Hotels used to be the place to hang your hat and fall asleep to bad late-night TV. But over the years, travelers began to scorn rooms lacking a hair dryer and a spot to plug in a laptop.
Even that’s not enough for today’s savvy consumers. Hotels, still trying to recover from the travel slowdown that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, are offering discount deals, high-tech entertainment and rooms with bizarre twists.
Consider the Jules’ Undersea Lodge, an underwater hotel in Key Largo, Fla., where guests have to suit up in dive gear just to get to their rooms.
Or the JailHouse Inn Bed and Breakfast in Preston, Minn., a restored county jail built in 1869. The inn offers a “cell block” where clients can sleep behind bars.
And then there’s the Library Hotel in Manhattan, where all the rooms have a theme and are numbered according to the Dewey Decimal System.
“Many folks are so burned out on traveling that they really want to find places that offer something completely different,” said Mary Tabacchi, professor of hotel management at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. “Seasoned travelers are looking to find a market niche they’ve never experienced before, and hotels are giving it to them.”
Even the most popular hotels are coming up with new packages to lure travelers.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Chicago unveiled a “shopper’s package” this month that lets certain guests enjoy a shopping spree with more than $600 in merchandise certificates. Another “Family First Package” allows younger guests to enjoy in-room Sony PlayStations, an array of children’s videos and DVDs, and a welcome box filled with homemade cookies and juice.
Chains, too, are doing everything they can to stand out.
Embassy Suites Hotels, a unit of Hilton Hotels Corp., has come up with a class of rooms called Creativity Suites designed to stimulate a guest’s creative juices. They boast showers with grease boards for scribbling down great ideas. Their sofas come in sections that can be rearranged in thought-provoking positions. They’re stocked with brain-teasing toys and a mini-bar filled with “brain food.”
The initial test Creativity Suite rolled out in New York in early December. Others will open in Los Angeles next month and in Chicago in March.
Hotel stay is click away
– JailHouse Inn Bed and Breakfast: www.jailhouseinn.com
– Jules’ Undersea Lodge: www.jul.com
– Library Hotel: www.libraryhotel.com
– Ritz-Carlton Chicago: www.fourseasons.com/chicagorc
– Embassy Suites: www.embassysuites.com
