New WorkLife guest rooms and a fresh plaza workspace design answer guest needs and wants
The hospitality chain’s new approach centers around a reimagined design style that seeks to promote professional productivity, personal restoration and inspiration. Key features include:
- Plaza Workspace – Lobbies have been designed with flexible spaces that support work and downtime; a central, stylish bar; different seating for working and socializing; embedded technology; and a private meeting space that is bookable by the hour.
- WorkLife Rooms – Crowne Plaza’s balanced and patented WorkLife Room design offers a combination of comfort, connectivity and flexibility with distinct zones that maximize space and lighting for work, relaxation and sleep.
- Dare to Connect – A distinguished service experience, Dare to Connect is an intuitive, unscripted service style that empowers hotel teams to take a proactive approach to connect with guests, anticipating their needs and providing the best recommendations to help guests make the most of their free time.
- Gather + Thrive – Crowne Plaza is focused on the future of meetings and events, setting the stage for creative collaborations and significant life moments, working from planning to execution to make sure everything runs smoothly so that meeting planners and attendees can be at their best. The Gather + Thrive program offers an end-to-end meetings and events experience including purposeful design, energizing food and beverage options, innovative meeting technology and great service. Meetings are also backed by IHG’s Meet with Confidence program, including multivenue and hybrid meeting options developed with partners such as Encore (formerly PSAV); enhanced cleanliness, health and safety protocols for meetings; and flexible booking options.
“Crowne Plaza was one of the first brands to focus on the needs of modern business travelers in the early 1980s and, since then, we have continued to innovate and advance our design and service approach. During the last few years, we have worked closely with our owners to enhance this brand to meet the future of premium travel, including the desire of guests for overall balance and the ability to switch easily between work and leisure, as well as the evolution of meetings to include more virtual and hybrid options,” noted Ginger Taggart, Vice President, Global Crowne Plaza.
Following responses gained from IHG’s signature guest HeartBeat survey program, more than a third of the Crowne Plaza hotels in the Americas have completed renovations and implemented brand enhancements, such as Plaza Workspace, with nearly 7,000 guest rooms currently showcasing new modern or WorkLife designs.
Examples of the renovations’ impacts can be found, among other locations, at the Crowne Plaza Philadelphia-King of Prussia and the Crowne Plaza Milwaukee South.
Crowne Plaza has some 430 Crowne Plaza hotels in operation with 89 in the pipeline. In 2020, the brand opened 19 new hotels, including 10 properties in Greater China. In fact, the Crowne Plaza Shanghai Hongqiao marked the 100th property for the brand in the region.
