Snippet: Who Stole the Desk from My Hotel Room? ☇

Dan Wetzel:

Then I heard something that terrified me to my myopic, Marriott point loving soul … this was part of a chain wide redesign of rooms. No more desks. In any, or at least many, Marriotts. Seriously. Even full service Marriotts in business districts, work areas were out. […]

I was told this had to do with the habits of Millennials, who don’t use desks. [Insert “Millennials don’t do any work” jokes here.] They prefer rooms that are designed to “hang out” in and whatever work they do can be accomplished on their phone. Hence we have two beds and a couch but no chair or desk.

I’m sort of sick of companies assuming they know what Millennials want, especially when it’s almost always a means to disguise a cost-cutting measure. How about if we’re going to update hotel rooms for the better, ditch the dressers, add more electrical outlets, improve Wi-Fi, and offer usable HDMI inputs on TVs? I don’t need a “hang out space” for friends if I’m traveling—we’d go explore our surroundings. Then again, if I’m getting in late and wanting to go immediately to bed, or traveling by myself, the “hang out space” concept appeals even less.