Personalizing a Hotel Room: How About a Movable Wall?

An established Swiss hospitality operator is about to take a sizable step into personalized hotel experiences. This summer, SV Hotel will open the first location of its new extended-stay brand, Stay KooooK, in Bern. The second will be opening in 2021 in Nürnberg, Germany, with reportedly “many more to come.”

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Stay Kooook’s most prominent innovation is a “modular sliding element.” Roll it in one direction and a kitchen and closet-style storage appear, while turning the bed into a sofa. Roll it back and the full bed is usable again.

Stay Kooook’s transformable wall is designed to create a bespoke lodging experience. Photo courtesy of Stay Kooook

SV Hotel says the design is aimed at “contemporary travelers looking for a convenient place for longer stays at a fair price.”

Expect to see more ideas like this. “Personalization is really the biggest change that is coming along. You can go online and order a pair of sneakers at Nike.com that are unique and personal to you. Yet the hotel is still sending the same old room lists to everybody” said Ahmed Youssef, executive vice president of Corporate Development & Marketing, Hospitality, at Amadeus Hospitality, and co-author of “Drivers of Change in Hospitality,” a recent report from InterContinental Hotels Group, Amadeus Hospitality and the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.

“At the margin, having a flexible room is kind of interesting,” said professor Chris Anderson of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, of Stay Kooook’s concept. He noted, however, that its appeal depends on how long a customer is actually in the room, which tends to disqualify the typical business traveler. That said, Anderson commented, “This is the kind of innovation that will be helpful for the industry.”

Sector Insights rotates among office/medical office, industrial, retail, multifamily, self storage and hotel/hospitality.

Read the April 2020 issue of CPE.