WASHINGTON 鈥� A growing trend is the shrinking room.
In recent years, there鈥檚 been a shift toward and . And now the minimalist movement is hitting hotels.
More travelers are trading in the traditional hotel room and its conventional price tag for smaller, more budget-friendly accommodations. And a lot of it has to do with consumer priorities.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e there for a short time. You鈥檙e really there to sleep and you want to experience the city; you want to experience a sense of belonging in a community,鈥� says Aaron Katz, president and CEO of , a D.C.-based hotel management group.
Modus is currently involved in two D.C. micro-hotel projects, including an 83-room hotel in Foggy Bottom, called Hotel Hive, and a 245-room -affiliated project at 627 H Street NW in Chinatown.
Rooms at the Chinatown hotel, which is expected to open next fall, will range from 135 to 150 square feet; rooms at Hotel Hive, expected to open in early 2016, will average around 160 square feet.
Sound small? It’s not that foreign of a concept, especially in major U.S. and European cities.
鈥淲e call them micro-hotels, but in New York, they just call them hotels,鈥� Katz jokes.
At the Chinatown hotel, each room will have a queen bed (some rooms will have bunk beds), a private bathroom with a full shower, a desk, a TV and closet space with a safe.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 walk in and say, 鈥榃ow this is a small room.鈥� You walk in and think, 鈥楾his is amazingly efficient.鈥� 鈥� Everything is thought through,鈥� says Janne Clare, senior vice president of Modus Hotels.
The rooms have to be functional, but they also have to be durable, Clare says. Micro-hotels tend to have high turnover rates, since they typically attract聽guests for one- and two-night stays.
Booking a聽room that鈥檚 half the size of a traditional hotel room comes with its benefits. For starters, the cost of a room at a micro-hotel can be up to half the price of a room at a mid-scale hotel. A room with a full bed and private bathroom at in Midtown Manhattan on a Saturday night in August costs $200. A standard room at costs $359 for the same night.
Katz says the Chinatown micro-hotel will likely cost 75 percent of the going rate for a room at nearby mid-scale hotels. (A is located across the street, and a Saturday night in August costs about $149 for a standard room with a king bed.)
Another plus is the attention to customer service and ambience in a micro-hotel鈥檚 鈥減ublic space,鈥� or the hotel鈥檚 lobby, restaurant and bar areas.
鈥淭he goal is to create a vibrant public space so that people aren鈥檛 drawn into their room. There鈥檚 a place to hang out and really engage with and interact with other travelers of similar ilk,鈥� Katz says.
The public space at the Chinatown project will consist of 15,000 square feet, spread out over two levels, with 16-foot ceilings. Clare says there are plans for a coffee bar and a bakery in the morning, which will transform into a cocktail bar and restaurant later in the day.
Wireless Internet, communal lounges and fast-casual restaurant concepts are also popular amenities in micro-hotels.
鈥淪o there鈥檇 be no reason to sit in a guest room, other than [to use it for] a place to sleep. You need a great bed, you need a great shower, you need to have good technology, but the sense of wanting to be downstairs is really there,鈥� Clare says.
Katz adds: 鈥淸Guests] are going to experience the city, experience the neighborhood. And they want a sense of community; they鈥檙e traveling, often times alone or with small groups and they tend to be a more social group.鈥�
Modus is currently looking at a few different options for a food and beverage partner for its聽micro-hotel. Clare says the intent is to create a space where both the local community and the hotel鈥檚 guests come to gather.
While a 150-square-foot room might not be the best option for a family of four, Katz says the concept isn鈥檛 limited to single millennials either. Micro-hotels attract everyone from the young and adventurous, to business travelers and older tourists.
So far, micro-hotels have been well received in New York, and Katz anticipates seeing the same reception and demand in D.C.
鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a sensibility that鈥檚 overwhelmed the country over the past five to 10 years. You鈥檙e seeing austerity measures being introduced all across Western Europe. I think there鈥檚 just a general sensibility among younger people,鈥� he says.
Judging by the long-term trends in densely populated European cities, such as London and Paris, that sensibility is here to stay 鈥� and Katz says it all comes down to available urban space.
鈥淚s the world going to swing back to giant 1,000-square-foot studio apartments? Not likely. Not in the major cities,鈥� Katz says.
