Hotels Tried To Eliminate the Traditional In-Room Desk But Created a Backlash
Photo Credit: Marriott's Seattle Bellevue Hotel features modern room designs complete with new work surfaces instead of traditional desks. Marriott International
Skift Take
Marriott and Holiday Inn Express are also looking to optimize space in guest rooms and appeal to changing traveler habits. The shift away from traditional desks got a failing grade from lots of customers.
Marriott and Holiday Inn Express experimented with removing the traditional desk inside guest rooms and the moves triggered a backlash.
Lots of guests, it turns out, still want a desk. It's an important piece of furniture in the opinion of lots of their customers.
Marriott's new "work surface" was geared to forge a connection with the millennial market but the brand found out the change caused a generational rift within the ranks of its guests.
Yahoo! Sports National Columnist Dan Wetzel wrote a scathing Tumblr post about the absence of a traditional desk at the City Center Marriott in Charlotte, North Carolina, saying there was a “little table with no corresponding chair.” Wetzel’s shock led him to find an entire Internet community indignant about Marriott robbing them of their beloved piece of furniture.
"The Idiots Who Designed Marriott's Hotel Rooms" is a forum on FlyerTalk, a website that hosts discussions on travel topics. The thread, which is 23 pages long,
