Boutique Design - March 2017 - 20

KIMPTON HOTEL PALOMAR LOS ANGELES BEVERLY HILLS

AndreA dAWSOn SHeeHAn: You and I often talk about the need to use
design to jolt, to startle and to elicit an emotion. From your standpoint as a
client and an investor, why rock the boat so hard?

they open the door and step inside. Good design-and good business-are all
about that feeling.
AndreA: I know what you mean. A hotel has to have its own energy. The first

JOn BOrtZ: Hospitality is a fast-moving industry. Travelers used to collect

things; now they collect experiences. A hotel's visuals have to speak to that.
The biggest mistake in design is to end up with a hotel that's just too "nice,"
too ordinary, too boring. That won't get noticed. It won't make Instagram.
And it won't start conversations. Investors need to take design risks-and
sometimes to be wrong. A hotel has to have a strong personality, even if that
means some people love it and some people hate it. Without that identity, the
property faces the risk of ending up somewhere in the middle. We're not in the
business of being in the middle. Great design doesn't always cost more; but in
many cases it does because strong concepts are multilayered. I've found that
overall, in terms of occupancy and profit growth, design is a good investment.
It's especially important for a portfolio like ours that doesn't have mega-brands
and needs to create visibility and buzz.

time I walked into (Ian Schrager's) Royalton in Manhattan in the early '90s, it
was clear it had its own vibe. It wasn't just a pretty space; it changed how I felt
when walked into it. I felt sexier, cooler.
JOn: That's what we're still doing. I think it's why we both get the correlation
between design and film. One of the aims of design, like film, is, how fast can we
take the guest [or viewer] into the experience? When we deliver the right level
of stimulation, we increase the guest's acceptance of the environment. I don't
want the customer to think, "Ooh, pretty;" I want that concept to be interactive
and encourage the guest to become part of it. Like you, I don't care if people
consider the interiors to be tasteful or classically beautiful. I want them be
stylish, sure. But it's more important that they activate the guest's experience.
AndreA: Do lenders buy into that upfront?

you. How do you see the client's role as a collaborator?
JOn: As a client, I'm the one who pushes. I'll call up the designer and say

we need to be more extreme. No, I'm not a designer, but I've been involved
with hundreds of hotel projects. I've had excellent mentors, whether on the
investment, operations or design sides. I'm unafraid to challenge a designer,
and I like designers such as you who are unafraid to disagree. But I also
appreciate your willingness to take a second look at your ideas if I say elements
of them aren't working for me or that they don't feel right.
For example, I don't want to see a model room in progress. I want to come
into the finished product as a guest would and see how I react emotionally. Do
I think "wow"? Or, am I so unimpressed that I start to look around at the
details? Guests aren't going to wait around and judge a guest room by the small
touches here and there. They know if they feel great or not so great the instant
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boutiquedesign.com march 2017

JOn: Not always, but the portfolio performance and the fact that boutique/
lifestyle brands and independents did better [versus large brands] during both
recent recessions make a pretty convincing argument. The first hotel project
we did together is a good example. Early in 2001, when I was still with LaSalle
Hotel Properties, we acquired four crummy, bankrupt hotels in the Washington,
D.C., area with the intention of repositioning them as boutique properties. The
proposed operator said the renovations should reference colonial elements and
focus on traditional design. My team, as you know, wanted something colorful
and radical. I felt that the design is not just about the expectations of the people
who live in that city; it's also about the preferences of guests from other places
who make up the target market. In the case of our first collaboration (the property
that would become the Kimpton Topaz Hotel), the primary market was New York,
and those travelers wanted lifestyle hotels. Within two months of opening, that
hotel was on the cover of two major magazines and was doing very well.

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AndreA: We've never found the "lid" on design concepts when working with
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