Lodging Review: Hotel SO, Christchurch
In marketing you learn that often the best designed products aren't the ones that are the most broadly appealing, but the ones that really delight a core group. Hotel SO is a product that I feel has really attained that "designed just for me" holy grail. Basically, it's a hotel that gives me just the benefits I want: private room, free wifi, private bathroom, gym, laundry room. And takes out the things I don't need: a lot of space, maid service, concierge. Which results in a really good value: the US $43/night price ends up being only 2x what a dorm bed would cost in Christchurch. There are even some extra, unexpected touches, like what seemed like 10 channels of movie channels without commercials.
Hotel SO is located just a couple minutes' walk from Cathedral Square, the center of town, or the bus depot. At night, you can easily identify it by the rainbow colored lights on the outside.
Upon entering the lobby, you also get the feeling that this is a design-y boutique-y hotel. There's only 1 or 2 staff on duty at any point of the day, and at night you have to buzz them to open the door. This gives indication of how they're able to offer such low rates.
First thing you notice when you walk in is the blue night light under the bed; they say studies have shown your sleep is more restful when you look at blue light before you fall asleep. The room itself is pretty small. The walls pretty much touch either end of the bed, save for a shallow shelf on one side. The mattress is raised up high, so you can store your luggage underneath.
The bathroom is basically a quarter of a pie in footprint, and contains the full sink, toilet, and enclosed shower. I was impressed that the shower was enclosed, since a space-saving measure that some hotels take is to just put the showerhead over the bathroom floor with a drain on the bottom.
Note however that the standard room doesn't have a window. This is also a cost-cutting strategy, since they can build rooms on the interior of a building. This is the one tradeoff that I am still reluctant to give up. One night I woke up in the middle of the night just because I felt claustrophobic and cut off from the outside world. To help with this, there are several "mood channels" on TV to give you that glimpse of nature!
The other innovative feature that mitigates the lack of natural light, and actually should be in EVERY hotel, is the light-based sleeping and waking system. Basically, to help you sleep, there's a sun lamp that gradually dims to off in the time you allocate it. To wake you up, the sun lamp gradually brightens. Then one of the TV turns on and one of the mood channels plays, just in case you didn't wake up by the light alone. You can also use the bathroom lights for mood lighting, but I didn't use this feature.
I wish the Hotel SO every success in its expansion plans, and wish it were in every city I visit. I worry that there will be some sort of trademark battle with Accor, whose Sofitel brand just announced the launch of the SO by Sofitel design-y boutique-y sub-brand. Seriously, Hotel SO has been around for a couple years now so it definitely came first. But Accor is also a Goliath in the hospitality industry. We'll see.
