Promoting synergy between new hotel developments and established communities

Abstract

There is often a great hubbub when a municipality or a developer suggests the development of a hotel most anywhere in the US, especially in highly urbanized communities. Because of their often imposing shapes, standardized form and insufficient attention to the context in which they are set, hotels can easily overwhelm a community without intending to. American hotels, as distinct from European ones frequently provide an enormous breadth of goods and services to their guests, from restaurants, bars, athletic clubs, and hairdressers, to post offices and gift shops. This keeps a traveler from having to leave the premises during his or her stay. While this may be efficient in the suburbs, in cases where the hotel is surrounded by a commercial center, this can result in missed opportunities to coordinate hotel and local business activities. Because of the sum of room and property taxes, hotels generate large amounts of money for municipalities and increase the tax base. The limited-service hotel model introduces a concept that induces and invites integration with the community rather than rejecting it. This is done by creating a hotel structure with the most minimal of facilities, limited dining rooms, limited or no externally-focused meeting rooms, no gift shop, no entertainment facilities. This limited-service hotel provides only the basics, including a bed, private bath, and for extended-stay facilities, living area and kitchen, encouraging guest integration with the surrounding community and encouraging the hotel to reach into the community for its goods and services. This thesis studies the impacts of inserting a hotel development into a highly urbanized setting, including how these hotels can add to the urban design component of the town and benefit the surrounding commercial area by externalizing services and amenities. Case studies are taken from the northeastern United States and applied to a current hotel feasibility study underway in Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA.