Christoph Hoffman, CEO of lifestyle hotel brand 25hours, is not buying the homesharing, coliving and coworking trend.
“Everybody’s jumping on the same train, and it becomes, to me, funny and maybe also dangerous in some areas, because too many people are doing the same thing,” said Hoffman. “Then it repeats itself and everyone has the same kind of product.”
Although he sees coworking as an interesting take on hospitality, he believes that hotels should cater to a local crowd or a community who uses hotels frequently.
Hoffman said that hotels who do not offer a proper hotel experience and services may suffer and those using homesharing will inevitably feel lonely in a space meant to feel like home.
Despite his beliefs, 25hours is still experimenting with new models to differentiate from the traditional concierge services seen at hotels.
25hours has a laboratory called Extra Hour Lab that focuses on finding and developing new hospitality concepts, which has led the company to create new e-commerce initiatives.
Just last fall, the company debuted its concierge concept geared towards locals and guests called Conciergerie. While it wasn’t as successful as he hopes, Hoffman said that they are tinkering with it in order to market it appropriately.
