2022 Summer Issue - 40

appeals to leisure travelers. Some hotels that cater
to business travelers will be converted into other
uses entirely and be removed from the hotel supply.
Developed by East West
Partners and designed
by 4240 Architecture,
the all-electric, ski-in/
ski-out residences at
Electric Pass Lodge in
Snowmass, Colorado,
draw on Passive House
strategies to leverage the
environmental attributes
of the site, provide a
robust building envelope,
and right-size renewably
sourced systems to reduce
the carbon footprint.
VOELLM: There is a trend toward co-living here in
Hong Kong, where there is low demand for hotel
rooms and the owners want to exit their holdings
because of the costs associated with them. So the
co-living operators can pick it up at a fair price, and
because the service level is lower than with a hotel,
they have a lower overhead. Hong Kong-based
Weave Living, one of the largest co-living operators
outside China, just announced its first deal in Singapore.
ZIMMERMANN:
We're seeing a lot of sprucing up.
Sometimes, a small investment can make a big
impact. These investments have gotten a fairly quick
ROI [return on investment] by allowing for a small
room rate increase, or by driving more business
through the food and beverage outlets. Some of the
investments may not even be ones guests notice,
but they make people want to stay longer, hanging
out with their friends and spending money.
How are ESG concerns reshaping
hospitality and travel?
ZIMMERMANN: We are going to continue to see a
lot of pressure on hotels and resorts to reduce their
carbon footprint. In Denver, Colorado, commercial
buildings over a certain size are required to reduce
energy use by 30 percent by 2030. The residences
at Electric Pass Lodge, which is under construction
at Snowmass Base Village in Colorado, are powered
by 100 percent renewable electricity. There is now a
well-designed electric fireplace on the market that
looks pretty much like a gas fireplace. We haven't
found a similar product for an outdoor fire pit, but
I'm sure it's coming.
VOELLM: Hopefully, people will start evaluating
their travel more carefully. Going to the end of the
world to a remote island, by boat or plane, has a
crazy carbon footprint. So, to build a new resort in a
remote place may be a challenge unless you have a
good strategy in place. I think sustainability is going
to come more to the forefront in travelers' decisions.
COVID has been a catalyst for raising awareness
about the sustainability impacts of travel.
ABREU: ESG policies and concerns have a role that
they didn't have four or five years ago. The majority
of people who invest in hotels operate them
for five or six years and then sell them to existent
groups or more institutional investors. They are now
seeing that ESG policies are something that the
final investor will look for in both the construction
and management of hotels. So as they see, in the
long term, that final investors value ESG policies,
they will integrate them from the beginning of their
developments. Tourists and even tour operators are
paying more attention to whether hotels comply with
environmental rules as well.
What innovations in the hospitality and
travel industries hold the most promise?
FAIR: CitizenM has done some interesting work
creating a membership-type model that allows you
to access their hotels in various cities-not only to
stay for business, but also just to work in. Thompson
Central Park also involved converting the top
nine stories into residences. We might see more of
that trend as well, reducing room counts by converting
some rooms into stratified condominiums. That
type of pied-à-terre living is appealing for people
40
URBAN LAND
SUMMER 2022
3DQ.STUDIO
2022 Summer Issue

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2022 Summer Issue
