Micro-Hotels Are Big Business
From tiny houses to tiny apartments, micro-living has captured public attention. A show on the FYI network, “Tiny House Nation,” celebrates “ingenious small spaces and the inventive people who live in them.”
Now, the micro-living trend is expanding – shrinking hotel rooms from NYC to San Francisco.
Micro-hotels cut the typical lodging space in half, offering guests around 160 square feet of space – smaller than some suburban walk-in closets. They’re aimed at travelers who’d rather spend their time outside hotel walls, exploring their destination and mingling with fellow guests in communal spaces.
But Fast Company says it goes beyond meeting consumer demand. They say it’s just good business. With smaller rooms, hotels can fit more guests into the same amount of building, leading to higher value per square foot for the developer. The density is perfect for urban cities with notoriously expensive real estate, like Manhattan, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
The Tommie Hotel says it “combines form and function with a true sense of value.” Located near lower Manhattan’s TriBeCa, Soho, and the West Village, Tommie is designed for “someone who is interested in experiences,” said Niki Leondakis, CEO of Commune Hotels & Resorts and owner of the hotel, to Fast Company. Tiny rooms make luxury materials and finishes are more affordable as they are – you guessed it – in smaller doses too.
POD-hotel is planning to open its first location in Washington, D.C.’s, Chinatown. POD offers accommodations that range from single beds to queen size and even mini-bunks, and prides itself on top amenities like sleek workstations, Wi-Fi, community ping-pong playrooms and rooftop bars.
A second Chinatown micro-hotel brings another first – a variance granted by the Board of Zoning to require no on-site vehicle parking (64 spaces would typically be required), says District Source. Developer Modus Hotels says it aims to market the hotel to millennials. Guests and employees are expected to arrive at the hotel via public transit; workers will commute via bike-share and public transit.
Kathryn Hamilton, CAE, is Vice President for Marketing and Communications at NAIOP Corporate.
