What does the rise of adult-only hotels mean for business travellers?
By J.J.C.
WHEN it comes to young children and travelling, people divide into two camps. You either have kids, in which case you bemoan every restriction placed upon them, or you don't, in which case you tut at every concession they enjoy. Adults happily ditch one camp for the other as soon as they begin a family, seemingly losing all sense of comradeship with former allies. This writer remembers cursing screaming children on flights before he had them himself. Now the sound of a child's crying on take-off elicits feelings of sympathy rather than irritation.
Nowhere are the dividing lines deeper, it seems, than in Germany. It is a nation that treasures silence more than most; the place that invented earplugs and where even school playgrounds are subject to noise-pollution measures. It also has one of the lowest birth rates in the world (8.2 per 1,000 inhabitants). No surprise, then, that according to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, the country is in the midst of a craze for hotels that forbid children. Reports the Journal:
Tom Cudok, director of Hotel Esplanade in Bad Saarow, spent years smoothing conflicts between couples seeking repose and families with children. But late last year, he threw in the towel and decided to ban youngsters under the age of 16.
The result: His hotel, which overlooks a bucolic lake near the Polish border and markets itself as an oasis for harried Berliners, has become “quieter” and “tidier,” he says.
He is far from alone. Two years ago, Franz Kandlbinder closed his upscale Bavarian hotel, Hotel Parkschloessl, to the 14-and-under-crowd. After weathering some negative local press about the restriction, and drop in business from families, he now attracts Germans who travel up to 500 km for its tranquility.
The Travel Without Childrenwebsite, lists 30 such adult-only establishments in Germany. Tui, a German travel company, meanwhile, has a global network of 250 adult-only hotels operating under its Sensimar brand. The concept is not confined to that country, though. Riu, a Spanish hotel chain, is set to open a 1,000 room adult-only hotel in the Dominican Republic this year.
This should have business travellers rubbing their hands with glee. After all, whether they are screaming in hotel corridors or on planes, kids are an unwelcome distraction for travellers with more serious matters to attend to. But perhaps road warriors should be careful what they wish for. Families bring benefits to hoteliers and to other guests. Squeezing a few extra beds into the same floorspace creates a family room for which hotels charge a premium. By comparison, the single-occupancy rate for business travellers is effectively a discounted double room. Equally families spend more time in hotels, eating overpriced meals and using other services, effectively subsidising business travellers—allowing them to frequent posher hotels and make their per diems go further. True, children can be noisy, especially in shared facilities like pools. But these are places that business travellers barely have time to enjoy themselves. Children get up early, but so should any self-respecting business person. And children go to bed early too—a relief to fellow guests who have to be up for a breakfast presentation.
Indeed, it is here that the adult-only concept becomes less attractive. Sensimar hotels are being marketed by Tui's British subsidiary, Thompson, through "First Dates", a popular TV show whose young adult audience is itself not necessarily in keeping with business travel. After all, “adult-only” can mean different things to different people. As the debauched Club 18-30 brand proved, hotels for grown-ups do not necessarily attract guests who will act in a grown-up way.
