This New Hotel Concept May Be Too Political For Some

A new hotel concept is making room for socially conscious travelers.

The Eaton Workshop, a Washington, D.C., hotel concept created specifically with social activism and community engagement in mind, is slated to open in the spring of 2018 and will serve as a catalyst for good. Or so the owner hopes.

Founder and president Katherine Lo believes that just as clothing, food and baby products can be made for the conscious consumer, so too can hotels, Bloomberg reports.

This is not the first concept of its kind. A number of lodges around the world are tailored to social good such as sustainability or include charitable programs as is the case with hotel company Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, which made a companywide commitment to community programming for disadvantaged children.

Eaton, owned by Chinese real estate billionaire Ka Shui Lo's Great Eagle Holdings, will be focused on liberal activism and civic engagement and will even broadcast footage from presidential elections between 2012 and 2016. The concept is meant to appeal to change-makers, including journalists, entrepreneurs, community leaders and politicians, Fast Company reports. 

While it still boasts many of the typical features one might find in a traditional hotel, such as a rooftop bar and a coffee shop, Eaton will also play host to speaker series that discuss issues like climate change and race relations, as well as fostering an art community by dedicating six rooms to visual art studios and screening films that focus on social good and human rights in the hotel’s 50-person cinema. 

The 209-room will be just north of the National Mall, and a second hotel is slated to open in Hong Kong in 2018 with two more following in San Francisco and Seattle.