I’m currently sitting in the public lounge of CitizenM, which is a concept hotel for the mobile traveler. M is for Mobile, in this case. I’ve taken pictures, which you can see on Flickr, and will continue to blog and twitter about this. As we only arrived this morning, I haven’t had the chance to sleep in the 2 meter square bed, here modeled by NYMIEG’s Bill Sobel. (UPDATE: Quite comfortable!)
The hotel room is designed for comfort, but is small, with a tube shower and tube toilet to save space. A futuristic Phillips controller manages lights, TV, mood music, and probably some other things I haven’t figured out yet.
The concept here is not to stay in your room, but to come down to the common areas and interact with fellow “Citizens.” Everyone in the lobby seems to have a laptop or a smartphone (ok, to be fair, this is opening week, with mostly journalists, critics and bloggers, but I expect this won’t change much when the press is gone.
Elaine Ching, Citizen M’s PR and Marketing exec told me that the starting price is $69 Euro per night, which includes wifi, movies, lobby books (clarification: for you to read not to take :-). The cafe prices are reasonable based on the airport or other hotel food. The big concept here is a space for travelers to gather and work together, and for people to meet each other. The space invites interaction, as many people are just casually saying “hi” and the tables are such that you can’t help but join a group in progress in the cafe.
More updates as I find them, and I’ll give a review of sleeping off of the runway tomorrow. Now, it’s off to see Amsterdam and then Eindhoven for the talk tonight.
Bonus links: UK Guardian Review of Citizen M.
Happy Hotelier Blog review.
Update: I realized I didn’t tie this concept in with Co-Working, but it has a simliar feeling. I had this discussion with Tara Hunt and Tony from New Work City. It also ties in with the EFactor plans to open business lounges in several cities.
2nd Update: MegaWhat.TV reviewed the concept room in late 2007. See it here from YouTube:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=KnwxFOm1AeU[/youtube]
UPDATED 8/14 – Thanks to Happy Hotelier for pointing out how you’re supposed to spell “Schiphol.” Sorry, Dutch friends.