The guestroom addition to the Bellevue Club, a recent addition to the Eastside hotel stock, designed by Callison Architecture. Two major trends are developing in response to guest needs and investor demands. Hotels are responding to their guests' changing work and lifestyles brought on by advances in information and communication technology and a global economy. And hotel management and owners are scrutinizing the bottom line, responding to investor concerns about increasing efficiency by streamlining operations and cutting costs. To compete, hotels must respond both to traveler demands and investor scrutiny.
More business people are on the road today.
It has become clear to hotel operators that as the new travelers are compelled to live somewhere else for several days, they want it to feel more like home. Suite and extended-stay properties, like the Marriot Suites on south Lake Union for example, have stepped in to fill this niche, but the business and specialty hotels are looking to offer their guests some of the same amenities. But there is more subtle evidence of the same trend here. Scaling public spaces to feel intimate and inviting rather than grand and impressive. This trend is perhaps even more pronounced in Seattle, where guests arrive with certain expectations of casual comfort, the smell of espresso in the air and micro brews on tap.