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:: Panoramic Views
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Holiday Inn is a global franchised brand, but still has to find its sites and comply with the now famous strictures of the original Mr Hilton in making the judgement – that it is all about location, location, location. The Inn on the Hill abundantly satisfies all three criteria. Situated within sight of the Capitol and Senate offices, an easy stroll from the National Mall and the majority of the US Capital's national museums and galleries and just four blocks from Grand Union station, the hotel is well placed to attract not only domestic and international tourists, but business from lobbyists, political associations, pressure groups and researchers.
Built in the late 1960’s the 143 bedroom hotel is midway through a series of makeovers from Seattle based designers Dawson Design. The challenge for the designers has been to provide a sophisticated interior and to bring the building into a state that makes it competitive with more recently built hotels. The hotel has decided to position itself at the top of the brand range, which should surprise and delight guests.
Intercontinental, owners of the brand, lay down and monitor brand standards – after all, every operator wants the advantage of the global brand marketing, whilst guests want the predictability of knowing what quality the brand represents. The question for any user is what does the ‘brand standard’ mean? Of course this is not just a question that relates to Holiday Inn, nor indeed to Intercontinental, but increasingly as independent travellers book their hotel and travel directly using the web, it becomes a question to concern all global hotel brands such as Hilton, Shangri-La, Sheraton, Rezidor SAS at al.
The guest booking an hotel maybe lives on a different continent and should be able to see branding as a reassurance of quality. Brand standards are maintained and monitored, in some cases rigorously, in other maybe less so, and the degree of monitoring will be reflected in the amount of variation from brand standards allowed the franchisee. In the absence of any international agreed star rating standard branding becomes one of the few ‘quality marks’ a guest can have regard to when choosing an hotel. The franchisor will also set maximum letting rates and will market the hotel as a representative unit of the brand – the global marketing is one reason for an owner choosing to operate under a franchise arrangement rather than as an independent. Guests may choose the hotel by location but given local competition with equally good locations then the brand and perceived brand quality becomes a consideration before booking, as does the price bracket operated in.
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| Reception is cool and stylish although on a bright summers day appears quite dark after street sunlight glare. Washington itself is oddly stylish as the approach to Grand Central Station, just around the corner from the hotel, shows |
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| More views of reception, showing how the photographers lamps lift the space. In a winters gloom the space probably looks much better lit than against summers light. |
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Having completed a recent makeover of the bedrooms and reception areas, the hotel is now turning attention to the restaurant and conference spaces. The architecture is a typical multi storey block built in compliance with the Washington zoning limits, its concrete structure having its own multi storey underground car parking and a small parking zone in front of the entrance doors. To a European eye the streetscape is remarkable for its width and the zoning creates a unified overall appearance whilst leaving room for some creative architecture. The building line is also set well back with generous pavement areas protected from the heat of the sun with often dense planting of trees for shade (not that anyone really strays far from air-conditioning in a summer temperature that is in the high 90’s Fahrenheit). The problems with many ageing hotels are often rooted in keeping up with generally rising standards both in terms of the use of physical space and the technologies used.
Entering anywhere in Washington in July brings the same feeling of relief as a wash of cold conditioned air comes from the doorway. This is matched by a sense of the darkness within. This is not just because of the bright exterior sunlight but because to my eyes most US hotels seem to be under lit. The European habit of using sharp accent lighting is missing here where the lighting seems to be generally provided by lamps around the perimeter of spaces. Here the slightly claustrophobic impression is compounded by the sheer busy-ness of the space in an hotel that is obviously very popular. The design introduces a mix of materials and finishes creating visual variety but is unable to overcome the heavy presence of large columns that impose themselves on the space, forcing movement into a restricted area around the periphery. Some of this could possibly be alleviated in the forthcoming redesign of the popular and busy sports bar restaurant, which may allow the creation of a different route from the lift lobby to the restaurant removing some of the traffic that currently passes through the reception space.
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