Curious about…”Rock N’ Roll” Hospitality.
As many of my friends and colleagues can now attest (having had to put up with my ranting) I am staying at a Hard Rock Hotel on Sentosa Island, just off Singapore, for a conference that I am speaking at. For the record, I am in the Sting And The Police Room on Floor 5, a floor signified by a slightly bedraggled and duty bustier once worn apparently by Mariah Carey. I despair, but frankly seem alone in my desperation, as everyone else around me seems to be having a rip-rollocking time running around in bathrobes being rock stars, “jamming” on the stage area in the lobby, playing in the large neon “rock-star” beds in the lobby and climbing up on the large guitars in the forecourt to have their pictures taken. I am not the target audience, but thematic hospitality is clearly on the rise. Time to investigate.
The first Hard Rock Cafe opened its doors to the public on June 14, 1971, in London. Founded by Peter Morton and Isaac Tigrett, it initially had an eclectic decor but later started to display memorabilia, and now has amassed one of the largest collections of rock and roll memorabilia in the world. The chain began to expand worldwide in 1982 with locations in (among others) Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berlin, Chicago and Singapore. In 1995 spent $80 million to open the first Hard Rock Hotel off the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas. Since then the chain has expanded internationally to locations as diverse as Tampa, Florida, Manchester and Macau in the People’s Republic of China.
Similar in theme but more specific, the Hard Days Night Hotel in Liverpool caters to the millions of people who love The Beatles enough to stay in a hotel entirely dedicated to them. If you want to go all out you can book into one of the two penthouse suites suitably called The Lennon Suite and McCartney Suite. And if you think John and Yoko are the couple to aspire to you can get married in the wedding chapel.
Calling itself “The Original Rock N’ Roll Boutique Hotel,” the Hotel Pelirocco in Brighton, England, describes itself thus: “We are Brighton’s sauciest stopover. With 29 bedrooms themes around pop subculture or provoked by visionary artists, maverick musicians or inspired individuals, Hotel Pelirocco is bound to tickle the taste buds of pleasure seekers on the hunt for something new.” With rooms themes such as “Pussy,” “Pretty Vacant,” and “Rough Trade, Rough Nite,” it aims to put some punk attitude into a somewhat suburban B&B context.
What Of It? I need to take my judgmental hat off here and lay it firmly on the floor for a second. My college Alice and I were sitting at breakfast yesterday in the Hard Rock Hotel and frankly we were the only ones NOT relishing the fact that an off-key cover of Pat Benatar’s “I Love Rock N’ Roll” was booming whilst the staff rushed around in electric purple cowboy shirts serving coffee, surrounded by lenticular posters of Gwen Stefani and Cyndi Lauper. As I said before, European business design folks are clearly not the target audience. Looking at their website, these places seem to cater extensively to local families, honeymooners and young groups of adults looking for fun. Good for them. The notion of thematic hospitality is of course nothing new; staying at a hotel is for most a moment of pure escapism, and why not dial-up your fantasy, play a rock star for a day or two, re-live the punk-rock lifestyle, albeit in the safety of a English boarding house with clean sheets and nice pink towels?
I Am Curious about escapism, fantasy role play and experiences designed to amplify that, about polarizing differences in aesthetics globally and how one man’s rock n’ roll is another’s off-key nightmare.
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