Hotel Rooms Are Shrinking

The Hotels of the Future panel at ALIS

LOS ANGELES—Hotel developers are shedding guestroom square footage at the newest hotels in exchange for more amenities and third-party common spaces. According to hotel leaders at ALIS last week, guests are looking for more common-are spaces to spend time. For anyone who has followed the multifamily market for the past year, the shift should sound familiar. Micro units and copious common areas and amenity spaces have been popular in new multifamily developments for several years.

Last year at the conference, Hilton launched True by Hilton, the hotel brand’s iteration of the trend, and Geraldine Calpin, chief marketing officer at Hilton, said that they have seen a great response. The brand is “very social, smaller and the most cost efficient,” she said, adding, “People want to be in a social environment.”