Plaza on the River - Hotel Designs Review

Hotel Designs


Close up of the bar with the 'reversed out' back fitting. Click to see the video of the whole space showing entrances to the Suites and the restaurant
Looking from the bar to the front of the hotel, where the entrace area is screened off by a fireplace. Click the image to see the bar seating	Different design practices have been employed, with public areas initially being by the Rockwell practice out of New York, whilst Ezra Attia’s London based EA International was responsible for suites, bedrooms and fit out of all areas. It may be that the failure by the Client to give one practice an overview of all the interiors from the beginning has contributed to the lack of functionality that is apparent in some areas, but it has also resulted in some striking interiors. In the London five star market the demand for suites is growing, and the five star that is just bedrooms will struggle to hold its position in the market place. This is part of a long term development where hotels have constantly moved upmarket – today’s four star is the standard of tomorrows three star (or conversely of course yesterdays four-star is becoming today’s three star as minimum standards, such as having separate showers in the bathrooms, continue to be set). The London market is characterised by a very low growth in room provision overall. My research shows that between 2001 and 2006 room stock in London was added to the equivalent of 31% more rooms. However the disappearance of rooms at the bottom of the market almost balanced this so that there was actually a growth of only around 4% in room numbers over the five year period. As hotels become of too low a standard to survive as hotels, they are converted into multiple occupation units for housing battered wives, migrant workers etc. This removes rooms and contributes to the increase in rates and occupancy as in any market where supply diminishes and demand keeps rising.
	The main restaurant is tucked away deeper in the hotel leaving the promineent room above the entrance for a function room (a mistake in my view)
In the period covered whilst room availability grew by about 4.1%, occupancy grew to today’s average 86%. Rates have climbed too, but this is against a background of London tourism growing by over 30% over the period. The dumping of poor quality rooms from the market place is good for standards but the upward movement of those standards is creating demand for different sorts of hotel provision at all star levels, resulting in the growth of new budget brands such as Yotel and nitenite as well as an increase and facilities creep in the lower and mid market range characterised by Travelodge and Holiday Inn Express. At the top end growth in demand now appears to be in the ‘super luxury’ bracket for suite hotels and aparthotel. Thus hotels like Shire Hotels the Stafford add not just extra rooms but extra suites to an already generous proportion of their rooms in this bracket. It is this market that the Plaza on the River is a part of, and where it is experiencing big demand, as it enjoys high occupancy rates.

Plaza on the River

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