Seniors travel frequently, and accommodating their needs can quickly produce profits
For frequent travelers who spend long stretches of time on the road, hotels can feel more like homes than temporary lodging. For senior travelers, hotels can also feel like home when the guestrooms are designed with a mindful approach to their preferences.
According to a report presented by Modern Maturity, the magazine of the American Association of Retired Persons, based in Washington, men and women over age 50 travel more frequently and stay longer than individuals under age 50. These travelers spent more than $30 billion on vacation travel in 1994, and the figure is rising.
Two of Choice Hotels International's brands, Econo Lodge and Rodeway, have recognized this trend as a golden opportunity to market their properties, and they created specific products aimed at active senior travelers. After conducting research and interviewing focus groups, Choice adopted its Senior Room for Rodeway in 1993 and for Econo Lodge in 1995.
The Senior Room features amenities that offer the comfort and maintain the quality of life that seniors are used to in their own homes. Brighter lighting allows guests to see better; large-button telephones and TV remote controls provide easy operation of commonly used items; and lever handles on doors and faucets ensure that guests of all strengths and dexterity can move about in the room without inordinate effort.
"Even those who are not seniors love the rooms," said Tim Shuy, vice president and brand manager for Econo Lodge. "They ask why we couldn't do this in more of the rooms."
Shuy said that at first, Rodeway only set aside 10 percent of its rooms for Senior Rooms, then later increased the number to 25 percent. Econo Lodge, newer to the concept, now has 10 percent of its rooms converted.
"These rooms are in high demand regardless of what we label them," Shuy said. Guests enjoy the comfort and ease of the additional amenities, and they often request the Senior Rooms as if they were upgrades, he said.
Econo Lodge started tracking the results of the Senior Room in September 1995. The sales figures showed a positive impact.
"In four months, we generated over $1 million of additional revenue," Shuy said. "Would we have gotten that extra million without the Senior Rooms? Probably not."
He said that the initial cost was approximately $500 per room, but that there was a two- to three-month return on the investment.
Designed for every age and ability
Hal Norvell, director of business and community relations for AARP, worked with representatives of Choice to design the Senior Rooms. Norvell based much of his input on the concept of universal design, which offers comfort, convenience and safety for nearly every age group and ability.
"We would like to provide something that is appropriate for a person who is 5 or 95," Norvell said. "But no design works 100 percent of the time for all people."
AARP, established in 1958 as a non-profit organization, has a longstanding travel program for its members. The organization has conducted research and gained practical experience about traveling seniors.
Norvell has given presentations about the benefits of the design and its effect on the total hotel experience. Although many architects and several hotels are aware of the concept, Norvell said, many of them don't use it.
Ted Brumleve, a partner of Brennan Beer Gorman/Architects, said universal design is important so that guests can move about in their hotels easily.
"What it boils down to is that it needs to be easy for guests to orient themselves inside a hotel," he said. "It should be a place where there is a feeling of security and ease of use in providing access to functions of the hotel in a comfortable atmosphere of life and liveliness."
Home away from home
For seniors, this means that they would want all the conveniences they're used to in their own homes, such as adequate lighting and suitable food-and-beverage choices on the hotel restaurant menu, Brumleve said.
He said that the bathroom is the most important consideration when designing for seniors.
"At the end of the day, it all goes back to one place - the bathroom," Brumleve said. "It needs to be a comfortable, functional space."
The bathroom is where the everyday activity of taking care of oneself occurs, he said. Checking one's appearance in the bathroom mirror is the last thing a traveler does before going out sightseeing or going to meet people.
For seniors, bathrooms should have grab bars at the appropriate height, balanced lighting, easy-to-turn faucet handles and no sharp edges on the furnishings. Brumleve said that there are a variety of hardware options available in lighting and plumbing fixtures that fit in well with any decor.
These features need not sacrifice the overall appeal of the design and make the guests feel as if they're being treated as special, he said.
With a growing number of activeseniors who enjoy frequent vacations, accommodating their needs is not only simple, but it can often result in more room-nights and more revenue.
"You've got the beginning of a trend," Choice's Shuy said, "Econo Lodge and Rodeway are at the cusp of the trend."
It won't be long, he said, before more chains recognize the rapidly increasing potential of the lucrative senior-traveler market.
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