Lobby for Change
World travellers who are interested in getting to their room quickly and getting away from the madding crowd may be pleased to miss out on the lobby experience, but for me, the hotel lobby is an important part of arriving at a hotel.
Usually, hotels that offer in-room check in are pretty swish, or at least is swish enough to have an executive floor and users of this facility are often checked in either in their room or on the exec level.
Groups, on the other hand are often kept out of sight, shoved off their bus and “processed” out of site in a lower lobby or inconspicuous back corridor somewhere………..and they’re quickly dispatched to their room on a lobby bypass.
Both though are missing out on a true hotel experience.
Five star hotels around the world spend massive amounts of money carving out Italian mountains for enough marble to pave their lobbies and OK, some are hideous but most are glamorous and plush. They’re the showpiece of the hotel, designed to create a first impression – a really good one, and designed to check people in efficiently in an expensive and elaborate environment.
They’re supposed to make the guest feel he or she has arrived at a fine hotel, something that’s very different to home where a welcome from the family dog is often the only recognition that they’ve arrived.
So why do groups and executive level people have to miss out on the lobby experience?
Why are they denied the pleasure of marble, porters, and concierges with crossed keys on their lapels?
Not to mention the voyeurism opportunities of looking at other guests checking in!
It seems ironic that one or two FITs who may be checking into the hotel at the same time get the full treatment but the high-end incentive group or gaggle of conference delegates become the second class citizens.
Isn’t this a case of the tail wagging the dog?
Hotel lobbies are interesting places, hives of activity and an integral part of the travel process and in hotel terms, they are as important as the rooms, the spa and the restaurants.
That’s why hotels spend so much money on them.
They shouldn’t be reserved for just the F.I.T.s or those who can’t afford the executive level.
A Commentary by international travel writer and TravelMole contributor, Kevin Moloney.
John Alwyn-Jones
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