CitizenM: Redefining what luxury means
“Luxury today has been redefined, now it’s more about emotion, time and efficiency.”
– Robin Chadha, CMO
The traditional hotel industry seem to have taken a bit of a battering in recent times, first airbnb introduced the sharing economy to the hospitality industry taking an estimated 10 million of nights bookings through the service to date. Now another challenge to the status quo comes in the form of the quickly expanding citizenM hotels, who have dramatically redefined the luxury hotel experience and pioneered the concept of ‘affordable luxury’. We spoke to CMO Robin Chadha about what ‘affordable luxury’ means to citizenM and the mind-set of their target traveller; ‘the global citizen’.
As with all great Challenger Brands are strong sense of sacrifice and over-commitment is central to their brand strategy as Robin explains, ‘We looked at that entire guest experience, and decided, okay, what don’t we compromise on, and where do we want to exceed? […] We’re dictating what we think guests want, and taking out the frills’.
citizenM in brief
Launched first hotel at Amsterdam Airport in 2008, citizenM operate with an average of just 4.5 staff per shift per hotel
Hotel ambassadors are incentivised on customer satisfaction with an end of year bonus as reward
Rooms are pre-assembled off site to keep costs down, all rooms are identical.
Grown to 7 hotels worldwide with locations in London, New York and Paris with plans to roll out in Asia, Milan and Barcelona.
Music by: ‘dhaal 741′ by Macon Tights from the album Ratheads.