Conversions create a before and after effect not possible when building new. “It’s almost like you’re taking the speed of a tennis ball coming at you and reversing it because people would have seen what it is before the conversion,” Kirschke says. “You can leverage that in a fantastic repositioning of the asset altogether, which is what we’re doing right now in Philadelphia. People know this historic building, they have seen the inside, so they are accustomed to that and when they see the transformation I think that’s going to be a massive leverage in the market and the result will be even more appreciated.”
The company noticed a similar prospect with the Radisson Plaza Hotel Minneapolis, which will be converted to a Blu in 2014. These are the only concrete projects Carlson Rezidor is willing to announce so far but executives say New York City is on their wish list, and they are in discussions to bring Blu to Canada.
To help streamline time and budget considerations, owners and investors who are developing Radisson or Radisson Blu hotels have the option of choosing from five ready-to-go guestroom styles: Naturally Cool, Mansion House, Ocean, And Relax, and Urban. Mall of America has 29 Mansion House suites, 54 Naturally Cool business class rooms, and 417 Urban standard rooms. The room packages are not mandatory, they are intended as a tool to help position Radisson hotels and achieve the appropriate level of quality in design. “It’s choice. That’s all we want to provide,” Kirschke says. “That’s why the room styles have been successful for us.”
OUTSIDE THE BOX
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to hotel design or operations, Kirschke says. “Sometimes I think everybody believes you can build a hotel and operate it and be done and good with it. I mean, rubbish,” Kirschke says. “That’s why we have all the garbage in our industry. The worst thing I heard when I came to the States was people talking about a hotel as a box. And whoever speaks about a hotel as a box probably has one.”
Hamilton envisions travelers like dots on a map that move from city to city across the globe. “I’ve always been fascinated by the transient nature of hotels and that at any one time in the world, there are millions upon millions of people staying in hotel rooms,” Hamilton says. When designing hotel spaces, Hamilton keeps in mind how hard it is for travelers to be away from the comforts of home or the embrace of loved ones.
“For me there are too many times when people don’t really pay any respect and just create factory boxes and roll them out,” Hamilton says. “Given that I’ve traveled so much in the last 20 years, it’s really important to make these things pleasurable, make them something.”
Kirschke despises the notion of hotels as boxes because he sees it as an affront to one of the noblest industries in the world. “If you stop at design, or you stop at any of the important things,” he says, “then it’s better you don’t even start.”
