Profiling ‘The Curator’: Is this your hotel of the future?

By definition a curator is a manager, guardian, and organiser; most commonly of concerts, exhibitions, installations, or other creative areas. These are all qualities your hotel could adopt to build a successful business plan into the future.

According to research from Deloitte and Doblin, and laid out in SiteMinder’s interactive quiz, hotels in the future will take on specific characteristics to change the shape of hotel service and experience. The Curator is one of these.

An overview of The Curator

True to its definition, The Curator will be a hotel that places strong emphasis on integrating experiences into the hotel environment. It may implement its own ideas or engage with external partnerships to keep its hospitality fresh, deliver variety, and enable guests to try new things.

The main personality traits of The Curator are:

• Experiential
• Experimental
• Fresh
• Variable
• Exploratory
• Delightful

The Curator hotel will integrate experiences into the hotel environment.

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What inspires The Curator?

The Curator recognises those guests who are heavily-influenced by their surroundings and lifestyle. Many guests can be sensitive to certain hotel features that change their mood and mindset. This is why all guests need a variety of environments that support their desire to feel comfortable, engage in new lifestyles, socialise with new personalities, and also relax when they need to.

When guests visit a hotel, in most cases they want to suspend their reality and find a slightly different one to refresh, reinvigorate, or unwind.

The Curator is inspired by this and facilitates the appropriate experiences.

What actions will The Curator take?

As a hotel, The Curator will have four important functions.

1. Empower guests to choose and customise their experience

In the future, guests will expect more variety within each individual hotel. The Curator will offer a range of rooms and amenities guests can select from and tailor activities to deliver a more personalised stay.

3. Elevate the hotel to a branded experience

The Curator will understand the mindsets of its guests and design spaces accordingly. Guests will want spaces that make them feel more relaxed, productive, creative, inspired, and energised.

4. Build partnerships to expand the hotel’s capabilities

To give guests the options and satisfaction they seek, The Curator will create ties with other companies to supplement what the property already offers. This way travellers can experience all aspects of their destination right from their hotel.

5. Facilitate the explorative nature of guests

Many guests want to break away from everyday life when they travel to immerse themselves in new lifestyles and cultures, and even explore new identities within themselves. The Curator helps reflect this in the way it designs its hotel space.

Specific attributes of The Curator

To put the above plans into practice, The Curator will implement five major features into its hotel business plan that will directly impact guests.

1. Experimental products

The Curator can give guests a lasting experience and monetise its design at the same time by allowing guests to purchase products, like the linen or glassware, used at the hotel. This might be done on-site or via your website whereby participating brands also accept a fee.

2. Fresh designs

The brand of The Curator can be constantly re-energised by using guest values as inspiration to partner with other lifestyle brands to design fresh and creative spaces.

3. Variable spaces

With the different moods of guests and the likelihood of a rich local culture nearby, The Curator will offer inventive and unique spaces open to the public along with private guests to embrace differing lifestyles.

4. Exploratory extensions

At The Curator guests will be able to take their experience home with them to recreate the best parts of their stay, such as bedroom layouts or breakfast recipes. The Curator will offer guides and designs for guests to put into practice at their own home. Trained staff will assist in this, along with how-to manuals to further drive home the personal nature of their stay.

5. Delightful pop-ups

New ideas will always be tested at The Curator, with exclusive experiences offered to hotel guests. Supply will be limited to create demand and may rotate seasonally. This could come in the form of themed rooms, one-of-a-kind packages, or new amenities.

 

Does this sound like the hotel experience you want to create in the future or do you have something different in mind? To find out what other hotel characteristics might appeal to you, take SiteMinder’s interactive quiz and enter the future of the hotel industry.