I was encouraged to set-up and chair the Special Interest Group on Hospitality as, whilst hospitality has been covered by the NLA under other sectors, there is no dedicated Expert Panel for Hospitality, which seemed like a missed opportunity given that London is a very prominent global destination. Philip Camble of Whitebridge provided some context and commentary on this during our first meeting:

·       London is consistently in the top 3 most visited places globally

·       On Trip Advisor, London is the #1 most searched destination

·       “London is the most resilient hotel market on the planet!” which is expected to continue as occupation is consistently at 80% even with increase in supply i.e. all new supply is absorbed

The aim of the Group was to bring together a diverse range of voices with experience in the sector to discuss and debate hospitality: What makes a hotel and drives successful hospitality? What role do hotels play in our city? Where are hotels innovating? What lessons can be learnt by other sectors?

Discussions in the first meeting of the SIG focussed in on the hotels at street level where they provide street level activation and, where successful, act as a community hub appealing to more than just hotel guests. Hotel lobbies provide great meeting places or spaces to work, but what makes these successful? This is something we hope to look at over the year and the Group identified some good examples. The conversation highlighted a number of important factors, such as F&B, interior and experiential design, brand, and the part played by the physical relationships between the street, the hotel & F&B – and now we’re now looking to unpack these even further. On that last point, some of the most successful examples of hospitality are not necessarily in hotels, and this is something we hope to explore to draw out some of the best case studies to visit.

And of course, location and the understanding of context is hugely important and has several considerations: convenience for people as a meeting place, being close to transport hubs, and understanding the local urban ecosystem. This can mean, for example, that hotels seek to work with their local environment, for instance, sourcing F&B from local providers rather than providing full catering services themselves. This approach is also important in adjacent sectors, like co-living, where a local area is assessed to see what it already provides before determining what amenities the building itself should provide. Conversely, hotels are thinking about how to make their spaces more active and more commercially successful by opening up their facilities to non-guests, but this requires careful management, alongside technology driven solutions to really get it to work.

As other sectors state a desire for ‘hospitality’ spaces, hotels lead the way in defining successful approaches. Hotels are dynamic and commercially driven. They are open to change and reinvention, and they can perhaps do things that no other sectors can, which we aim to explore over the year – and we haven’t even started talking about bedrooms yet! (Windowless rooms in adaptive retrofits, anyone?). I very much look forward to the conversation continuing.