Hospitality Design - March/April 2015 - 98

special feature lifestyle brands
9+10. Renderings
of a Hotel RL
guestroom and the
Steps, a prototype
lobby seating
configuration.

Design Details: "The goal was for the hotel to
become a neighborhood hotspot activated by
coffee, a living stage, live performances, local
art, stadium seating, self check-in," Nicholas
explains. The design turns the lobby into a
kind of town square-a home base from which
people can explore the particular city. The
Steps, for instance, are a prototype lobby seating
concept, intended to be a place for guests to
hang out, have a cup of coffee or cocktail, and
enjoy programming that will be built into the
experience of Hotel RL-be that an acoustic
performance, author reading, or exhibit from
a local artist-intended to mimic a Pacific
Northwest coffee shop experience. Guestrooms
feature comfortable seating, wood floors, and a
retail-inspired changing area-doing away with
closets (and desks) altogether.

9

10

Hotel RL

The Backstory: Spokane, Washington-based
Red Lion Hotels Corporation (RLHC) has
been in the hotel business since 1959, with a
portfolio of more than 50 midscale properties
primarily in the western U.S. Last year, the
company announced it would be expanding
with Hotel RL, a 3-Star lifestyle hotel conversion
brand inspired by-and representative of-the
ethos of the Pacific Northwest. "RLHC had the
foundation of a solid brand with a good name,
which provided an opportunity to launch a
lifestyle upscale conversion brand," explains
RLHC's Bill Linehan. "This is an opportunity
for hotel owners to affiliate with a new brand in
major markets."
"Red Lion is capitalizing on their scale, their
speed, their degree of flexibility, the unique
anchoring of the Pacific Northwest," adds Ron
Swidler, principal at Chicago-based Gettys,
the firm tapped to collaborate with RLHC's
executive team on the creation, branding, and
design of Hotel RL.
Highlights: Gettys, whose newly announced

lifestyle-focused PULSE by Gettys team worked
closely with RLHC executives, conceived of the
design in an adaptable way. "We looked at it as

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March/April 2015 hospitalitydesign.com

a modular kit of parts," Swidler explains, with
all of those pieces creating an open and flexible
plan that emphasizes the brand's core values.
"At every opportunity we instilled the notion
of discovery within our design to empower the
guest with the tools and information necessary
to explore the local offerings," adds Ben Nicholas,
design director at Gettys. "An active part of our
design approach was to embrace the adventure
seeker inside all of us."

Outlook: The first Hotel RL is expected to open
in Baltimore's Inner Harbor this summer, with
more than a dozen conversions in the works
in cities across the U.S., according to Swidler.
RLHC is planning, along with hotel owners,
to invest between $50 and $100 million in the
conversion of properties in the top 80 U.S. urban
markets.
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