Hotels as Community Hubs: Buzzword or Business Model?
“Hotels as community hubs” has become a familiar phrase in strategy decks and conference panels. Hey, I’ve even recommended and advocated for it myself.
Some hotels are leaning into it, whereas others are maybe hoping it quietly disappears.
However, underneath the latest buzzword, there is actually a serious question about whether this is just nice marketing language, or whether it can become a meaningful business model for certain hotels?
Why the Idea Won’t Go Away
The concept of community hubs hasn’t appeared out of nowhere. A few forces have converged:
More people are working remotely or travelling as digital nomads.
Business trips blur into leisure, and stays get longer.
Guests and locals alike are looking for places to be, not just to sleep or eat.
In this broader context, a hotel is not just a bedroom factory. It’s a network of underused spaces in good locations, often sitting half idle outside of check‑in, breakfast and any busy meetings & events periods.
Repurposing or seeing those distressed spaces as potential community infrastructure is a rational and logical leap, but the question is how far you go and whether it’s viable.
When “Community” Is Just Decoration
You can tell when “community hub” is a theme rather than a strategy because you’ll see a few co‑working desks appear in the lobby, or maybe a yoga class pops up on a Tuesday night. A local brand might do a one‑off pop‑up and everyone feels good about it.
None of that is bad, but it’s not a business model because it’s not consistent and there’s nothing more behind it. One-offs aren’t strategy, because strategy is a discipline that is a continuous, systematic, and integrated process.
If nothing about the way you allocate space, design your offer, or measure performance actually changes, then “community” sits in the same category as “lifestyle” or “experiential”. It’s vague, pleasant, and non-committal. It’s also one of the first things to go when budgets start to tighten.
How It Starts To Look Like Strategy
In order for “community” to actually look like a strategic model, three things often need to happen together:
You define which community you’re for (remote workers, local SMEs, families nearby, wellness-focused guests – not “for everyone”).
You deliberately re‑think how certain spaces work across the week (not just per event, per night, or ad-hoc).
You start tracking different success metrics, beyond occupancy and ADR.
At that point, you’ve moved beyond just “activating the lobby”, and you’re beginning to explore whether there is a repeatable pattern of usage and revenue that makes sense for your location, brand and cost base.
For some properties, that will mean memberships or recurring local usage. For others, it will be smarter use of meeting space as a platform for small, frequent gatherings rather than occasional big ones.
The specifics will be different in a city‑centre four‑star than in a resort or an airport hotel. That’s exactly why you can’t just cut‑and‑paste “community hub” and expect it to work. There’s a lot more to it and it’s bespoke to you and your neighbourhood.
The Strategic Question for Owners and Operators
If you’ve determined that this may be a strategic option for our hotel, there’s a more basic question to ask before investing in redesign, programming, or partnerships:
In our particular market, what’s the realistic upside of behaving more like a community hub, and what would we have to stop doing to make room for it?
This question highlights the trade‑offs and brings them out into the open for discussion. Many hotels are over-reliant on room revenue and that often leads to being too dependent upon OTAs. Is this the case for your hotel? Many hotels I have spoken with over a couple of decades have distressed meetings & events space that is regularly under-utilised. Which of your spaces are structurally under‑used? How are you monitoring guest behaviour and/or what’s going on in your local neighbourhood. Nothing ever stays exactly the same and adapting to the shifting dynamics of your guests is an essential part of business survival. What guest and local behaviour are you already seeing that you’re not really serving? And, when it comes to your team and their resources, how much complexity can your teams realistically manage?
For some hotels, honest answers will lead to you into thinking this is a“Nice idea, but not for us. Not now.” On the flip side, other hotels will realise that these questions reveal an opportunity that’s bigger than any incremental rate increase.
Buzzword or Business Model?
“Community hub” is a buzzword when it’s a label that’s stuck on top of business‑as‑usual.
However, it begins to look like a strategy and viable business model when it reshapes decisions about:
Who you design for
How you use space across the week
How you blend transient guests and locals without confusing either
What success looks like, commercially and experientially
This doesn’t mean that every hotel should adopt such a strategy, but it does mean more hotels should be asking the questions in a structured way, with their specific asset and market in mind.
If you’re sensing there’s more potential in your non‑room spaces than your current model allows, exploring “community hub” as a strategic option is probably worth your time.