An Industry Renaissance (continued)

Loft-like rooms will feature “oversized windows.” Of course, the chain will have special bedding, like its sister brands Westin and Sheraton. Choice Hotels International’s Cambria Suites figure to be equally stylish. Choice rolled out the brand last year. The first one, in Savannah, Ga., won’t open until third-quarter 2006.

Aside from being the most upscale brand in Choice’s portfolio, Cambria Suites offers an interesting and appealing take on a hotel room based on the prototypes I’ve seen.

Like Project XYZ units, the rooms are bright and airy. The sleeping area is separated from the living area by an open divider with shelving. The rooms are great to look at and great to be in.

Choice, meanwhile, this year rolled out another concept: an economy priced, extended-stay brand.

Efficient in design, the concept takes on greater importance based on the fact that a major hotel firm is proposing an economical extended-stay product that promises to help grow that segment of the market.

InterContinental a couple of years ago unveiled Hotel Indigo, its version of a lifestyle hotel. Two have opened, and more are on the way. Smaller chains are getting in on the act, too.

Kimpton Hotels, probably one of the most prominent players in lifestyle boutique hotel market, announced plans to turn one of its popular properties, the Hotel Palomar, into a sub-brand.

Meanwhile, Joie de Vivre, a boutique hotel operator, is expected to announce plans to create a sub-brand based on one of its popular properties, San Francisco’s Hotel Vitale.

So what’s going on? Did the industry suddenly switch on a creative light bulb? Maybe. Or it just might be, as Michael Jannini, executive vice president of brand management for Marriott International, once told me, “You run your business for the times,” and the times are changing.

Marriott has also rolled out guest room prototypes for its Marriott and Renaissance brands that feature, among other things, 32-inch, flat-panel LCD televisions. Jannini wasn’t sure where all of this would lead, but he was sure of one thing: “I know that the next 10 years are going to be about a sense of place and exciting design,” he said, as opposed to the cookie-cutter hotels of the past.