insight
it’s not about efficiency, it’s about experience
The Hospitality Model for Work
The solution, David suggests, is for workplace design to take its cues from the hotel industry's approach to service and amenity.
"From the moment a guest steps foot into a hotel, it’s about the experience. Great hotel design creates a sense of arrival, leverages every square metre of its location, and shapes each space to create special moments."
Philip agrees, pointing to many premium offices that employ hospitality-trained service staff at the concierge desk, as they "understand how to deliver the front door experience."
This brings us to 'Convergence': the big buzzword across most industries. Philip adds that this will occur in workplaces as co-working and hotel brands begin competing in the same space. "Hotels have the brand awareness, service models and operational expertise to compete and perhaps even do it better than the current crop of co-working providers," David explains. A well-designed co-working environment could provide a better level of service for hotel guests and a new revenue stream for the hotels themselves.
The Blurring of Sectors
We are also seeing an increased blurring of the lines between traditional sectors, directly reflecting consumer behavior. The workplace is now a social space, a place to eat, drink, live, and work. This redefines communities, with people clustering together based on similar interests and jobs, which in turn fundamentally changes how urban centers must be planned and designed.
Creating Bespoke Solutions
We understand that every opportunity requires a bespoke solution, often needing insights from multiple specialisms. We have cross-fertilized our sector specialisms to ensure our group is fit for this purpose. For example, our service is no longer simply about providing a hotel; it's about providing hospitality experiences with agile workspaces and relevant retail and F&B opportunities. By tying this expertise together with master planning and urban design, we help our clients understand and design for the consumers they seek to attract.
The coming year promises huge opportunities for those who are prepared to be agile. We look forward to creating designs that solve our clients' problems and forging new successful partnerships.
