When I'm not sitting around wishing I was
a cool hacker informant like
this guy (who subsequently is in a
lot of trouble for being kind of irresponsible, wreckless and generally
kind of a jerk for no reason), and I'm taking a break from practicing how to
sing my name in that perfect way (a la Jason Derulo, known more as Jayyyysoon
Da-Ruuulllooo), I'm busy being obsessed about thinking how my generation has
affected the current ecosystem that we now enjoy in this "society". I
also like randomly putting things in quotes because it makes everything I write
seem more provocative. Follow "me" on this.
In a topic that is particularly close to
my heart since I spend almost my entire life in hotels and planes, the New York
Times recently published an article on how the hotel
industry is trying to cater to the growing market of millenials. Although I
think that I'm a little too old to be considered a millennial (Right? Can
someone please publish a standard of where the "millennial
generation" begins and ends please?), Millenials are expected to be a big
influencer in the travel industry. American Express Business Insights (or AEBI
since cool kids use "acronyms") estimates that although the baby boom
generation is still shakin' it up in terms of overall spending, travel spending
for younger travellers rose 20% in 2010, making them one of the fastest growing
age segments.
Hotels have introduced new lines
(Starwood's Aloft line for example, an offshoot of the swanky W Hotels), and
others are simply re-habbing the ones they already have. A few years ago,
hotels were concerned with catering to the baby boomer generation. What did
this mean? Larger work spaces, bigger beds, better lighting, more space in the
rooms themselves for "accessibility". But with the new youngins'
storming in, it seems that there is a perception that we prefer design over
comfort, we like to have multiple options in bars/restaurants (they estimate
Millenials socialize at 3-4 restaurants/bars a night when travelling) and that
high-tech gadgets help us to be 'socially isolated' (aka texting someone who's
in the same room as you... which I've done. Don't hate). So this is mostly
true, but I just want to point out that there are probably a lot of Millenials
out there that are in their first job, most likely a job at a large consulting
group, where they have to travel.
When they travel, yes, they're going to want to eat out and probably have a
couple drinks.
But I beg you hotel chains, for the sake
of all that is holy, please don't take away my work space. I know you'll be
putting in more power outlets for my 1800 gadgets that I bring with me (it'd be
helpful if you could install more of those USB wall chargers too, thanks!) but
if you take away my workspace, every night will be like living at the W. For
those of you who don't really know what that entails, it means you enter a room
that looks like a Trekkie's wet dream. You stumble around and hit your shins on
various low-hanging, uber-cool, spotless white furniture for five to ten
minutes until you find the light switch, and then you throw your stuff all over
the high tech room and pull out your laptop, your 18 power cords and get to
work. By "get to work" I mean that you sit in a dimly lit room, with
approximately 1-2 square feet of desk space. You'll never find the lamp switch
on the first try (I've had frustrated nights where I finally give up and call
the front desk. Silly me, I didn't look on the bottom of the black lamp for a
tiny press button that is also black), so you fumble around some more and then
you spend the next 3-4 hours working from your hotel room being angry that your
laptop and papers can't fit on your desk at the same time. On the upside, the
food is always pretty good at the W.
So on behalf of all the poor consultants
that travel 3-4 days a week ( a 4-1 or 5-0 in industry terms, which means you
fly Monday-Thursday or Monday-Friday), please don't take away form for pure
design purposes. A big desk space where I can lay out all of my stuff is really
the highlight of my hotel room.
On one last note, I just want to say that
Sabu (the internet hacker guy) also released grand declarations before he was
caught. And I find this one particularly apt because I think it could easily be
applied to the way consultants think about themselves-- it is the perfect
mixture of narcissistic egotism, sprinkled with a little bit of
doesn't-actually-make -sense, with a dash of over-exaggeration and melodrama and
finished off with a lot of God complex. It's perfect.
"Give us liberty or give us death-- and there's billions of us around the world. You can't stop us. Because without us you won't exist."
No comments:
Post a Comment