Ms. Fedele

Development & Construction

'No Frills Chic' vs. 'Extra Chic', Design vs. Affordability: New Trends in the Hospitality Industry

By Sara Fedele, co‐Founder, Tourism Hospitality Intelligence

Differing from the “ever green” luxury sector, a new trend is increasingly emerging: this is the era of “no-frills chic”, meaning low cost goods and services that add design, third-party high quality elements and/or exceptional customer service to create quality experiences at bottom prices. In true IKEA style the "cheap but chic” is becoming quite a popular trend, as it provides “excellence” in a convenient and cost-effective package.

This article aims at analyzing some of the current and emerging trends in the hospitality business, as well as describing how certain important tourism companies in the world are currently managing these trends.

Before buying a product, the tendency now is to look around, analyze the alternatives, compare prices, and finally perhaps buy the new generation mobile phone at the most convenient price. Increasingly, we prefer to avoid long, expensive and time-consuming phone calls, replacing them with short and cost-effective text messages, with online calls or even with everywhere accessible emails. Cheap and effective.

In the tourism market this trend is comparable to the formula of the “last minute”, recently outclassed by the “last second”, conceived for those who prefer to avoid the “plan-search-book” phases of the holidays travellers are just supposed to:

1. prepare the luggage
2. wait for the travel agent to communicate destination and departure time. This way the vacation is easy and cost-effective.

In the “easy”, “cheap” and “chic” philosophy, the easyGroup places itself perfectly. The brand includes a conglomerate of tourism industries and businesses licensed under the various 'Easy'-brand ventures, including the popular low-cost airline easyJet. Many of these companies follow the "easy" setup of taking away the frills, and of delivering a product which is cheaper overall, but attractive and “chic” at the same time. The popular Greek company easyCruise, for example, offers essential, but trendy and colorful cabins at low prices, thanks to an innovative travel system where the ship is considered a simple means of transportation. Travellers board in any port and the price of the cruise is determined by the duration of the stay on board. This same philosophy appeared in England easyHotels but also easyCinema or easyCar.

Customization, sophistication, elegance, technology, usability, emotion, minimalist design (often the work of young designers), all delivered at attractive prices, that justify even the small spaces.

In true “no-frills chic” style, the InterContinental Hotels Group, owner of the Holiday Inn brand, launched the Hotel Indigo chain. As explained by TrendWatching.com, Indigo offers low room prices, hardwood floors, area rugs instead of wall-to-wall carpeting, glassed-in showers and, above all, high technological standards, such as the online concierge, accessible even outside the hotel.

The same tendency applies to the Choice Hotels parent company of Econo Lodge, Comfort Inn, and Quality Inn, with its Ascend Collection, a chain of mass luxury boutiques, historic or unique hotels, with rooms featuring details like flat-screen TVs and stylish amenities in the name of excellence, uniqueness and affordable prices.

Even Yotel grounded its new business concept on luxury at small prices – and small spaces. These hotels in New York, London and Amsterdam, are situated in airports and the rooms reflect “an ergonomic, first-class, cabin yacht design instead of an old hotel refurbishment”, says Gerard Greene, Yotel CEO. The new opening in New York, adapts its windowless, minimalist capsule-style cabins with extensive public areas and ultra-modern rooms, offering an “affordable luxury”.

Moving to the Eastern Hemisphere, in India a new design hotel chain emerged. With fully equipped, modern and stylish rooms, Ginger Hotels offer services at a very contained price of 20USD per day. Within 5 years they are expecting another 150 hotels across India, followed by plans to build in the rest of the world.

It is therefore clear that the “no-frills chic” satisfies the tourists’ need of excellence. But can we really talk about excellence? Can we really call it “luxury”? What has happened to niche tourism? What do the super-rich ask for?

On the side of niche tourism, costumers prefer something different in the name of the highest quality levels. They want to go "beyond", which is not just limited to affluence. They look for exclusivity, sophistication and wealth intended as a unique experience, and – above all – as something that not everyone can do and afford. On one hand, the need of space optimization (and as a result, low prices) has inspired the creation of hotels that – like Yotel – look like planes. On the other hand, the need of comfort, style and sophistication, is pushing the airline companies to offer services that are closer to those of the hotels themselves. This is the case of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which offers a variety of features such as: space design softened with smoother lines, hi-tech showers, color spectrum LED ceiling lighting, convertible seats along the walls, cabins with bedrooms, special hot air drying; colorful toilets with sophisticated materials, coffee shops and recreational spots.

The super-rich are also preparing to travel in space. The Virgin Galactics sends its clients to space for a ticket price ranging from $3,500 for a 90 minute parabolic trip (12000 feet) to $200,000, with a deposit starting from $ 20,000, for a suborbital trip through the SpaceShipTwo. At the moment, 430 aspiring astronauts have already booked the flight.

Back on Earth, there are more incredible hotels such as the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas which cost 2.7 billion dollars, covering 87 acres and built on 45 floors with 2,716 rooms ranging in size from 59 m2 to 650 m2. Another example is the Palm Island in Dubai, the world's largest artificial island, shaped like palm trees, visible from the moon and home of 40 luxury hotels.

Finally, an increasing number of hotels and restaurants are built and owned by famous fashion designers worldwide. To name a few, there are Bulgari in Milan and Bali, Krizia in the Caribbean Sea, Versace Gold Coast in Australia, Ferragamo in Florence, Giorgio Armani in Dubai within the Burj Dubai – the tallest tower in the world, completed in 2010 –, Chanel with the Beige Tokyo, born from the synergy with Alain Ducasse, considered to be one of the greatest chefs of the moment.

Super-rich costumers generally tend to be constrained by time but not money. For this reason, they tend to choose holidays offering silence and great privacy. They avoid the most crowded beaches, hotels and resorts in the Caribbean, preferring rather the "solitude" of places such as the Moog Hotel in Sydney, consisting of a single suite, priced $ 990 per night. Alternatively, there is also the Soneva Fushi in the Maldives, where they can live the Robinson Crusoe’s experience thanks to the beach and private pool in each of the resort’s 65 apartments.

When choosing a place where to stay, either Milan, Bali, Dubai, the Caribbean or Las Vegas, travelers are driven by emotions. They look for relaxation, a unique product or an emotion, usually their decision is linked to two factors:

1. The need for something in which they can identify themselves, their lifestyle, their tastes
2. The desire for something that can pleasantly surprise them, unexpected, different and extraordinary; something that has an emotional connection, that distracts them or provides relief from stress.

Chic, cheap or super-luxurious, the idea is to deliver a product that is augmented through creativity and personalization of the service. So, pamper your customers, give them something appealing, something unique, something to experience because even small details can make the difference.

Sara Fedele is Communication Manager at the Global Alliance for PR and Communication Management, the umbrella organization of the national PR associations around the globe, which is headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland. Since July 2011, Ms. Fedele has also been responsible for the online marketing and communication activities of the Executive MScom Program, an international postgraduate program for experienced communications professionals at the Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano. As part of her cooperation with Professor Sandro Formica (University of Florida), she has been coordinator of working groups during Strategic Think Tanks for Tourism Executives, following the Co‐Alignment Principle Method by Olsen, West and Tse (2008). She has moderated Think Tank activities both in Switzerland and Italy. Ms. Fedele can be contacted at sara.fedele@usi.ch Extended Bio...

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