.

Sales and Catering Office

The third administrative group, the sales and catering office, is responsible for attracting meetings and
group business and for servicing events once they are in the hotel. The sales and catering staff deal with
many outside visitors, and the offices should be designed to be easy to locate and to present the best
public image of the hotel. The cluster includes the following:
•Reception: Provide separate reception/greeting function or combine with executive office
reception.
•Director of sales: Provide large private office.
•Sales representatives: Provide semi-private cubicles for additional sales staff adjacent to
printers and work counter.
•Catering manager: Provide private office for staff member responsible for arranging details
of banquet functions.
•Banquet manager: Provide small office for supervisor of banquet staff; this may be located in
the back-of-house.
•Convention-services manager: Provide private office for person who serves as liaison for all
non-banquet functions; this may be combined with conference concierge service in larger
convention properties or conference centers.
•Conference room: Provide dedicated conference room (may be combined with executive
office) for sales and catering meetings.
•Administrative support: Provide space for several administrative assistants for the senior staff
and for all sales, catering, and banquet representatives.
•Support functions: Provide necessary space to accommodate usual support functions: storage,
toilets, coats, and pantry.
Since the sales staff show prospective guests the available meeting and banquet facilities, the office
suite frequently is located near the function area rather than off the lobby. As with the other clusters,
the most common arrangement is to group the private offices around a centralized work area. The sales
and catering office becomes fairly large in convention and other properties that cater predominantly
with groups rather than individual guests. The space requirements, which vary depending on the type
of hotel, usually fall between 2 and 4 sq ft (0.2–0.4 sq m) per guestroom.

Accounting Office
The accounting office, while best located as part of the main complex near the front desk, can operate
satisfactorily at some distance. Its main connection to the front office is the need to coordinate any cash-
handling functions. The accounting cluster includes the following requirements:
•Controller: Provide private office for the hotel's senior financial officer.
•Assistant controller/auditor: Provide a semi-private office for the assistant controller who is
the day-to-day manager of the accounting activities.
•Cashier: Provide secure room with pass-through window similar to bank teller; provide large
floor safe and alarm system.
•Accounting staff offices: Provide work areas for payroll, accounts receivable, and accounts
payable managers.
•Accounting work area: Provide cubicle workspace for additional accounting staff, depending
on the size of the hotel. Include work counter with files and space for copying, printing, etc.
•Other (storage, toilets, coats, pantry): Provide for accessory functions, especially if the
accounting area is remote from other office suites.
The layout of the accounting area is not complicated by special operating requirements or technical
equipment other than the standard office computer systems. The architect should allocate approximately
3 sq ft (0.3 sq m) per room for the accounting offices.

Information Technology Office

Management of the hotel's information technology (IT) infrastructure requires offices and work space
that, while generally located in back-of-house areas, primarily support administrative functions.
Placement of the IT cluster should be a reflection of the hotel type and size. IT staff who are on call
may need to quickly access other back-office areas, whereas in a large convention hotel they may need
to be close to high-demand locations like the business center. The IT cluster includes the following
requirements:
•IT director: Provide a private office for the hotel's senior IT officer.
•Tech support work area: Provide cubicle workspace for tech support and programming staff,
with the number depending on the size of the hotel. Include a deep work counter and bench
storage space for component servicing.
•Help desk: Provide one or more cubicles equipped with workstations for managing service
requests.
•Server room: Provide a climate-controlled, raised-floor space with good lighting. May not be
required if the hotel uses off-site or “cloud” services.
•Other: storage, toilets, coats, and pantry. Storage needs tend to be high for this cluster.

Food Preparation and Storage Areas

Of all the service areas in a hotel, the kitchens and related food-preparation and F&B storage areas
require the most design attention, in part because of the integration of the mechanical, electrical, and
plumbing systems with the layout of the kitchen equipment. More importantly, the design of the kitchen
and related areas critically influences labor and utility costs for the life of the building. The design team
must plan the kitchens so that all food-related activities are located close together, distances between
the kitchen and the several outlets are as short as possible, and the individual layouts are flexible in
order to accommodate changes in the future. Therefore, the planning and design aspects of the kitchens
require the coordinated attention of a variety of specialized kitchen and engineering consultants.

Program and Planning Objectives

The amount of floor space required in the kitchen and food and beverage storage areas depends on the
number of meals served, the complexity of the menu, the degree of in-house production, and vendor
delivery schedules. Because of the high cost of equipment, energy, and labor, the goal should be to
design the smallest kitchen that meets operational objectives while still offering flexibility. For
example, in many downtown hotels, where space is at a premium because of high land costs and where
most foods are readily and frequently available, food storage areas are kept to a minimum. In smaller
properties, having all food-handling facilities close at hand promotes operational efficiencies that
cannot be obtained in large hotels, where the presence of multiple food and beverage outlets necessitates
widely dispersed finishing kitchens. In this case, it is common to have centralized receiving, storage,
and bulk production, and to push final preparation and warewashing to satellite kitchens close to the
point of service.
It is imperative that the general concepts for the hotel's food and beverage offerings are determined
before any sizing or placement of the kitchen takes place. Today's wide range of production methods
and equipment types means that there is no such thing as a “standard kitchen” that can be installed
somewhere in the back-of-house to support restaurants and bars that will be defined later. Close
communication between the architect and the hotel management company about the food and beverage
concepts and operating parameters early in the project is the best way to ensure an effective and cost-
efficient outcome.
Rules-of-thumb for space allocation vary depending upon the quality level of the hotel. However, a
typical starting point is to base the kitchen size on the number of restaurant and banquet seats and hotel
guestrooms, and to refine it as the food and beverage concepts are better defined. The accuracy of these
rules-of-thumb is affected by the size of the hotel; smaller hotels (fewer than 200 rooms) and satellite
restaurant pantries require a larger allocation per seat in order to equip even a minimum kitchen. Food-
preparation areas for representative types of hotels are included in the sample space programs in Chapter
17. Table 18.2 provides the initial space
Raffles Praslin Seychelles, Republic of Seychelles
Grouping refrigerated storage together as much as possible saves on equipment cost and
simplifies materiel handling. To protect food from cross-contamination or unsafe
temperatures, dedicated areas need to be created for meat and seafood preparation, baking,
and warewashing. Adequate office space, often overlooked in kitchen planning, allows the
hotel's management to more effectively control costs and coordinate food production.
requirements for hotel kitchens and lists overall planning and design objectives.
Among the many planning goals that the architect should address during conceptual design, the most
important is to locate the receiving area, food storage, kitchen, and all outlets (restaurants and banquet
areas) on a single floor. When this goal is not possible, as is often the case in downtown hotels and
other properties over 400 rooms, the designer must assess the relative merits of alternate groupings of
service and public functions. Table 18.3 identifies the critical adjacencies in the food-service areas.
Table 18.2 Kitchen planning for full-service hotels

Program (kitchen)

4–6 sq ft (0.4–0.6 sq m) per restaurant seat, plus

1.5–2 sq ft (0.14–0.2 sq m) per ballroom and banquet seat, plus
 1–1.5 sq ft (0.1–0.14 sq m) per lounge seat, plus
1–1.5 sq ft (0.1–0.14 sq m) per hotel guestroom
Program (F&B and smallwares storage)

15–30 percent of main kitchen area

Planning

Provide forward flow of food from storage to serving; eliminate cross-traffic and
backtracking
Minimize distance between kitchen serving area and restaurant seating
Arrange compact work centers
Locate secondary storage near each workstation, as required
Place shared facilities centrally
Plan for the efficient use of utilities
Group all walk-in refrigerators and freezers together to share common walls and
compressors
Group all equipment that requires ventilation
Locate the soiled-dish drop-off immediately inside the doors from each restaurant, feeding
a single warewashing area
Provide service vestibules between the kitchen and all outlets, banquet pantry, and
ballroom; baffles between service corridors and banquet rooms
Design

Select multi-functional equipment with locking casters

Use indirect wastes wherever possible
Provide for security in all storage areas and at the kitchen service bar
Depress floor slabs for refrigerated storage so that the refrigerator and freezer floors are
level with the kitchen floor
Place floor drains in front of tilting equipment and in wet areas
Consider sanitation and employee safety in the selection of all equipment and materials
Plan aisles on the cooking lines to be about 3 ft 6 inches (1.05 m) wide or 4 ft (1.20 m)
where employees must pass
Table 18.3 Food-service adjacencies

Critical

Food storage to main kitchen

Main kitchen to restaurants
Room-service area to service elevators
Banquet pantry to ballroom
Desirable

Receiving to food storage

Main kitchen to banquet pantry
Banquet pantry to smaller banquet rooms
Banquet pantry to pre-function area
Kitchen to room-service area
Kitchen to bars and lounges
Kitchen to garbage/trash holding
Kitchen to employee dining
Main Kitchen
Once the kitchen area program is set and the architect has established its location and general plan in
the schematic design phase, the food-service consultant tests the appropriateness of the space and
proposes a preliminary equipment layout. If major planning criteria are met, such as providing a single
main kitchen close to the restaurant outlets and function rooms, the overall design is greatly simplified
and the duplication of equipment eliminated. While the food-service consultant is responsible for
preparing the detailed kitchen plan, the architect must understand in general the flow of food and
personnel through the kitchen and related support areas. Table 18.4 identifies the individual kitchen
areas that must be integrated into a workable layout, and includes the area breakdown of F&B storage
areas. Large properties will include most or all of these functions but many hotels will not do any
butchering or baking in-house.
The kitchen planner usually approaches the design in two stages: first, to locate each department
(such as the bakery or the warewashing area) within the larger kitchen space, and second, to develop
each
Table 18.4 Kitchen checklist
workstation by selecting and arranging the specific pieces of equipment. The food-service consultant
also must incorporate a wide range of details—some mechanical, electrical, or plumbing; some related
to precise dimensions; others to particular finishes or features of the kitchen space—coordinating them
with the architect and engineers so that the space can accommodate the equipment as designed and
specified.

F&B Storage Areas

The food and beverage storage areas in most cases are located adjacent either to the receiving area or
to the kitchen, the latter being preferable. The storage and control requirements for hotels require that
supervision and security be available at all times. A key feature in planning kitchen storage areas is to
cluster all the refrigerated storage together. Walk-in refrigerators and freezers require a depressed floor
slab (to accommodate floor insulation) and share common insulated walls. Such grouping also allows
efficiencies in the refrigeration system, with compressors best located in a mechanical room slightly
away from the storage. The closely grouped storage areas are clearly designated in the accompanying
kitchen plan.

Receiving, Trash, and General Storage Areas

The hotel's receiving and trash areas, while sharing the loading dock, require clear separation
of incoming and outgoing goods. Only in smaller hotels are the two functions typically
combined into a single area. The receiving area connects directly to the main back-of-house
corridor and, eventually, to each major service area. In some properties, the receiving area is
immediately adjacent to the kitchen. This is a great boon to the F&B department but may
necessitate an unusually long route to move goods to the laundry, housekeeping, maintenance,
or general storage areas. The security of any incoming items is controlled at the receiving dock.
Equally important to the layout of the receiving and trash area is its integration with the site
plan, so that it accommodates the necessary movement of trucks without disrupting guest
parking yet is hidden from the hotel guestrooms and such public areas as restaurants, lounges,
and recreational areas. An otherwise well-designed hotel can be severely downgraded by the
poor location of its receiving and trash areas. The overall planning requirements are listed
in Table 18.5.
The receiving and trash areas require between 2 and 3 sq ft (0.2–0.3 sq m) per guestroom,
but the size of the area is determined only in part by the number of guestrooms. More important
is the relative amount of restaurant, lounge, and function space—reflecting the volume of food
and beverage operations—and the quality level of the hotel.
Hotels require considerable amounts of storage area. Most of this space is associated with
specific activities: food storage near the kitchen, function storage near the ballroom and
banquet rooms, linen storage on each floor and adjacent to housekeeping, and records
Table 18.5 Receiving and trash area planning
Receiving
Provide an elevated loading dock large enough to accommodate two trucks at one time
(three trucks if 400 or more rooms); screen area from public view; provide roof overhead;
confirm size of trucks and height clearance.
Provide enclosed receiving area for inspection and temporary holding of incoming goods.
Include windows between the loading dock, receiving area, and receiving office.
 Arrange access to the area to avoid cross-traffic between incoming goods and outgoing
items.
Trash, garbage, and holding area
Separate the trash/garbage holding area from receiving, and provide space for one vehicle.
Provide refrigerated area for garbage and a space for can washing, if needed.
Enclose compactor area, yet allow staff accessibility at all times.
Provide adequate space for storage and recycling of paper, cardboard, glass, and other
items.
Provide additional space for temporary holding of soiled and clean linen if the hotel uses
an outside laundry service.
storage close to administration offices. However, in addition, two categories of storage often
are located near the receiving area: outdoor equipment and general storage. The first, generally
requiring a few hundred square feet but more in resorts, is for building and grounds
maintenance equipment and outdoor furniture. The second, often occupying an area as large as
the entire receiving and trash area, is for extra furnishings and equipment, archived financial
records, printed material, and various unassigned items.
While ideally near receiving, these storage areas have different requirements. Space for
outdoor equipment for landscaping or snow removal, often omitted from the program, should
be located at grade level. The general storage area needs to be secure, perhaps comprising
several distinct areas separated by wire fences, so that different operating departments control
particular sections of the space. Although the general storage area is necessary for a variety of
miscellaneous items, it does not replace the need for adequate storage at each of the back-of-
house or administrative functions discussed previously.

Employee Areas
The staff areas form a third major part of the hotel's back-of-house areas. While in smaller and
economy properties these areas may be limited, adequate space for the hotel staff is essential
to a full-service hotel. In a few cases, primarily resorts and overseas hotels, the developer may
even include large-scale staff housing. The usual components—human resource offices, men's
and women's lockers, and employee dining—are somewhat independent from each other and
relate to other back-of-house areas as much as they do to each other. For example, the personnel
function is related closely to the employee entrance, the lockers to the uniform issue area and
to the timeclock, and the employee cafeteria to the main kitchen.
The area requirements total between 6 and 10 sq ft (0.55–0.9 sq m) per room. Security,
circulation, and equipment requirements for the employee areas are less rigid than for other
back-of-house functions, allowing greater flexibility in their location within the service block.
The architect, nevertheless, must incorporate important operational features into the planning
and design of the employee areas (see Table 18.6).
Many major hotel chains require that their general manager live in the hotel. Often, this unit
is the equivalent of a five-bay suite, including a two-bay living room, one-bay dining room and
kitchen, and two bedrooms. In destination and some highly seasonal resorts, as well as hotels
in many developing regions where no community is close enough to provide housing for the
full staff, hotel developers often build their own employee housing. For example, in much of
the Middle East, where virtually all hotel employees are from other countries, the developer
must construct a major housing complex— effectively a second hotel. While entailing
substantial capital cost, such housing complexes can be justified in terms of lower payroll
Table 18.6 Employee area planning
Human resources office
Provide office suite for HR director, assistant director, and administrative support, with
sufficient space for job applicants.
Include additional private office for interviewing and counseling employees.
Provide a training room for staff meetings and education.
Provide small first-aid room.
Employee entrance, timekeeper, and security
Provide employee entrance separate from receiving area.
Locate timekeeper and security office immediately inside the employee entrance, with
visual control of the main service corridor.
Employee lockers and toilets
Provide separate facilities, sized according to the staff program and shift schedules; estimate
staffing at 60 percent male, 40 percent female unless local experience differs.
Consider separate lockers for banquet staff.
Plan separate access to toilets without passing through locker areas.
Employee dining/break room
Plan cafeteria near kitchen or, if on different floor, near employee locker rooms.
Design cafeteria to contain service line, seating, and soiled-dish holding area; include
vending machines.
Provide sufficient capacity for peak periods; consider numbers at shift change.
Employee housing/other
Provide manager's apartment as part of guestroom program.
Where necessary, include two-bedroom apartments for senior management and one-
bedroom apartments for junior staff; plan dormitory units for other employees.
Provide appropriate commons areas such as recreation room, self-service laundry, pool, and
lounges.
Provide religious facilities in international locations where local custom dictates.
costs and such operating advantages as reduced absenteeism, lower turnover, and greater
employee productivity and promptness. It may be necessary, in Muslim and some other
countries, to provide prayer rooms or other accommodation for religious practice.

Laundry and Housekeeping

The laundry and housekeeping areas create the fourth key element of the service facilities of a
major hotel. Even the smallest roadside property provides some space for storage and control
of guestroom linen. In larger hotels, the amount of space required for linen storage is substantial
and, in addition, most developers invest in a full in-house commercial laundry. This is different
from smaller properties, say up to 150 rooms, where a recurring question is whether or not to
include an in-house laundry. In small inns, the cost of building and equipping the laundry, plus
its ongoing operating expenses, causes many operators to either rent linen or send the hotel's
laundry to a commercial service. On the other hand, virtually all upscale hotels operate their
own laundry in order to control quality and assure the availability of linens—as well as to
reduce overall laundry expense.
The laundry and housekeeping areas are closely related and should be adjacent, even though
they are managed separately. But when the laundry space is omitted, extensive space is still
required for collecting and loading soiled laundry and receiving and storing clean linen. The
main function, of course, is to clean and distribute guestroom (bed and bath) linen, restaurant
and banquet table linens, uniforms, kitchen linens, and guest clothing. Resort hotels may have
additional laundry demands, such as for towels at the swimming pools. The laundry and
housekeeping areas have key adjacency requirements, related to servicing the guestrooms and
providing staff uniforms and other linen throughout the hotel.
Table 18.7 Laundry and housekeeping area planning
Laundry
Provide a linen chute, including provisions for smoke control, venting, and locked access.
Plan continuous flow of linen and uniforms through the laundry cycle.
Consider energy conservation approaches such as heat recovery for all equipment.
Provide dry-cleaning services in upscale and luxury hotels.
Provide locked storage for laundry chemicals.
Housekeeping
Locate offices with visual control of the laundry and housekeeping areas.
Locate uniform issue area off main service corridor, convenient to locker rooms.
Establish separate locked linen storage for particular departments, such as food and
beverage or spa/health club.
Provide locked room for guestroom amenities; provide lost-and-found storage room.
Create separate area for night shift to access cleaning equipment and supplies.
The area requirements are fairly standard—from 10 to 14 sq ft (0.9–1.3 sq m) per room—
because the great majority of laundry demand is generated by the guestrooms. Two very
different types of hotels, smaller roadside inns and larger transient business hotels (over 600
rooms), are at the low end of the range. On the other hand, resort hotels, properties with
extensive food and beverage or function facilities, and first-class and luxury properties reach
toward the high extreme. The necessary space is about equally divided between the laundry
and housekeeping areas, including their respective support spaces.
The laundry layout often is designed by the technical-services staff of the hotel management
company or by a laundry design consultant, sometimes associated with a major commercial
equipment manufacturer. The hotel laundry preferably should be located on the hotel's lowest
floor to lessen the chance that noise and vibration from the laundry might interfere with any
public or guestroom areas. Table 18.7 identifies the principal planning requirements for the
two areas.

Engineering and Mechanical Areas

The final back-of-house area contains three related functions supervised by the hotel's chief
engineer: engineering offices, repair and maintenance shops, and mechanical and electrical
equipment rooms. Too often these activities are given insufficient space. While the architects
and engineering consultants provide more than enough space in the mechanical and electrical
areas, they may allocate only leftover space to the offices and shops.
The mechanical equipment areas do not need to be immediately adjacent to the other service
areas, although they should be close to the laundry, kitchen, and other high-energy use areas
for most economical operation. In fact, the equipment rooms can be organized along a separate
service corridor for better control and supervision. However, the maintenance and engineering
function operates 24 hours a day, and therefore must directly connect to back-of-house areas
and to the service elevators. It should be convenient to the loading area in order to receive
equipment and materials needed for engineering activities.
The offices and shops require between 3 and 5 sq ft (0.3–0.5 sq m) per guestroom; the
extensive area required for the mechanical and electrical rooms varies considerably, depending
on such factors as climate, size of hotel, type of construction, orientation, and operational
objectives, but may approach 4 percent of the total gross hotel area. Most often the architect
and engineers together determine the necessary space requirements for the building systems.
The engineering and mechanical spaces should accommodate the basic planning requirements
identified in Table 18.8.

Loews Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia

An efficiently planned hotel back-of-house is organized around a single circulation “spine”
that connects major support functions to the loading dock and to vertical circulation for staff
and goods. This plan for a 414-room convention hotel groups related functions together to
reduce circulation time, improve communication, and increase employee productivity.
Personnel offices are located close to the employee entrance; engineering and IT areas are co-
located; uniform pick-up, employee locker rooms, and the staff cafeteria are adjacent to one
another; and housekeeping and laundry have clear access to the service elevators and linen
chute.
Table 18.8 Engineering and mechanical area planning
Engineering offices
Locate the secretarial area to control all access to the shops and mechanical areas.
Group engineer, assistants' offices, and record and drawing storage around central work
area.
Provide energy management computer room as required.
Maintenance shops
Position the carpentry, upholstery, and paint shops adjacent to each other.
Provide exhaust system from paint shop (fumes) and carpentry shop (airborne sawdust).
Provide additional electrical service to all shops.
Locate grounds maintenance space convenient to the outdoors.
Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing equipment areas
Locate mechanical areas in high-ceiling space (16 ft or 5 m) where noise and vibration will
not disturb guests or public activities.
Provide secure rooms for telephone switch, and for television antenna system and
associated video/movie functions.
Locate rooms where large equipment can be replaced reasonably easily.
Shangri-La Hotel at the Shard, London, United Kingdom
The concrete elevator core of the 72-story mixed-use tower leads the construction progression
with floor slabs, curtain wall, and interior build-out to follow in sequence. The construction
schedule anticipates 38 months of construction. When completed it will be the tallest building
in the United Kingdom and one of the tallest buildings in Europe.

CHAPTER
19
Technical Coordination and Construction

The mid-point of the twentieth century marked the beginning of the most dramatic increase in
worldwide education and mass travel in history, as two young architects, at the famed Chicago firm of
Holabird and Root, planned the first new group of hotels to be built after two decades of depression and
war. William B. Tabler and Richard E. Smith developed studies demonstrating that advanced
technology would make hotels more viable. Thus began a new era for one of the most complex building
types, led by pioneering hotel operators such as Statler-Hilton, the largest chain of its day, and
InterContinental, the first major chain created by an airline (PanAm). A system of teamwork was
developed at this time, between hotel companies, architects, interior designers, and other consultants
(see Table 19.1), which continues to flourish.
The process begins at the project level, with the initial guidance by the developer and operatorto
ensure that the hotel will comply with the latest standards. To this end, hotel companies offer their
technical data and assistance in such areas as specialized hotel information and review of design, as
well as new prototype concepts, if desired. As market strategies are developed, feedback from the
operator is essential in areas ranging from trend research to detailed space requirements, special hotel
systems, food- and beverage-service requirements, and typical layouts for the back-of-house and other
applicable service areas. Because hotel operators have an important stake in the project's success, they
participate in the design process.
One developer compared the coordination required on major hotel projects to other building types as
follows: “It's like developing apartments, offices, and a mall, rolled into one, with all the tenant
trimmings.” The procedures outlined below are intended to maximize efficiency on these complex
development projects, based on their applicability to the requirements of the specific hotel. To this end,
the key consultants and a synopsis of their typical agreements, containing special hotel provisions, are
discussed in this chapter. For example, one of the main procedures on hotel projects is to organize the
consulting agreements so that:
•all necessary services are covered;
•duplication and overlapping of responsibilities is avoided;
•primary cost responsibility for each budgeted item is assigned by mutual agreement.
Methods of organization vary with the size and complexity of the project, required scheduling, and
construction contracting system to be selected, as well as existing procedures of the various team
Table 19.1 Typical development and design team

Owner The owning company which also may be the developer, an equity investor,
operator, government, or a combined joint-venture of any of the above.

Developer The entity actively managing the overall development process for the
owner.

Operator The hotel company that holds a management agreement and, normally, a
technical services agreement with the owner. The operator also may be an
owner or joint-venture partner or developer.

Franchiser The hotel company that holds a franchise agreement with the owner, as
franchisee.

Lender or funding Institution or entity providing primary debt financing; may also be an owner
source or joint-venture partner.

Construction Institution providing temporary financing until construction is complete.

lender

Feasibility Independent accounting, appraisal, or similar professional firm recognized

consultant or in the field of hotel development and finance.
appraiser

Design consultants Architect, engineers, and additional specialty consultants, such as interior
design, food service, landscape, etc.

Lender's architect Architect independently reviewing design and construction for the lender.

Contractor General construction contractor experienced in hotels, who holds agreement

with owner to build the project as described in the program for a stipulated
sum (lump sum) or on a guarantee maximum price basis.

Construction Consultant employed by the owner to manage the construction and

manager equipping of the hotel when not managed directly by the owner.

members involved, and should be modified accordingly wherever possible, consistent with the basic
objectives.
The many consultants and contractors usually required on hotel projects are summarized in Table
19.2.

Types of Professional Services Agreements

Hotel projects include more consultants than most building types because of the variety of special
operational and technical requirements (e.g., kitchens, laundry, audiovisual, water features, etc.) that
are a part of many lodging projects. Among the first contracts the owner signs, before the architect or
interior designer
Table 19.2 Types of consultants and contractors

Consultants to owner/developer

Architect
Interior designer
Food-service consultant
Theming consultant
Golf course architect
Site surveyor
Geotechnical engineer
Construction manager (CM)
Project manager.
Consultants to architect

Structural engineer
Mechanical engineer
Electrical engineer
Life-safety consultant
Landscape architect
Water-feature consultant
Traffic/parking consultant
Acoustical consultant
Elevator consultant
Laundry consultant
Cost estimator
Building code consultant.
Consultants to interior designer

Lighting consultant
Graphics consultant
Art consultant.
Contractors and specialty suppliers

General contractor (or CM)

Separate trades contractors
Purchasing agent (for FF&E)
FF&E installer
Landscape contractor
Artwork supplier
Sign contractor
Printed materials supplier
Uniform supplier
Inventory suppliers (china, linen, miscellaneous supplies, etc.)
Systems suppliers (computer, data, phones, audiovisual)
Field representative.
or construction agreements, for instance, is the technical services agreement with the future hotel
operator, who provides continuing advice and input throughout the planning and construction phases.
Although the following agreements are discussed in quasi-legal terms, the material should not be
excerpted or used without consultation with an attorney.

Technical Services Agreement

Through technical services agreements, hotel companies provide such additional design information
and guidance as agreed, including facilities and area programs (number, size, and type of guestrooms
and suites; seating capacities for food, beverage, banquet, and meeting areas; recreation; retail; parking;
and other special requirements); technical guidelines; circulation flows; layouts for special systems
(communications and computer equipment, back-of-house service areas, kitchens, laundries, front
desk); operating and design themes for food and beverage areas; staffing requirements (offices and
employee back-of-house areas); required office layouts and equipment; signage and room numbering;
and other detailed hotel requirements affecting the design and budget.
Coordination review is provided in all phases of design, from initial program and concept to final
documentation, field inspection, and acceptance, to ensure that the operator's and owner/developer's
needs are fully met. A capital budgeting checklist indicates the stages at which facilities programming
information and other hotel technical data are incorporated into the architectural and interior design
documents, as well as their review and approval by the owner/developer and operator. Technical
services fees vary by chain and are often based on a fixed amount per room, with a minimum total sum
per hotel.

Architect's Agreement
The architect's agreement should contain the following special provisions: The architect shall perform
the following professional services pertaining to the hotel [list] and be responsible to the owner. The
hotel operator's approval shall be obtained on all matters required by the management agreement. Often,
the question of whether the owner or architect owns the design and the drawings becomes an issue
during the negotiation of the contract; generally, all documents should be the property of the owner.
The architect's fees for the scope of services described below are normally a lump sum amount, based
on a percentage of the agreed estimate of the construction cost of the work designed by the architect
and related consultants. The exact fee depends greatly on the size and complexity of the project, but
normally ranges between 5 and 8 percent of the construction budget. If full technical services are not
provided by the hotel company, the architect's fees may be increased by up to 1 percent. Fees may vary
from the above averages through unique conditions. But more than any other factor, the client's ability
to provide information, decisions, and approvals rapidly saves time and expense for the consultants and
enables them to reduce their fees accordingly.

Basic Services
Basic services shall consist of the following six phases, including normal structural, mechanical,
electrical, fire protection, elevators, civil engineering, landscaping, sitework, parking, acoustical,
audiovisual, standard lighting, security, estimating, and coordination of all required consultants as
approved by the owner. The architect shall provide value design and value-engineering services
consisting of evaluation of all reasonable design components, systems, and methods for efficiency,
economy, life safety, and adaptability to the site. The architect warrants that documents shall be in full
compliance with all applicable codes and regulations. All construction estimates shall be prepared by a
qualified estimator in adequate detail to evaluate the work at each phase, according to the following
schedule, not to be exceeded, except for reasonable cause, by either the architect or owner [insert agreed
completion dates for each phase here]. The owner shall have the right to require modifications to achieve
its desired goals with respect to overall design and operation of the hotel.
•Schematic design: Based on the hotel facilities list and design program, technical guides,
construction budget, and other data furnished by the owner, the architect shall prepare single-
line plans and variations of buildable schemes, indicating the relationships of all hotel
components. The architect shall further refine the concept selected by the owner, presenting all
floor plans, exterior elevations, building sections, exterior color perspectives, and cost
estimates.
•Design development: Based on the approved schematic design documents, the architect shall
prepare further detailed drawings and outline specifications describing all aspects of the hotel's
size and character, including architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, and fire-protection
systems, materials, and an updated cost estimate. In compliance with energy conservation
codes and standards, the architect shall prepare a comparative analysis of capital costs and
operating expenses of alternate mechanical, electrical, and energy-saving systems so that the
owner can select among them.
•Construction documents phase I (50 percent complete documents): Based on approved design
development documents, the architect shall prepare final detailed drawings and specifications
of all construction requirements for the hotel, coordinating in the documents all data provided
by the owner and consultants on guestroom layouts, kitchen, bars, and laundry equipment
layouts, exterior signs, and other standard details. The architect shall provide the interior
designer with drawings of fixed interior elements of the hotel, but not including movable
furnishings or other work directly provided by the owner's consultants. The architect shall
refine engineering subsystems and advise the owner of any adjustments to the cost estimate.
•Construction documents phase II (90 percent complete documents): The owner and their
consultants shall give the architect material and color selections and data on any additional
systems or equipment to be incorporated in final documents including front desk,
communications, and computer equipment. The architect shall submit updated drawings and
specifications, advise of any adjustments to the cost estimate, and assist the owner in preparing
necessary bidding documents.
•Construction documents phase III (100 percent complete documents and bidding): The
architect shall finalize drawings and specifications and file them on behalf of the owner with
appropriate regulatory agencies for issuance of the building permit, with the owner paying all
associated fees. The architect will submit an updated cost estimate and assist the owner in
clarifying documents during bidding. Where mutually considered necessary to ensure that the
budget is met, the architect will organize specified portions of the design as bid alternates.
•Construction phase: The architect shall promptly review and take appropriate action on the
contractor's submittals to make sure they conform with the design concept and construction
documents and forward them to the owner. The architect shall visit the site as appropriate, but
not less than once each month, to make recommendations to the owner about progress of the
work, evaluate the contractor's applications for payment, endeavor to guard against defects in
the work, but not to guarantee performance by the contractor or supervise construction means,
methods, or safety precautions. The architect shall interpret all documents and provide
certificates of substantial and final completion of the work.

Construction Budget
The architect agrees that the construction budget is a maximum of [insert amount here] and its best
efforts shall be made to delineate a design biddable within this sum, but if exceeded by lowest bona
fide bids, the owner shall: (1) approve increase; (2) authorize rebidding; or (3) cooperate in revising the
scope, materials, or details to reduce the cost. In such case, the architect, without additional charge,
shall modify final documents to bring the cost within the construction budget.

Compensation to the Architect

The owner's payments shall be made on approved invoices at the completion of each of the following
phases:

•Schematic design 10 percent

•Design development 35 percent

•Construction documents phase I 55 percent

•Construction documents phase II 70 percent

•Construction documents phase III 80 percent

•Construction (final phase payable monthly in accordance with construction 100

progress) percent

If the scope of the hotel is changed substantially after approval of the schematic design phase, or the
architect's services, through no fault of the architect, have not been completed within six months after
the originally scheduled completion date, the architect's compensation for the then uncompleted portion
shall be subject to renegotiation.

Insurance
The architect shall maintain during service, and for a minimum of five years after their completion,
professional liability insurance specifically covering errors and omissions, as well as during service,
workers' compensation, employer's liability, and comprehensive general liability insurance [specify
amounts here]. The architect shall submit certificates of insurance naming the owner and operator as
additional insureds to the extent permitted by the carrier. Such insurance shall not limit the architect's
liability. The architect shall hold the owner and operator harmless from the liability, loss, or property
damage resulting from the architect's acts or omissions.

Interior Designer's Agreement

In hotel work the interior designer generally is hired directly by the owner, rather than the architect, as
is done for some other building types. The interior designer works collaboratively with the architect and
other design consultants to prepare a cohesive concept for the hotel or resort. The agreement should
include phrasing that the operator's approval shall be obtained on all matters required by the
management agreement between the owner and operator. Also, it should define clearly the complete
scope of work: that is, a detailed listing of the spaces to be designed. Besides all guestroom areas and
the hotel public spaces, the interior designer's scope usually includes the elevator cab interiors, public
restrooms, administration offices, and occasional outdoor areas such as dining and pool terraces. In
addition, the designer may be called on to design interior signage, uniforms, the restaurant tabletop, and
other special items.
Basic Services
Basic interior design services shall consist of the following six phases including normal interior design
services for furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E), accessories, special finishes, graphics, uniforms
and tabletop items, and coordination of consultants approved by the owner. The designer shall
coordinate with the architect and other consultants. The designer warrants that documents shall be in
full compliance with all applicable codes and regulations. All interior design estimates shall be prepared
by a qualified estimator in adequate detail to evaluate the work at each phase, according to the following
schedule, not to be exceeded, except for reasonable cause, by either the designer or the owner [insert
agreed completion dates for each phase]. The owner shall have the right to require modifications to
achieve the desired goals with respect to overall design and operation of the hotel.
•Concept phase: Based on the hotel facilities list and design program, technical guides, room
mix, suggested operating and design themes for food and beverage areas, budget for FF&E and
special finishes, available architectural plans, and other data furnished by the owner, the
designer shall prepare preliminary floor plans and variations indicating proposed furniture
layouts for public areas and guestrooms; sketch perspectives of overall design concepts;
provide colors and samples of proposed materials, photos of furnishings, and alternate
selections; and provide cost estimates.
•Design development: Based on approved concept documents, the designer shall prepare
preliminary room layouts for all public areas, guestrooms and suites including furniture, ceiling
and lighting designs, electrical outlet locations, with color perspective renderings and
presentation boards containing color, fabric, and material samples of floor, wall, and ceiling
finishes, window treatments, furniture and furnishing fabrics and materials including drawings
and photos of standard and custom-fabricated furniture, fixtures, and accessories, for
presentation to the owner. The designer shall presenta preliminary design direction for
graphics, 389 uniforms, and artwork to the owner and submit a preliminary line-item estimate
of interior FF&E and special finishes.
•Documentation phase I (working drawings of furniture and special finishes and mock-up room
specifications and review): The designer shall prepare complete working drawings, including
floor plans showing all furnishings identified by type, size, and total number of each item,
coded on the drawings and cross-referenced to all other specification data. Drawings shall
include elevations, sections, and ceiling plans identifying all wall and window treatments,
location of special finishes and materials, variations in ceiling heights and floor levels, location
of lighting and outlets for electricity, communications, and TV. The designer shall prepare
specifications for a mock-up of a typical guestroom and assist in installation and adjustments
to meet the owner's approval.
•Documentation phase II (millwork and special finishes drawings, complete specifications, and
confirmation of budget): The designer shall prepare final working drawings and bid
specifications for all millwork and special finishes, including floor and ceiling plans, sections,
elevations, and details of all fixed furniture, furnishings, fixtures, and finishes including floor,
wall, and ceiling decorative elements and level changes and coordination of all engineering
outlets. Each decorative item shall be detailed and identified by manufacturer. The designer
shall provide a finish schedule and specification books of swatches illustrating all materials,
fabrics, colors, details, or catalog cuts of interior FF&E, cross-referenced to drawings and
specifications; carpet and fabric designs including color tufts or samples; itemized schedules
and bid specification sheets including alternate sources of supply; design and procurement
coordination for artwork and special accessories; and a final estimate breakdown conforming
with the budget for FF&E and special finishes for approval of the owner, operator, and their
designated purchasing agent.
•Documentation phase III (graphics, uniforms and tabletops): The designer shall provide a
graphics program throughout the hotel, including specialty signage for each food and beverage
area and required drawings, specifications and color samples for all interior signs for the
owner's approval. Estimates shall be included in the budget for FF&E. The designer shall assist
the owner in reviewing uniform design and selections of tabletop items including glassware,
china, linen, and related service pieces, menus, and accessories designed by others.
•Construction and installation phase: The designer shall verify that construction and
installation of interior spaces conform to documents; review and approve color and material
samples, shop drawings, and manufacturers' detail submittals of furniture, fixtures, and
millwork; provide on-site coordination with the installation contractor to approve furniture
arrangements; locate decorative materials, artwork, and accessories; and prepare a final punch-
list of defective items.

Cost of FF&E and Special Finishes

The designer agrees that the budget for FF&E and special finishes is a maximum of [insert amount here]
and best efforts shall be made to delineate a design biddable within this sum, but if exceeded by lowest
bona fide bids, the owner shall: (1) approve increase; (2) authorize rebidding; or (3) cooperate in
revising scope, materials, or details to reduce cost. In such case, the designer, without additional charge,
shall modify final documents to bring costs within the FF&E and special finishes budget.

Compensation to the Designer

The owner's payments shall be made on approved invoices at completion of each of following phases:

•Concept design 25 percent

•Preliminary design 40 percent

•Documentation phase I 50 percent

•Documentation phase II 70 percent

•Documentation phase III 80 percent

•Construction and installation (final phase payable monthly in accordance with 100
progress of services) percent

Provisions for renegotiation of compensation, ownership of documents, and insurance should be

similarto those discussed underthe architect's agreement above. The interior designer's fees for the scope
of services defined in the above agreement are normally a lump sum amount, ranging from 6 to 10
percent of the agreed cost estimate of the work designed and specified by the interior designer and their
consultants. The exact fee depends on the size and complexity of the hotel (for example, the number of
restaurants or special suites). But, for extensive renovation services, fees may range as high as 12
percent.

Budgeting, Estimating, and Cost Control

The foremost goal of budgeting and estimating systems is to establish a reliable capital budget that
works throughout the entire development and construction program, beginning with appropriate
allowances and adding detail as the design takes shape. A fully detailed facilities outline and area
program based on the market demand study (see Chapter 14, Programming and Development) enables
the developer to set initial project budgets and a carefully prepared 10-year business proforma and
financial forecast for the project.
 The complexity of many hotel developments demands that the developer estimate and monitor a
budget with hundreds of individual line items. The earliest budgets, based on preliminary plans and
sketches, and before undergoing value design, value engineering, or substantial interior detail, are too
preliminary to use for sound budgetary purposes. Therefore, the most reliable preliminary budgets
during the schematic phases are generated through fair-market unit-price estimates, based on hands-on
experience on comparable developments.
However, the developer should make certain that the budget estimates are (1) complete and do not
omit any category or item, and (2) properly indexed to the local area—not based on broad regional or
national indexes averaging all types of hotel construction. In addition, it is important, where the hotel
structure or concept might be unusually costly, that the construction manager (CM) offers value design
and ensures that the market concept is strong enough to carry the extra initial cost as well as debt service.
Maintaining the budget control requires careful monitoring of the project during both the design and
construction phases. Throughout the design period, the owner needs be confident of having accurate
estimates for all categories, updated monthly or at the end of each documentation phase. In addition to
the budget estimates submitted by the architect and other consultants for architecture and engineering,
site development, interior design, kitchen equipment, and operating supplies, the project manager or,
where applicable, an outside quantity-estimating firm should prepare a second estimate, with any
differences in the budget estimates resolved by mutually agreed revisions to the drawings and
specifications. Design consultants must be held responsible for redesigning, revising, and respecifying
to meet the initial agreed budget without an additional fee.

Technical Guides
The major management companies provide technical design and engineering guides to hotel developers
and their consultants. These manuals assist the team in developing imaginative, efficient, and
marketable design solutions as well as ensure a safe and environmentally sound structure. The
comprehensiveness of the guides, which have been developed over many years and through the
experience of scores of projects, often worldwide, is evident in their typical outline. A typical corporate
standard may have a first volume containing proprietary planning and technical standards and a second
volume covering the recommended systems and procedures (checklists, reference documents, and
coordination methods) used during the development and construction period. The guides also may
include other volumes, such as one covering “prototype” plans and typical details customized for
internal use. These technical guides are frequently available on-line through the hotel company's
website and can be accessed with a user name and password provided to the owner during or after
franchise negotiations. Many hotel company websites provide prototypical room layouts, public space
layouts, and even typical kitchen and laundry layouts, complete with equipment specifications in CAD
formats that can be easily incorporated into the project construction documents. (See Table 19.3.)

Architectural and Engineering Systems

Whether the hotel is a high-rise urban tower ora luxury resort with the guestrooms arranged in
scattered villas, its market type and program help to determine appropriate solutions to the
myriad architectural and engineering alternatives. These involve a number of structural issues,
many based on differing requirements of the guestroom areas versus the public and support
facilities. For example, by their nature the guestrooms utilize a short-span structure while the
public areas, especially the ballroom, require medium to long spans. These areas
Table 19.3 Technical guides
Volume 1 Design, planning, and development standards
Introduction, purpose, and intent
General requirements, reviews, and approvals
Site planning, zoning, massing, and exterior design considerations
Building codes, including structural, life-safety, and accessibility requirements
Facilities and space programming standards
Site and environmental planning requirements, including parking and roadways, recreation,
and landscape
Guestroom, suite, and villa standards
Public space standards, including restaurants and lounges, function and conference areas,
indoor recreational amenities, themed shopping, and entertainment features
Back-of-house service requirements
Furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) standards
Special systems requirements, including fire-protection, security, communications,
television and in-room entertainment, audiovisual, property management, and guest service
systems
Keying and guest security standards
Building systems including electrical, mechanical (heating, ventilating, and air-
conditioning; energy conservation), plumbing, vertical transportation (elevators and
escalators), and fire-protection systems
Volume 2 Technical services
General description: scope of technical services, types of agreements, list of consultants,
and development sequence
Market surveys and feasibility studies: scope of surveys and analysis, types of agreements,
and proforma development software
Facilities programming systems: area matrix and programming software, and facilities
checklists
Budgeting and estimating systems: budget estimating software, progress confirmation cost
reviews, and value engineering by CM, architectural and engineering firm, or cost consultant;
definitive estimate format; and operations pre-opening expense budget format
Progress scheduling and reporting systems: critical path method for scheduling, reporting,
and approvals; design and construction phase scheduling formats; checklist of early areas for
FF&E installation and training; and project manager's coordination checklists
Design requirements: selection process format and agreements for architect, interior
designer, food service, site survey, geotechnical report, and other required consultants;
environmental, location, and parking checklists, including circulation diagrams, parking
analysis, and basic building configuration alternatives; checklists for life-safety, security,
audiovisual, and special hotel systems; checklists for guestroom types, food and beverage,
recreation and health spa amenities, conference, lobby, front office, administration, and back-
of-house services; checklists for renovations and additions; and formats for prototype and
protopart concepts
Construction contracting, bidding and negotiation process: selection format for alternate
construction contracting systems
Construction contracts and field supervision requirements
Construction contracts and general conditions, including provisions for inspection, testing,
reporting, and insurance guarantees; and construction management agreements as required
FF&E procurement and installation requirements: purchasing agent's agreement, checklists
of required FF&E items; and format for preliminary FF&E information and estimate
 Required inspections, permits, and approvals: format for local checklist of permits and
licenses
Confirmation of staff training and early occupancy requirements
Soft opening and building acceptance procedures: checklist for construction closeout
Opening
Volume 3 Prototype plans and typical details
New prototype hotel plans
Recommended protopart plans: guestroom and suite layouts, health club plans, back-of-
house layouts
Typical details: brand logos, standard and selected details developed for specified
applications

also have different needs for mechanical systems and ceiling heights, and fall under different
sections of the building code.
The number of general planning and design issues continues from these larger conceptual
aspects to the smallest detail. Where the hotel is based on a prototype, it needs to adapt to the
site and the surrounding environs. In addition, the architect should consider how many areas in
the hotel will need to adapt to future changes—certainly the restaurants and lounges will
undergo frequent re-theming to keep them current—and all areas will be regularly updated and
refreshed. Meeting-room technology will change, fitness-center equipment must follow health
trends, and guestrooms may need to adapt elements of an office or spa. Therefore, the building
infrastructure needs to be highly adaptable to future innovation and change.
While the architect and engineers may evaluate different structural and mechanical systems,
the nuances of hotel design tend to limit available choices. There are a number of common
building system alternatives, which have different but direct application to guestroom and
public/support areas. For example, depending on the location and type of hotel, it may be
appropriate to use a frame structure, bearing-wall system, or even pre-fabricated guestroom
modules. The decision is based not only on available technology and skills of the building
trades, but more on issues related to bay-spacing and the need to integrate mechanical and other
systems into the structure.

Structural Systems
The principal structural system for all mid- and high-rise buildings is the steel or reinforced concrete
frame structure. Office buildings, which require an open-plan design and suspended ceilings, generally
utilize the steel frame. However, the guestroom portions of a hotel are more easily built with flat-plate
concrete or precast concrete floor slabs. With no need for HVAC ducts or extensive recessed lighting,
the underside of the slab can easily be given an appropriate ceiling finish. Steel-frame buildings require
a dropped ceiling which, therefore, results in additional cost owing to increased floor-to-floor height
and additional fireproofing demands. All high-rise buildings must be designed to resist wind loads,
which often requires diagonal bracing, sheer walls, or other accommodation within the structural
system.
Steel is sometimes more suitable for long-span spaces, and therefore commonly is used for public
spaces that require large column-free areas, such as ballrooms. Post-tension concrete can also achieve
long spans, so the project team will need to assess the current material cost trends when deciding on the
most economical structural system to use.
There are a number of structural systems that apply to low-rise buildings, including load-bearing
concrete block with spanning metal-deck floors and conventional load-bearing wood or light-gauge
steel framing. These systems are easily applied to guestroom wings where the spans are relatively short,
but a hybrid system might be called for in long-span column-free spaces by incorporating steel framing.
Modular structural systems, where guestroom units are factory built and assembled on site with
precast structural elements, continue to have relevance for hotel projects owing to the repetitious nature
of the guestroom modules. The main advantages of these systems are in the speed and quality control
of their assembly-line production, but they also reduce material waste and therefore are considered a
sustainable technology.

Mechanical Systems
HVAC systems for hotels and resorts vary widely, depending on the building type, location, and
configuration. They also vary according to the functional component of the building. For example, the
guestrooms of a typical upscale mid-rise or high-rise urban hotel are most often heated and cooled by a
two-pipe or a four-pipe fan coil system tied to a central cooling and heating plant. Each guestroom is
equipped with an air-handling unit, with a fan that blows air across a copper coil which, depending on
temperature setting, is circulating heated or chilled water, thereby transferring heated or chilled air into
the room. The four-pipe system (two for supply, two for return) allows heating or cooling to occur at
the same time in different rooms, facilitating individual guest control of room temperature. During the
spring and fall you could have a warm day followed by a cool night, or you could have guestrooms on
one side of the building exposed to the sun's warmth with the other side in cool shadow. The four-pipe
system accommodates both needs. A two-pipe system is more economical to build and to operate but
only allows heating or cooling to occur at one time, depending on whether the central chiller or the
boiler is operating.
Guestrooms in limited-service mid-rise to low-rise hotels often choose through-wall packaged
terminal air-conditioner (PTAC) units as the most economical system. They permit individual
temperature control, can introduce fresh air, and do not require the expense of a central plant. The
downside to PTAC units is that they tend to be noisier than fan coil units and are less able to deal with
extreme humidity. In high-humidity climates, PTAC units can be the source of maintenance problems
because of the large exterior wall penetration.
Public spaces in most hotels and resorts have special requirements that require dedicated HVAC
systems for their specialized needs. The heating or cooling load of a ballroom must be able to provide
a comfort level for each of its various uses; conferences, banquets, weddings, etc. When a ballroom is
divided, different sections might require different air-conditioning loads. A variable air volume (VAV)
system allows individual thermostats in each division to control a damper system that will deliver the
appropriate cooling volume to each area.

Sustainable Building Systems

More than any other industry for which real estate development is an essential part of their
operation, the hotel industry has embraced the principles of environmental responsibility and
sustainability with fierce conviction. Every major hotel company now proffers a mission
statement detailing elaborate corporate goals to achieve zero-carbon
Green Design for Sustainable Operations
Sara Schoen
Hospitality Sector Manager U.S. Green Building
Council Washington, DC
“Sustainability” may be on this year's list of overused words. We hear it in the context of FF&E
purchasing, landscaping, lighting—even bedbugs. We have emerged from the phase when
many hotel designers and developers were ambivalent about LEED (the U.S. Green Building
Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building certification
program) into a new era in which sustainability is valued for its ability to augment guest
experience.
One of the next frontiers in hotel development is building a stronger connection between
green design and operations. We are tasked with finding ways to ensure that the benefits of
green elements can be drawn into a hotel's operational phase, beyond its grand opening.
Performance after the ribbon cutting should be top of mind throughout the development
process: projects designed with an eye on energy efficiency, ongoing waste management,
indoor environmental health, and alternative transportation will better support the imperative
of sustainable operations throughout their lifetimes.
Developers can investigate local recycling systems and build recycling infrastructure into
back-of-house spaces and guestroom casegoods. An integrated design process that includes
playing with building shape, orientation, and fenestration in the earliest stages can permanently
maximize a hotel's efficiency and daylighting. Installing geothermal energy systems, efficient
mechanical equipment, or a solar water-heating system will reduce a property's reliance on
costly off-site energy production and cut energy bills significantly. In addition to giving a hotel
some local flavor, installing native species eliminates landscaping water and fertilizer use and
reduces maintenance and other ongoing costs associated with groundskeeping.
Permeable paving on a hotel's grounds will reduce its heat island effect, lowering cooling
energy use year after year and minimizing effects on local microclimates and wildlife habitats.
Such pavers can also enhance a hotel property's aesthetics, giving it a novel, more natural and
relaxed look, and improve guest comfort by eliminating the need to walk on overheated
concrete or asphalt on a hot summer day. A sometimes overlooked benefit of permeable paving
is its ability to allow natural stormwater collection and drainage to continue even after a site is
developed. This can improve local water quality and significantly lower stormwater
management costs by reducing runoff and shifting the burden back to the natural system for
stormwater filtration, detention, and storage.
A lobby that is designed so that guests and staff choose to climb stairs more often instead of
taking an elevator every time will yield sustainability benefits throughout the hotel's life. Such
behavioral shifts not only reduce energy usage but also improve occupant health. The idea is
not to compromise guest experience by removing amenities, but to make the green choice easier
and more appealing.
The most important new initiative of USGBC is Building Performance Partnership, a
platform for tracking and benchmarking the ongoing environmental performance of LEED-
certified buildings. Any hotel pursuing green design should also keep an eye on this program
and how it might perform in tracking the hotel's ongoing energy and water consumption, indoor
air quality, waste management, and use of alternative transportation.
Staying focused on sustainable operations throughout the design process ensures that the
return on a hotel's green design will not end with the achievement of a LEED for New
Construction certification and a plaque on the wall. Choosing green features that impact the
life of a hotel and planning for sustainable operations during the design phase can help bridge
the gap between green design and the lifetime environmental footprints of our hotels.
footprint and environmental conservation. The motivation is not only for achieving valued
public relations credentials for helping save the planet: through research and development, the
hospitality industry is setting the bar in realizing demonstrable economic benefit from
sustainable initiatives. Hotels, with their multiple and varied functions, provide fertile ground
for the application of green technology. The application of sustainable technology applies
broadly to the program elements of a hotel, whether seen as a commercial business, a residential
accommodation, an entertainment venue, a culinary establishment, a recreational amenity, a
conferencing center, or a service facility. Some of the sustainable building systems applications
hotels regularly employ are listed in Table 19.4 (overleaf).
As commitment to sustainable principles takes on new importance to the hospitality industry,
many hotels and resorts seek to measure and demonstrate to travelers their achievements in
fulfilling their obligation to be environmentally responsible by obtaining LEED (Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design) certification through the United States Green Building
Council (USGBC) or BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment
Method) certification through the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC). (See Appendix
A for LEED certification checklist.) In achieving LEED Platinum certification, the highest
score in the rating system, the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina, employed a
wide array of environmental principles, both in the design of its building systems and in its
operations and services to guests.
Proximity Hotel, Greensboro, North Carolina
Dozens of sustainable features contributed to the hotel achieving LEED Platinum
certification, the highest score in the rating system. The most visible feature is the 100
rooftop solar panels that provide 60 percent of the hot water needed for the hotel and
restaurant. The LEED checklist shows how the project was scored with other sustainable
features and operations.
Table 19.4 Sustainable building systems applications
Energy reduction
Solar energy systems
Geothermal energy
Green roofs
Solar shading
Insulated building envelope
Reflective roofing materials
Energy-efficient appliances
Energy-efficient lighting
Modular construction
 Energy-recovery technology
Energy-efficient glazing
Efficient HVAC systems
Enhanced guestroom controls
Regenerative drive elevators
Local material usage
Water conservation
Rainwater harvesting
Recycled water
Green roofs
Low-flow plumbing fixtures
Stormwater management/bio-swales
Restricted irrigation systems
Renewable resources
Natural carpets
Recycled materials
Shower-gel dispensers
Restorative landscaping
Native planting
Healthy environment
Low VOC (volatile organic compounds) finishes
Day-lighting
Natural ventilation
Noise reduction
Convenient stairs
Sustainable transportation
Light pollution control
Wellness centers

Hotel Technology Systems

Rapidly expanding technological advancements in hotel systems are transforming the way lodging
properties are operated and guest services provided. High-speed internet, broadband WiFi/ WLAN
wireless networks, biometric cellular smartphones, intelligent cameras, and high-definition 3-D touch-
screen interactive television are defining how guests interface with hotel services. These new
advancements are augmenting what have become conventional technologies such as computerized
check-in, automatic wake-up calls, electronic guestroom locks, satellite television, and
teleconferencing. Few buildings have a greater variety of computerized or other specialized systems
than do today's lodging properties. These fall into five broad categories:

Property Management Systems

Computerized reservations systems were first centralized by Sheraton in 1956, further developed by
Holiday Inns in the early 1960s, and since then have gone through many generations of refinement.
Practically every major hotel chain has its own computerized international reservation system, which
integrates internet-based inquiries with the more typical telephone ones.
Central to computerized hotel operations today is the property management system (PMS). These
information technology (IT) systems tie together the several operational areas of the hotel, and feature
components to access the hotel reservations networks and accept credit card authorization. At the
individual hotel, the PMS integrates a wide range of potential guest charges, such as restaurant point-
of-sale terminals, guestroom movie purchases, and long-distance phone charges, with a number of in-
house recording tasks and general office systems, such as word processing or internet access. Among
the most important features are front office requirements that clearly identify room inventory and can
track guest history information, including room preferences or membership in airline frequent flyer
programs. The most common functions of today's PMSs include:
•Guest reservations
•Guest registration and folio accounting (the record of guest charges for room, food and
beverage, and telephone)
•Accounting, including night audit, city ledger, accounts payable, and general ledger
•Guest history and other marketing reports
•Daily and monthly operating reports
•Payroll and related reports
•Inventory
Among the most visible systems may be the point-of-sale units that have become ubiquitous in most
retail operations and certainly are common in hotel restaurants and lounges. The system allows the
server to place an order at a terminal located in the dining room; the system then prints out the order in
the kitchen, where the production staff begins to prepare the food. In addition to saving steps and time,
the restaurant systems reduce errors in calculating and totaling the final check, immediately post the
charge to the guest's room account, and provide a variety of analyses, including daily accounting and
food inventory reports.
The choice of a PMS vendor depends on the type of hotel and what functions are most important. Part
1 of this book describes the incredible variety of lodging properties; consider how these place very
different demands on the choice of technology:
•Smaller hotels such as roadside and suburban properties need straightforward reservations and
accounting systems.
•Convention hotels need a flexible system to handle special functions and such features as
group billing.
•Resorts need to track a variety of guest-related activities such as golf club or spa use.
•Super-luxury hotels need to maintain detailed guest history files.

Communication Systems
Gone are the days of the traditional hotel switchboard. Personal cellular phones and smartphones have
rendered conventional guestroom telephones all but obsolete as few guests wish to incur unnecessary
charges for their use; rather, the in-room phone has been more or less relegated to calls for room service,
valet parking, concierge services, or to other guestrooms or the front desk. Further inexpensive internet
telecommunications services provide guests with long-distance capabilities through their laptop
computer or iPad. Revenues from telephone switchboards have been largely replaced by sales of in-
room internet connectivity, either through a hard-wired USB port or, more often, via a WiFi network.
Provision of high-speed internet connectivity has become an essential service that hotels must
provide to remain competitive. WiFi access through a broadband antennae network should provide
guests with connectivity not only in their guestrooms but throughout the public spaces as well. Hotel
management also benefits, as the use of mobile devices permits efficient operations in administration
and back-of-house areas. WLAN (wireless local area network) “heat-sensitive” technology can read the
density of activity on the network, and add WiFi muscle to parts of the grid that require more bandwidth.
Similarly, everything from support and integration of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablet
computers, to the delivery of hotel services has become paramount. With the security of biometric
fingerprint recognition, guests can now safely make purchases and guestroom charges through their
mobile devices. By downloading special apps provided by the hotel, which convert a smartphone to a
super remote-control device, guests can activate do-not-disturb signs, open or close window curtains,
adjust light and temperature levels, order room service from a menu display, make golf tee-time
reservations—even select music and TV channels. For added security it is important that multiple levels
of encryption and data protection are provided to prevent fraud and privacy violations.

Life-safety Systems
Fire-protection systems in hotels were greatly enhanced in the 1980s and 1990s because of a number of
devastating hotel fires that raised public awareness to life-safety issues. Among those with the most
fatalities were fires at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, the DuPont Plaza in San Juan,
Puerto Rico, and the Stouffer's Hotel in Westchester, New York. Testing and research on the causes of
these and other hotel fires have improved design methods and standards, and new technology has
advanced the quality of detection, alarm, and fire-extinguishing systems. As a result, most hotels in
Western countries incorporate state-of-the-art fire-protection systems; those without these systems
should not be considered safe.
One issue that affects the provision of life-safety systems is the mandate of building codes. For
example, an electrical fire at a Boston hotel caused the city to modify its standards for the protection of
emergency generators. Other hotels under construction at that time upgraded their plans even though
they had complied with previous codes. A serious fire at a Fort Worth, Texas, hotel was the impetus for
requiring sprinklers even in low-rise guestroom wings. Concern after a fire in an atrium hotel near
Chicago resulted in code changes that required increased exhaust systems to draw smoke away from
atrium guestroom corridors.
As a result of these and several other fires, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the
AH&LA have urged developers to incorporate new technology even where codes don't require it. The
ultimate goal, of course, is to install fail-safe protection in all hotels worldwide. Life-safety technology
includes the following:
•Automatic fire-detection and alarm systems
•Fully sprinklered building
•Central annunciator panels
•Guest evacuation sound systems
•Firefighters' voice communication system
•Smoke-proof and pressurized exit stairs
•Emergency generator (alarm systems, lighting, smoke exhaust)
Also, building codes specify numerous construction details to further protect the building occupants as
well as the property. The United States has several building codes in addition to the NFPA life-safety
code on which most individual city or state codes are based. The United Kingdom, France, Germany,
and many other nations also have precise building regulations. Although similar, the detailed
requirements vary somewhat from code to code—the number of sprinklers required in a hotel
guestroom, for example, varies from one to four depending on the code in force, with even more in such
special situations as rooms looking into an atrium—so that hotel standards must be designed to meet
the most stringent requirements of all codes.
Because of the high priority given to fire safety by the hotel industry, large national and international
hotel companies have established their own fire-safety standards that exceed most local codes, thereby
reducing the problem of satisfying varying regulations in different localities. Up-to-date, consistent
company standards that go beyond codes are also becoming the key to legal safety as well. Today,
owners who fail to apply the latest safety or security measures throughout a hotel or chain may risk
liability. For example, after a hotel in Washington, DC, installed electronic locks in its new addition, it
was held liable for a theft in the older building because locks there were less secure. Attempts have
been made to apply this legal principle also to life-safety issues; therefore, operators and designers must
carefully consider safety standards and consistently implement them in all hotels under the same
ownership or management.
Smoke or heat detectors are now required by most codes in all hotel guestrooms as well as public
areas. These usually are placed above the bed and at regular intervals along the guest corridors.
Additional heat detectors in such service areas as kitchens, laundries, and mechanical areas are set to
recognize the usual high temperatures in these spaces. A critical factor is how any alarm is recorded: In
addition to sounding a local alarm, an integrated system automatically notifies the local fire department;
sends a signal to a fire-control panel near the hotel entrance, which is easily accessible to firefighters;
and alerts hotel staff in the telephone PBX room—the main point from which directions can be quickly
communicated to hotel guests.
A major issue in hotel fires is the approach taken to notify guests of the emergency. Some hotels
have attempted to put out a local fire without evacuating the building. Often, in emergencies, guests
have been uninformed about whether they should try to leave their room or remain there until the
emergency is over. Various approaches to establishing sound systems connected to hotel guestrooms
have been implemented, including corridor speakers loud enough to be heard in the guestrooms. Some
regulations insist that a guest evacuation sound system be carried over the telephone system, master
television antenna (MTV), or independent low-voltage systems.
Recognition that much of the danger from fires comes from smoke rather than the fire itself has
created an increased awareness of the importance of controlling the spread of smoke. This goal is
accomplished horizontally by automatic closers on guestroom and other doors and by the installation
of fire doors at elevator lobbies, which are held open magnetically but which close automatically when
detectors sense a fire. The problem is more severe vertically because of elevators, stairs, mechanical
ducts and shafts, and numerous small penetrations through the floor slabs. Any vertical openings must
be protected with fire-rated automatic dampers to isolate smoke and fire between adjoining floors. These
dampers, adding substantially to the capital costs of a project, can be designed to also help control
energy use.
Vertical stair towers present a similar smoke problem. Two common solutions are to pressurize the
stairs, so that when any door is opened the higher air pressure keeps the stair clear of toxic smoke, or to
provide for smoke evacuation in stair vestibules. Elevator shafts require similar specialized systems. In
Germany codes require pressurization of elevator shafts, while in France all elevator openings are
further protected by automatic fire shutters. In the United States many jurisdictions require automatic
smoke doors between the elevator lobby and the guestroom corridor.

Security Systems
While improved life-safety systems protect the public against fire or such other emergencies as
earthquakes, new security systems protect guests, employees, and the physical property from crime.
The systems and the procedures set up by management may be developed, at least in part, to meet the
requirements established by the hotel's legal and insurance advisors and to help ward off lawsuits. To
protect people and property against theft, physical assault, vandalism, arson, and terrorism, the hotel
security system has three principal components: locking systems, television surveillance cameras, and
various types of alarms.
The keying system is the largest element in hotel security and has undergone the most change over
the past few years. Mechanical locks have practically disappeared from guest areas, where electronic
card-key systems now are standard. Before the card-keys became common, hotels were under intense
pressure to physically change each lock after a key had been lost or stolen. However, owing to the time
and expense involved this wasn't done sufficiently often. The same card-key systems are becoming
more common in back-of-house areas because of the ability to generate a record of what card—that is,
which employee—attempts entry.
A second major part of the hotel's security systems is closed circuit television (CCTV). The television
surveillance system is controlled and monitored in larger hotels at a security office and in smaller
properties at the receiving office or telephone PBX. Cameras can be used to scan outdoor areas and
specific indoor locations where theft or unauthorized access is a problem. They may be programmed to
run only when an alarm is sounded or when a particular door is opened; in other cases, especially in
casinos, the CCTV systems monitor areas continuously. The hotel areas most often protected by closed
circuit television include the several hotel entrances, storage rooms, and areas where large amounts of
cash are handled.
The third element in a security plan, in addition to effective employee training, is the installation of
intrusion alarms at critical points. These incorporate various types of electrical circuits, light beams,
and motion detectors. Obviously, these depend on standby or emergency power systems to protect the
hotel completely. Intrusion detectors can be used for all areas of the hotel: grounds, doors and windows,
unoccupied rooms including guestrooms and storage areas, and selected locations such as the safe and
safety deposit boxes. Connecting these alarms to a security console permits the operator to notify
authorities of the exact location of the alarm, before he or she takes action.
All these security systems increase the safety of the guests and employees and help reduce the hotel
operator's insurance premiums. As with other specialized systems, the security components generally
are available as part of an overall, integrated package, including life-safety and energy management.

Enhanced Security Systems

The attacks on The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai and on the North Caucasus ski resorts in Russia
emphatically demonstrate that certain hotel and resort security systems need to focus not only on petty
criminals and intruders bent on theft, vandalism, arson, or personal assaults, but must apply cutting-
edge technology in early threat detection of potential terrorist attacks. Politicians, celebrities, captains
of industry, military personnel, and other potential political targets of terrorists are particularly
vulnerable when away from the protective cover of their dependable home or workplace security
networks. Hotels and resorts that cater to this clientele must consider going beyond conventional hotel
security systems and employ real-time intrusion-detection and threat-assessment technology.
Conventional magnetic card access can be augmented by radio frequency identification (RFID)
technology, facial geometry/recognition and such biometric access applications as retinal scanning. A
system of long- and short-range pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras enabled with video intelligent-convergent
technology can employ an integrated tag-and-track network in providing real-time detection, and real-
time, or immediate, assessment of a threat.
Applications that can convert incoming data to three-dimensional displays of the facility and its
environment further enable understanding and assessment of a menacing situation and help in
establishing an interactive virtual barrier. Images can be streamed live to portable devices supporting a
deployed response to a threat. On waterfront properties, a virtual electronic “bubble” of security can
secure approaches up to 7 miles (11 km) out to sea, using ground-based radar and all-weather, day-night
laser illuminated PTZ cameras integrated to automatically vector in, and track on approach, unknown
targets. This enhanced electronic surveillance intelligence-enabled camera network should be operated
from a centrally located command and control center, ideally within a hardened perimeter.

Construction Services
Managing the construction of a hotel or resort requires a well-organized system. The owner's project
manager and other financial and operational members of the project team now take on major leadership
roles, closely follow the progress of construction, and, especially, pay particular attention to any
modifications of the project scope, budget, schedule, or quality. They must establish a methodical
control system that tracks each change and continually measures expenditures against a variety of
construction and line budgets, and updates the project schedule. Once the building is largely completed,
the owner needs to purchase and install literally thousands of furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E)
items, followed by training staff and testing special systems, all well before the anticipated opening
date.
The first step in establishing an effective control system is to fully plan the construction project well
in advance. Each aspect of the work must be reduced to a group of tasks and subtasks that will allow
adequate monitoring and timely reporting at any sign of schedule delays or potential cost overruns. The
owner/developer's project manager must carefully identify and diagram the scope and priority of all
tasks. Just as marketing and design are crucial to the project's image, so, too, are the construction
methods critical to its schedule and budget, and its eventual success.
Construction completion dates generally are more critical for hotels than for most other types of
buildings. Hotels under construction— even those late in the design phase—sell large blocks of
guestrooms and meeting space to convention groups several years before the hotel opens. Any delay
not only entails lost revenue but can negatively affect the hotel's reputation among travel agents,
corporate groups, and disaffected guests. In addition, staff payroll, training, and other fixed pre-opening
expenses are further extended. To help ensure that opening dates are met, the construction contract may
include liquidated damage and bonus clauses to penalize or provide incentives for the contractor.
An essential step is to define clearly the roles of the project team, to avoid potential overlapping—
or gaps—in key areas of responsibility. While the “general conditions” part of the construction contract
establishes a legal relationship between the contractor or construction manager and the owner,
additional roles and detailed work descriptions should be prepared to better tie the design professionals,
consultants, subcontractors, and suppliers to the project.

Project Delivery
The complexity of the mixed-use aspects of hotels—lodging, assembly, commercial, and other uses
combined in one facility—presents significant challenges in construction as well as operation.
Therefore, the choice of the construction contract form can greatly influence the quality, timeliness, and
cost of the final product. While there are various ways to combine the typical contract types, the most
common arrangements are (1) the traditional design/bid/award contract, (2) construction management,
often including fast-track elements, and (3) design/build. Generally, the owner or developer designates
a staff executive or consultant to act as the overall project manager, with clear authority and appropriate
staff for the size and complexity of the project. Table 19.5 (overleaf) illustrates the key advantages and
disadvantages of each type of project delivery method.
Among the three most prevalent variations, the design/bid/ award contract separates each of the roles:
the architect completes the design and construction documents, contractors review these and submit a
lump sum bid, the owner and architect select a contractor, who then completes the building expressly
as designed and specified. Construction management integrates these elements more fully by offering
construction and cost-estimating advice throughout the design process. Also, the process may provide
the option to fast-track the schedule and deliver the project earlier by overlapping the design and
construction phases. In the design/ build variant, the owner pre-selects a contractor who directs the
design effort, seeking techniques that offer greater potential for cost savings and design improvements
during construction. The final selection will depend on the unique special conditions of the project but,
generally, design/bid/award best establishes a firm price, construction management offers greater
flexibility and the potential to shorten the schedule, and design/build offers a “turnkey” solution
appropriate for less complex lodging types. The availability and productivity of skilled labor also may
affect the choice of contract and delivery options.

Design/Bid/Award Contract
The traditional design/bid/award contract is widely used by the hotel industry. It may require the most
time: several months for the architect and design team to prepare full drawings and specifications, then
time to allow several general contractors (GC) to calculate their bids and the owner to analyze these
before awarding the contract. In this contract form, the emphasis is on tight construction documents
from the architect and independent management by the general contractor, who takes full responsibility
for managing and scheduling the construction. Allowing the architect sufficient time to produce clear,
complete, and concise documents provides the owner with the best opportunity to purchase the entire
project at a competitive cost and reduces the risk of price overruns. While some people feel that the GC
and, in turn, the many subcontractors, may submit a low bid expecting to recoup money later through
change orders, the owner/developer and project manager should accept bids only from qualified and
reputable contracting firms to minimize that possibility.
Table 19.5 Construction contract options

Design/bid/award Construction Design/build

management/fast track

Client/owner

Advantages Professional advice on contract Shorter project delivery Shorter project delivery time
and construction quality issues time Lower project costs Lower project costs Single
Good industry understanding of Builder is agent to the responsible party Inventive
how method operates Budgets owner Professional advice design/construction solutions
most accurately resemble actual on contract and Reduced project-
costs Easier guaranteed construction quality issues management workload
maximum price negotiations Clearly defined sharing of Reduced number of claims
Clear penalties for cost overruns cost overruns and savings Single fee to pay
Unambiguous chain of
responsibility

Disadvantages Longer start-to-finish time Project management No independent professional

Inability to negotiate increases workload design advice
subcontractor costs Multiple fees Decision-making
to pay responsibilities unclear

Contractor/construction
manager

Advantages Definitive plans and Reduced financial risk More control over project
specifications on which to base Early completion bonuses Minimum risk and
bids Role clearly understood by Easier to recommend uncertainty Improved design
all parties substitutions Direct communication with
design professionals
Opportunity to increase
profits

Disadvantages Less flexibility for substitutions Difficulty in establishing Responsibility for design
of materials, equipment and guaranteed maximum price errors and omissions
systems Adversarial Coordination failures result
relationships with design in delays Penalties Gaps in
professionals insurance coverage
Architect/designer

Advantages Greatest control over design and More involvement in the More control over project
construction quality Role clearly field Quick decisions by all quality Opportunity to
understood by all parties parties Input from builder increase profits Field
during design process experience Greater
credibility with clients
Reduced number of claims
from contractor

Disadvantages Adversarial relationships with Decision-making Responsibility for errors and

contractors responsibilities unclear omissions of the contractor
Priorities blurred
Timeliness more important
than quality Coordination
workload increased

In the design/bid/award form, the GC takes more risk in that its bid must anticipate future material
and labor costs and depends on the timely work of countless subcontractors and suppliers. This contract
form makes it more difficult for the owner or architect to make scope or design changes—which require
negotiating price and schedule changes—but helps to keep the project on budget and on schedule.

Construction Management
The construction management method, developed over the last half of the twentieth century, draws
together and integrates the construction, cost-estimating, architecture, and engineering traditions. The
construction manager (CM) acts, in effect, as both the owner's agent and project manager, providing a
continuous involvement from early conceptual design to hotel opening, during which he or she is
responsible for the overall budget and schedule, creating value in the design, and value engineering.
The main advantage is that the owner, early in the project, has access to advice on construction methods
and costs. Also, the owner has greater flexibility to make modifications in scope or design during the
project, and can easily work with subcontractors and suppliers to seek out equivalent but more
competitive systems and products.
Construction management often assumes some degree of fast-tracking, in which construction may
begin before the full drawings and specifications are complete. Consider that the contractor can begin
the excavation, even the foundations and lower floors, before the architects, engineers, and designers
specify every detail of the guestroom systems and finishes. While reducing the overall construction
schedule is a great boon, and may allow the hotel to open and generate revenues earlier, the owner must
recognize the risk in beginning a project before the design is complete and final costs are known.
Generally, the architect completes the schematic design and, with the construction manager, agrees
on the major design elements, including structure, principal materials, mechanical systems, and vertical
circulation. For example, they may establish the column spacing based on the garage bay or the
guestroom module and choose between, say, steel and reinforced concrete structural systems. This sets
a number of key elements that should not be changed and allows the contractor to order long lead-time
items in advance of the completion of the design. While early construction proceeds, the architect and
design consultants complete the documentation of the remaining details. The owner must carefully
analyze the benefits of an accelerated construction timetable and earlier opening versus the potential
increases in project cost due to deferring important design and construction decisions.
Without complete drawings it is impossible to agree on a lump sum. The CM process, instead, often
utilizes a “guaranteed maximum price” (GMP) based on a clear definition of the scope of the work and
outline specifications detailing the quality levels of finishes and systems. The contract usually is
structured so that owner and contractor share any savings below the GMP, giving the contractor a clear
incentive to lower construction costs.
The construction manager may select a general contractor but usually manages separate contracts
with individual subcontractors. Therefore, the CM plays a strong on-site role coordinating many diverse
trades, but has the flexibility to go back to the owner or architect as he or she sees opportunities to add
a feature or modify a design, within reasonable constraints. Sometimes, where subcontractors are rushed
to complete a task, the quality of workmanship may become an issue. Thus, the CM needs to balance
the owner's objectives for quality against the real needs to keep to a schedule and budget. The major
difficulty with fast-track projects is that there is the potential for costs to rise when the design isn't fully
documented until toward midway in the construction process. An experienced CM should be able to
shorten the construction period, particularly if he or she uses subcontractors and building components
with which he is familiar, without jeopardizing the quality of the finished hotel.

Design/Build
The design/build format was developed to reduce the delivery time of a project and centralize the design
and construction responsibility in a single entity. This approach is best used where the project has fairly
simple design requirements and all parties recognize a range of appropriate solutions. Full responsibility
is placed in the design/build team, generally headed by the construction side. In this variation, the design
aspects usually are secondary to simplifying construction and reducing costs, which, while not
unattractive to hotel owners, may not fully meet the needs and expectations of the hotel guest.
The design/build method has a useful application where the project can be defined very narrowly and
the owner benefits from the guaranteed price and schedule. For example, a turnkey approach may be
suitable to a guestroom renovation, where the owner approves a particular design direction and leaves
it to the contractor to complete the renovation, replacing bathroom fixtures and finishes, adding new
electronic locks, upgrading electrical and data lines, and purchasing and installing the guestroom FF&E,
all for an established price.
Owners without in-house project management experience may hire a for-fee developer to represent
them throughout the process. Or the developer may initiate the project, investing some funds but seeking
joint-venture partners for the majority share, while managing the entire process. Whichever, the project
manager performs the following tasks:
•Represents the owner at project meetings
•Applies for required approvals from city agencies
•Reviews applications for payment
•Prepares minutes of meetings
•Organizes planning information for the owner; and
•Guides and organizes the project team

Construction Schedule
Most contractors and construction management firms use the critical path method (CPM) to schedule a
construction project. These, now, are computer programs (e.g., Primavera or Microsoft Project) that
identify each separate task and its relationship to others in the project. The CPM requires that the
contractor carefully organize the project ahead of time, making these precise decisions:
•Identify each discrete task or subtask.
•Determine its duration in days or weeks.
•Identify the task's dependence on other, earlier, steps.
The program calculates the relationship among all the tasks and prepares a graphical representation,
highlighting milestones or major events, such as topping out of the structural frame or completion of
the enclosure. The diagram clearly shows each step of the process, the amount of time each one requires,
and the task's dependency upon other activities. The graphical organization of the staging and
sequencing of tasks helps to identify the importance of long-lead items to the entire schedule. Integrated
programs add other features; for example, if each task includes an estimate of the required labor, the
program will generate work schedules. Or another module ties the owner's cash flow to the schedule.
As the project moves forward, the program monitors the real-time performance against the schedule
and helps to organize and track the work flow. Its overriding advantage is to alert project managers to
a potential problem or delay so that they can solve it before one becomes critical.
A key skill brought to the project by the right general contractor or construction manager is an ability
to organize the site so that the work proceeds in an orderly manner. For example, work can be completed
more efficiently when the several trades work separately from each other, rather than share space.
Materials need to be delivered in sufficient quantities and stored, sometimes under cover, convenient to
their final placement. Similarly, equipment needs to be available when it is needed and the site kept
clean and free of debris and potential hazards. In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health
Act (OSHA) places very specific rules on the construction site, such as temporary railings on above-
ground areas, which must be fully enforced and obeyed. Where the supervisors manage the project in
all its details, work flow, efficiency, and, ultimately, the quality of the project all are enhanced.

Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment

At the completion of the design phases of a hotel project, the architect and interior designer
have detailed designs and specifications describing the fixed décor and the furniture, fixtures,
and equipment (FF&E) for the hotel. Other FF&E items include carpets and rugs, artwork and
accessories, window treatments, decorative lighting, decorative hardware, bathroom
accessories, and planters. The hotel operator also specifies and purchases operating supplies
and equipment (OS&E), such additional items as linens, china, glassware, uniforms, and
banquet equipment. The specifications include all the information required to prepare the
purchase orders, tracking forms, and installation schedules required to buy and coordinate
FF&E and OS&E items. For each project these come from hundreds of sources, and frequently
one vendor is dependent on another's product to complete his work. For example, before a
lobby sofa can be delivered to a site, the purchasing agent orders fabric from one source, has it
sent to another vendor for flame- and soil-treatment, if applicable, and shipped to the sofa
manufacturer to be upholstered. Each step must be completed on schedule for the manufacturer
to meet the timetable for the project. The architect, interior designer, purchasing company, or
in-house staff may send the specifications to various manufacturers for competitive pricing or,
alternatively, may send the packages directly to vendors with whom they already have a good
relationship.
The construction manager or FF&E installer must develop a systematic approach to assure
the developer and operator that the property will be complete and ready for occupancy before
the scheduled soft opening. Once vendors have been selected, the management team uses
purchase orders, tracking forms, delivery schedules, and punch-lists to document the process.
The number of FF&E purchase orders can be in the thousands for a large-scale hotel project.
For example, one style of sofa might be ordered in several sizes and with a variety of fabrics
and trims, each one intended for a different location. Properly documenting all of these details,
if they are coordinated at the specification and purchase order stage, not only sets up a smooth
installation but also helps protect the owner and consultants from manufacturing and delivery
mistakes. Table 19.6 identifies the type of detail required to adequately purchase and track
FF&E items.
The purchasing company typically develops a tracking system to catalogue and chart all
items that have been purchased and create a
Table 19.6 Purchase order information
Project name and location
Purchase order number, coded for easy reference such as ‘f’ for fabric, ' ‘s’ for sofa, etc.,
and number for each different item
Order date
Delivery date required
Product manufacturer's name, address, telephone, and contact person
Item number, description, and quantity
Unit price, extended price, and total price (including applicable taxes and shipping)
Deposit required and balance due after receipt and/or installation
Special requirements (e.g. finish sample, dye-lot cutting, shop drawings, or mock-up
required for approval; field measurements required prior to manufacturing)
“Ship to” address (vendor to vendor, vendor to storage warehouse, vendor to hotel site)
Side-mark (indicate on the outside of the shipping package the final destination of the item,
such as lobby, guestroom type, etc.)
Specification (attach full spec, often with catalog photo or physical sample of fabric or
wood finish)

simple form for follow-up. The architect, interior designer, or in-house personnel make
frequent calls to check whether a particular product is on schedule. The tracking forms help
ensure that all items are delivered on schedule—or identify potential shipment problems in a
time frame that allows the team to react. New computerized systems make this information
readily available on the internet to members of the team, allowing them to find almost instantly
the status on any particular item.
The FF&E installation is part of the overall project schedule, and included in the CPM
matrix. Typically, the FF&E is phased to follow construction completion, but as the opening
date approaches contractors, delivery people, and installation crews often are working in the
same areas—and vying for use of the loading dock, delivery entrance, and freight elevators—
making schedule coordination critical. Architects and interior designers prepare FF&E plans
and
Table 19.7 Orderfor FF&E installation
Contractor-installed items
Back-of-house equipment
Decorative light fixtures (chandeliers and wall sconces)
Special hardware
Bathroom accessories
Floor coverings
Window treatments
Guestroom items
Wall-mounted items (headboards, framed mirrors)
Large furnishings
Small furnishings
Art and accessories
 Public-space items (lobby, restaurants and bars, meeting rooms, corridors)
Large furnishings
Small furnishings
Art and accessories (rugs, throw pillows, interior planting)
elevations, coded to the specifications and purchase orders, indicating the precise location for
each specific item.
Depending on the schedule, furniture and other items may be delivered directly at the site or
arrive, first, at an intermediate warehouse facility where they are received, inspected, and stored
until needed. When the FF&E arrives directly at the site, it is important for the designer or
another person to inspect the delivery for damage and to match the items to the tracking forms.
Often, the hotel ballroom is the last space to be completed, so that it can be used as a staging
area for temporary storage of other items during the FF&E installation phase. As the
construction project nears completion, contractors, furniture installers, pre-opening staff,
inspectors, and others all need access to the same spaces. Therefore, it is important that the
delivery and installation proceed in an orderly way, as identified in Table 19.7.
After the FF&E are installed, the team prepares a punch-list, identifying missing or damaged
items that need to be replaced or repaired. Often, there hasn't been time to complete a separate
punch-list of deficiencies in each room before the furniture is placed, so the same list identifies
paint and electrical items, for instance, which need correcting. Only after all items have been
properly installed, and operate as designed, should the construction manager or designer
authorize final payment.
Cliffhanger Resort, Grand Canyon, Arizona
Dangling the building over the edge of the canyon's West Rim allows guests to enjoy a
fantastic sense of engagement with the surrounding landscape while at the same time having
minimal environmental impact on the delicate site. HKS Architects designed the building
system to be fully modular and transportable so that the 27 stacked hotel rooms and their
supporting functions can be re-installed in other dramatic locations worldwide.
 CHAPTER
20
Future and Fantasy Development

The twenty-first century began with aggressive expansion of hotel development into hundreds of new
markets worldwide. This rapid growth has demonstrated that the commonplace is no longer acceptable:
new hotels in urban and luxury resort areas need to be dramatic, timeless, and unique, while more
humble properties still need to reflect high style and current technological advances to meet the ever-
higher expectations of travelers. Massive mixed-use projects that combine hotels with residential,
office, retail, and entertainment continue to be a factor in major city-center development, but innovative
approaches to urban hotel design are rapidly gaining favor and visionary architects are exploring new
ways to create exciting, sustainable leisure and business hotel concepts that may transform the industry.
This chapter describes some of the major trends and fantastic ideas for hotels of the future.

Innovative Trends
The earlier sections of this book have detailed the constant innovation taking place throughout the hotel
and resort industries. Developers and operators are marketing to increasingly narrow segments, finding
success in fine-tuning their design and services to the needs of particular guests in each market they
serve. Owners are identifying new sites for development, long overlooked by traditional builders. And
designers are imagining incredible resorts that float in the air, hug the bottom of the sea, or orbit the
earth.
The program mix at many of the newer hotels has gone through a substantial change as well. Of
course, most hotels focus on the lodging component but many place an equal emphasis on the public
assembly facilities or, in Asia, on the extensive and celebrated food and beverage outlets. Spa facilities,
once a special amenity for destination resorts, are now a de facto requirement for any hotel with four
stars or more. Many properties aim to appeal to multiple affluent markets concurrently by incorporating
ever more elaborate concierge or club levels and in-hotel residences with their own dedicated lounges
and services. The “one size fits all” program for a given hotel brand is no longer viable, particularly in
new and emerging markets that have distinct customs and expectations regarding privacy, social
activity, and alcohol use.
Here are the dominant hotel development and design trends that are likely to become more prevalent
in the next decades.

Increased Emphasis on Technology

Far from a panacea, technology will need to be applied when and where it is most appropriate. Guests
will still need and desire human interaction when technological solutions don't meet their needs or when
they crave contact with a real person after hours of dehumanizing travel. Hotels that have tried to move
toward kiosk-only check-in have found that having some kind of personal service by well-trained
employees is important to guest satisfaction.
Technological advances will continue to influence the design of guestrooms. Just as flat-screen
televisions have altered FF&E selection, newer consumer electronics such as tablet computers may
reduce the need for dedicated workspace in many hotels. Universal wireless access allows guests to
work on multiple devices anywhere in the property, so guests are using public spaces as communal
offices where they can perform their jobs alone but in company. E-readers and tablets take a bit more
room on the bedside table than a classic paperback, space that will be freed up by the elimination of in-
room telephones. Looking further out, digital window treatments may obviate the need for draperies
and will offer the guest the chance to customize the room's ambient light. Guestroom walls can
incorporate digital screens so that entertainment can be streamed from the guest's own devices, and the
hotel can provide in-room controls and information without having to mount thermostats or print
brochures. Smartphones and other devices will serve as room keys and will streamline the check-in and
check-out process. And real-time displays of how much energy and water are being used by guests will
encourage participation in sustainable initiatives.
New construction techniques, materials, and systems will speed the development process and greatly
reduce hotel carbon footprints.
Philips Ambient Window Prototype
This innovative approach to controlling daylight and guestroom ambience uses transparent
LCD technology to give guests functional and artistic control over the window treatment in
their rooms. Simple hand gestures spread a selection of animated patterns across the window
to block some or all of the outdoor view, and a variety of background colors and gradient
patterns can be chosen to filter incoming daylight.
This will include further advances in HVAC and lighting controls, water reduction and reuse systems,
naturally-occurring power and heat sources, and accelerated composting. Centralized construction of
building components or entire rooms will continue to develop, encouraging the creation of transportable
hotels that can follow hotel demand while minimizing environmental impact on the site.

Experience Customization
While technological tools offer ways for guests to customize their guestroom entertainment and
ambience, there will still be a major role for personalization with a human touch. Customer relationship
management (CRM) systems will continue to grow in sophistication such that the operator will have
ever more detailed information about guest preferences and can offer travelers precisely the mix of
services, amenities, and care that they want or have grown accustomed to during previous stays. As
hotels that have adopted customized bedding programs have found, offering multiple choices of pillow
means more storage space and a bit more time in the guestroom for housekeeping staff, requiring design
solutions that speed the cleaning of other parts of the room to balance the extra time being spent on
customization. These “trickle-down” effects of experience customization programs will need to be
carefully considered by planners and designers during design development.

Non-brands
The strength of well-known lodging brands will continue to drive much of the world's hotel
development. But the rise of dozens of new hotel brands in recent years has led to a very crowded field
in almost all segments. A natural response to this heavy emphasis on branding is the “non-brand,”
groups of affiliated hotels that downplay or hide altogether their connection with one another or with a
parent company. The Autograph Collection is a group of independent hotels with unique design,
cultural, or historic value that operate as a subset of the Marriott Corporation but celebrate their
individualism and distinct identities through their own websites and marketing initiatives. Hyatt is the
guiding light behind the 88-room boutique Hotel Victor in Miami, but this corporate provenance is kept
largely in the background. “Stealth” brands like the Victor will allow hotel companies to test radically
new ideas and the viability of small, discerning markets without diluting the existing brand image.

Increased Sustainability
“Green” as a distinguishing feature of some hotels will disappear: all new projects will be expected to
incorporate sustainable technologies and practices as a matter of course. The challenge for hotel
designers will be to make green initiatives relatively transparent to the guest, particularly in the North
American market, which has been slow to accept key-controlled guestroom power and other sustainable
strategies that are common elsewhere in the world.

Increased Security
Unfortunately, in recent years some hotels have become targets for terrorist activity. Guests routinely
rate security as a growing concern when they travel, particularly in large urban markets and in locations
Envision Green Hotel, Miami, Florida
Adopting a dramatic and unorthodox shape, the Envision Green Hotel mimics a living
organism by literally breathing: atmospheric conversion systems would allow airto flow to
the building's interior without mechanical intervention. Building energy would be supplied by
the hotel's skin of photovoltaic sheathing supplemented by massive wind turbines, while
indoor vertical gardens would create mini-microclimates to filter the air and act as added
insulation.
Hospitality Design in the Near Future: Radically Practical Innovations
Howard J. Wolff
Senior Vice President
WATG
Honolulu, Hawaii
The hospitality design world has not been known for embracing dramatic structural changes. But the
future could be different. Take a look at the winners and finalists of the Radical Innovation in
Hospitality Awards, an international design competition co-sponsored by the John Hardy Group
and Hospitality Design magazine.
Challenge 1: How to Tame Fluctuating Hotel Occupancies and Operating Inefficiencies
Every night, more than one third of the hotel rooms around the world are empty. But a week later, at
any given property, hoteliers may have to turn guests away.
One design solution is a hotel that can expand and contract in sync with its occupancy, so that only
occupied spaces would need to be heated, cooled, and lit. This could spawn a new generation of
responsive architectural spaces that react to the changing needs of their users, owners, and operators.
Addressing the issue of fluctuating occupancies at the scale of a destination, a city, or an entire region,
several Radical Innovation in Hospitality Award finalists have proposed solutions that revolve around
eco-friendly portable nomadic structures that could be erected during times of high demand—whether
it's for an event or a season—and then taken down and moved to the next destination.
 One such concept, called “Bucket List Lodging,” is envisioned specifically as a modular kit of parts
that could fit into an aircraft's cargo hold or a ship container.
Challenge 2: How to Create Authentic Urban Guest Experiences While Conserving Resources
Tomorrow's urban travelers—and even today's, for that matter—will spend the majority of their time
away from the hotel, exploring the attractions of the city.
Architects and designers from WATG created an award-winning concept for a network of hotels
called “elmerse” that would use the surrounding city as its amenities, allowing each location to offer an
array of guest experiences without having to duplicate what is already available in the community.
The reduction in public space within the hotels enables the e|merse network to inhabit existing
buildings in virtually any community and grow almost anywhere. If 30 guestrooms aren't enough for
one location, the hotel can expand to another floor, or to a building down the street. To keep each
location as efficient and economical as possible, housekeeping and maintenance are proportionally
sized to match the number of guestrooms.
Think of this as the first social-networking hotel. Using a guest profile, the hotel can help travelers
find local businesses, restaurants, and clubs to fit their interests and needs; create opportunities to
network with other guests; and provide feedback on places they've visited and activities they've
experienced.
Hoteliers have not only taken notice but have also been implementing many of these concepts. The
winner of the Radical Innovation Award two years after e|merse was an actual operating luxury hotel:
the Pixel Hotel serves the now-thriving city of Linz, Austria.
Challenge 3: How to Create Shelter in a Fiscally and Environmentally Sustainable Manner
The organic, geometric-shaped Prisms of the award-winning Mosaic PATHWAY (Portable Adaptable
Temporary Hotel With Alternative You-ses) system are collapsible for ease in transportation, are pre-
fitted with built-in fixtures and furnishings, and come with self-contained energy, plumbing, and
lighting systems and self-leveling foundations.
The individually configured modular Prisms can be outfitted as needed as spas, salons, or
guestrooms. Grouped together, Mosaic Prisms are attached organically to Mosaic Hubs that comprise
and contain lobbies, restaurants, bars, lounges, and other amenities. The pop-up concept allows for
accommodations at existing properties to capture additional peak-season business. Mosaic Hubs and
Prisms accommodate adventure travelers and “voluntourists” and can remain in place as housing for
local communities.
This concept incorporates many eco-friendly technologies, including: a methane digester;
geothermal heating and cooling; hydroponic greenhouses; rainwater cisterns; wind and solar power;
and a reverse osmosis plant for fresh-water generation.
The real-world challenges facing hotels—fluctuating occupancies, operating efficiencies,
environmental sustainability—require innovative thinking and technology that is at-hand today.
Mosaic PATHWAY (Portable Adaptable Temporary Hotel With Alternative “You-ses”)
Mosaic is a concept developed by architects WATG to address demand variation in the
hospitality industry by providing a mechanism to allow a hotel to expand or contract its room
count as circumstances dictate. The Mosaic modular system is comprised of organic,
interlocking prisms constructed from a highly durable polymer which retracts and folds to a
rectilinear shape, making the units easily stackable and able to be packed tightly for easy
shipment around the world. “Pop-up” hospitality like Mosaic is perfectly suited to supply
additional accommodations that might be needed through seasonal demand peaks, cultural
festivals, major sporting events, or even to provide shelter and facilities for disaster relief in
times of crisis.
with a history of unrest. Design interventions to control access to entrances, guestroom areas, and key
back-of-house functions are common now but will need to be even more stringent. Architects and
interior designers will have great challenges devising ways to incorporate scanning and explosive-
detection systems into hotel entrances and parking areas, and will need to consider security facilities
and staff support in a much broader range of spaces in the hotel than has been the norm.

Visions of the Future

Hotels continue to capture the imagination of architects and visionaries worldwide. Here are
just a few of the innovations being proposed for the coming decades.

Songjiang Hotel, Shanghai, China

Built into the steep stone banks of a 328 ft (100 m) deep water-filled quarry, the 400-room
resort designed by Atkins Design Studio combines environmentally sensitive planning with
unique climbing and water sport amenities. The guestroom floors wrap around a naturally lit
internal atrium, built against the rock face and draped with lush vegetation and waterfalls. In
addition to the resort's green roofs and geothermal energy extraction, the quarry site provides
natural heat control and shelter from wind and weather.
Poseidon Undersea Resort, Fiji
Forty feet (12 m) below the surface of a private Fijian lagoon will be twenty-four 550 sq ft
(51 sq m) guestroom pods, each with over 70 percent of its surface made of plexiglass for
unobscured underwater viewing. The pods will be flanked by underwater public spaces, all
connected to a pressurized central spine that allows comfortable guest access without the
need for dive gear or even a swimsuit. Much larger beach villas along the lagoon's edge will
supplement the undersea guestroom pods and allow guests to vary their experience during the
weeklong stay at the resort.

Aircruise Luxury Airship

The pioneering design and innovation company Seymourpowell has introduced a visionary
transportation concept with its 2,852 ft (265 m) solar- and hydrogen-powered vertical airship,
designed to carry travelers in style and luxury. Promoting a view of travel where “slow is the
new fast,” Aircruise will appeal to travelers looking for a more reflective journey where
abundance of time and space define the luxury experience. Featuring only 10 units, Aircruise
would offer guests magnificent cloud-top views without the intrusive effects of engine noise.

New Orleans Arcology Habitat (NOAH), Louisiana

In response to the recurring severe weather patterns that affect the Gulf Coast and New
Orleans in particular, Schopfer Associates has designed NOAH, a 30 million sq ft (2.79
million sq m) urban “ark” that serves as a self-contained floating habitat for 40,000 people.
NOAH would contain three hotels, 20,000 residential units, 1,500 time-share units, casinos,
retail, office and cultural facilities, and public amenities like schools, health clinics, and
administrative offices, making the structure socially self-sufficient. Sustainable features will
include secured wind turbines, freshwater recovery and storage systems, a passive glazing
system, sky garden heating/cooling vents, graywater treatment, and solar arrays and river-
based water turbines for power generation.
Research by the British government has shown that space architecture is likely to be a fast-
growing industry by 2030. Space tourism is a primary driver of this activity, with significant
investments by companies like Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, the Sasakawa International
Center for Space Architecture (SICSA), and Barcelona-based Galactic Suite forging ahead
developing detailed concepts for space hotels and other space tourism projects.
Forward-looking projects like these chart an exciting course for an unbridled industry so free
that it advances in a multitude of dynamic directions at once.

Virgin Galactic Spaceport, New Mexico

Virgin's SpaceShipTwo, the world's first commercial spaceline, will offer daily space tourism
flights from the proposed Virgin Galactic Spaceport in New Mexico. Designed by Foster and
Partners, the spaceport will include a 10,000 ft (3,050 m) runway. Once in space, Virgin
Galactic guests will use a moon-orbiting hotel as a base for forays in a two-man spaceship to
within a few hundred feet of the lunar surface.
APPENDIX
A
LEED New Construction Checklist

APPENDIX
B
International Hotel and
Travel Organizations

AH&LA American Hotel & Lodging Association

Washington, DC, USA

www.ahla.com
ARDA American Resort Development Association

Washington, DC, USA

www.arda.org

ASTA American Society of Travel Agents

Alexandria, VA, USA

www.astanet.com/

ATME Association of Travel Marketing Executives

Washington, DC, USA

www.atme.org

BEUC Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs

Brussels, Belgium

beuc.org/index_e.htm

BHA British Hospitality Association

London, UK

www.bha.org.uk/

CE Council of Europe

Strasbourg, France

www.coe.fr

CHTA Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association

Barbados

www.caribbeanhotelassociation.com

CTO Caribbean Tourist Organisation

Barbados

www.onecaribbean.org

EHMA European Hotel Managers Association

Ahrensburg, Germany
 www.ehma.com

EHMA European Hotel Managers Association

Rome, Italy

www.ehma.com

ETC European Travel Commission

Brussels, Belgium

www.etc-corporate.org

FTO Federation of Tour Operators

London, UK

www.fto.co.uk

GBTA Global Business Travel Association

Alexandria, VA, USA

www.gbta.org

GHA Green Hotels Association

Houston, TX, USA

www.greenhotels.com

HAC Hotel Association of Canada

Ottawa, ON, Canada

www.hotelassociation.ca

HCIMA Hotel & Catering International Management Association

London, UK

www.instituteofhospitality.org

HHA Historic Hotels of America—National Trust for Historic Preservation

Washington, DC, USA

www.historichotels.org

HOTREC Hotels, Restaurants & Cafés in Europe

 Brussels, Belgium

www.hotelstars.eu

HSMAI Hotel Sales and Marketing Association International

McLean, VA, USA

www.hsmai.org

IATA International Air Transport Association

Geneva, Switzerland

www.iata.org

ICCA International Congress & Conventions Association

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

www.iccaworld.com

IH Institute of Hospitality

Surrey, UK

www.instituteofhospitality.org

IH&RA Independent Hotel and Restaurant Association

Lausanne, Switzerland

www.ih-ra.com

IHEI International Hotels Environment Initiative

London, UK

www.ihei.org

IHRA International Hotel & Restaurant Association

Paris, France

www.ih-ra.com

LHW Leading Hotels of the World

New York, NY, USA

www.lhw.com
PATA Pacifc Asia Travel Association

Bangkok, Thailand

www.pata.org

SITE Society of Incentive & Travel Executives

Chicago, IL, USA

www.siteglobal.com

SLH Small Luxury Hotels of the World

London, UK

www.slh.com

TIA U.S. Travel Association

Washington, DC, USA

www.ustravel.org

TIES The International Ecotourism Society

Washington, DC, USA

www.ecotourism.org

TTRA Travel and Tourism Research Association

Lake Orion, MI, USA

www.ttra.com

UNWTO World Tourism Organisation

Madrid, Spain

www.unwto.org

WATA World Association of Travel Agencies

Geneva, Switzerland

www.wata.net

WTTC World Travel and Tourism Council

London, UK
 www.wttc.org

APPENDIX
C
Development Budget
(typical 500-room hotel)

Typical budget summary for a 500-room mid-rate hotel

Summary budget Amount ($) Percent of total Amount per room

Hard costs

Land 0 varies* 0

Hard Construction & Sitework $68,400,000 60.0% $136,800

Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment (FF&E)* $20,520,000 18.0% $41,040

Soft costs

Architecture & Engineering Fee $4,560,000 4.0% $9,120

Design Review Fee $2,280,000 2.0% $4,560

Project Management Fee $1,140,000 1.0% $2,280

Development Fee $3,420,000 3.0% $6,840

Pre-opening and Operating Inventory $4,560,000 4.0% $9,120

Capitalized Interest and Cost of Issuance $3,420,000 3.0% $6,840

Contingency $5,700,000 5.0% $11,400

Total $114,000,000 100.0% $228,000

*Land costs vary dramatically (5 to 15% of total project cost) depending on location (country,
urban vs. rural) and new-build vs. renovation.
**FF&E includes interior design furniture and fxtures; kitchen, laundry, and back-of-house
equipment; purchasing agent's fee; and special systems. Operating supplies are included in the
Pre-opening fgure.
Hotel Cost Indices

Hotel classifcation Cost index Total cost (500 rooms) Cost/room

Luxury 1.33 $151,620,000 $303,240

Upscale 1.20 $136,800,000 $273,600

Mid-rate 1.00 $114,000,000 $228,000

Economy 0.80 $91,200,000 $182,400

Dollar estimates approximate and subject to location.

Courtesy of Frank F. Homiah, Global Development Consultants.

APPENDIX
D
Ten-year Forecast of
Net Operating Income
APPENDIX
E
Coordination Matrix

To avoid duplications or omissions in the budget, responsibility should be assigned on the design,
construction, purchasing, and installation costs of all structures, equipment, and furnishings by using
the following, or an equivalent system, often referred to as the budget “differentiation document.”
Basic Budget Categories

C Building construction and sitework

FD Fixed décor, millwork, and special fnishes

FFE Furniture, fxtures, and equipment

OP Operating supplies, inventories, and consumables

SS Special hotel systems

Design Team Members and Consultants

A Architect

AC Acoustical consultant

AV Audiovisual consultant

CE Construction estimator or cost consultant

CIV Civil engineer

EE Electrical engineer

EV Elevator consultant

F Fire-protection consultant

G Graphics designer

GC General contractor

I Interior designer

IN Installation contractor for FF&E items

K Kitchen, bar, and food-service consultant

L Laundry consultant

LS Landscape architect

LT Lighting consultant

MC Millwork contractor

ME Mechanical engineer

O Operator's purchasing department

O* Subject leasing option

PA Purchasing agent for FF&E items

S Systems consultant

ST Structural engineer

V Vendor
APPENDIX

F
Chain Brands

Accor Carlson/Rezidor Choice Hilton

Luxury Softel Conrad

Waldorf=Astoria

Lifestyle M Gallery art'otel

Missoni

Radisson Blu

Full-service Mercure Park Plaza Ascend Collection Double Tbree

Novotel Radisson Clarion Hilton

Pullman Quality

Select-service Formule1/f1 Country Inn and Suites Comfort Inn Hampton

Ibis Park Inn EconoLodge Hilton Garden Inn

Ibis Budget Rodeway

Ibis Styles Sleep Inn

Motel 6

Suites and extended-stay Adagio Comfort Suites Embassy Suites

Grand Mercure Cambria Suites Homewood Suites

Studio 6 MainStay Suites Home2 Suites

Suite Novotel Suburban

Vacation ownership Hilton Grand Vacations

Hyatt IHG Marriott Starwood Wyndham

Park Hyatt InterContinental Autograph Collection Luxury

Collection
 Bulgari St. Regis

JW Marriott

Ritz-Carlton

Andaz Hotel Indigo Autograph Collection element Dream

Edition W Night

Renaissance

Grand Hyatt Crowne Plaza Marriott Le Meridien Planet Hollywood

Hyatt Regency Holiday Inn Sheraton Ramada

Holiday Inn SunSpree Westin Ramada Encore

Resorts

Holiday Inn Garden Court Wyndham

Holiday Inn Select

Parkroyal

Hyatt Place Centra Courtyard aloft Days Inn

Forum Fairfeld Inn Four Points Howard Johnson

Holiday Inn Express Microtel

Ramada Inn

Ramada Plaza

Super 8

Travelodge

Tryp

Wingate

Wyndham Garden

Hyatt House Candlewood Suites ExecuStay Baymont Suites

Staybridge Suites Marriott Executive Hawthorn Suites

Apartments

Residence Inn

SpringHill Suites

TownePlace Suites
Hyatt Vacation Grand Residences ClubWyndham
Club

Marriott Vacation Club WorldMark

Ritz-Carlton Destination Wyndham

Club Vacations

APPENDIX
G
Bibliography

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Rutes, Walter A., Richard H. Penner, and Lawrence Adams. Hotel Design, Planning, and
Development. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.
Schwanke, Dean, et al. Resort Development Handbook. Washington, DC: Urban Land
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Stipanuk, David M. Hospitality Facilities Management and Design, third edition. East
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Suchman, Diane R., et al. Developing Timeshare and Vacation-Ownership Properties.
Washington, DC: Urban Land Institute, 1999.
Hotels and Resorts—Projects Illustrated
Avermaete, Tom and Anne Massey (eds). Hotel Lobbies and Lounges: The Architecture of
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Bahamon, Alejando. New Hotels. New York: Harper Design International, 2003.
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Knopf, 1930.

APPENDIX
H
Project List and Credits

A=Architect; ID=Interior Designer;

LA=Landscape Architect; P=Photographer; R=Renderer

10 Trinity Hotel, London, United Kingdom. A: Woods Bagot; P: Courtesy of Woods Bagot.
21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky. A and ID: Deborah Berke and Partners; P:
Catherine Tighe.
47 Park Street—Marriott Grand Residence Club, London, United Kingdom. A: Wimperis
and Simpson; ID: WATG; P: Courtesy of Marriott Vacation Club International.
Abu Dhabi Golf Club Resort Hotel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. A: GREC
Architects; ID: The Gettys Group; P: Courtesy of Starwood Asset Library.
Abu Dhabi Mirage Hotel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. A and R: KA3 Design Group.
Ace Hotel & Swim Club, Palm Springs, California. A: o2 Architecture; ID: Commune in
association with Atelier Ace; P: Douglas L. Thompson and Jon Johnson, Courtesy of Ace
Hotel.
Aircruise Luxury Airship. A: Seymourpowell; R: Courtesy of Seymourpowell.
The Alexander, Indianapolis, Indiana. A and ID: Gensler; R: Neoscape.
The Algonquin Hotel, New York, New York. ID: Champalimaud Design; P: Jesse Harris.
Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia. A and ID: WOHA; P: Patrick Bingham Hall.
The Alluvian, Greenwood, Mississippi. A: Foil-Wyatt Architects & Planners; ID:
ForrestPerkins; P: Bruce Wood.
Aman Hotel, New Delhi, India. A and ID: Kerry Hill Architects, Mohit Gujaral and Design
Plus Architecture; P: Courtesy of Aman Resorts.
Amangiri, Canyon Point, Utah. A: 1–10 Studio; ID: CSR Design; P: Ken Hayden.
Ames Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts. A: Cambridge 7 Associates; ID: Rockwell Group; P:
Kwesi Arthur.
Anantara Desert Islands Resort & Spa by Anantara, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
A: WOHA; ID: Andrea Graff; P: Felix L. Steck.
Anantara Golden Triangle Resort & Spa, Golden Anantara Triangle, Thailand. A: Mom
Luang Tridhosyuth Devakul; ID: John Lightbody; LA: Bill Bensly; P: Peter Malinowski.
Anantara Xishuangbanna Resort & Spa, Xishuangbanna, China. A: Architectural and
Engineering Design Institute of Yunnan Povince; ID: P49 Design and Associates; P:
Courtesy of Anantara Resorts.
Andaz and Langham Xintiandi, Shanghai, China. A: KPF and Leigh & Orange; ID:
Remedios Siembieda and Super Potato; P: Courtesy of KPF.
Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A: Skidmore Owings and
Merrill; ID: Armani; P: James Steinkamp.
Arrabelle at Vail Square, Vail, Colorado. A: 4240 Architecture; ID: Silfer Designs; P: Jack
Afect, Robert Miller, Todd Winslow Pierce.
Arrebol Patagonia Hotel, Puerto Varas, Chile. A and ID: Harald Opitz Jurgens; P: Francisco
Negroni.
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
A: Lake|Flato and HKS Hill Glazier Studio; ID: Wilson Associates; P: Blake Marvin.
Atlantis Dubai Resort Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A: WATG, Archavision
International and NORR Limited; ID: Wilson Associates; P: Courtesy of WATG.
Banyan Tree Sanya, Sanya, China. A+ID: Architrave Design & Planning; Courtesy of
Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts.
Bardessono Hotel and Spa, Yountville, California. A: WATG; ID: Marta Salas-Porras; LA:
Girvin & Associates; P: Sammy Todd Dyess.
Bella Sky Hotel, Copenhagen, Denmark. A+ID: 3XN Architects; P: Adam Mark.
Bethesda Marriott Suites, Bethesda, Maryland. A and ID: Marriott International and
Cauhaus Design; P: Cristian Molina.
Binh Tien Resort, Nha Trang, Vietnam. A: WATG and Bensley Design; ID: Bensley Design;
LA: Bensley Design; P: Courtesy of WATG.
Blackstone Hotel, Chicago, Illinois. A and ID: Gettys Group; P: Courtesy of Gettys Group.
The Boundary Hotel, London, United Kingdom. A: Conran + Partners; ID: Terrance
Conran; P: Paul Raeside.
Burj al Arab, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A: Atkins; ID: KCA International; P: Courtesy
of Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts.
Casino Public Area Schematic. A/R: Hnedak Bobo Group.
Centara Grand, Bangkok, Thailand. A and ID:BBG-BBGM; P: Benoit Laboup.
Chambers Hotel, New York, New York. A: Adams Soffes Wood; ID: Rockwell Group; P:
David Joseph.
City of Dreams Resort, Macau, China. A: Arquitectonica, P: Courtesy of Melco Group.
Cliffhanger Resort, Grand Canyon, Arizona. A: HKS Hill Glazier Studio; P: Blake Marvin.
Coeur Mediterranée, Marseilles, France. A: MAP; P: Courtesy of Constructa.
Connexion Integrated Health Centre, Singapore. A: DP Architects; R: Courtesy of
Connexion at Farrar Park.
Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada. A: Arquitectonica and Friedmutter Group;
ID: Rockwell Group and The Digital Kitchen; P: Courtesy of Cosmopolitan Las Vegas.
Courtyard by Marriott “Refreshing Business” lobby design. A and ID: CR Architecture +
Design; P: Jim Burnett, Courtesy of Marriott International.
Courtyard by Marriott and Springhill Suites, Indianapolis, Indiana. A and ID: PFVS
Architects; P: Courtesy of White Lodging.
Courtyard by Marriott, Portland. Oregon. A and ID: SERA Architects; P: Michael Mathers.
Crown Casino, Macau, China. A: Arquitectonica; ID: Remedios Studio; P: Courtesy of
Melco Group.
Crown Plaza and Staybridge Suites, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. A and ID: Kann
Finch Group; R: Courtesy of InterContinental Hotels Group.
Crowne Plaza Changi, Changi Airport, Singapore. A: WOHA Architects; P: Patrick
Bingham-Hall.
Crystal Towers Hotel & Spa, Cape Town, South Africa. A: Vivid Architects; ID: Plan 1
and Les Harbottle: P: Marc Hoberman.
The Dolder Grand Hotel, Zurich, Switzerland. A: Foster & Partners; ID: United Designers
of London; P: Simon Vogt, Stefan Schmidlin, and Courtesy of The Dolder Resort.
Dream Downtown, New York, New York. A and ID: Handel Architects; P: Bruce Damonte
and Philip Ennis.
Enchantment Resort and Mii Amo Spa, Sedona, Arizona. A: Gluckman Mayner; P:
Courtesy of Enchantment Group.
Envision Green Hotel, Miami, Florida. A: Michael Rosenthal Associates; R: Richard Moreta
Castillo.
Estrel Hotel & Convention Center, Berlin, Germany. A: Karl Waldemar Tilemann and
Heiner Hennes; ID: S & S GmbH; P: Manuel Frauendorfer.
Exclusive Resorts, Papagayo, Costa Rica. A and ID: Exclusive Resorts; P: Courtesy of
Exclusive Resorts.
Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, California. ID: Champalimaud Design; P: Mathew Millman.
Fairmont Pacifc Rim, Vancouver, Canada. A: James KM Cheng Architects; ID: B+H and
Robert Baily; P: Courtesy Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.
Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China. A: Allied Architects International (AAI); ID: HBA
Hirsch Bedner Associates; P: Ken Hayden, Courtesy of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.
Finca Prats Hotel Golf & Spa, Lleida, Spain. A and ID: Pampols Arquitecte SLP; P:
Courtesy of Finca Prats Hotel Golf & Spa.
Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada. ID: Cagney & Tanner; P: Courtesy of Las Vegas News
Bureau.
Four Acres Hotel and Residences, Scottsdale, Arizona. A: Ronnette Riley Architect and
Mathes Brierre Architects; R: T.W. Schaller.
Four Seasons Firenze, Florence, Italy. A: Studio Noferi and Magris & Partners; ID: Pierre
Yves Rochon; P: Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.
Four Seasons, Guangzhou, China. A: Wilkinson Eyre; ID: HBA Hirsch Bedner Associates;
P: Ken Seet, Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.
Four Seasons Marrakech, Morocco. A: Hill Glazier and Didier Lefort; ID: GA Design; P:
Richard Waite, Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.
Four Seasons Resort, Bora Bora, Tahiti. A: Didier Lefort and Pierre-Jean Picart; ID: BAMO;
P: Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.
Four Seasons Resort, Hualalai, Hawaii. A: HKS Hill Glazier Studio; ID: Wilson Associates;
P: Blake Marvin.
Four Seasons Resort, Langkawi, Malaysia. A: Bunnag Architects and Bensley Design
Studios; ID: Bensley Design Studios, Underwood Co. and Lim Teo+ Wilkes Design Works;
P: Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.
Four Seasons Resort, Republic of Seychelles. A: Area Architects and Locus Architects; ID:
HBA Hirsch Bedner Associates; P: Peter Vitale, Paul Thuysbaert, Courtesy of Four Seasons
Hotels & Resorts.
Four Seasons Resort, Vail, Colorado. A: HKS Hill Glazier Studio/Hill Glazier; ID: Brayton
Hughes; P: Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.
Four Seasons Tented Camp, Golden Triangle, Thailand. A and ID: Bill Bensley Design; P:
Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts.
Gansevoort Hotel, New York, New York. [Meatpacking District] A: SBJ Group; ID: Andi
Pepper; P: Courtesy of Gansevoort Meatpacking NYC.
Gansevoort Hotel, New York, New York. [Park Avenue] A: SBJ Group; ID: Andi Pepper;
P: Magda Biernat, Courtesy of Gansevoort Hotel Group.
Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland. A and ID:
Gensler; P: Courtesy of Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.
Gaylord Texan Hotel, Dallas, TX. A: Hnedak Bobo Group; ID: Wilson Associates: P: Wes
Thompson, Courtesy of Hnedak Bobo Group.
Goldenkey Kartalkaya, Bolu, Turkey. A: LEA Invent; ID: Barbara Pensoy; P: Courtesy of
LEA Invent.
Gramercy Park Hotel, New York, New York. A: BBG-BBGM; ID: Philippe Starck; P:
Courtesy of Gramercy Park Hotel.
Grand Hyatt Chengdu, Chengdu, China. A: Goettsch Partners; ID: Tony Chi; P: Courtesy
of Goettsch Partners.
Grand Hyatt Tokyo at Roppongi Hills, Tokyo, Japan. A: KPF; ID: Remedios Siembieda
and Super Potato; P: H.G. Esch, Courtesy of KPF.
Grand Hyatt, Washington, DC. A: RTKL; ID: HBA Hirsch Bedner Associates; P: Courtesy
of the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
Great (Bamboo) Wall, Beijing, China. A and ID: Kenzo Kuma; P: Satoshi Asakawa.
Great Wolf Lodge, Grapevine, Texas. A: GSBS Batenhorst; P: Courtesy of Great Wolf
Lodge.
Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites, Toronto Airport, Canada. A: Chamberlain
Architects; ID: Robert Chaban & Associates; P: Courtesy of Homewood Suites by Hilton.
Hard Rock Hotel, Chicago, Illinois. A: Lucien Lagrange; ID: Yabu-Pushelburg; P: Courtesy
of Hard Rock Hotel.
Hard Rock Hotel, Macau, China. A: Arquitectonica; ID: Gettys Group; P: Courtesy of Melco
Group.
The Heldrich, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. A and ID: CMMI; P:
Creative Sources Photography.
Hersham Golf Club Hotel, Walton-on-Thames, United Kingdom. A: ReardonSmith
Architects; P: Courtesy of ReardonSmith Architects.
Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites, Bossier City, Louisiana. A: Mathes Brierre
Architects; ID: Peggy Dye & Associates; P: Courtesy of Mathes Brierre Architects.
Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites, Jacksonville, Florida. A and ID: Bounds and
Gillespie Architects; P: Courtesy of Bounds and Gillespie Architects.
Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel, San Diego, California. A: John Portman Associates; ID:
HBA Hirsch Bedner Associates; LA: Sasaki Associates; P: Jim Brady, HeliPhoto, Courtesy
of Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel.
Hilton Sanya Resort & Spa, Sanya, China. A: WATG and Shanghai Institute ofArchitectural
Design and Research; ID: Chhada Siembieda Leung; LA: Belt Collins; P: Courtesy of
WATG Architects.
Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn, Silver Spring, Maryland. A: A.R. Meyers and
Associates; ID: Guest Purchasing Services; P: Courtesy of Hilton Hotels & Resorts.
Hope Street Hotel, Liverpool, United Kingdom. A: Falconer Chester Hall; ID: Basia
Chlebik; P: McCoy Wynne.
Hotel del Coronado, San Diego, California. A: Hornberger + Worstell; ID: HBA Hirsch
Bedner Associates; P: Courtesy of Hotel del Coronado.
Hotel Habita, Monterrey, Mexico. A: Landa Arquitectos; ID: Joseph Dirand & Associates;
P: Undine Pröhi.
Hotel Marques de Riscal, Elciego, Spain. A and ID: Frank Gehry; P: Courtesy of the Luxury
Collection, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.
Hotel Missoni, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. A: Allan Murray; ID: Matteo Thun and
Missoni Design Team; P: Courtesy of Hotel Missoni.
Hotel OMM, Barcelona, Spain. A: Juli Capella; ID: Tarruella and López; P: Courtesy of
Design Hotels.
Hotel Palomar, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A: Gensler; ID: Dayna Lee; P: Courtesy of
Gensler.
Hotel Remota, Patagonia, Puerto Natales, Chile. A and ID: Germán del Sol; P: Francisco
Negroni.
Hotel SnowWorld, Landgraaf, Netherlands. A: Ton Vanderburgh Architekten; P: Courtesy
of SnowWorld.
Hotel Therme Vals, Vals, Switzerland. A: Peter Zumthor; P: Courtesy of Hotel Therme Vals.
Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois. A: TVS Design; ID: HBA Hirsch
Bedner Associates; P: Brial Gassel.
Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa, Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico. A: HKS Hill
Glazier Studio; ID: Carlson Joyce Interior Design; P: Blake Marvin.
Hyatt Regency, Dusseldorf, Germany. A: SOP-Architekten; ID: FG stijl; P: Courtesy of
SOP-Architekten.
Hyatt Regency, Mainz, Germany. A: JSK Architects; ID: HBA Hirsch Bedner Associates;
P: Ken Kirkwood.
Ibis and Mercure Salvador Rio Vermelho Hotel, Salvador, Brazil. P: Roberto Borella and
Mac Bertrand, Courtesy of Accor Hotels.
IBM Palisades, Palisades, New York. A and ID: Mitchell-Giurgola; P: Mick Hales.
India Tower, Mumbai, India. A: Foster and Partners; R: Courtesy of Foster and Partners.
Inn at Middleton Place, Charleston, South Carolina. A: Clark & Menefee Architects with
Charleston Architectural Group; ID: Dian Boone; P: Brianna Stello and Tim Hursley—The
Arkansas Offce.
Innside Premium Hotel, Munich, Germany. A: Helmut Jahn; ID: Jahn Lykouria Design; P:
Courtesy of Melia Hotels International.
InterContinental Paris Avenue Marceau, Paris, France. A and ID: Bruno Borrione; P:
Courtesy of InterContinental Hotel Paris.
James Hotel, SoHo, New York, New York. A: Perkins Eastman Architects with ODA—
Architecture; ID: ODA—Architecture and Amanda Sullivan, Piet Boon (Penthouse); P:
Courtesy of The James New York.
The Jefferson, Washington, DC. A and ID: ForrestPerkins; P: Stirling Elmendorf, Courtesy
of ForrestPerkins.
Jumbo Stay, Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, Sweden. A+ID: Monsen Arkitekter AB; P: Lioba
Schneider, Jumbo Stay.
Jumeirah Frankfurt Hotel, Frankfurt, Germany. A: KSP Engel und Zimmermann; R:
Courtesy of PalaisQuartier GmbH.
Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel, Shanghai, China. A: Arata Isozaki; ID: KCA International; P:
Zhu Shaoci, Courtesy of Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel.
Jupiter Hotel, Portland, Oregon. A and ID: Skylab Architecture; P: Courtesy of Jupiter
Hotel.
Juvet Landscape Hotel, Alstad, Norway. A and ID: Jensen & Skodvin; P: Courtesy of Juvet.
JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton at L.A. LIVE, Los Angeles, California. A: Gensler; ID:
Barry Design Associates; P: John Edward Linden and Ryan Gobuty, Courtesy of Gensler.
JW Marriott Ihilani, Hawaii. A: WATG; ID: Wimberly Interiors; P: Courtesy of WATG.
JW Marriott, Indianapolis, Indiana. A: HOK Chicago and CSO Architects; ID: Simeone
Deary Design Group; P: Dan Ham Photography; Steve Hall and Tony Soluri.
JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, San Antonio, Texas. A: HKS Hill
Glazier Studio Architects; ID: ForrestPerkins; P: Barbara Kraft.
Kimber Modern Hotel, Austin, Texas. A and ID: Baldridge Architects; P: Courtesy of Casey
Dunn and Baldridge Architects.
Kimpton Palomar, Chicago, Illinois. A: GREC Architects; ID: Orlando Diaz-Azcuy; P: Greg
Murphy, Courtesy of GREC Architects.
Kingdom Tower, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A: Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, design architects;
R: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture.
Kruisherenhotel, Maastricht, Netherlands. A: Satijn Plus; ID: Henk Vos Maupertuus; P:
Roel Vink.
Le Germain Hotel at Maple Leaf Square. Toronto, Canada. A and ID: Lemaymichaud; P:
Tom Arban.
Le Meridien, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A: Blackney Hayes; ID: Forchielli Glynn; P:
Jeffrey Totaro, Courtesy of HEI Hotels & Resorts.
Le Royal Monceau Raffes, Paris, France. A and ID: Philippe Starck; P: Courtesy of Mango
Public Relations.
Liberty Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts. A: Cambridge 7 Associates; ID: Champalimaud
Design; P: Kwes Arthur and Peter Vanderwarker.
Lied Lodge, Nebraska City, Nebraska. A: Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture; P: Luis
Peon-Cassanova.
Linked Hybrid, Beijing, China. A and ID: Steven Holl Architects; P: Shu He, Courtesy of
Steven Holl Architects.
Lodge at Woodloch, Hawley, Pennsylvania. A: Cooper Carry; ID: Jinnie Kim Design; P:
Robert Miller.
Loews Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. A: Rule Joy Trammel & Rubio; ID: Daroff Design; P: Zach
Rolen.
Loisium Wine & Spa Resort, Langenlois, Austria. A and ID: Stephen Holl Architects; P:
Hauke Dressler, Courtesy of Design Hotels.
London NYC, New York, New York. (RIHGA Royal Hotel) A: Frank Williams and
Associates ID: David Collins.
Mandarin Oriental Dellis Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands. A: Oppenheim Architecture +
Design; ID: David Chipperfeld, Zaha Hadid, Kengo Kuma, Pierro Lissoni, Shigeru Ban,
Chad Oppenheim, and Carl Ettensperge; P: Carl Ettensperge.
Marina + Beach Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A: Oppenheim Architects; R:
Courtesy of Oppenheim Architects.
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. A: Safdie Architects; ID: Safdie Architects and CL3, HBA
Hirsch Bedner Associates; P: Tim Hursley.
Marriott Marquis, New York, NY. A: Acheson Doyle Partners Architects; ID:
ForrestPerkins; P: Jeff Goldman.
Marriott Marquis, Washington, DC. A: Cooper Carry; R: Courtesy of Cooper Carry.
Marriott Vacation Club Grande Vista, Orlando, Florida. A: Helman Hurley Charvat
Peacock; ID: Design Continuum; P: Jay Jenks, Matteo Thun, Courtesy of Marriott Vacation
Club International.
Marriott World Center, Orlando, Florida. A and ID: TVS Design; P: Courtesy of Marriott
International.
Mayakoba, Riviera Maya, Mexico. A: Three Architecture; P: Courtesy of OHL-Mayakoba.
Meydan Grandstand and Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A: TAK Architects; P:
Courtesy of Meydan Hotels.
Miraval, Tucson, Arizona. A: Mithun Architects; ID: Clodagh; P: Robert Reck.
Missoni Hotel, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. A: Allan Murray; ID: Matteo Thun; P: Graven
Images.
Morongo Casino, Cabazon, California. A and ID: Jerde Partnership; P: Doug Park, Courtesy
of the Jerde Partnership.
Montana Trails Lodge, Big Sky, Montana. A: Bitnar Architects; R: Courtesy of Bitnar
Architects.
Mosaic PATHWAY. A and ID: WATG; P: Courtesy of WATG.
Motel 6 “Phoenix” Design Scheme. A and ID: Priestmangoode; P: Courtesy of Accor North
America.
New Orleans Arcology Habitat (NOAH), Louisiana. A: Schopfer Associates; R: Courtesy
of Tangram 3DS.
Nhow Hotel, Berlin, Germany. A: NPS Tchoban Voss Architects; ID: Karim Rashid; P:
Courtesy of Nhow Hotels.
Nine Zero Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts. A: Tsoi/Kobus & Associates; ID: Wilson
Associates; P: Courtesy of Tsoi/Kobus & Associates.
Nines Hotel, Portland, Oregon. A: SERA Architects; ID: ForrestPerkins; P: Bruce Buck and
Basil Childers.
Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, India. A: Abhikram; ID: Lim, Teo + Wilkes Design Works; P:
Courtesy of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.
Omni Hotel, Dallas, Texas. A: BOKA Powell and 5G Studio Collaborative; ID:
Waldrop+Nichols studio. R: Courtesy of 5G Studio Collaborative.
Paradisus Resort, Punta Cana Dominican Republic. A: Alvaro Sans; P: Courtesy of
Paradisus Hotels.
Park Hyatt Hadahaa, Republic of Maldives. A and ID: SCDA Architects; P: No Limit
Fotodesign and Yaeko Masuda.
The Peninsula Hotel, New York, New York. A: Stonehill & Taylor; ID: Champalimaud
Design; P: Mark Weiland, Courtesy of The Peninsula New York.
Peninsula Shanghai, Shanghai, China. A: BBG-BGM; ID: Pierre-Yves Rochon; P: Andrew
J. Loiterton.
Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, Nevada. A: COLAB Architecture and Urban Design with
Sotto Studios LA; R: Courtesy of COLAB Architecture.
Poseidon Undersea Resort, Fiji. A: U.S. Submarine; P: Courtesy of L. Bruce
Jones. President Hotel, New York, New York. A and ID: Stonehill & Taylor; P: Gregory
Goode.
Princesse Bora Lodge & Spa, Sainte Marie Island, Madagascar. A and ID: Patrice Alexis
Mayer; P: Courtesy of Princesse Bora Lodge & Spa.
Proximity Hotel, Greensboro, North Carolina. A: Mark File; ID: Bradshaw Orrell Interiors;
P: Courtesy of Quaintance-Weaver Hotels.
Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. A:
Northpoint; ID: HBA Hirsch Bender Associates; P: Durston Saylor, Courtesy of Anantara
Resorts.
Radison Blu Hotel, Chicago, Illinois. A: Studio Gang Architects; ID: Jim Hamilton; P: Craig
Skorburg.
Raffes Praslin Seychelles, Republic of Seychelles. A: WATG; Kitchen Design: Innovative
Foodservice Design Team.
Ramada Encore, London West, United Kingdom. A: Hamilton Associates; ID: Young &
Gault and Occa Design; P: Courtesy of Wyndham Hotel Group.
Renaissance Arlington Capital View, Arlington, VA. A: Cooper Carry; ID: ForrestPerkins;
P: Kenneth M. Wyner.
Renaissance Clubsport Aliso Viejo, Orange County, California. A: Dahlin Group; ID:
Barry Design; P: Courtesy of Leisure Sports.
Renaissance Paris Arc de Triomphe Hotel, Paris, France. A: Atelier Christian de
Portzamparc; ID: ERA; P: Courtesy of Marriott International.
Residence Inn and Courtyard, New York, New York. A: Nobutaka Ashihara Architect; R:
Courtesy of Nobutaka Ashihara Architect.
Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore. A: Michael Graves; P: Courtesy of Resorts World
Sentosa.
Revel, Atlantic City, New Jersey. A: Arquitectonica; P: Courtesy of Revel Entertainment.
The Ritz-Carlton at ICC, Hong Kong, China. A: KPF Associates and Wong & Guyang; ID:
LTW Design Works; P: Christopher Cypert, Grische Ruschendorf, Tim Griffth, Courtesy of
KPF Associates.
The Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch, Avon, Colorado. A: HKS Hill Glazier Studio; ID: Wilson
Associates; P: Blake Marvin.
The Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences, San Francisco, California. A: Charles F. Bloszies
and Associates; ID: Forrest Perkins; P: Courtesy of Marriott International.
The Ritz-Carlton Club, Aspen Highlands, Colorado. A: Robert A.M. Stern Architects; P:
Joe Aker.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences, Guangzhou, China. A: WATG and R&F Design;
ID: HBA Hirsch Bedner Associates; LA: Cicada; P: Courtesy of WATG.
The Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe, Truckee, California. A: Hornberger + Worstell and OZ
Architecture; ID: Brayton Hughes Design Studio; P: Courtesy of Hornberger + Worstell.
The Ritz-Carlton Sanya, Sanya, China. A: WATG and Shanghai Institute of Architectural
Design and Research; ID: Chhada, Siembieda & Associates; LA: Belt Collins; P:
Christopher Cypert, Courtesy of WATG.
Roosevelt New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. A: Steven J. Finegan Architects; ID:
Paradigm Design Group; P: Courtesy of Dimension Development.
Rose Rotana Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A: Khatib & Alami; P: Courtesy of
Rotana Hotel Management.
Rosewood Sand Hill, Menlo Park, California. A: HKS Hill Glazier Studio; ID: BAMO; LA:
SWA Group; P: Matthew Millman.
Saffre Resort, Coles Bay, Australia. A: Circa Architecture; ID: Chhada Siembieda; P: George
Apostolidis.
Savoy, London, United Kingdom. A: ReardonSmith; ID: Pierre Yves Rochon; P: Courtesy
of Fairmont Hotels.
Semiramis Hotel, Athens, Greece. A and ID: Karim Rashid; P: Courtesy of Karim Rashid.
Shanghai Tower J-Hotel, Shanghai, China. A: Gensler; P: Courtesy of Gensler.
Shanghai World Financial Center, Jin Mao Tower, and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai,
China. A: KPF, SOM and Gensler; P: Courtesy of Gensler.
Shangri-La Hotel at the Shard, London, United Kingdom. A: Renzo Piano; P: Aurelien,
Hyaes Davidson, and John McLean, Courtesy of Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
Sheraton Milan Malpensa Airport Hotel and Conference Centre, Malpensa, Italy. A and
ID: King Roselli Architetti and Saporiti Hotel Design; P: Santi Caleca, Courtesy of King
Roselli.
Sheraton Tianjin Hotel, Tianjin, China. A: Woods Bagot; P: Courtesy of Woods Bagot.
Signature at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada. A: Bergman, Walls & Associates; P:
Courtesy of Bergman, Walls & Associates and MGM Resorts International.
Silken Puerta America, Madrid, Spain. A: Jean Nouvel; ID: Arata Isozaki, Norman Foster,
Marc Newson, Ron Arad, Richard Gluckman, Javier Mariscal, Victorio & Lucchino, Zaha
Hadid, and others; P: Rafael Vargas.
Singita Pamushana Lodge, Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve, Zimbabwe. A: OMM Design
Workshop; P: Courtesy of Singita Game Reserves.
Solis Hotel, Shenzhen, China. A: Steven Holl; ID: Jaya Ibrahim; P: Iwan Baan.
Songjiang Hotel, Shanghai, China. A and ID: Atkins Global; R: Courtesy of Atkins Global.
Southern Ocean Lodge, Kangaroo Island, South Australia. A and ID: Max Pritchard
Architect.
The Standard, New York, New York. A: Ennead Architects; ID: Roman & Williams and
Shawn Hausmann; P: Jeff Goldberg/ESTO and Nocolas Koenig.
St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, United Kingdom. A: RHWL Architects and
Richard Griffths Architects; ID: GA Design International, and David Collins Studio; P: The
Photographers Gallery.
St. Regis, Atlanta, Georgia. A: Rabun Architects; ID: HBA Hirsch Bedner Associates; P:
Durston Saylor.
St. Regis Deer Valley, Park City Utah. A: IBI Group; ID: Linda Snyder Associates; P: Bruce
Buck.
St. Regis Hotel and Residences, Singapore. A: WATG and RSP Architects, Planners, &
Engineers; ID: Wilson Associates; LA: Cicada; P: Courtesy of WATG.
St. Regis Sanya Yalong Bay Resort, Sanya, China. A: BBG-BBGM; ID: DiLeonardo; P:
Courtesy of BBG-BBGM.
Statler Hotel, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. A: The Architects Collaborative; ID:
Kenneth E. Hurd & Associates; P: Robert Barker.
Steigenberger Golf Resort El Gouna, El Gouna, Egypt. A: Michael Graves; ID: Michael
Graves and Lina Bamyeh; P: Courtesy of Stigenberger Hotel Group.
The Study at Yale, New Haven, Connecticut. A+ID: Kuwabara Payne McKenna &
Blumberg; P: Tom Arban, Courtesy of Hospitality 3.
Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, India. A: Lissoni Associati; ID: BAMO, LTW Design Works,
James Park Associates; P: Courtesy of Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces.
Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, California. A: HKS Hill Glazier Studio; ID:
BAMO; LA: Burton and Associates; P: Matthew Millman.
Tierra Atacama Hotel & Spa, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. A: Rodrigo Searle & Matias
Gonzalez; ID: Alexandra Edwards and Carolina Delpiano; P: Courtesy of Tierra Hotels.
Umstead Hotel and Spa, Cary, North Carolina. A: Three Architecture of Dallas; ID: Frank
Nicholson; P: Courtesy of Umstead Hotel and Spa.
Vdara, Las Vegas, Nevada. A: Rafael Viñoly; P: Courtesy of MGM Resorts International.
Venetian, Las Vegas, Nevada. A: WATG and TSA of Nevada; ID: Dougall Design and
Wilson Associates; LA: Lifescapes International; P: Courtesy of WATG.
Viceroy Miami Hotel, Miami, Florida. A: Arquitectonica; P: Courtesy of Viceroy Hotel
Group.
Viceroy, Anguilla, British West Indies. A: WATG; ID: Kelly Wearstler; LA: Girvin &
Associates; P: Christian Horan Photography.
Vigilius Mountain Resort, San Vigilio, Italy. A and ID: Matteo Thun; P: Courtesy of Vigilius
Mountain Resort.
Virgin Galactic Spaceport, New Mexico. A: Foster & Partners; R: Courtesy of Foster &
Partners.
W Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. A and ID: Ricardo Bofll, Taller de Arquitectura.
W Dallas, Dallas, Texas. A: HKS Hill Glazier Studio; ID: Shopworks; P: Blake Mavin.
W Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. P: Courtesy of W Hollywood.
W London, London, United Kingdom. A+ID: Jestico + Whiles; P: James Newton.
W Minneapolis-Foshay, Minneapolis, Minnesota. A: Elness Swenson Graham Architects;
ID: Munge Leung; P: Bobak Ha'Eri, Heinrich Photography.
W Mumbai at Namaste Tower, Mumbai, India. A: Atkins Global; P: Courtesy of Atkins
Global.
W Retreat Kanai & Spa, Riviera Maya, Mexico. A: Richard Meier & Partners; R: Vize.com,
Courtesy of Richard Meier & Partners.
W Singapore Sentosa Cove, Singapore. A: WATG; ID: AXIS.ID Pte.
Waldorf Astoria Maldives, Republic of Maldives. A and ID: Mohamed Shafeeq— GX
Associate; P: Courtesy of Hilton Hotels & Resorts.
Waldorf=Astoria Hotel, New York, New York. A and ID: Kenneth E. Hurd & Associates;
P: Edward Jacoby.
Water Cay Resort, Turks and Caicos Islands. A: Tropical Architecture and Mathes Brierre
Architects; ID: Yabu Pushelberg; LA: EDSA; P: Courtesy of Tropical Architecture.
WaterColor Inn & Resort, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. A and ID: Rockwell Group; P: Paul
Warchol, Courtesy of Rockwell Group.
Waterhouse at South Bund, Shanghai, China. A and ID: NHDRO; P: Derryck Menere and
Thomas Uusheimo.
West 57th Street by Hilton Club, New York, New York. A: HKS Hill Glazier Studio; ID:
Alexandra Champalimaud & Associates; P: Courtesy of Hilton Hotels & Resorts.
Westin Beach Resort and Spa, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. A: Mathes Brierre Architects; ID:
ForrestPerkins; R: Courtesy of FSM&Y and Mathes Brierre Architects.
Westin Book Cadillac Hotel, Detroit, Michigan. A: Kaczmar Architects; ID: ForrestPerkins;
P: Courtesy of Westin Hotels & Resorts.
Westin Boston Waterfront, Boston, Massachusetts. A: Arrowstreet; ID: BBG-BBGM; P:
Peter Vanderwalker.
Westin Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany. A: Herzog & de Meuron; ID: Tassilo Boer;
R: Courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron.
Westin Hotels (Farmers & Mechanics Bank Building), Minneapolis, Minnesota: A: Elness
Swenson Graham Architects; ID: Moncur Design Associates; P: George Heinrich.
Westin, Warsaw, Poland. A: John Portman & Associates; ID: HBA Hirsch Bedner
Associates: P: Jaime Ardilles-Arce.
Yas Viceroy, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. A: Asymptote Architecture; ID: Jestico +
Whiles, Richardson Sadeki, De8 Architetti; LA: Cracknell Landscape Architects; P: Gerry
O'Leary.
Yotel, Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom. A and ID: Priestmangoode; P:
Courtesy of Yotel.
YOTEL, New York, New York. A: Arquitectonica; ID: Rockwell Group; P: Courtesy of
Yotel New York.

About the Authors

Richard H. Penner, a professor emeritus of Cornell University, taught hotel planning, development,
and interior design at the School of Hotel Administration for over forty years. He brings together
experience in architecture and hotel management, having spent year-long sabbatical leaves with
international designer Hirsch Bedner Associates (Santa Monica, CA) and the architecture group of
Starwood Hotels & Resorts (White Plains, NY). He graduated from Cornell with bachelor's and master's
degrees in architecture, and is an author of four books, two of which were co-authored with the late
Walter Rutes, the lead author of the frst edition of Hotel Design, Planning, and Development. In
1992 Hospitality Design magazine honored him with its Platinum Circle Award for his contributions to
hospitality design as an author and teacher. His research has focused on planning criteria for different
types of lodging properties, including the detailed comparative space allocation standards that have
become benchmarks for measuring the effciency of new hospitality projects. He has presented seminars
on hotel development and planning throughout the world. A former director of graduate studies at the
Hotel School, he also organized design seminars at the European Meeting on Hotel Interior Design in
Rimini, Italy, and chaired fve hospitality design roundtables sponsored by the Center for Hospitality
Research at Cornell.
Lawrence Adams, AIA, a vice president of ForrestPerkins, is a global authority on hotel and resort
design. He earned a bachelor of architecture degree from Louisiana State University. He has managed
and directed the design of large-scale development projects at major architectural and planning frms for
the past thirty-fve years. With a specialty in hotel design, Mr. Adams served as adjunct faculty at New
York University for nine years teaching master's degree courses on Hotel Design and Development. He
co-authored the frst edition of Hotel Design, Planning, and Development with Richard Penner and the
late Walter Rutes. His projects include the Four Seasons Hotel New York, the RIGHA Royal Hotel, the
Chambers Hotel, The Westin Ft. Lauderdale Beach Resort, and the national headquarters of the Marine
Corps Reserve. Mr. Adams, who is certifed by NCARB, is also a registered architect in New York,
Massachusetts, Kansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Stephani K. A. Robson holds three degrees from Cornell University: a bachelor of science and
doctorate in hotel administration and a master of science in facilities planning and management. Her
professional career has included design work on a number of large hotel and hospitality projects in her
native Canada. She joined the full-time faculty at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration
in 1993. A specialist in hospitality design psychology, she has numerous research publications in
academic journals, including the Journal of Environmental Psychology and the Cornell Hospitality
Quarterly, and frequently contributes to trade journals on topics related to design and development. She
has taught and presented her research on hospitality environments worldwide.

Index
Page numbers in italics refers to an illustration
Abu Dhabi
Anantara Desert Islands Resort and Spa 129
Crowne Plaza and Staybridge Suites 98
Mirage Hotel 38, 38
Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort 118, 119, 136, 136, 349
Yas Viceroy Hotel 119–20, 144, 145, 145
Abu Dhabi Golf Resort Hotel 138
accessibility 294, 338
Accor 95
Formule 1 314
accounting offce 378
Ace Hotel and Swim Club (Palm Springs, California) 73
adaptive reuse 30, 58, 270–9 see also updating existing hotels
additions 267–70 see also updating existing hotels
The Address 16
administration offces 375–8
accounting offce 378
executive offce 377
front desk and front offce 276–7
information technology offce 378
sales and catering offce 377
ages of famous hotels 279
Ahwahnee Inn (Yosemite Valley) 146
Aircruise luxury airship 409
airport hotels 71, 72, 76–80
Alexander, Christopher 155
The Alexander (Indianapolis) case study 219–21
Algonquin Hotel (New York City) 63, 243, 245
Alila Villas Uluwatu (Bali) 122, 123
all-suite concept 89
The Alluvian (Greenwood, Mississippi) 63
aloft 89
Aman Hotel (New Delhi) 46, 50
Amandari Resort (Bali) 155
Amangiri Resort (Canyon Point, Utah) 134, 135
American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) 371
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, 1992) 263, 338
Ames Hotel (Boston) 58, 58
Anantara Desert Islands Resort and Spa (Abu Dhabi) 129
Anantara Golden Triangle Resort and Spa (Golden Triangle, Thailand) 164
Anantara Xishuangbanna Resort and Spa (Xishuangbanna, China) 159, 159
Andaz Shanghai Hotel (Shanghai) 10, case study 47–9, 92
Ando, Tadao 18
Anhut, Jim sidebar 70
approach, hotel 342–4
architect's agreement 387–8
architectural and engineering systems 390–401
construction schedule 399–400
construction services 397
furniture, fxtures and equipment (FF&E) 400–1
mechanical systems 391
project delivery 397–9
structural systems 391
sustainable building systems 391–4
technology systems 394–7
areas, allocating program 307–12
ARIA Hotel and Casino (Las Vegas) 338
Arizona
Cliffhanger Resort (Grand Canyon) 402
Enchantment Resort and Mii Amo Spa (Sedona) 141
Four Acres Hotel and Residences (Scottsdale) 297
Miraval Arizona Resort 135, 135
Armani, Giorgio 66
Armani Hotel (at Burj Khalifa, Dubai) 106, 108–9, 298
Arquitectonica 184
The Arrabelle at Vail Square (Vail) case study 152–3
Arrebol Patagonia Hotel (Puerto Varas, Chile) 158
art/artifacts 371–2
Asilomar (California) 215
The Astor Hotel (New York City) 12, 18, 31
Astor House (New York City) 11, 18
Astor, John Jacob 11
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center (University of Texas, Austin)
case study 225–7, 359
Atlanta
Dolce Atlanta-Peachtree center 222
Hyatt Regency 18, 19, 317, 323, 344
Loews Atlanta 383
St. Regis Atlanta 349
Atlantis Dubai Resort Hotel 285, 285
atriums 77, 107
foor confgurations 323
planning principles 323
seaside resorts 124
Auditorium Building (Chicago) 105, 109
Australia
Palazzo Versace (Gold Coast) 57
Saffre Resort (Coles Bay) 155
Southern Ocean Lodge (Kangaroo Island) 160–3
Austria
Loisium Hotel (Langenlois) 64
Pixel Hotel (Linz) 406
Autograph Collection 5
automatic check in 394

back-of-house areas (BOH) 375, 378–83

Balazs, Andre 26, 28
balconies 128
Bali (Indonesia)
Alila Villas Uluwatu 122
Amandari Resort 155
ballroom design 362–3
convention hotels 207, 213
Banyan Tree Sanya (Sanya, China) 142
bar design 355–7
Bardessono Hotel and Spa (California) 67, 67
Baronette Renaissance Hotel (Novi, Michigan) 349
bathrooms 50, 329, 329, 332, 336–8
Beach House Maldives 123, 124, 132
beach resorts see seaside resorts
Hotel Beaux Arts (Miami) 339
bed-and-breakfast inns 81–2
Bedford Hotel (San Francisco) 53
Beijing
Great (Bamboo) Wall 156, 158
Linked Hybrid Hotel 116, 116
Bellagio (Las Vegas) 175
Bella Sky Hotel (Copenhagen) 56, 56
Berman, Scott 130
Bethesda Marriott Suites (Maryland) 312
The Beverly Hills Hotel (California) 371
Big Sleep 57
Biltmore Hotel (Florida) 228
Biltmore Hotel (New York City) 22, 24
Binh Tien Resort (Nha Trang, Vietnam) 169
Blackstone Hotel (Chicago) 359
Blakes Hotel (London) 53, 63
boardrooms 358, 262
Bofll, Ricardo 39
Book-Cadillac Hotel (Detroit) 242, 243
Borrione, Bruno 267
Boston
Ames Hotel 58, 58
Copley Place 107–8
Exchange Coffee House Hotel 11, 105
Liberty Hotel 252, 253–6
Nine Zero Hotel 18, 18
The Park Plaza Hotel 105–6
Prudential Center 106–7
 Seaport Hotel 350
Taj Hotel (formerly The Ritz-Carlton) 13
Tremont House 11, 18, 327
The Vendome 53
Westin Boston Waterfront 190, 190, 348
Boundary Hotel (London) 242, 267–8, 268
boutique hotels 15, 24, 54, 55, 56, 60–1, 314
Brazil
Ibis and Mercure Salvador Rio Vermelho Hotel (Salvador) 96
The Breakers (Palm Beach) 53
BREEAM certifcation 154, 286, 392
Breslau, Tod 74
Breuer, Marcel 124
Brown Palace (Denver) 12, 19, 323
Bucket List Lodging 406
budgets
and guestroom and suite design 339
preparing project 313–14
budget differentiation document 416–17
budget hotels see roadside hotels
Buffalo Statler (New York) 12, 327
building codes 263, 291–2, 395
Bunker, Kelsey 74
Burj al Arab (Dubai) 50
Burton Baldridge Architects 56
business and leisure hotels, urban 11–30
adaptive reuse 30
back-of-house effciency 23–4
guestrooms 24–5, 30
place and tradition 18
place-making 15–16
planning controls 20–1
planning and development considerations 12–15
public spaces 19–20
site factors 21
 size 24
space maximisation 21–3
style and theater 16–18
sustainable 30
traffc, parking and service 23

California
Ace Hotel and Swim Club (Palm Springs) 73
Asilomar 215
Bardessono Hotel and Spa 67, 67
The Beverly Hills Hotel 371
Milestone Motel (San Luis Obispo) 72
Morongo Casino (Cabazon) 343
Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe (Truckee) 146, 150, 150
Rosewood Sand Hill (Palo Alto) 337
Terranea Resort (Rancho Palos Verdes) 284, 331, 363, 364, 366, 368
see also Los Angeles; San Diego; San Francisco
Cambridge Seven Associates 255
Canada
Fairmont Pacifc Rim (Vancouver) 36, 36
Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn (Toronto) 93
Hotel Frontenac (Quebec City) 18
Le Germain Hotel (Toronto) 110, 111
Sheraton Centre (Toronto) 361
SkyDome Renaissance Hotel (Toronto) 31
canopy 344
capsule hotels (Japan) 25, 30
Caribbean
CusinArt Resort and Spa (Anguilla) 164
DuPont Plaza (San Juan, Puerto Rico) 395
Exclusive Resorts (Papagayo, Costa Rica) 230, 238
Harmony Resort (Virgin Islands) 155
Viceroy (Anguilla) 128
The Carlyle (New York City) 45, 50, 231
case studies
 The Alexander (Indianapolis) 219–21
Andaz Shanghai Hotel and The Lanham Xintiandi Hotel (Shanghai) 47–9
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center (University of Texas, Austin) 225–7
The Arrabelle at Vail Square (Vail) 152–3
Chambers Hotel (New York City) 60–1
The Cosmopolitan (Las Vegas) 182–5
Dolder Grand Hotel (Zurich) 257–9
Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center (National Harbor, Maryland) 197–9
Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel (San Diego) 200–3
The Jefferson Hotel (Washington) 247–51
JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton (Los Angeles) 99–103
JW Marriott Hotel (Indianapolis) 192–5
Jupiter Hotel (Portland) 74–75
The Liberty Hotel (Boston) 253–6
Park Hyatt Maldives (Hadahaa) 125–7
The Ritz-Carlton at ICC (Hong Kong) 113–5
Sheraton Milan Malpensa Airport Hotel (Milan) 78–79
Southern Ocean Lodge (Kangaroo Island, Australia) 160–3
W Barcelona (Barcelona) 39–43
The Standard (New York City) 26–9
casino hotels 173–85
casino gaming foor 176–7, 180
convention facilities 181
development considerations 174–5
dining, lounge and entertainment facilities 180–1
early history 173
guestrooms 181
planning and design considerations 176–81
The Cathay Hotel (Shanghai) 252
CCTV 396
ceiling heights
ballrooms 207, 213
super-luxury hotels 50
celebrity architects 18
Centara Grand (Bangkok) 205, 342, 351, 352, 353, 354
CetaMada 164
chain brands 422–3
Chambers Hotel (New York City) 22, 59, case study 60–1
Chambers West Hotel (New York City) 372
Champalimaud, Alexandra 63, 243
Chan Soo Khian 125
Chateau de Tennessus (Poitou Charentes, France) 81
Hotel Chelsea (New York City) 231
Chicago (Illinois)
Auditorium Building 105
Blackstone Hotel 359
Hard Rock Hotel 33
Hyatt Regency McCormick Place 190, 191
Kimpton Palomar 20
Palmer House 12
Radisson Blu Hotel 112, 116
Sherman House 12
Chile
Arrebol Patagonia Hotel (Puerto Varas) 158
Hotel Remota (Patagonia, Puerto Natales) 157, 158
Tierra Atacama Hotel and Spa (San Pedro de Atacama) 158–9, 158
China
Anantara Xishuangbanna Resort and Spa (Xishuangbanna) 159, 159
Andaz Shanghai Hotel (Shanghai) 10, case study 47–9, 92
Banyan Tree Sanya (Sanya) 142
The Cathay Hotel (Shanghai) 252
City of Dreams Resort (Macau) 172, 179, 186
Fairmont Peace Hotel (Shanghai) 252, 260
Four Seasons Guangzhou 326
Grand Hyatt Chengdu 111, 116
Grand Hyatt Shanghai 18
Great (Bamboo) Wall (Beijing) 156, 158
Hard Rock Hotel (Macau) 34, 333
Hilton Sanya Resort and Spa (Sanya) 129
Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel (Shanghai) 32, 34
 The Langham Xintiandi Hotel (Shanghai) 10, case study 47–9, 92
Linked Hybrid Hotel (Beijing) 116, 116
Park Hyatt Shanghai 18
Peninsula Shanghai 374
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences (Guangzhou) 233, 233
The Ritz-Carlton Sanya (Sanya) 130
The Ritz-Carlton at ICC (West Kowloon, Hong Kong) 112, case study 113–15
St. Regis Sanya Yalong Bay Resort (Sanya) 121, 122, 331
Sassoon House (Shanghai) 252
Shanghai Tower J-Hotel 18, 108, 108
Solis Hotel (Shenzhen) 112, 116
Songjiang Hotel (Shanghai) 408
Tianjin East Point Sheraton Hotel (Tianjin) 142, 143
The Waterhouse at South Bund (Shanghai) 276–9
Chipperfeld, David 66
circulation 294
citizenM 57
City of Dreams Resort (Macau) 172, 179, 186
City Hotel (New York City) 11
CityCenter (Las Vegas) 174
Claris Hotel (Barcelona) 372
Cliffhanger Resort (Grand Canyon, Arizona) 402
Club Med 168
Coeur Mediterranée (Marseilles) 96
Colorado
The Arrabelle at Vail Square (Vail) case study 152–3
Four Seasons Resort (Vail) 232, 233
Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch (Avon) 146, 149
Ritz-Carlton Club (Aspen Highlands) 146, 146
communication systems 395
community relations 284
complete meeting package (CMP) 229
computers 394–5
concierge 45
condominium hotels 234–5, 237
condominiums, combination with hotels 232–4
conference centers 189, 215–29
characteristics 217
corporate 217, 218, 222
executive 217, 218–22
facilities comparison 217
guestrooms 228
joint-venture 228
not-for-proft 217, 224
planning and design considerations 228–9
planning for operations 229
public areas 228–9
resort 217, 218, 222
schematic design program 218
types of meetings 216
types of 216–24, 228
university 217, 218, 222, 224
Connecticut
The Study at Yale (New Haven) case study 84–5, 333
Connexion Integrated Health Centre (Singapore) 86–7, 88
Conran, Sir Terence 242
construction
budget 388
management 398–9
phases 387–8
schedule 399–400
services 397
consultants/contractors, types of 386
convention facilities, at casino hotels 181
convention hotels 187–213
ballrooms 207, 213
headquarters 189–91
planning and design considerations 189
planning public areas 207, 213
suburban or resort 206–7
 urban 191–206
coordination matrix 418–21
Copley Place (Boston) 107–8
corporate conference centers 217, 218, 222
The Cosmopolitan (Las Vegas) case study 182–5
cost control 389–90
‘cost guzzlers’ 123
country inns 81–2
Courtyard by Marriott (Portland) 271, 272
Courtyard and SpringHill Suites (Indianapolis) 96, 97
Hotel de Crillon (Paris) 45 critical path method (CPM) 399
Crowne Plaza 314
Crowne Plaza Changi (Changi Airport, Singapore) 77
Crowne Plaza and Staybridge Suites (Abu Dhabi) 98
Crystal Island Tower 16
Crystal Towers and Spa (Cape Town) 116, 117
CusinArt Resort and Spa (Anguilla) 164

Hotel Danieli (Venice) 45

Days Inn 72
Hotel del Coronado (San Diego) 53, 119, 260, 261, 263
Delano (Miami Beach) 54
Denmark
Bella Sky Hotel (Copenhagen) 56, 56
Denver
Brown Palace 12, 19, 323
Denver International Airport hotel 76
Desert Inn (Palm Springs) 134
desert resort 134–6
design/bid/award contract 397–8
design/build contract 399
design hotels 53–67
back-of-house 66
design and planning considerations 66–7
development and planning 55
 guestrooms 66
independent or chain 62–3
modern and traditional 63
new construction and renovation 58–9
public spaces 55
size 56–7
sustainability 67
types 63
Design Hotels AG 62, 63
design phases 388–90
design team 386
destination club 237, 239
development budget 415
development planning see programming and planning
disabilities 263, 338
Disney, Walt 166, 168, 171
Disney Coronado Springs 188
documentation 297
Dolce Atlanta-Peachtree center (Atlanta) 222
Dolce Valley Forge 83
Dolder Grand Hotel, (Zurich, Switzerland) 252, case study 257–9
Dominican Republic
Paradisus Punta Cana Resort 124
Doral Arrowwood (Rye Brook, New York) 217
Doral Forrestal (Princeton) 215
Downtown Dream Hotel (New York City) 274, 274 downtown hotels see urban hotels
Draper, Dorothy 231
driveways 344
drop-off zone 23
dual-branded hotels see multi-branded hotels
Dubai
Armani Hotel (at Burj Khalifa) 106, 108–9, 298
Atlantis Dubai Resort Hotel 285, 285
Burj al Arab 50
Marina + Beach Hotel 143
 Meydan Grandstand and Hotel 16, 31, 31
Palm Jumeirah (Dubai) 166
Rose Rayhaan by Rotana 19
DuPont Plaza (San Juan, Puerto Rico) 395

earthquakes 263
easyHotel 77
economy hotels see roadside hotels
ecotourism 134, 154–5
ecotourist resorts 154–66
ecological responsibility 154–5
luxury 159–62
site consideration 155, 158–9
wilderness lodges and wildlife reserves 164–6
Eden Roc (Miami Beach) 18
Edition 62
Egypt
Steigenberger Golf Resort (El Gouna) 138, 139
Element 314
elevators 318–23
‘elmerse’ 406
Embassy Suites 314, 336
employee areas/housing 51, 381–2
Enchantment Resort and Mii Amo Spa (Sedona, Arizona) 141
Encore see Ramada Encore
engineering area 382–3
engineering systems see architectural and engineering systems
entertainment hotels, urban 31–5
entrances 23, 294, 342–4
environmental technology, seaside resorts 130–1
Envision Green Hotel (Miami) 405
Estrel Hotel & Convention Center (Berlin) 188
ethnotourism 155
Exchange Coffee House Hotel (Boston) 11, 105
Exclusive Resorts (Papagayo, Costa Rica) 230, 238
executive conference centers 217, 218–22
executive offce 377
existing hotels, updating see updating existing hotels
exit requirements 395–6
experience customization 405

facilities programming 305–14

allocating program areas 307–12
defning the project 306–7
defning proposed facilities 304–5
describing the operations 312–13
preparing the project budget 313–14
Fairfeld Inn and Suites Downtown (Indianapolis)
Fairmont Pacifc Rim (Vancouver) 36, 36
Fairmont Peace Hotel (Shanghai) 252, 260
The Fairmont San Francisco 335 FAR (foor area ratio) 20, 22
fashion hotels 57
feasibility analysis 300–5
defning proposed facilities 304–5
local area 302
lodging market 302–4
preparing fnancial analysis 305
Fifth Avenue Hotel (New York City) 12
fgure eight plan 171
Fiji
Poseidon Undersea Resort 409
fnancial analysis 305
Finca Prats Hotel Golf and Spa (Lleida, Spain) 136, 137
fre-protection services 395–6
Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas 173, 181
foor area ratio see FAR
Florida
Biltmore Hotel (Coral Gables) 228
Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites (Jacksonville) 93, 94–5, 314
Hyatt Place (Ford Lauderdale Airport) 89, 92
 Hyatt Summerfeld Suites (Fort Lauderdale) 92
Sheraton Yankee Trader (Fort Lauderdale) 263
WaterColor Inn and Resort (Santa Rosa Beach) 133
Westin Beach Resort and Spa (Fort Lauderdale) 263–4, 263, 269
see also Miami/Miami Beach; Orlando
Fontainebleau Hotel (Miami Beach) 18
food and beverage outlets 350–5
concept development 350–2
food merchandizing opportunities 352
lounge and bar design 355–7
program and planning 352–4
restaurant design 354–5
tabletop design 371
food merchandizing 352
food preparation and storage areas 378–80
foreword
Graves, Michael vii
Rockwell, David vii–viii
Sternlicht, Barry viii–ix
ForrestPerkins 264
47 Park Street-Marriott Grand Residence Club (London) 239
Foster + Partners 257
Foster, Norman 18
Four Acres Hotel and Residences (Scottsdale) 297
Four Seasons 333
Four Seasons Bora Bora (Tahiti) 121, 123, 287
Four Seasons Firenze (Florence) 45–6, 45, 292
Four Seasons Guangzhou (China) 326
Four Seasons Las Vegas 92
Four Seasons Maldives 44
Four Seasons Marrakech (Morocco) 337
Four Seasons New York (formerly The Regent) 50–1
Four Seasons Resort (Hualalai) 286
Four Seasons Resort (Langkawi, Malaysia) 295, 296
Four Seasons Resort (Seychelles) 128, 128, 288, 288, 337
Four Seasons Resort (Vail) 232, 233
Four Seasons Tented Camp (Golden Triangle, Thailand) 166, 166
fractional ownership 237, 238
France
Chateau de Tennessus (Poitou Charentes) 81
Coeur Mediterranée (Marseilles) 96
Hotel de Crillon (Paris) 45
Intercontinental ParisAvenue Marceau (Paris) 266, 277
Le Royal Monceau Raffes (Paris) 52, 63, 63, 266
Renaissance Paris Arc de Triomphe Hotel (Paris) 16, 16
The Ritz (Paris) 12, 18, 44, 53
Friedman, Richard 255
front desk and offce 276–7
Hotel Frontenac (Quebec City) 18
function space
area requirements 362
ballroom design 362–3
casino hotels 180–1
conference centers 218, 357
convention hotels 207, 213, 357
design criteria 361–2
program and planning 357–61
recreation facilities 365–8
room characterises 358
furniture, fxtures and equipment (FF&E) 400–1
future and fantasy development 403–11

Ganesvoort Hotel (Meatpacking District, New York City) 15, 15, 16

Gansevoort Park Avenue Hotel (New York City) 15, 15, 16
Gaylord Hotels 19, 76, 196, 196
Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center (National Harbor, Maryland) 196, case
study 197–9, 316
Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center (Dallas) 20
Gehry, Frank 18, 66
Gensler 99
Georgia see Atlanta
Germany
Estrel Hotel & Convention Center (Berlin) 188
Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf 37
Hyatt Regency Mainz 337
Innside Premium Hotel (Munich) 17
Jumeirah Frankfurt Hotel 13, 13, 22
Nhow Hotel (Berlin) 37
Westin Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) 109, 109
Goldenkey Ski (Bolu, Turkey) 146, 147
golf resorts 136–40
government regulations, site and master planning 291–2
Gramercy Park Hotel (New York City) 243, 244
grand hotels 55
Grand Hyatt Chengdu (China) 111, 116
Grand Hyatt Shanghai (China) 18
Grand Hyatt Tokyo (Japan) 12, 12, 23
Grand Hyatt Washington 204, 206, 360, 361
graphics 370–1
Graves, Michael foreword vii, 18, 138, 166
Great (Bamboo) Wall (Beijing) 156, 158
Great Wolf Lodge Grapevine (Dallas) 83
Greece
Semiramis Hotel (Athens) 62, 63
Gros, Jacques 257
Guest Quarters 336
guestroom foor 317–25
documenting guestroom mix 324, 325
guestroom program 323–4
plan confgurations 318–23
atrium 320, 323
slab 319, 320
tower 321, 322–3
planning objectives 318
guestroom and suite design 327–39
 accessibility 338
activity zones 332
bathrooms 329, 332, 336–8
bed types 330–2
casino hotels 181
conference centers 228
country inns/B&Bs 81
design criteria 328
design hotels 66
dimensions and confgurations 328–9
FF&E budget 339
guest characteristics 328
guestroom design issues 330–6
history 327
interior views 333, 335
plans 331
seaside resorts 128
suburban hotels 71
suites 333–4
technology 338–9
urban hotels 24–5, 30, 50

Hampshire House (New York City) 231

Hotel Habita (Monterrey) 82, 83
Hampton Inn Hometown hotels 88, 88
Hard Rock Hotel (Chicago) 33
Hard Rock Hotel (Macau) 34, 333
Hardenbergh, Henry J. 12
Harrison Conference Center (Glen Cove, New York) 215
Hausmann, Shawn 26
Hawaii 131
Four Seasons Resort (Hualalai) 286
JW Marriott Ihilani 333
Kahala Hilton (Honolulu) 122
Mauna Kea Beach Hotel (The Big Island) 131–2
Hawkes, Pamela 255
Hemple, Anouska 53
Hersham Golf Club Hotel (Walton-on-Thames, United Kingdom) 138, 139, 140
Hilton Bonnet Creek (Orlando) 188
Hilton Garden City and Homewood Suites (Bossier City, Louisiana) 94
Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites (Jacksonville) 93, 94–5, 314
Hilton Orlando 188
Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel (San Diego) case study 200–3
Hilton Sanya Resort and Spa (Sanya, China) 129
HKS Architects 138, 329
Hochedlinger, Lukas 63
Holiday Inn 53, 72, 314, 329, 394
Holl, Steven 116, 117
Home2Suites 314
Homewood Suites 95
Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn (Silver Spring, Maryland) 92, 92
Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn (Toronto) 93
Hoover, J. Edgar 72
Hope Street Hotel (Liverpool) 268, 269, 270
hotel chains 70
Hotel des Artistes (New York City) 231
Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act (1990) 263
housekeeping 382
Houston Galleria (Texas) 107–8
Howard, Sir Ebenezer
Garden Cities of Tomorrow 69
Howard Johnson 72
hub and spoke plan 171
Hudson Hotel 56–7
Hurricane Katrina (2005) 264
hurricanes 134
Huxtable, Ada Louise 73
HVAC systems 391
Hyatt 405
Hyatt Lodge at McDonald's (Oak Brook, Illinois) 80–1
Hyatt Place (Ford Lauderdale Airport, Florida) 89, 92
Hyatt Regency Atlanta 18, 19, 317, 323, 344
Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf (Germany) 37, 38
Hyatt Regency McCormick Place (Chicago) 190, 191
Hyatt Regency Mainz (Germany) 337
Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa (Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico) 138, 139
Hyatt Summerfeld Suites (Fort Lauderdale) 92
hybrid hotels 82–8, 117

Ibis and Mercure Salvador Rio Vermelho Hotel (Salvador, Brazil) 95, 96
IBM Palisades Conference Hotel (Palisades, New York) 214, 222, 223
Illinois
Hyatt Lodge at McDonald's (Oak Brook) 80–1
Riverside Hotel 69
see also Chicago
Imperial Hotel (Tokyo) 18
independent hotels 62
India
Aman Hotel (New Delhi) 46, 50
India Tower (Mumbai) 16, 107
Oberoi Udaivilas (Udaipur) 51
The Taj Mahal Palace (Mumbai) 18, 252, 260, 261, 396
W Mumbai 104, 109
Westin Hyderabad Mindspace Hotel (Hyderabad) 80
India Tower (Mumbai) 16, 107
Indianapolis
The Alexander 219–21
Courtyard and SpringHill Suites 96, 97
Fairfeld Inn and Suites Downtown 95
JW Marriott Downtown 95, 97
JW Marriott Hotel 192–5, 336
Marriott Place 95–6, 97, 290, 336
Hotel Indigo 62, 314
information technology offce 378
The Inn at Middleton Place (Charleston) 82, 82
innovative trends 493–6
inns see country inns
Innside Premium Hotel (Munich) 17
InterContinental Hotel (New York City) 24
Intercontinental Paris-Avenue Marceau) 266, 267
interior designer's agreement 388–90
The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) 154
international hotel and travel organizations 413–14
internet 338, 395
island resorts 131–4
Isozaki, Arata 18, 34
Italy
Four Seasons Firenze (Florence) 45–6, 45, 292
Hotel Danieli (Venice) 45
Sheraton Milan Malpensa (Milan) 78–9
Vigilius Mountain Resort (San Vigilio) 148

J-Hotel see Shanghai J-Hotel

Jahn, Helmut 18
The James Hotel (New York City) 15, 22, 23
Japan
capsule hotels 25, 30
Grand Hyatt Tokyo 12, 12, 23
Imperial Hotel (Tokyo) 18
View Sunset Monzen Family Inn (Ishikawa) 81–2
The Jefferson Hotel (Washington) case study 247–51
Jenney, William LeBaron 69
joint-venture conference centers 228
Jumbo Hostel (Arlanda Airport, Stockholm) 77, 77
Jumeirah Frankfurt Hotel 13, 13, 22
Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel (Shanghai) 32, 34
Jupiter Hotel (Portland) case study 74–5
Juvet Landscape Hotel (Alstad, Norway) 156
JW Marriott see Marriott
Kahala Hilton (Honolulu) 122
Kahler Grand Hotel (Rochester, Minnesota) 86
Kastner, Robert E. 307
Kate's Lazy Meadow (New York State) 73
Kimber Modern Hotel (Austin) 56, 57
Kimpton, Bill 53
Kimpton Hotels 67
Kimpton Palomar (Chicago) 20
King Roselli Architetti 78
Kingdom Tower (Jeddah) 107, 109
kitchens 378–80
Koolhaas, Rem 18
Korea
Sheraton Incheon (Songdo City) 352, 353
Kovel, Jeff 74
KPF Architects 47, 112, 113, 115
Kraus-Winkler, Susanne 63
Kruisherenhotel-Maastricht (Maastricht) 271
Kuma, Kengo 18, 158
Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg 84

La Quinta Inns 314

landmark hotels 260
landscape 295–6
The Langham Xintiandi Hotel (Shanghai) 10, 47–9, 92
Lapidus, Morris 18
Las Vegas 173
ARIA Hotel and Casino 175, 338
Bellagio 175
CityCenter 174
The Cosmopolitan case study 182–5
Flamingo Hotel 173, 181
Four Seasons 92
Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino 92
MGM Grand Hotel 235, 395
 The Palazzo 180, 181
Planet Hollywood 176
Vdara 175, 175
The Venetian 180, 331, 332
laundry 382
Le Corbusier 28
Le Germain Hotel (Toronto) 110, 111
Le Meridien (Philadelphia) 356
Le Royal Monceau Raffes (Paris) 52, 63, 63, 266
Ledner, Albert 272
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
certifcation 30, 67, 99, 154, 225, 241, 286, 392, 393, 412
leisure parks 169–70
Liaigre, Christian 66
Liberty Hotel (Boston) 252, case study 253–6
Lied Lodge and Conference Center (Nebraska City, Nebraska) 224
life-safety systems 395–6
lifestyle hotels 55
Linked Hybrid Hotel (Beijing) 116, 116
Lipton, Stuart 80
lobbies 55, 344–9
design checklist 346
design objectives 348
mixed-use developments 110
program and planning objectives 344, 346
local area, analyzing the 302
The Lodge at Woolwich (Hawley, Pennsylvania) 142
lodging market 302–4, 303, 304
Loews Atlanta 383
Loews Portofno Bay Hotel (Orlando) 188
Loews Royal Pacifc Resort (Orlando) 188
Loisum Hotel (Langenlois, Austria) 64
London
10 Trinity Hotel 270, 272
Blakes Hotel 53, 63
 Boundary Hotel 242, 267–8, 268
47 Park Street—Marriott Grand Residence Club 239
Midland Grand Hotel 252
Ramada Encore 68
St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel 240, 252
The Savoy 12, 53, 242, 260–1, 262
The Shard 16, 17, 110, 110, 384
Shangri-La Hotel (at The Shard) 110, 110
W London 14
Yotel 331
Yotel (Heathrow Airport) 77, 77
The London NYC (formerly RIHGA Royal, New York City) 267
loop plan 171
Los Angeles
JW Marriott Hotel 90, 96, case study 99–103
The Ritz-Carlton 90, 96, case study 99–103
W Hollywood 234
Louisville
21c Museum Hotel 31, 32, 34
Louisiana
Hilton Garden City and Homewood Suites (Bossier City) 94
see also New Orleans
lounge design 355–7
luxury hotels see super-luxury hotels, urban

Macau
City of Dreams Resort 172, 179, 186
Hard Rock Hotel 34, 333
The Venetian Macau 181
Madagascar, Princesse Bora Lodge and Spa (Sainte-Marie Island) 164, 165, 165
maintenance 286
Malaysia
Four Seasons Resort (Langkawi) 295, 296
Maldives
Beach House 123, 124, 132
 Four Seasons 44
Park Hyatt Maldives (Hadahaa) case study 125–7
Waldorf Astoria Maldives 131
mall hotels 83
Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino (Las Vegas) 92
Mandarin Oriental Dellis Clay (Turks and Caicos Islands) 124, 132, 132
Marina + Beach Hotel (Dubai) 143
Marina Bay Sands (Singapore) 13, 16, 174, 208–11, 213
marina hotels 142–5
The Maritime Hotel (New York City) 274, 274
Hotel Marques de Riscal (Elciego, Spain) 16, 66
Marriott Marquis (Washington) 196
Marriott 312, 314, 339, 405
Courtyard brand 73, 76, 242, 314
Edition brand 62
JW Marriott Downtown (Indianopolis) 95, 97 JW Marriott Ihilani (Hawaii) 333
JW Marriott Indianapolis 99–103, case study 192–5, 336
JW Marriott Los Angeles 90, 96, case study 99–103
Marriott Place (Indianapolis) 95–6, 97, 290, 336
JW Marriott San Antonio (Texas) 343, 360
Marriott Vacation Club Grande Vista (Orlando) 236
Marriott World Center (Orlando) 206, 207
Maryland
Bethesda Marriott Suites 312
Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center (National Harbor) 196, case
study 197–9, 316 Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn (Silver Spring) 92, 92
master-planning, multi-resort destinations 168
Mathes Bierre Architects 264
Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Hawaii 131–2
Mayakoba (Riviera Maya, Mexico) 166, 167, 168
mechanical area 382–3
mechanical systems 391
medical hotels 86–8
Meier, Richard 66
Mercer Hotel (SoHo) (New York City) 15, 25
Mercure 95
Mexico 130
Hotel Habita (Monterrey) 82, 83
Mayakoba (Riviera Maya) 166, 167, 168
W Retreat Kanai and Spa (Riviera Maya) 123
Meydan Grandstand and Hotel, Dubai 16, 31, 31
MGM Grand Hotel (Las Vegas) 235, 395
Miami and Miami BeachDelano 54
Eden Roc 18
Envision Green Hotel 405
Fontainebleau Hotel 18
Hotel Beaux Arts 339
Hotel Victor 405
Viceroy Miami Hotel 282
MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and events) segment 119
Michigan
Baronette Renaissance Hotel (Novi) 349
Book-Cadillac Hotel (Detroit) 242, 243
Midland Grand Hotel (London) 252
Milestone Motel (San Luis Obispo, California) 72
Minneapolis
W Minneapolis—The Foshay 30
Westin Minneapolis 345
Minnesota
Kahler Grand Hotel (Rochester) 86
see also Minneapolis
Mirage Hotel (Abu Dhabi) 38, 38
Miraval Arizona Resort (Arizona) 135, 135
Mississippi
The Alluvian (Greenwood) 63
Missoni Hotel (Edinburgh) 57, 57
mixed-use developments 105–17
advantages 109–10
design considerations 110–17
development and planning considerations 109–10
 and parking 112
suburban hotels 82–3
Mohonk Mountain House (New Paltz, New York) 119
Mondrian SoHo (New York City) 59
Montana Trails Lodge (Big Sky, Montana) 149
Morgans Hotel (New York City) 53, 56
Morocco
Four Seasons Marrakech 337
Morongo Casino (Cabazon, California) 343
Mosaic PATHWAY 406, 407
Motel 6 72, 73, 73
Motel One 57
motels 70, 72–3, 76
mountain resorts 146–53
multi-branded hotels 91–103
advantages 91–2
design considerations 92–103
planning and development considerations 91–2
multi-resort destination complexes 166–71
accommodation planning 168–9
master-plan design considerations 168
theme parks 169–71
multi-story hotels 15–16

Nebraska
Lied Lodge and Conference Center (Nebraska City) 224, 224
Netherlands
Hotel SnowWorld (Landgraaf) 154
Kruisherenhotel-Maastricht (Maastricht) 271
New Jersey
Doral Forrestal (Princeton) 215
Revel (Atlantic City) 174
Sheraton Hotel (Atlantic City) 190
New Mexico
Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa (Santa Ana Pueblo) 138, 139
New Netherland (New York City) 19
New Orleans
Roosevelt New Orleans 264, 264, 265, 266
Sheraton 218
New Orleans Arcology Habitat (NOAH) 410
New York City
Algonquin Hotel 63, 243, 245
The Astor Hotel 12, 18, 31
Astor House 11, 18
Biltmore Hotel 22, 24
The Carlyle 45, 50, 231
Chambers Hotel 22, 59, case study 60–1
Chambers West Hotel 372
Chelsea Hotel 231
City Hotel 11
Dream Downtown Hotel 274, 274
Fifth Avenue Hotel 12
Four Seasons New York (formerly The Regent) 50–1
Gansevoort Hotel (Meatpacking District) 15, 15, 16
Gansevoort Park Avenue Hotel 15, 15, 16
Gramercy Park Hotel 243, 244
Hampshire House 231
Hotel des Artistes 231
InterContinental Hotel 24
The James Hotel 15, 18, 22, 23
The London NYC (formerly RIHGA Royal) 21, 267
Maritime Hotel 274, 274
Mercer Hotel (SoHo) 15, 26
Morgans Hotel 53, 56
New Netherland 19
The Paramount 56
Peninsula Spa 367
Plaza Hotel 13, 19
President Hotel 333
Residence Inn and Courtyard 95, 95
 Royalton 56
St. Regis 206
Shelton Hotel 21
The Standard Hotel 15, case study 26–9, 293
Waldorf=Astoria 12, 18, 19, 22, 53, 106, 231–2, 360
West 57th Street by Hilton Club 236
W New York 56
Yotel 25, 30
New York Hilton 23
New York Marriott Marquis 245
New York Regent Hotel (later New York Four Seasons) 50
New York State
Doral Arrowwood (Rye Brook) 217
Harrison Conference Center (Glen Cove) 215
Hotel Statler (Buffalo) 12, 327
Statler Hotel (Ithaca) 83, 83
IBM Palisades Conference Hotel 214, 222, 223
Kate's Lazy Meadow (Mount Tremper) 73
Mohonk Mountain House (New Paltz) 119
Stouffer's Hotel (Westchester) 395
see also New York City
Nhow Hotel (Berlin) 37, 38
Nine Zero Hotel (Boston) 18, 18
The Nines (Portland) 263, 272, 273, 347
non-brands 405
North Carolina
Proximity Hotel (Greensboro) 392, 393
The Ritz-Carlton (Charlotte) 30
Umstead Hotel and Spa (Cary) 80, 81
Norton, Enrique 18
Norway, Juvet Landscape Hotel (Alstad) 156
not-for-proft conference centers 217, 224
Nouvel, Jean 18, 66
NYLO 89
Oberoi Udaivilas (Udaipur, India) 51
occupancy 302–4
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) 400
offce buildings, conversion into hotels 30
offce-park hotels 71, 72, 80–1
older travellers 286–7
Old Faithful Lodge (Yellowstone Park) 146
Oldham, Todd 66
Olmsted, Frederick Law 69
Hotel OMM (Barcelona) 59, 59
Omni Hotel (Dallas) 212
One Farrer Hotel 88
operational program 312–13

Oregon
Sylvia Beach Hotel (Newport) 81
see also Portland
Oregon Convention Center Urban Renewal Area plan 190
Orlando
convention hotels 188
Loews Portofno Bay Hotel 188
Loews Royal Pacifc Resort 188
Marriott Vacation Club Grande Vista 236
Marriott World Center 206, 207
outdoor furnishings 296
Owings, Nathaniel 131
ownership 284

The Palace (San Francisco) 12, 19, 323

The Palazzo (Las Vegas) 180, 181
Palazzo Versace (Australia) 57
Palm Jumeirah (Dubai) 166
Palmer House (Chicago) 12
Hotel Palomar (Philadelphia) 67, 67
Paradise Lodge 166
Paradisus Punta Cana Resort, Dominica Republic 124
The Paramount (New York City) 56
Paris
Hotel de Crillon 45
Intercontinental Paris-Avenue Marceau 266, 277
Le Royal Monceau Raffes 52, 63, 63, 266
Renaissance Paris Arc de Triomphe Hotel 16, 16
The Ritz 12, 18, 44, 53
Park Hyatt Maldives (Hadahaa) case study 125–7
Park Hyatt Shanghai (China) 18
The Park Plaza Hotel (Boston) 105–6
parking 294, 344, 368–70
analysis 369
and different types of hotel 368
and mixed-use developments 112
resort sites 285
suburban hotels 71
urban hotels 23, 291, 294
‘peak shaving’ 294
Pei, I. M. 18
Peninsula Shanghai (China) 374
Peninsula Spa (New York City) 367
Pennsylvania
Dolce Valley Forge 83 The Lodge at Woolwich (Hawley) 142
see also Philadelphia
Perkins, Stephen sidebar 44
Philadelphia
Hotel Palomar 67, 67
Le Meridien 356
Piano, Renzo 18
Pixel Hotel (Linz, Austria) 406
place-making, business and leisure hotels 15–16
Planet Hollywood (Las Vegas) 176
planning controls 20–1 see also zoning
Plaza Hotel (New York City) 13, 19
Pod Hotel 314
Poland
Westin Warsaw 349
political climate 284
Portland
Courtyard by Marriott 271, 272
Jupiter Hotel case study 74–5
The Nines Hotel 263, 272, 273, 347
Portman, John C. Jr. 107, 323, sidebar 344, 346, 349
Poseidon Undersea Resort (Fiji) 409
President Hotel (New York City) 333
Prichard, Max 160
Princesse Bora Lodge and Spa (Sainte-Marie Island, Madagascar) 164, 165, 165
professional services agreements 386–90
architect's 387–8
interior designer's 388–90
technical services 386–7
programming and development 299–315
facilities programming 305–14
feasibility analysis 300–5
project sequence 299–300
prototype development 314, 315
project delivery 397–9
construction management 398–9
design/bid/award contract 397–8
design/build method 399
project team 386–90
consultants 386
contractors 386
professional services agreement 386–90
property management systems 394
prototype development 314, 315
Proximity Hotel (Greensboro, North Carolina) 392, 393
Prudential Center (Boston) 106–7
PUBLIC (Chicago) 54
public space design 341–73
exterior approach and entrances 342–4
food and beverage outlets 350–5
function space 357–64
lobby 344–9
matrix 342
objectives 341
parking 368–70
signage and iconographics 370–3
public spaces
design hotels 55
urban hotels 19–20, 31, 34, 50

Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort (Abu Dhabi) 118, 119, 136, 136, 349
Qbic 30, 77

Radisson Blu Hotel, Chicago 112, 116

Raffes Hotels 63, 266
Raffes Praslin (Seychelles) 379
railway travel 12
Ramada Encore (London) 68
random plan 171
Rashid, Karim 63
ReardonSmith Architects 138
receiving and trash areas 380–1
recreation facilities 286
ftness facilities checklist 365
spa and health club 368
swimming pool 365, 368
refagging 263–7
Hotel Remota (Patagonia, Puerto Natales, Chile) 157, 158
Renaissance Arlington Capitol View (Arlington) 340, 345, 358, 372
Renaissance Paris Arc de Triomphe Hotel (Paris) 16, 16
renovations, hotel 58–9, 242–51 see also updating existing hotels
residence clubs 237, 238–9
Residence Inn 314, 336
Residence Inn and Courtyard (New York City) 95, 95
residential hotels 231–2
combination with condominiums 232–4, 237
resort conference centers 217, 218, 222
resort convention hotels 206–11
resort hotels 70, 119–71
desert resort 134–6
early history 119
golf resorts 136–40
island resorts 131–4
marina hotels 142–5
multi-resort destination complexes 166–71
planning and design considerations 120
site and master planning 283–8
ski and mountain resorts 146–53
spa resorts 140–1
also ecotourist hotels; seaside resorts
Resorts World (Singapore) 166, 167
restaurants see food and beverage hotels
restorations 252–63 see also updating existing hotels
Revel (Atlantic City, New Jersey) 174
The Ritz (Paris) 12, 18, 44, 53
The Ritz-Carlton 371
The Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch (Avon, Colorado) 146, 149
The Ritz-Carlton Club (Aspen Highlands, Colorado) 146, 146
The Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences (San Francisco) 232, 233
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences (Guangzhou) 233, 233
The Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe (Truckee, California) 146, 150, 150
The Ritz-Carlton Sanya (China) 130
The Ritz-Carlton (Charlotte, North Carolina) 30
The Ritz-Carlton at ICC (Hong Kong) 112, case study 113–15
The Ritz-Carlton (Los Angeles, California) 90, 96, case study 99–103
The Ritz-Carlton (San Francisco) 23, 371
Riverside Hotel (Illinois) 69
roadside hotels 72–3, 76, 289
Rochon, Pierre Yves 46, 261
Rockefeller, Laurance 131
RockResorts 131
Rockwell, David foreword vii–viii, 66, 185
Rockwell Group 58, 60
Rogers, Isaiah 11, 18
Roomz 57
Roosevelt New Orleans (New Orleans) 264, 264, 265, 266
Rose Rayhaan by Rotana (Dubai) 18, 19
Rosen Shingle Creek (Orlando) 188
Rosewood Sand Hill (Palo Alto) 337
Royalton (New York City) 56
Rubell, Steve 53, 54
Rushmore, Steve sidebar 301–2
Rykiel, Sonia 66

Saffre Resort (Coles Bay, Australia) 155

St. Charles 11
St. Francis (San Francisco) 13
St. Louis Hotel (New Orleans) 18
St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel (London) 240, 252
St. Regis Atlanta 349
St. Regis Deer Crest (Park City, Utah) 147, 149
St. Regis Hotel and Residences (Singapore) 234
St. Regis Sanya Yalong Bay Resort (Sanya, China) 121, 122, 331
The St. Regis (New York) 206
sales and catering offce 377
San Diego (California)
Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel case study 200–3
Hotel del Coronado 53, 119, 260, 261, 263
San Francisco
Bedford Hotel 53
The Fairmont 335
The Palace 12, 19, 323
 The Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences 232, 233
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel 23, 371
St. Francis 13
Santayana, George 55
Saporiti Design Hotel 79
Sassoon House (Shanghai, China) 252
Saudi Arabia, Kingdom Tower (Jeddah) 107, 109
The Savoy (London) 12, 53, 242, 260–1, 262, 280–1
SCDA Architects 125
Schnabel, Julian 243
Schoen, Sara sidebar 392
Schrager, Ian 53, sidebar 54, 243, 314
Seaport Hotel (Boston) 350
seaside resorts 120–31
advantages to corporate groups 120
design considerations 128–30, 134
and employees 124
environmental technology 130–1
guestrooms 128
planning considerations 122–4
pool design 128–30
views 123, 128
security 296, 396, 405, 407
select-service hotels 70, 71, 72, 73, 76
Selengut, Stanley 154
Semiramis Hotel (Athens) 62, 63
Sendlinger, Carl 55
Setai Fifth Avenue (New York City) 24
Seychelles
Four Seasons Resort 128, 128, 288, 288, 337
Raffes Praslin 379
Shanghai
Andaz Shanghai Hotel 10, case study 47–9, 92
The Cathay Hotel 252
Fairmont Peace Hotel 252, 260
 Grand Hyatt Shanghai 18
Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel 32, 34
The Langham Xintiandi Hotel 10, case study 47–9, 92
Park Hyatt Shanghai 18
Peninsula Shanghai 374
Sassoon House 252
Shanghai Tower J-Hotel 18, 108, 108
Songjiang Hotel 408
The Waterhouse at South Bund 276–9The Shard (London) 16, 17, 110, 384
shared-usage lodgings 237
Shelton Hotel (New York City) 21
Sheraton Atlantic City (New Jersey) 190
Sheraton Centre (Toronto) 361
Sheraton Incheon (Songdo City, Korea) 352, 353
Sheraton Milan Malpensa case study 78–9
Sheraton New Orleans 218
Sheraton Yankee Trader (Fort Lauderdale) 263
Sherman House (Chicago) 12
Shliemann, Todd 26
Shangri-La Hotel (London) 110, 110
Sibour, Jules Henri de 247
sidebars
Anhut, Jim 70
Kastner, Robert E. 307
Perkins, Stephen 44
Portman, John C. Jr. 344
Rushmore, Steve 301–2
Schoen, Sara 392
Schrager, Ian 54
sidewalks 344
signage 370–3
The Signature at MGM Grand (Las Vegas) 235
Silken Puerta América (Madrid) 16, 65
Singapore
Connexion Integrated Health Centre 86–7, 88
 Crowne Plaza Changi 77
Marina Bay Sands 13, 16, 174, case study 208–11, 213
One Farrer Hotel 88
Resorts World 166, 167
St. Regis Hotel and Residences 234
W Singapore Sentosa Cove 145
Westin Stamford Singapore 108
Singita Pamushana Lodge (Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve, Zimbabwe) 164, 165
site and master planning 283–97
accessibility and circulation 294
government regulations 291–2
natural landscape 295–6
professional documentation 297
resort sites 283–8
security 296
site characteristics 291
suburban sites 289
urban sites 289–91
utilities 294
views 294
Site Repair 155
site surveys 291
ski resorts 146–53
SkyDome Renaissance Hotel (Toronto) 31
Skylab Architecture 74
‘skylobbies’ 323
slab confguration 319, 322
small-town hotels 88
Smith, Adrian 109
Smith, Richard E. 385
Hotel SnowWorld (Landgraaf, Netherlands) 154
Sol, Germán del 158
Solis Hotel (Shenzhen) 112, 116
Songjiang Hotel (Shanghai) 408
South Africa
 Crystal Towers and Spa (Cape Town) 116, 117
South Carolina
The Inn at Middleton Place (Charleston) 82, 82
South Florida Building Code 134
Southern Ocean Lodge (Kangaroo Island, Australia) case study 160–3
spa and health club 368
spa resorts 119, 140–2
space architecture 411
space maximisation, urban hotels 21–3
Spain
Claris Hotel (Barcelona) 372
Finca Prats Hotel Golf and Spa (Lleida) 136, 137
Hotel Marques de Riscal (Elciego) 16, 66
Hotel OMM (Barcelona) 59, 59
Silken Puerta América (Madrid) 16, 65
W Barcelona case study 39–43, 331, 333
sporting activities 286
SpringHill Suites (Indianapolis) 96, 97
The Standard Hotel (New York City) 15, case study 26–9, 293
Starck, Philippe 63, 66, 266
Starwood 62, 76
aloft brand 76
Element brand 62
W brand 62, 370
Statler, Ellsworth M. 12, 23, 24, 105
Hotel Statler (Buffalo, New York) 12, 327
Statler Hotel (Cornell University, Ithaca, New York) 83, 83
Staybridge (Abu Dhabi) 98
Steigenberger Golf Resort (El Gouna, Egypt) 138, 139
Stern, Robert 146
Sternlicht, Barry foreword viii–ix
storage area 380–1
Stouffer's Hotel (Westchester, New York) 395
Strategic Hotel Analysis Program Evaluation and Proforma (SHAPEPRO) 307
Strategic Hotel Area Program Estimate and Evaluation (SHAPEE) 307
Strategic Hotel Area and Project Estimate (SHAPEST) 307
structural systems 391
The Study at Yale (New Haven) 84–5, 333
suburban convention hotels 206–11
suburban hotels 69–89
airport hotels 71, 72, 76–80
all-suite concept 89
country inns and bed-and-breakfast inns 81–2
design and planning considerations 71–2
food and beverage facilities 72
guestrooms 71
mall hotels 83
medical hotels 86–8
mixed-use developments 82–3
offce-park hotels 71, 72, 80–1
parking 71
roadside hotels and motels 70, 72–6
select-service hotels 70, 71, 72, 73
site and master planning 289
small-town hotels 88
university hotels 83–5
Suitehotel 95, 96
suites 333–4, see also guestroom and suite design
super-luxury hotels, urban 44–51
back-of-house 50–1
design considerations 45–6
guestrooms 50
public spaces 50
sustainable building systems 391–4
sustainability 30, 67, 405 see also ecotourist resorts
Sweden
Jumbo Hostel (Arlanda Airport, Stockholm) 77, 77
swimming pool 128–30, 365, 368
Switzerland
Dolder Grand Hotel, (Zurich) 252, case study 257–9
 Hotel Therme Vals (Vals) 140, 140
Sylvia Beach Hotel (Newport, Oregon) 81

Tabler, William B. 24, 385

Tablet Hotels 62
tabletop design 371
Tahiti
Four Seasons (Bora Bora) 121, 123, 287
Taj Hotel (Boston, formerly The Ritz-Carlton) 13The Taj Mahal Palace
(Mumbai) 18, 252, 260, 261, 396
technical coordination and construction 385–401
architectural and engineering systems 390–9
professional services agreements 386–90
technical guides 390
technical guides 390
technical services agreement 386–7
technology systems 394–7
communication systems 395
guestroom and suite design 338
increased emphasis on 404–5
life-safety systems 395–6
property management systems 394
10 Trinity Hotel (London) 270, 272
Terranea Resort (Rancho Palos Verdes, California) 284, 331, 363, 364, 366, 368
Texas
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center (University of Texas,
Austin) case study 225–7, 359
Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center (Dallas) 20
Great Wolf Lodge Grapevine (Dallas) 83
Houston Galleria 107–8Kimber Modern Hotel (Austin) 56, 57
JW Marriott San Antonio 343, 360
Omni Hotel (Dallas) 212
Thailand
Anantara Golden Triangle Resort and Spa (Golden Triangle) 164
Centara Grand (Bangkok) 205, 342, 351, 352, 353, 354
 Four Seasons Tented Camp (Golden Triangle) 166, 166
theme parks 169–71
Hotel Therme Vals (Vals, Switzerland) 140, 140
Thomas, Roger sidebar 177
3XN Architects 56
threshold factors 24
Thun, Matteo 57
Tianjin East Point Sheraton Hotel (Tianjin, China) 142, 143
Tierra Atacama Hotel and Spa (San Pedro de Atacama, Chile) 158–9, 158
time-sharing 235–6
Tocqueville, Alexis de 187
topological surveys 291
tower confguration 322–3
TownePlace Suites 89, 89
traffc 23, 289
transportation 283–4
trees 285, 289
Tremont House, Boston 11, 18, 327
Turkey
Goldenkey Ski (Bolu) 146, 147
Turks and Caicos Islands
Mandarin Oriental Dellis Clay 132, 132
Water Cay Resort 124, 132, 133
21c Museum Hotel (Louisville) 31, 32, 34

Umstead Hotel and Spa (Cary, North Carolina) 80

uniforms 371
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Anantara Desert Islands Resort and Spa (Abu Dhabi) 129
Armani Hotel (at Burj Khalifa, Dubai) 106, 108–9, 298
Atlantis Dubai Resort Hotel (Dubai) 285, 285
Burj al Arab (Dubai) 50
Marina + Beach Hotel (Dubai) 143
Meydan Grandstand and Hotel (Dubai) 16, 31, 31
Palm Jumeirah (Dubai) 166
 Rose Rayhaan by Rotana (Dubai) 19
Crowne Plaza and Staybridge Suites (Abu Dhabi) 98
Mirage Hotel (Abu Dhabi) 38, 38
Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort (Abu Dhabi) 118, 119, 136, 136, 349
Yas Viceroy Hotel (Abu Dhabi) 119–20, 144, 145, 145 United Kingdom
Hersham Golf Club Hotel (Walton-on-Thames) 138, 139, 140
Hope Street Hotel (Liverpool) 268, 269, 270
Missoni Hotel (Edinburgh) 57, 57
see also London
United States Green Building Council (USGBC) 154
Universal Studios 188
university conference centers 217, 218, 222, 224
university hotels 83–5
updating existing hotels 241–79
adaptive reuse 270–9
additions 267–70
examples of structures converted to hotels 275
existing hotel checklist 246
hotel addition checklist 270
refagging 263–7
renovations 242–51
restorations 252–63
urban convention hotels 191–206
urban convention-center headquarters hotels 189–91
urban hotels 11–51
business and leisure hotels 11–30
entertainment hotels 31–5
site and master planning 289–91
and spas 141
super-luxury 44–51
waterfront hotels 36–43
Utah
Amangiri Resort (Canyon Point) 134, 135
St. Regis Deer Crest (Park City) 147, 149
utilities 294
vacation ownership resorts 235–7
vacation village 168
Vaux, Calvert 69
Vdara (Las Vegas) 175, 175
The Vendome (Boston) 53
The Venetian Hotel (Las Vegas) 180, 331, 332
The Venetian Macau 181
Viceroy (Anguilla, British West Indies) 128
Viceroy Miami Hotel 282
Hotel Victor (Miami Beach) 405
Vietnam
Binh Tien Resort (Nha Trang) 169
View Sunset Monzen Family Inn (Japan) 81–2
views 21, 36, 123, 128, 285, 294
Vigilius Mountain Resort (San Vigilio, Italy) 148
Viñoly, Rafael 66
Virgin Galactic Spaceport (New Mexico) 411
Virginia
Renaissance Arlington Capitol View (Arlington) 340, 345, 358, 372

W Barcelona case study 39–43, 331, 333

W Hollywood (Los Angeles) 234
W Hong Kong 113
W Hotel 62, 314
W Hotel Barcelona case study 39–43
W Hotel (New York City) 56
W London 14
W Minneapolis—The Foshay 30
W Mumbai 104, 109
W New York 350
W Retreat Kanai and Spa (Riviera Maya, Mexico) 123
W Singapore Sentosa Cove (Singapore) 145
Waldorf Astoria (Maldives) 131
Waldorf=Astoria (New York City) 12, 18, 19, 22, 53, 106, 231–2, 360
walking experiences 168
Walt Disney World (Florida) 328
Washington
Grand Hyatt 204, 206, 360, 361
The Jefferson Hotel case study 247–51
Marriott Marquis 196
Willard 206
Water Cay Resort, Turks and Caicos Islands 124, 132, 133
WaterColor Inn and Resort (Santa Rosa Beach, Florida) 133
waterfront development 15
waterfront hotels, urban 36–43
The Waterhouse at South Bund (Shanghai) 276–9
WATG Architects 67, 406
West 57th Street by Hilton Club (New York City) 236
Westin Beach Resort and Spa (Fort Lauderdale) 263–4, 263, 269
Westin Boston Waterfront 190, 190, 348
Westin Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) 109
Westin Hyderabad Mindspace Hotel) 80
Westin Minneapolis 345
Westin Stamford Singapore 108
Westin Warsaw ) 349
WiFi 395
wilderness lodges 164–6
wildlife reserves 164–6
Willard (Washington) 206
Wilson, Kemmons 53, 72, 329
Wolff, Howard J. sidebar 406
World Green Building Council 154
Wright, Frank Lloyd 18

Yas Viceroy Hotel (Abu Dhabi) 119–20, 144, 145, 145

Yotel 57
Heathrow Airport 77, 77
London 331
New York City 25
Yun, Changki 38

Zimbabwe
Singita Pamushana Lodge (Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve) 164, 165
zoning 289, 291–2
in suburbs 71
urban hotels 20–2
Zumthor, Peter 140
Zurich
Dolder Grand Hotel case study 157–9