Covid-19 has changed just about every part of our lives including the transportation and hospitality industries. Conventions, corporate meetings, conferences and seminars as we knew them pre-pandemic will probably never return to the way they were.
Hotels especially are looking at new demands by their guests to adapt to a new way of getting people together for events.
COVID-19 has many travelers concerned about traveling within the city they are visiting and hotels, which now have more rooms than they need, due to the pandemic, are converting space into more retail, themed restaurants and social gathering areas.
Modular construction had gained a substantial foothold in hotel construction before the pandemic and now that many hotel chains are rethinking how to do business in the post-pandemic era, modular will become an even bigger part of their hotel expansion plans.
Cocooning for corporate employees that must visit their company’s headquarters may soon see new hotels being built near corporate centric areas. This will allow each nearby corporation to invest in entire areas within the hotel where precautions for their employees’ health and safety are built into their corporate area. Look for social areas for the company’s employees to gather and more in-hotel restaurants and services to be added.
These corporations may be asked to help design their areas within the hotel especially if they are investing in one or more floors.
Modular construction is the perfect fit for going green for hotels and their corporate sponsors. With modular, green building methods are inherent in the building process. It fits well into new corporate concerns for the environment.
Modular also allows hotels to be built faster, easier and in most cases, more cost effective.
The days of building hotels targeting the family vacationer is probably never going to be the same. Sure, there will always be a need for hotels to fill that need but the number will definitely be a lot fewer.
Business travel will also see less people using hotels as they once did. That is why the new breed of mixed use hotel will soon begin to see expansion with corporations becoming partners with hotel chains about to take off.
“Modular Construction Industry Observer and Information Gatherer”
Gary Fleisher is a housing veteran, editor/writer of the ModcoachNews, Modular-homecoach blogs and the ‘coming soon’ ModcoachConnects Construction Consultant’s Directory.
Contact modcoach@gmail.com