CNBC Business | Next in: Business travel

Next in: Business travel

Open house

There might not be towers of cardboard cups or blasts of adult-oriented rock music but many upmarket hotels are becoming the new Starbucks.

Big hotel chains are preparing for a downturn in business travel by encouraging non-residents to use their restaurants, bars and health clubs — in particular, their prime ground-floor real estate — in an attempt to maximise revenue streams. The emphasis is being put on “guests” using hotels in their own cities as business and leisure hubs.

The revenue from the sale of lattes or Wi-Fi access will be a help to hospitality firms as executives downgrade from suites, shave nights off trips and increasingly regard loyalty points as a currency rather than a bonus. Some in the industry envisage that executives will soon even be dropping off shirts at their nearest hotel’s in-house laundry service en route to the office.

Sheraton Hotels, the business brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, has just launched its Link @ Sheraton Experienced with Microsoft, described as “a lobby-based communications hub that enables guests to stay connected and fully productive while travelling.” What this means in non-marketing guff is that under-utilised lobbies are being fitted with desks and computers; guests can have a coffee and surf the net, and it’s free — unlike Wi-Fi access in guestrooms. More tellingly, Sheraton meeting rooms can now be hired by the hour, instead of by the day — possibly a boon for the headhunting sector.