New article in the WSJ today... "Secrets of a hotel test lab" (Google it, if you enter from Google News, usually you won't hit the paywall). It's specifically about Marriott.
Originally Posted by WSJ/Reporter Andrea Petersen
In the new modern hotel room, the desk is shrinking, the carpet is disappearing, and the bathroom is "deconstructed".
Off to a great start. Next few paragraphs, hotels are changing, millennials, etc... But I'll summarize the points.
- They found a bunch of "luggage toting design bloggers" to go into test rooms and apparently they just throw their bags on the chair or the desk (nobody got the luggage rack from the closet). So in some hotels (e.g. Renaissance Times Square) they put a bench by the door for that.
- Shrinking closets with fewer hangars, particularly in hotels with many business travelers staying only a night or two. In Renaissance Times Square, the closet is a mere 18 inches wide with four to six hangers.
- Desks are shrinking, armoires are leaving, and carpet... is disappearing (apparently because people don't trust it to really get cleaned) in favor of vinyl that resembles wood. The substitution of carpet is problematic during renovations so it's more challenging when it's not new construction (because of the need to use other material to soundproof).
- They are going for "deconstructed" bathrooms where the toilet/shower are in one room and the sink is open to the rest of the room, separate, with a barrier of "Frosted glass" (in the article, someone comments it does not block enough light for someone else in the room to continue sleeping as someone uses the sink).
- They toyed with upgrading the in-room coffee to Nespresso at AC hotels, but substituting the fridge. Out of a sample of about 1,000 people, they were shocked to find out 69% preferred the fridge. So it seems this will not change.
Carpet doesn't really bother me, but the smaller closet, lack of a luggage rack in the closet, and smaller desks are all
for me.