With a new year on the horizon, hotel brands are gearing up to launch new and renovated properties. We checked in with reps from various hotels to ask how they plan to court meeting planners—and accommodate business travelers—in 2016. Here are some of the top hotel trends to watch in the coming year.
Natural Light
In Bloomington, Minnesota, the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Suites will reopen as Crowne Plaza Aire by the spring. As part of the renovation, the hotel's 18,000 square feet of meeting space will get an update. An advisory board of meeting planners helped the hotel determine which amenities to focus on in the new meeting rooms, according to Judith Kalfon, the general manager. Natural light was a popular request, so some 60 percent of the renovated hotel's gathering spots will have windows. The Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel is in the midst of a massive renovation, and its next phase will wrap up in March. New event spaces will include the 3,000-square-foot Looking Glass ballroom, which will have floor-to-ceiling windows. At LondonHouse, a Chicago luxury property set to open in the spring, there will be windows in the majority of breakout rooms; there will also be plenty of natural light in the grand ballroom and the 21st-floor private dining spaces. The Conrad Chicago Hotel, also set to open next year, will embrace the natural-light trend as well. Each meeting space on the 19th floor will have windows with city views.
Casual Meeting Spaces With Games
In one of its smaller conference suites, Crowne Aire Plaza has added a smart whiteboard, puzzles, blocks, art supplies, and other tools designed to prompt creativity. The Axiom Hotel is slated to open in San Francisco in the winter of 2016. The venue will have a mezzanine-level gathering space called "The Cloud," which features arcade games, TVs, and plush lounge furniture.
The Dream Hollywood Hotel will open in Los Angeles next year. The property will also offer nontraditional, causal meeting spaces with ping-pong or pool tables in place of boardroom tables. It will also offer casual food and a beverage program inspired by the culture of tech-company start-ups: Meeting attendees will be able to grab their own food and beverage from a "Pantry" in a common area, instead of waiting for more formally catered snacks.
A Push for Sustainability
Clients at the Crowne Aire Plaza are asking for gourmet water stations—where, for example, water is infused with persimmon—rather than bottled water for meeting attendees. At the Axiom, sustainability efforts include energy-efficient lights, recycling bins throughout the property, and filtered ice and water stations on all floors.
Updated Connectivity
In redesigning the Crowne Aire Plaza's meeting spaces, Kalfon said that planners' (and meeting guests') increasing reliance on technology was also taken into account. A new charging station with multiple outlets has been added to the pre-function space, allowing guests to charge devices. All of the hotel's 430 rooms also have complimentary Wi-Fi. At the Axiom, meeting rooms will have power outlets at each seat; guest rooms will be equipped with free, fiber optic Wi-Fi. Guests will also be able to use iPads to order food and drinks to the Cloud space.
Flexible Space
Hotels are allowing for greater flexibility to accommodate different group sizes and expanding offering for smaller groups. At the Axiom, a room called the Hub is divisible into two rooms, which can both hold meetings for as many as 18 guests; the entire room holds meetings for 36. In Orlando, the Loews Sapphire Falls Resort is scheduled to open in 2016 and will have a 41,000-square-foot ballroom that divides into 12 sections.
Alfresco Event Space
The Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel will get a new terrace bar with 160 seats, fire pits, and an event space called Urban Blue. LondonHouse will offer a tri-level rooftop, which includes a terrace on the 22nd floor and a private dining space under the cupola in the 23rd floor. At Loews Sapphire Falls, there will be 11,000 square feet of landscaped event space.
A Focus on Wellness
Crowne Aire Plaza has a new "Sleep Advantage Program" for travelers, which offers upgraded bedding and aromatherapy kits. The hotel's new restaurant, which serves wood-fired pizzas, also features a broad selection of salads made with locally sourced ingredients. Nearly all of the new hotels have fitness centers.
