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Double double bedroom shows how the chain hotels obsession with getting the beds right leads to a luxury impression with good sheets, plenty of pillows (often with a pillow service too for those with allergies etc.)
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"66% of hotel rooms in the USA are in the branded sector compared to 23% in Europe"
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Bedrooms are well designed, to what is, I assume, a standard Wingate Inn format, which includes a comfortable office style working chair against a generous desk space. A great deal is packed into the rooms, including an armchair with a footstool, but despite this the room doesn't feel cramped.
The Wingate Midtown Manhattan as the company calls the hotel, is the first Wingate Inn in Manhattan and despite a difficult site the brand standard has been successfully transplanted onto this urban location. Cities are different to other locations, especially heavily developed townscapes with limited scope for new building, and this will always raise difficulties in the creation of hotels that stick to a brand standard.
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Bedrooms include a good working area, with an office chair, good task lighting and plenty of space. Again a well thought out brand standard to give a business oriented work area within each bedroom.
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Standard bathroom fit out is carried through disabilities room and suite alike (click on the image for larger view). The brand has carried out work to define the way the shower works, hence the double head and curved curtain rail (the latter helping keep the curtain away from the body during showering).
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In creating its first property in Manhattan, the company has maintained the brand offering. The hotel works successfully providing the levels of comfort and service associated with Wingate Inns elsewhere.
As the brands move into Europe (we will shortly be Reviewing the prototype of the new Marriott Courtyard brand identity developed for the European market)in their chase to try to bring the level of branded room supply up to similar levels of the stock in the USA. It will be interesting to see how easy they find it to mantain standards. Marriotts Courtyard, Hiltons Hampton, Garden Inn and Double Tree brands, Radissons Park Inn are all finding their devotees in Europe.
Will the combination of comfort, good design and service find favour over the Gasthaus, Pension or B&B? Given the variability in quality of food, design, comfort and service, and the failure of star ratings to offer guest any reassurance of quality, then brand names stand a good chance of succeeding if they can maintain a consistent recognisable standard. A standard like the Wingate or the Courtyard has the potential to match the recent explosive growth of Travelodge.
As was said in 1942, "the Yanks are coming!". With strong brands exemplared by this Manhattan Wingate, their impact on the European budget hotel industry could be as great as their servicemens arrival was over half a centry ago.
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Wingate Inn
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