For A Good Time - Meet Me In The Lobby

What once served almost solely as a waiting place - a place to kill the time before check-in or after check-out, the hotel lobby is now becoming a destination in and of itself. Many of the greatest moments in film and literature have taken place in hotel lobbies ---| from the lazy summer days at The Plaza in The Great Gatsby, to The Graduate's Benjamin Braddock's realization that Mrs. Robinson was indeed trying to seduce him in the lobby of the Taft Hotel. And now great moments can happen again each and everyday, as lobbies are no longer just quiet waiting spots, they are becoming the "it" spots at the best hotels around the world.

Today's modern lobby has become a social center for the hotel; a place with real functionality that serves as a revenue source rather than existing as non- saleable space. Hotels have undertaken many approaches for the redesign of the lobby from the "living rooms" at the W hotels to "great rooms" being created by Marriott International. Many of these reinvigorated lobbies offer additional amenities to the guest and surrounding local community. A check-in desk and sofa are ...