As traveler behaviors continuously evolve with new lifestyles and consumption patterns, the hotel industry is keeping pace, demonstrating its ability to innovate daily.
What are the leading hotel concepts for 2024? What are the keys to their success?
This is what we invite you to discover in this article.
Let's take a quick tour of 8 trending hotel concepts and the ingredients of their success.
✍️ Got something to write with? Let’s get started!
>> Download your white paper "The Guide to 2024 Hospitality Trends"
Trending Concept #1: Green Hotels
Ecological issues are forcing us to rethink our consumption habits, both in everyday life and in hotels. Thus, hotels that focus on sustainability and act environmentally friendly are increasingly sought after by guests.
According to Hospitality-On, 66% of travelers would be willing to spend more to stay at an eco-friendly and cozy hotel, and two out of three people would have no objection to sacrificing some comfort for the sake of the environment.
Hotel Voco in Paris Montparnasse has understood this well: this new brand wanted to mix the strengths of a large group (IHG) with the intimate character of boutique hotels and emphasize an eco-responsible approach.
How?
- By innovating with sheets and bedding made from 100% recycled materials,
- By installing shower heads equipped with aerators to use less water,
- By replacing miniature toiletry products with bulk products in large containers that generate 80% less waste.
The brand's hotels also eliminate an average of 300 plastic bottles per year in each room by using micro-filtered water instead.
Having achieved success, the upscale brand has also established itself in Strasbourg in 2021, in Beaune in 2023, and plans to open in Nantes in 2025.
Photo Credit: Voco Hotel Montparnasse - recycled linens and zero plastic
Other green hotels rely notably on ecological decors, with an abundance of green plants, green walls, moss… The "green" trend is thus expressed on all fronts to create a natural ambiance.
🎉 Reasons for the success of this concept:
- Meets the ecological sensitivity of travelers
- Allows for a differentiating positioning in an industry known for being polluting
- Often innovative in techniques or products used
Trending Concept #2: Smart Hotels
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital technology in the hospitality industry. The entire sector has completely revised human contact, trying to minimize interactions to prevent transmission.
But beyond the pandemic context, technology is developing exponentially in hospitality because it primarily responds to:
- New consumption habits of travelers where digital is part of everyday life
- A need of hoteliers who seek more operational performance.
Hotel Campanile Smart Lyon, from the Louvre Hotels Group, serves as an example in this area.
The promise is simple: it is the first midscale European hotel fully connected at every stage of the customer journey for a smoother, safer, connected, and fun stay.
This first intelligent hotel labeled "SMART INSIDE" offers nearly 20 innovations at the heart of the customer journey. The hotel's innovative technologies are centralized within a Web App - developed by Bowo - which requires no download. Intuitive, it is available anywhere, anytime, and on all connected devices.
"Upon arrival, the guest can check in through a connected kiosk allowing for autonomous check-in at any time. During this step, they discover a giant QR Code that opens the Web App.
To get to the floors, no need to touch the buttons; you can call the elevator directly from this web app.
An online concierge service and a robot providing room service are available. Guests can also adjust the room settings, from lighting scenarios to room temperature.
The Web App provides access to a vast catalog of press, gathering more than 7,000 references.
For those with a big appetite, a connected bar-restaurant offers a tasty and seasonal menu, available for click & collect or delivery to delight the palate without moving."
Photo credit : Campanile Smart Lyon Bron, a Bowo partner
🎉 Reasons for the success of this concept:
- Ensures the safety of people and property through contactless technologies
- Reduces operating costs and enhances team productivity
- Meets the consumption habits of the most connected targets (Digital Nomads, Millennials, MICE, ...)
- Provides a personalized, innovative experience: a lever for loyalty
Trending Concept #3: Coworking Hotels
According to a Forbes study, in 2023, 41% of full-time employees work entirely or occasionally remotely. More than a possibility, remote work is becoming a requirement for employees in many professions, and this trend is set to continue.
It is now important for the hospitality industry to be able to offer adequate services to business clientele and to venture into coworking spaces.
BoB Hotel (BoB = Business on Board) has seized this opportunity. Indeed, the hotel offers ultra-connected places to work individually or in groups, thus stimulating the creativity and innovation of travelers.
Another major group, Accor, invested (very early) in these coworking spaces by forming a partnership with Wojo: today, it's 800 Accor hotels that offer a coworking option in 100 cities in France.
Proof again, if needed, that hotels know how to reinvent themselves and invest in tomorrow's trends.
🎉 Reasons for the success of this concept:
- Meets the needs of clients to work remotely, via a very high-speed connection
- Optimizes spaces and makes them multifunctional
- Provides the right furniture, with meeting rooms, for working alone or in groups
>> Read our article "Coworking and Hospitality : How to ensure the perfect match?"
Trending Concept #4: Home-like Hotels
Yes! You read that right…
Facing the volatility of clients, the world of hospitality had no choice but to rethink its living space to put it back at the center of dynamics.
Gone then the old impersonal lobby, and welcome to the fitted kitchen, equipped bar, and appropriate furniture that transforms the sleeping area of a classic hotel room into a larger communal space - like a separate room of the house - and which recalls apartments while enjoying the services of a hotel.
And this type of offer is a hit!
Offering more freedom and autonomy to the client, particularly regarding meal times, having their own equipped kitchen allows the guest to cook according to their habits or even their dietary regimen.
The Odalys group is a good example. It offers its travelers the comfort and well-being of a new home thanks to its city-center aparthotels. The group thus announces 40 projects in Europe and Francophone Africa by 2025.
Photo Credit: Appart'Hôtel Odalys Les Floridianes
🎉 Reasons for the success of this concept:
- Offers the comfort of home with added services.
- Allows unprecedented flexibility: travelers indeed have the option to stay a night or several months, and regardless of the length of stay, the staff remains at their service.
Trending Concept #5: Unique Accommodations
Today more than ever, travelers are looking for unique experiences. And to meet this need, many establishments have bet on unusual concepts.
If you can, take advantage of your environment to offer unique stays: a treehouse, a houseboat, or even a night in a historic monument. Uncommon ideas will offer your guests the change of scenery they seek.
Strong in its success, this trend has even been given a place on the Airbnb platform. Thus, more than 30,000 accommodations worldwide have joined this category in 2021.
Photo credit: the RedBubble at Domaine d'Arvor
Trending Concept #6: Themed Hotels
The principle is simple: 1 hotel = 1 theme.
Mixing originality and the never-before-seen, themed hotels push the envelope in staging, and the result is often amazing. It's the ultimate memory-making concept.
For example, the Disney The Art of Marvel hotel in New York promises its guests to "live like a Super Hero in a typical New York setting." Thus, guests can enjoy the 350 works displayed throughout the hotel for a total immersion in the Marvel universe.
Another example: Hotel Paradiso, the world's first cinema-hotel by the MK2 group. Located above the MK2 Nation cinema, the hotel has 34 rooms and 2 suites, which have been designed to watch a movie in the best possible conditions: a laser projector in every room and a 3-meter wide screen allow transforming the room into a private cinema in seconds.
The hotel fully embraces the cinematic theme, and references to the world of cinema can be found in the smallest details, whether in the names given to cocktails or even the phone number to contact the reception: "007" of course.
(Re)discover in video the interview with Fabien Beauvallet, the hotel director, who explains how the collaboration with Bowo helped the hotel to offer this extraordinary experience.
Trending Concept #7: Well-Known Brand Hotels
The phenomenon is not new: the investment of brands in the hospitality industry is booming. In particular, many luxury brands are taking this path to diversify their universe and their offers.
The "Maisons du Monde" brand has done it brilliantly by launching its hotel in Nantes.
The result: an establishment of 47 rooms in the heart of Nantes, with five different styles: classic, chic, green grey...
This hotel is the result of a close collaboration between its owner, the group of independent hotels Vicartem, and the furniture and decoration store. The former bought all its furniture from the latter, which lent its name.
But it's not just furniture brands that are investing in hospitality, fashion houses are too.
The ELLE brand, owned by the French group Lagardère, opened its first establishment in Paris in the fall of 2022 and a second in Mexico in 2023 under the ELLE Hospitality brand name.
It thus becomes the first brand of a media group to venture into hospitality.
🎉 Reasons for the success of this concept:
- Hotels rely on the notoriety of their brand and the loyalty of existing customers to diversify their offer
- The hotel is an integral part of the brand universe
Photo credits : Maisons du Monde inaugurates its first hotel in Nantes
Trending Concept #8: Lifestyle Hotels
We could not end this article without mentioning the lifestyle trend, a real revolution in the world of hospitality that meets the expectations of modern travelers looking for authenticity and personalization.Lifestyle hotels distinguish themselves by their ability to create environments that are not just passageways for a night but dynamic and attractive living spaces.
They do not just follow trends but create them, offering travelers a platform to live their passions, explore, and interact more meaningfully with their environment and other guests.
The establishments play with new hospitality values. An original place, sometimes described as "whimsical".
Photo : The revolutionary design of Mama Shelter, signed Starck, has redefined urban elegance
🎉 Reasons for this success:
- Lifestyle hospitality excels in personalizing the client experience
- Lifestyle is at the heart of the hotel concept
- Strong connection with the local, whether it be local clientele or local partners
>> Read our article : “Lifestyle hotels : a growing trend”
Conclusion:
Although adjusting your establishment to current trends has become essential to retain customers and offer them an optimal experience, this adaptation does not necessarily have to mean heavy charges. By opting for the right personalization strategies, hotels can be innovative enough to continue to meet customer expectations, particularly by focusing on:
- The search for a personalized experience
- CSR commitments
- Increasingly unique and local experiences
- Offering more freedom and autonomy
- Brand affinity that goes beyond just the product sold
Similar articles