A quick business trip to Chicago. My client offers me a choice of hotels. There’s the Fairmont, of course. But the Hard Rock Hotel is nearby. Humm. Sounds like fun. Dan, after all, has hooked up with a garage rock band called “Still Crazy” (all the players in their forties and fifties), and I enjoy boutique hotels with attitude. So I make the reservation. Of course, I think the lizard chaise lounge in the room is over-the-top, but I appreciate the proximity of the hotel to Starbucks and basically I’m moving and grooving to the hotel’s new, hip tune.
Guess I was mistaken, however, as upon my arrival home, Dan showed me a clipping from “USA Today.” In a cover story titled “Hotels loosen their ties for a younger crowd,” the journalist reports that the hotel industry is adjusting to the unique demands of Gen-Xers: “younger, hipper travelers” who unlike me (a baby boomer) are too cool for polyester floral bedspreads. Umm…when was the last time, women, that you craved a polyester floral bedspread? Then the article goes on: Unlike the baby boom generation, the Gen-Xers “crave branded items—for example, Starbucks, not coffee…they scour the Web to find a boutique hotel oozing with attitude, instead of simply booking the same chain hotel their family booked for their 1980’s vacations.” Better go back to the market research, kids. Or I’ll report your lizard chaise to the SPCA.
Carol Orsborn