Ian Schrager is known in the hospitality industry as the one who initiated the boutique hotel concept. He believes the time has come to modify and fine tune the hotel designs once more as guest preferences and taste has undergone a change. Schrager who is creating a luxury chain for Marriott under the brand name Edition is also creating his own new brand Public which promises to hold more value for customers. He is preparing to open his first Public hotel in Chicago and negotiating on five more potential hotel deals that may be transformed into Public hotels.
With the brand Public Schrager is taking an almost opposite line to the hip hotel design and concepts that he helped popularize two decades ago through his Morgans Hotel Group Company. He believes that today the hotel design has gone over the top and efforts to blow the customer away has created a Frankenstein monster. It has almost become an industry standard and chains are following it blindly without understanding its purpose. The very name of his new brand suggests that Schrager is defying the slick and trendy style for his new hotel venture.
The new Public Chicago has started offering preview rates starting on Sept. 12. The rates start from $135 for 200 square foot room. a deluxe one-bedroom suite with about 825 square feet is the most expensive room on offer which will cost $515. The Public Chicago was actually the city’s iconic Ambassador East which Schrager is transforming. Pump Room, the hotels iconic restaurant is undergoing extensive renovation and will be run by famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The lobby of the new hotel is intended to run more as a social hub. The front desk will enable you to customize your hotel room mini bar. Schrager hopes to roll out five hotels under his new brand to upstage the copycats.
Via: online.wsj, travel.usatoday
