Staying Sane

Kids climbing the condo walls? Just in time for summer, Singapore has re-opened for staycations, the Singapore Tourism Board’s list of approved hotels updating daily.

The rules for re-engagement (see here, and here, and here, and...)  are a useful primer for future physical and service design. Further divergence between economy and luxury properties looks likely with the former heading to increased automation and (sustainability-crushing) disposability while upscale brands write extreme hygiene into their scripts.

Many top-end resorts already enjoy infrastructure that fosters exclusivity, personalised service and privacy, but for tourist hotels some adaptation can be imagined:

• Lobby enlargement – to accommodate social distancing.

• Or contraction – as staggered arrival times spread the population, reception is retired, and community-generating social space is discouraged.

• New neighbourhoods - built from stair-linked guest floors and satellite public areas, segregating contacts and limiting lift loads.

• Finishes hardening – out with carpets and cushions in the guest rooms as ‘deep cleaning’ between guests is mandated.

• Death of the mini-bar – and the ice machine and the water cooler. Re-lifing of single-use plastic.

• Return of the in-room workplace – higher-specced, better-teched, always on-line.

• Service space expansion – increased storage for chemicals and disposables, dedicated circulation for autonomous bots, in-corridor staging for room service and used linens (self-stripped).

• Pool area atomisation – density limits trumped by population caps (50 pax), smaller swimming pools in discrete settings?

And what of MICE? It’s hard to see flying to meetings ever again being an incentive!