What is a Luxury Hotel in the 21st Century? Democratized Luxury in NYC’s Hotel Sector
What do all luxury hotels, 5-Star restaurants, Designer stores, and the like have in common? They all have a certain ambiance to them. An ambiance that, as you take your first steps into the area, make you think “I am not somewhere ordinary. This place is something special. I feel special.” The developers and creators of these spaces pay a lot of money to talented designers to give you that special feeling, and these types of experiences have been labeled luxury. For most of history, the idea of applying high-end design to make a consumer feel special has been reserved to a limited portion of society that can afford it. However, in recent years larger amounts of the population are gaining access to luxury experiences. So how exactly is luxury design becoming available to more people, and how are the designers/developers affording to provide this level of affluence to the masses. To answer this question in the context of the NYC hotel sector, let us begin with the building that helped define what an American luxury hotel could be: the Plaza Hotel.
20th Century Grandeur: The Plaza Hotel
The original structure built on the site of the Plaza was an eight story, 400 key hotel. After a redesign in 1907, the hotel began to resemble the infamous 21-story- 800 key hotel that exists today. The original architect of the building, Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, designed the exterior of the building in the French Renaissance style. His reason for choosing this style was to gauge the attention of high-end clientele through this style’s symbolic connection with the French Chateau. A Chateau is a type of high-end residence usually found in the French countryside, that were owned by the well-to-do in France. The design, intended to resemble a castle, epitomized high social status in earlier France.
Another aspect of the hotel that made it a pioneering development in 20th century U.S.A was its performance as a building not just for lodging, but also for eating and drinking. Various up-scale restaurants and bars flood the lower floors of the hotel, that became Manhattan landmarks themselves. Many of these rooms, such as the Oak room and Tea room had their own personal designers to give each their own distinctive style, similar to classical European mansions. These amenity spaces have served multiple purposes over the years.
Democratized Luxury
Fast forward to the 21st century, and up-scale living has spread from the lives of the ultra-wealthy to the masses as the idea of affordable/democratized luxury has become an ideal. Many of the goods and services that were previously available to only a few members of society that could afford it, such as jewelry and brand name clothing, are now commonly owned by many people. Think of Nike as an example. They are a well-known brand name that almost everyone could afford. What Nike’s products provide to their customers is not quite different than that of the Plaza Hotel: they make their end-consumer feel special. But Nike manages to do so at an affordable price.
There is an obvious issue that arises with the phenomena of democratized luxury: how can you provide the same level of luxury to the general public as you do to the upper-class? The Plaza Hotel used some of the finest, and expensive, materials to impress their guests, and paid well-known designers to detail every corner of the hotel to make the guest feel special. If a low-budget hotel is going to make users feel the same way with their experience then, from a financial standpoint, some level of the experience must be compromised.
So, what is it that affordable-luxury hotel brands have been compromising? For certain NYC lower-budget hotels, the compromised element has been space. Guestroom space, that is. The business model: provide high-end design to guests, resourceful amenities, a prominent location, and a guest room that feels luxurious. However, make the guestroom extra small so that you can fit more of them, allowing for profits to remain high. You might be thinking: will a hotel guest still think they are having a luxury experience if their guestroom is not large?
Luxury Redefined: YOTEL New York
For those staying at the YOTEL in NYC, the answer seems to be yes: they are enjoying their experience. The first YOTEL opened near an airport in London that provided small, cheap, yet attractive rooms to guests that are flying. When the concept was brought to New York, YOTEL had to compete in one of the worlds’ largest tourism markets, with travelers that seek the best hotel experiences. Compare YOTEL New York with the Plaza Hotel. Both are located at prominent areas where there are plenty of activities to do and places to explore nearby. Rockwell Group, the well-known firm that has worked on many successful hospitality projects, was one of the primary designers on the project. Like the Plaza, both hotels had prominent architects design exceptional spaces. There is an over-abundance of high-end amenity spaces throughout the YOTEL, including the largest outdoor hotel terrace in all of NYC. Similar to the fashionable bars and restaurants at the Plaza, the YOTEL uses innovative and luxurious design in their amenity spaces to make their guests feel special. The only element that the Plaza Hotel seems to provide that YOTEL does not is ample guest room space. And given the success of the YOTEL, good design and amenities seem to do it for their guests to be satisfied.
Another parallel between our two case-study hotels is innovation. When the Plaza was renovated and reopened in 1907, there were few hotels in the country that shared its qualities of elegant design, a vast number of guestrooms (800), and amenities such as restaurants and bars that would attract famous celebrities and public figures. The Rockwell-designed architecture of the YOTEL is also exceptional, providing vibrant, sleek interiors that spill into every corner of the hotel. However, what makes the YOTEL stand out to its guests is its innovative technology. A key theme of the YOTEL is to maximize functional efficiency for their guests. This begins when the guests check in to the hotel at kiosks, eliminating the need for human check in desks. Another piece of technology that has become a site to see is the YOBOT, a robot that you give your luggage to if you need your bags to be stored until your check in, or if you checked out early. This innovation is displayed through a window, allowing innovation to be integrated into the YOTEL’s design scheme.
How Important is Guestroom Space?
Clearly, both the Plaza Hotel and YOTEL NYC have employed innovative design tactics and a specific ambiance to make their guests feel special. Now let’s compare the element that set them apart: the guestroom and its price. The theme of the guestrooms in both hotels matches that of the hotel’s exterior and public spaces. While the Plaza has gone through numerous renovations and redesigns over the decades, the elegance of the French chateau has remained throughout, and this elegance is at work in the guestrooms as well.
Similarly, the guestrooms of the YOTEL are similar in style to the hotel’s public spaces. The use of innovative design technology is also showcased in the guestroom. The bed is mechanically controlled, allowing it to rotate from bed to couch in a matter of seconds. While this design tactic serves to keep the theme of tech-savvy aura in the guestrooms, perhaps more importantly, it allows the sleeping area to double as a lounging area, keeping with the business model of maximizing every square-inch of the guestroom to keep the space small.
As you could see, the two hotel’s share many common denominators. Now let’s analyze the layouts of a typical room at each hotel. The most abundant guestroom type at the YOTEL is the 170 square-foot premium rooms, which make up a large amount of the hotel’s 669 rooms. (This is in fact not the smallest room available, as they also have 114 square-foot solo cabins.) The Plaza currently has 282 hotel rooms, as a recent renovation split the Plaza into both hotel rooms and luxury residences. The room noted as “classic” on their website is the 475 square- foot Plaza King room. This room is amongst the smallest provided by the hotel, yet it is nearly three times that of the typical premium room at the YOTEL.
Looking at the two rooms side by side, an interesting observation could be attained. While we know the Plaza room is about three times bigger, when you scale the floor plans to a similar size, neither room plan seems necessarily more spacious than the other. Yes, the Plaza room has a more grandiose entrance corridor, a bath tub, and a bigger bed. However, aside from the lounge area between the bed and the dresser, there is not much that the Plaza room provides that the YOTEL room does not. And we also know that the YOTEL bed folds upwards to become a lounge area, giving the YOTEL another area to compete with the Plaza room. What the Plaza room does provide that the YOTEL one does not is a more grandiose and classical aura that high-end guests are willing to pay for. Still, the YOTEL has managed to sustain a level of luxury through their tech-savvy design efficiency that has allowed them to shrink the size of their cabin rooms. This enabled them to provide a high number of guestrooms, allowing for cheaper room prices while still maintaining a profitable business model.
What can be concluded in breaking down the design intent/business strategies of these two hotels is the following: the concept of luxury in the 21st century is not necessarily changing: it is simply expanding. The Plaza Hotel, with its elegance and wide array of suites, remain successful over 100 years and many renovations later. High-end clientele continue to enjoy paying top dollar for experiences limited to people who can afford them. However, there are now other lodging/hospitality options that arguably provide the same level of design excellence as the Rockwell-designed YOTEL NYC but are far more affordable. The expanding of the luxury hotel concept is beneficial for all parties. The customer has a wider range of affordability options to choose from, and the hoteliers/developers have more options when deciding which price-class to target.
The guests at YOTEL still receive exquisite amenities and accommodations, but simply have less living space. In the urban-hotel sector in particular, this compromising of guestroom space could even be considered a positive, as it encourages the guest to get out of their room and explore both the hotel’s amenities and all the sites NYC has to explore. If you are travelling to a high-density city like Manhattan, one could imagine you have a full bucket-list of places to visit in the short amount of time you have to stay. Or you are business traveler that will be going to 10 different meetings around the city throughout your week. Perhaps for some of these guests, all you need is a glamorous rooftop bar to grab a drink at in the evening and an attractive, clean bedroom to sleep in at night. Or maybe you want a 2000 square-foot suite at the Plaza. The choice is now yours.
Sources (MLA):
Amy Frearson | 27 November 2011 5 comments. “Yotel New York by Softroom and Rockwell Group.” Dezeen, 3 Nov. 2016, https://www.dezeen.com/2011/11/27/yotel-new-york-by-softroom-and-rockwell-group/.
Architectural Record. New York City: The Record and Guide, July- December 1907
“Luxury Hotel near Central Park: 5 Star Hotel in NYC: The Plaza Hotel.” The Plaza, 4 Jan. 2022, https://www.theplazany.com/.
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 156–157
Reynolds, Donald Martin. The Architecture of New York City: Histories and Views of Important Structures, Sities, and Symbols. Macmillan Publishing Company, 1984.
“Yotel New York.” YOTEL, https://www.yotel.com/en/hotels/yotel-new-york?gclid=Cj0KCQiAoNWOBhCwARIsAAiHnEhOEycj0_ddRhuzfmS61XLXL7wCY_Q_wFMz6HSw7U4Ulu_80WZqUPEaAvdsEALw_wcB.
**all images used are from yotel.com and the plazany.com, or were graphics created on my own