Allah-hotel. Hyatt Chief Creative Officer Amar Lalvani

allah-hotel.

5 questions with Hyatt Chief Creative Officer Amar Lalvani

You’re the president and creative director of the Lifestyle Group, which includes Thompson, Andaz, the Standard and Dream. For those of us who don’t speak corporatese, what is a “lifestyle hotel”? …

What’s the best thing a hotel can do, and what’s the worst?
I was staying at a hotel in Istanbul. It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and I got a knock on the door. There was someone with a dry martini. I said, “I didn’t order that.” They said, “We know.” That was so interesting because there’s at least a 50% chance you don’t drink it. But the spirit of that is amazing because it’s very hospitable and it puts you in a certain mood.
The worst thing is a line. You just spent eight hours getting somewhere, and the hotel’s first act of hospitality is asking you to stand behind six other people while somebody types into a computer. Almost as bad is an elaborate check-in ritual you didn’t ask for.
I don’t need a speech about the hotel. I need somebody to look at me, understand what I need at that moment and act accordingly. Sometimes that’s a conversation. Sometimes it’s a martini. Sometimes it’s simply the room key.