Hotel Design Trends – the Lobby is Back in a Big Way
Back in the day – say, the early 20th century – the hotel lobby was a place to congregate for business and pleasure alike. Bars and restaurants spilled out into the lobby like cafes in Paris spill onto the streets.
The middle class had not yet taken to traveling, so the vast majority of guests were on business or of considerable wealth, requiring a place to facilitate that business or, in the case of the York Hotel in Toronto, play host to Grey Cup festivities.
As the century moved on and family travel boomed, the requirements of the lobby became more about expediting check-in and check-out, causing the lobby to shrink down to a fraction of what they used to be. Families tended to not stay in at the hotel, and thus the space set aside for business travelers began to disappear.
Grand luxury hotels fell out of favor as travel lodges and motels popped up everywhere to cater to the newly-mobile middle class in the 50s-60s.
Since the dawn of the new century however, the lobby is again becoming a hub of business and pleasure for the modern age. We’re more connected than ever before, and the combination of relatively cheap air travel with the “always-on” mentality of today’s business traveler has the hotel industry bringing back the lobby.
Well designed spaces like the lobby of the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo are bringing back the open-lobby concept with multi-functional seating arrangements catering to small and large groups, and adding modern necessities like electronic charging stations.
We’re also seeing boutique hotels working hard to bring people together in the lobby. The Franklin Hotel, a small boutique hotel in New York City’s Upper East Side, offers its guests complimentary wine and cheese each evening. The Ace Hotel in Portland has a black-and-white photo booth for its guests in the lobby next to a large sitting area.
These updates – smart, intentional design and guest-friendly perks – are making the lobby relevant again. Look for more hotels to catch on in the coming years.