In response to the changing needs and opportunities for modern business travel, InterContinental Hotels Group has launched a new global guest room designed by PearsonLloyd for the group’s Crowne Plaza brand.

Crowne Plaza is dedicated to making business travel the best it can be, and their guests are similarly concerned with being as productive as possible at all times. In this context, a business travel hotel room needs to switch between bedroom, office, meeting room and lounge space at any moment in the day or night.

PearsonLloyd’s response to this was in the form of a new brand strategy that celebrates the tools to support guests in being as productive as possible, whilst acknowledging that the best preparation for the work day is to be as restored and rested by the hotel experience as possible.

In physical terms, PearsonLloyd approached the project by challenging the spatial layout of the room, which has remained almost unchanged for the past 60 years. This led to a complete reorganisation of the layout of the physical space as well as the furniture.

The room has been reconfigured to angle the bed off the wall. Positioning the bed on an angle reduces noise transfer between rooms, offering guests a better night’s sleep. The bed is cocooned by a large headboard that continues round the corner into the work lounge nook. The headboard has been designed to provide ergonomic support for working in bed and layered bedside tables act as additional work surfaces.