Flooring The Consumer: Bathroom Blogfest '08

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Bathroom Blogfest '08 - A Place For Luxury

Small Luxury Hotel originally uploaded by mag3737.

Luxury Bathrooms are next up on the agenda for Bathroom Blogfest '08 - Cleaning Up Forgotten Spaces Around Us.

Although I touched every so briefly on luxury in Bathroom Blogfest 2008: Trends in Bathrooms, I uncovered enough material to merit full attention in this here post.

Luxury trends across the board affect us - in new product concepts, in service expectations, in color trends, in our retail experiences, and in how to clean up forgotten spaces. The notion of luxury has even evolved to affect every one of us personally when we debate whether to Trade Up or Treasure Hunt.

I offer you examples of luxury to consider.

In High-Style Himalayas - The Taj Tashi Thimphu hotel by P49 Deesign brings cosmopolitan flair to reclusive Bhutan, from the 4/1/2008 issue of Interior Design Magazine, Maria Shollenbarger describes a breathtakingly beautiful location and hotel. I love how the various spaces combine tradition and locally sourced materials. The bathrooms feature "freestanding soaking tubs, nickel-finished fittings, and heated travertine floors [that] signal luxury. The travertine and the walls' yellow marble were sourced from northern India" [do view the photo slideshow].

This next example, One Night in Paris - At L/B's Hotel Everland, contemporary art comes with room service, from the same issue of Interior Design, in an article by Seth Sherwood [with slideshow], describes an amazing concept that "playfully demolishes nearly every convention of the hotel business. There's no lobby, no reception desk, no fixed location, and only one guest room, a trailer-size structure." Different, isn't it? I'm happy to notice that most of the space is carpeted. The colors are bold [sky blue and yellow-green], the shapes curvaceously modern, and the views unexpected [check out the virtual visit]. You'll notice all kinds of storage nooks and the bathroom features Bermuda-blue mosaic tiles. All-in-all, the Hotel Everland combats "imaginative poverty."

Lisa Contreras forwarded this article titled Accommodations for the Discreetly Superrich by Alan Feuer to me. This example of the ultimate in luxury isn't about extreme opulence, but rather about intense hygiene and absolute cleanliness [although it includes plenty of technological wonders...]. Something we can all appreciate and yearn for from the public bathrooms we frequent.

The Wall Street Journal featured Spas in the Sky: Inside the Big Jets by Daniel Michaels and Stefania Bianchi this past September. I'm happy to learn that these forgotten spaces will soon feature - for those of us in coach - electric sockets and possibly additional leg room. In First Class, though, one might be lucky enough to experience a shower spa....

Finally, Trendwatching refers to the trend of 'Perkonomics' and more specifically the "No queue" perks. Their example is the Visa Signature Lounge at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco. Interesting concept. I found reference to it at Westfield's San Francisco Shopping Centre last 12/20/07 thru 12/26/07 [with a better description in Visa Signature Lounge: Rest and Reward] and a review of the Outside Lands festival which bemoans the overly corporate quality of what looked to be an outstanding musical event.

[Interestingly, there's even a facebook page about the Signature Lounge referring you to visa.com/signature.]

What do you think about Luxury and its effect on forgotten spaces like bathrooms?

As extreme a concept, think how much goodwill you can generate with customers by offering them the ultimate luxury of a beautifully clean and pristine bathroom. If it works for luxury experiences, don't you think your customers will greatly appreciate it? After all, aren't they due the luxury touch?