Chang tells Hotel Management Asia what for him makes a great hotel. 

 

I have always been fascinated about hotels. For me, they are not just a hobby; they are a necessity because I spend a lot of time in them. Since I stay in a hotel something like 40% of my time, I treat choosing a hotel like choosing my home. Except for the fact that it is like a one night stand as I don’t mind changing hotels every day; in 2008, I stayed in New York for nine days and slept in nine different hotels. I must have visited close to 1,000 hotels now. 

For me, one of the most basic criteria I judge hotels by is cleanliness. I want my bed and bathroom to be very clean. I always check the second layer of the bed. The first layer is always clean but the second layer is sometimes horrible.

Before this though, I always expect some kind of new experience. My interest is in all hotel categories; sometimes I like to stay in budget hotels, sometimes they just need one point of interest and I will go.

One of the things I judge hotels by is the use of space, even though people always think their rooms are small especially in cities like New York, London and Paris. In Paris, I used to stay in a hotel where I would spend half an hour thinking about where to put the luggage. When I look at hotels locally including those with very small rooms, a lot of the space is not fully utilized and not well proportioned even in large rooms.

I think one of the most interesting things about hotel rooms is that the hotel room is like your home for one night minimum; you have to get used to the place and know everything within half an hour otherwise how can you use the room? The challenge is how can you create a space that people can be familiar with, and the main criteria is that the room should be user friendly no matter what.

The technology, for example, has to be user friendly because some people are afraid to use things and are not that smart or they are smart people who are tired after travelling. Some hotels have DVD manuals that you need to read for an hour, for example.

In this respect, for me, The Peninsula definitely is far ahead of everyone else. One of the things I like about The Peninsula hotels in Tokyo and Shanghai is that in the standard rooms there are at least four privacy please signs/buttons instead of the usual just one. This is an example of user friendliness. The Peninsula Shanghai is also the first in the world to have totally complimentary long-distance calls through the internet. Everyone complains about hotels asking guests to pay for internet. This is a few more steps ahead.

Another thing I look for is value for money. The real thing is not about the price but how reasonable something is; it is a question of trust between the hotel and guest. For example, if I find something that costs more than 10 euros, I really query everything that that hotel provides. Whether you are on a budget or not, people are smart.

Not many hoteliers are getting it right in terms of the design of rooms in my opinion. A lot are too focused on the tech side and put too much emphasis on visuals, the colour scheme and the materials. Everybody is doing the same thing; it is as if they have found a kind of formula. Instead I believe they should be focusing on user friendliness and appropriate technology and a smart use of resources in terms of the locality. One thing I like about the Mandarin Oriental is that they use work by local artists. For example, the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo has extensive use of local artists for the furnishings and artwork.

In terms of innovation, the Hyatt is very strong, they have started a lot of industry trends. The restaurant outlet, for example, is always nicely done at the Hyatt.

Another hotel chain I like is W Hotels, which is very dedicated to exploring new ideas such as having happening lobbies.

In terms of my pet hates, one thing I dislike is the mini-bar. When I enter a room, if I find a mini bar that is automatically charged, I have a very bad impression of the hotel no matter how good it is in other respects because the mini-bar is so non-user friendly.

For me, the mini bar should be complimentary and should offer something unique. An extreme example is the Do & Co in Vienna, where the mini bar is almost like entering a shop.

Service can be another frustration, and booking is now so complex with variations on price even on the same room and for the same night. 

 

 

Gary Chang is the managing director of Edge Design Institute and author of Hotel as Home.