Hyatt Regency brand already ‘designed’ for the next upcycle

CHICAGO—Like other hotel companies, Global Hyatt Corp. understands that the time to invest in renovations and upgrades is during the down phase of the lodging industry cycle, so that when the economy strengthens and demand rebounds, the hotels are in the best shape possible. Accordingly, Hyatt is mid-way through a $1.3-billion capital improvement program of its Hyatt Regency brand in North America. Hyatt hopes to raise further the Regency brand’s profile in what has become a highly competitive marketplace. While Global Hyatt is picking up the tab for improvements being made to company-owned hotels, owners of other Hyatt Regency hotels are underwriting the cost of the changes at their properties, all of which are managed by Hyatt. Meanwhile, the new standards and designs are being implemented in new Hyatt Regency hotels as they open. In all, 17 Hyatt Regency properties had been renovated or opened by mid-2008 and an additional 31 are scheduled to open or be refurbished by year-end 2010. Properties range from business hotels like the 1,100-room Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, IL, to convention hotels like the 685-room Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA, and resorts such as the 360-room Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort & Casino in Aruba. Hyatt’s senior vp for product and brand development, John Wallis, the executive behind the brand overhaul, spelled out details of the Hyatt strategy to HOTEL BUSINESS®. “We’re designing different interiors for different markets in different locations and have been particularly careful in choosing which interior designer we put on which projects,” Wallis said. In addition, Hyatt has upgraded the level of interior designers responsible for the designs going into its different hotels. “We have brand standards and a brand brief, yet we still believe in allowing the designer to design,” he said, noting that not all hotel companies approach renovations in this way, preferring instead a more one-size-fits-all aesthetic. Wallis and his team at Hyatt’s corporate office in Chicago sign off on each design before it goes forward. “We had already used most of these designers on international projects before, so we were comfortable with the quality of their work,” Wallis explained. “Therefore, another benefit of the program is that we’ve brought some consistency to our product from what we had outside the U.S. into the U.S.” In cases where the hotel is not Hyatt-owned, the owner has had ample input into the budget and has a dotted line say in the choice of the designer. One aspect of the program focused on Hyatt’s Regency Clubs, the “hotel within a hotel” at many Hyatt Regency properties that provide a higher level of personal guest service. Making the look and feel of Hyatt Regency hotels more contemporary and sophisticated helps ensure they’ll remain competitive leaders in their respective markets, Wallis argues. It’s design as a form of competitive advantage. Wallis cited the Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort & Casino as an example. “When we redid the bedrooms at that property, we specifically spent the money to make sure that when the next wave of competition comes to Aruba, we’ve set the standard at a very high level,” he said. “The design standard is so high that the competition will realize this is where they have to be in order to compete.” Certainly in the guestroom—but also in the lobby—technological advances, combined with the way people today travel, have influenced the design dynamic. Take guestrooms and the spread of flat-screen televisions for example. “It has basically changed bedroom design forever because it’s taken out a massive armoire that used to be in every bedroom hiding the back of the TV,” Wallis noted. “Similarly in your home when you install a flat-screen TV, it transforms the room it’s in.” Compounding the change, guests today are less likely to unpack their clothes while in the hotel. “There’s a massive trend of people actually living out of their travel bag,” Wallis said. “If you look at bedrooms designed in the 1970s and 1980s, there was a lot of drawer space, while in bedrooms designed for 2009 to 2010, it’s more important to have an area in the bedroom for guests to put out their bag. If you think about the old hotels, you’d have that armoire with the TV and the massive drawer space underneath. Well, without that we’ve been able to completely transform the bedroom.” In the same way, hotels built in the 1970s and 1980s tended to have small bathrooms. “A key decision we made was to replace small tubs with a great shower,” Wallis said. “We still have a limited number of twin rooms with tubs that are primarily for the kids’ market. Baths aren’t popular because you can’t soak, you can’t stretch. What we have to push for now is to give a great shower experience.”