“It’s not how big the room is, it’s what you do with it”

“It’s not how big the room is, it’s what you do with it”

Travellers might need to get used to smaller rooms in the future, but according to hotel and tourism consultant Peter Hook, the new era of hotels proves that big things can come from small packages.

Ever since the arrival of international hotels, the perception has been that size matters. The expectation has been “the higher the price, the bigger the room”.

However, that notion might have to change because of the sky-rocketing cost of developing hotels in cities such as Sydney, London and New York, allied to a significant shift in attitude by many travellers – particularly millennials – for whom it’s not how big the room is, it’s what the hotel does with it.

The prime attraction for most travellers is location, followed by price, but the more central the location, the higher cost of land and development.

For most projects to stack up financially, the pressure is on for the developer to increase the number of rooms and therefore restrict the size of individual rooms.

This was one of the reasons why the Sydney CBD had just one new build hotel in the decade after the Olympics – and that was the Ibis King Street Wharf, built on a postage-stamp block next to the Western Distributor.

Not surprisingly, the rooms are small, but the location – next to Barangaroo and just five minutes’ walk to Wynyard – makes it popular with business and leisure travellers who vote for location over space.

The ‘size doesn’t count, but the quality does’ movement gained momentum a decade ago, when Rattan Chadha came up with the CitizenM concept in the Netherlands.

He thought that most of the budget chain hotels didn’t appeal to younger travellers, who he believed wanted location and style – but not the high prices associated with most CBD hotels.

“We threw away everything we didn’t like about hotels, starting with the rooms,” recalls Chadra.

“I’ve stayed in hotel rooms so big I could have lived there. That’s useless space. I’m here for a night–all I need is a comfortable bed. At CitizenM, every room is exactly the same–same square footage, same-size window.

“We decided to focus on what’s relevant for the customer: a fantastic mattress, high-thread-count linens, blackout shades, a fantastic shower, free Wi-Fi and entertainment–and free bottled water. And every room is the same price.”

You can get a room at CitizenM in New York’s Time Square for US$250, when many other chain hotels regularly charge double that. Yes, rooms are just 15sqm, but CitizenM hotels make every inch count.

Accor’s Mama Shelter brand similarly puts the emphasis on the communal public areas and dining areas rather than huge rooms, despite having famed designer Philippe Starck involved, and this revolution in attitude has translated through to established brands such as Ibis which is now rolling out funky cafes and lounges to counter-balance the compact rooms.

The interesting question is whether this movement will extend to Asia. It was the massive development of Asia’s hotel and tourism industry from the 1980s that introduced the ‘big is beautiful’ concept, with cheap land and plentiful labour allowing massive rooms and public areas to be offered without a massive price tag.

However, this might be about to change. CitizenM has opened their first hotel in Asia – in Taipei – and Accor is looking to extend its Mama Shelter brand in major cities.

Australia originally followed the Asian trend towards larger rooms, especially in resort areas, but more recently in cities like Sydney and Melbourne, space has come at a premium.

Sydney has just seen the opening of a ‘capsule hotel’ and while it is debatable whether this peculiarly-Japanese concept will take on in Australia, doing more with less will definitely shape the future of the hotel industry.

The cost of land and construction has meant that most of the new breed of hotels in Sydney are being constructed out of existing buildings, the latest being the Tank Stream Hotel, created out of a 1960s commercial building next to Australia Square in the heart of the CBD.

Rooms are generally about 20sqm to 24sqm, but pack in a vast amount of features including free high-speed internet, free minibar items, free in-room movies and a Nespresso coffee machine.

The hotel doesn’t have a gym, swimming pool, massive lobby or parking, but it does have a premier location and room rates that start from just $179, remarkable for a city operating at over 90 per cent occupancy.

The trend towards more compact rooms hasn’t only been driven by the cost of land. Technological advances have meant that clunky televisions requiring equally clunky cabinets have been replaced by wall mounted TVs, saving a huge amount of space.

Furnishings, lighting and increased use of glass – even glass-walled bathrooms – have increased the perception of space, and with smaller laptop and other devices, the need for a large working desk is often redundant, as road-warriors work from the bed or the lounge chair, using the TV as their monitor.

There will always be travellers who judge their hotel by the size of their room, but the question is whether they will be prepared to pay for the extra space or settle for a less convenient location? Getting used to a smaller room might just be an irreversible trend, especially in popular cities.

Peter Hook is director of Hook Communications

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