Better hotel design through magazine reading
— -- Do you crave a unique lodging experience beyond the monotony of the usual bland, chain hotels? If so, hotel companies are trying harder than ever to accommodate you.
Research conducted by Marriott indicates one third of all travelers are "experience driven" and would therefore gravitate to a boutique or lifestyle hotel. But all boutique/lifestyle hotel rooms combined represent only 3% of available hotel rooms today. So there is a major gap that many hotel chains are beginning to exploit with new brands like Hyatt Place, Indigo and W Hotels. Marriott recently announced a new venture with boutique hotel pioneer Ian Schrager to launch a lifestyle/boutique brand called Edition, which will eventually include 100 properties across the globe.
But amid a growing crop of boutique hotels from chains large and small, one company is taking hotel design to a unique extreme. Chip Conley, the founder and chief executive officer of Joie de Vivre Hotels (JDV), a rapidly growing collection of 38 unique hotels based in California, thinks the answer lies with a famous psychologist and in the pages of popular magazines.
In managing JDV, which he began in 1987, Conley uses guiding precepts based on the teachings of psychologist Abraham Maslow. The result is a recipe that permeates every aspect of hotel management, beginning with the very conception of each new property. Every JDV hotel embodies a different theme based on one or two popular magazines such as Business Week, Esquire, or Fortune; or more specialized or niche publications like Dwell, Real Simple, or Vibe.
To establish a new hotel's personality a dozen or so JDV employees will assemble in a room, spread 40 or 50 magazines on the table, and start talking. Once they've selected their magazines they'll study the advertisers and the target demographic and psychographic for those publications. They then select five words describing the magazine audience. This becomes the theme for the new hotel.
Each word selected describes a unique service or attribute. "If the hotel is going to be 'rustic', what is going to be rustic about it? Or if it is going to be 'indulgent', what is going to be indulgent? We try to actually identify specifics," Conley told me.
As a result of this unorthodox process, no two JDV hotels share the same theme or personality. To determine which JDV hotel best fits your individual personality, you can consult " Yvette," JDV's pensive Internet-based hotel matchmaker. Yvette will give you a one minute personality test. "That test helps us understand how you see yourself," says Conley. "In so doing, we are able to match you to the hotel as well as things to do that fit your personality."
On my first try, Yvette recommended the Acqua Hotel and the Mill Valley Inn, both located in the upscale San Francisco suburb which is home to many famous writers, actors and aging rock stars.
But on a different day, Yvette offered up five new suggestions from Napa Valley to Silicon Valley, with nary a Mill Valley hotel in their midst. The results appear to vary depending on your personality or mood at the time you take the quiz. One moment I may feel "casual" and "relaxed", while the second time through I might feel more "dynamic" and "vibrant" (especially after a couple of lattes).
But Yvette doesn't stop with hotel advice. She also provided travel tips from two "locals," avatars by the name of Jim Haas, described by JDV as "a thoughtful guy who has made a great impact on his native city" and Vanda Marlow, "a bodacious goddess who revels in the Bay Area as a spiritual crossroads." Both of these individuals are supposed to share my psychographic characteristics and each one offered recommendations on what to do and where to dine during my JDV hotel stay (assuming I would have time to get out and enjoy the environment during the course of a business trip).
Conley's first JDV hotel primarily served celebrities in the music industry, but now business travelers of all kinds account for up to 45% of JDV customers, depending on the specific hotel and location. Unlike a typical hotel, most people discover boutique hotels by word of mouth, or through referrals from friends, family or business associates, according to Conley. Locals may dine at the hotel restaurant or imbibe at the bar and then start to spread the word. The boutique hotels that do well are often the locals' favorites.
Conley believes the boutique or lifestyle market is largely untapped, and JDV continues to open new hotels and grow rapidly, with $160 million in sales in 2006, $220 million in 2007 and $280 million projected for 2008. But JDV hasn't always been prosperous. It was still a young company when the .com bust and 9/11/01 travel downturn took a large economic toll on Northern California where the original JDV hotels were centered.
That's when Conley discovered Maslow's teachings and began to apply them within his own company. "To create a workplace where people are more likely to be self-actualized and have peak experiences, you transcend from focusing just on money," says Conley. "That is a base need for employees in a work place, but you focus more on recognition and meaning."
Since individuals comprise corporations, a company's peak experience is the aggregate collection of individual experiences. Peak performer companies create deep loyalty with their employees, customers, and investors. "It is much more of a long term relationship", says Conley, who is so enamored of the concept he published a new book called Peak. In so doing, the hope is that loyalty translates into profitability.
Conley cites companies like Federal Express, Harley-Davidson and Medtronic, or airlines like Continental, JetBlue, Singapore and Southwest as examples of successful businesses that focus on the higher needs of employees and customers. This provides a culture which helps those companies better survive downturns and generate profits over the long term.
For business travelers, of course, there's only one important question: Will magazines and Maslow add up to a better stay? JDV is betting the company that they do.
Send David your feedback: David Grossman is a veteran business traveler and former airline industry executive. He writes a column every other week on topics of interest and concern to business travelers. E-mail him at travel@usatoday.com.