Last September, Brooklyn-based furniture retailer West Elm announced plans to open hotels in the U.S. with management firm DDK. One of the Ds is hospitality veteran David Bowd, also CEO of Salt Hotels, which got its start as a more upscale, community-focused bed and breakfast operator and recently added the 110-room Asbury lifestyle hotel on the New Jersey shore.
The full-service West Elm lifestyle hotels, which leverage the retailer’s furniture and design sensibility, and include F&B, “thoughtful technology” and West Elm Academy, an employee training program, are planned for Portland, Maine; Oakland, California; Savannah, Georgia; Detroit; Minneapolis; and Indianapolis, Indiana, are on track to open starting in late 2018. As retailers such as Restoration Hardware and Japan’s Muji become hoteliers, HOTELS talked to Bowd about how the partnership will differentiate.
HOTELS: How will the new hotels employ technology?
David Bowd: We have a couple of companies that we’re working with to create very interesting, very localized experiences through web-powered apps… It will have the capability of making reservations, directions to the hotels, but then it’ll also have what’s going on in the local environments, what’s going on in town, what’s going on in the hotels, and the ability to check in, check out and view your bill, and all of those things that, I think, often are missed and are quite frustrating.
H: Are you considering a loyalty program?
DB: (West Elm owner) Williams-Sonoma is launching their loyalty program later this year. And when the hotels launch, they will be part of that loyalty program… It will be inclusive within the entire Williams-Sonoma loyalty base. What I think is very exciting and interesting is the ability to stay in a hotel and use those rewards towards a home good or a mixer in Williams-Sonoma, or a sofa in West Elm. It will be something that’s not out there right now because of the nature of the retail space of Williams-Sonoma.
H: Are there other synergies?
DB: When you go to the West Elm Store in Miami and in New York, they’re very, very different… You’re not going to walk into these first five hotels and see the same furniture and the same design in each one. Savannah should feel very different to Detroit. And it’s going to. Not everything in your room has a price tag on it. But there are going to be certain things that you can look up and say OK, I love this tray, or I love this lamp, or I love this table. Click a button and it’s delivered to your house.
H: How will you create a sense of locality?
DB: We have our local taste-maker in each area who is working with us, and (says) this is somebody you should talk with, this is somebody you should talk to. And we have been completely blown away by the response of everybody in the individual neighborhoods that have been so excited, because it gives everybody a chance to grow their businesses and be more successful… If we have a hotel that has a great coffee shop right next to it, we’re not going to open a coffee shop in the hotel, because that’s going to destroy somebody’s business. It’s about being complementary to the neighborhood, rather than destroying it.
H: What about Muji entering the space?
DB: The Muji (prototype) room looks exactly as you would expect in a Muji store. Everything tends to be from that. Whereas we are a little bit more eclectic, a lot more layers to the brand, and, as I said, everything being individually designed for each hotel sets it apart. I think everyone’s watching what happens with West Elm, and there will probably be quite a few decisions made by the end of next year and saying OK, this is an area that we can diversify into. All eyes are upon us, for sure, right now.
H: What do you think the hotel industry needs right now?
DB: I worry that there’s not enough training in the industry, which is what Salt School was about, which is what West Elm Academy is about. But it doesn’t stop there. What I really want to see the West Elm Academy, Salt School become within the industry is where we can help you develop your next position.
H: Anything surprising about the retail side?
DB: From the minute a retail company signs a lease to go into a high street to opening the doors, it’s super, super quick. They change the style so frequently… The commonality between the two is the passion and the design and the eye for detail, but it’s a much bigger area than the hotel world is, for sure.