Hotels Experiment With Pop-Ups to Attract New Audiences
Photo Credit: A Contained container, pop-up hotel space on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbor, Australia. Contained / Daniel John Bilsborough
Skift Take
Given that luxury is all about rarity, it's no wonder that pop-ups of all sorts are creeping into the high-end arena. In the world of hospitality, basic pop-up accommodations have been springing up at festivals like Coachella for awhile. But more elaborate, ephemeral digs are only now starting to pop up in unexpected places around the world.
There are pop-up restaurants, pop-up shops, even pop-up museums. The phenomenon is so widespread that it only makes sense that it would hit the hotel industry.
Pop-ups started showing up about 10 years ago, and in 2016 PopUp Republic, a retail marketing database, valued the industry at $50 billion. Most frequently, pop-ups show up in retail spaces, but as the industry grows, there has been a clamor for different types of locations, including hotels.
There are a couple of different ways the hospitality industry can meld with the pop-up platform. One way is by developing temporary accommodation spaces. The other is by serving as a host for pop-up businesses.
For consumer brands looking at places to pop up, a hotel can be a very attractive option. According to Melissa Gonzalez, chief pop-up architect for retail strategy firm The Lionesque Group, the first consideration is “location, location, location,” and most hotels have that edge. Moreover, hotels offer brands turnkey sp
