This Hotel Is Competing With Airbnb With Cheap Rates, Five Bars And Self Check-In
A new hotel concept is ditching reservation staff for self-service tablets.
Manhattan's Public Hotel is owned by Ian Schrager, also the creator of nightclub Studio 54. With this concept, Schrager aims to push back against the ever-growing Airbnb by developing a tech-fueled hotel that obliterates the need for staff such as bellhops and front-desk attendants, thereby keeping costs low, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Rates start at $150/night, although they do increase during high-demand times such as New York Fashion Week. The brand is also focusing its efforts on amenities that younger travelers actually want, such as food and beverage offerings.
Public has a coffee shop, a food market and five bars on the second floor, rooftop and lower level and is currently getting from 35% to 45% of its revenue from these bars. That is approximately 10% higher than the national average. Public Hotel is expected to grow in the next three years with additional locations planned for Manhattan, Brooklyn, Miami, Las Vegas and Europe.
Earlier in the spring, CBRE released a report that said Airbnb could be likened to a professional short-term rental business and hosts who were renting out two or more properties per month had produced more than $1.8B in 2016. This was up from $611M in 2015, proving Airbnb is providing some serious competition for the hotel industry.
A study by Morgan Stanley found that 49% of Airbnb users had substituted traditional hotels for Airbnb. It went on to predict that 25% of leisure travelers and 23% of business travelers will have used Airbnb by the end of 2017, the WSJ reports.
