Could Hospitality-Style, Multi-Purpose Senior Living Attract Younger Retirees?
There’s a lot of buzz around how baby boomers will change the concept of “senior housing,” from what it looks like, what it consists of, and where it’s located. Similar to how the hotel industry underwent sweeping changes to become more hospitality- and guest experience-based rather than “homey,” some architects and developers believe the upcoming generation of retirees will prompt a similar transformation in their retirement accommodations.
Providing Lifestyle & Experiences, Not Just Care Services
What’s been going on is that some architects are “flavoring” the senior living model with hospitality aspects, a shift that’s gaining traction and attraction, according to Rockland Berg, the principal and director of business development at Dallas, Texas-based three: Living Architecture.
“We’re starting with planning principles from hospitality models, and then we apply the ‘rules’ of senior living. But we’re not afraid to break some of the old senior living rules,” he says, adding that the hospitality/service model might particularly appeal to this upcoming generation of retirees.
“There’s a certain amount of ‘me’ in ‘boomer,’” he says. “They want quality, and they want services. If you go with the hospitality model, you’re thinking of them not as residents but as guests.”
Past data and trends indicate many older folks just want to stay in their own homes, rather than move to some sort of senior-specific community. But part of this could have something to do with the perception of senior housing as it often exists today: segregated communities lumping together people whose only commonality might be their age.
“If you think about the highest-quality hotels today, they’re highly-tailored and personalized experiences,” says Berg. “That’s what it comes down to: we’re talking about creating experiences that can stay with a person and be transformative.”
Broadening the Market for Hospitality Services & Amenities in Senior Living
For example, many luxurious, resort-style, high-end senior living residences offer spa and wellness services. This in and of itself has a hospitality feel to it, but rather than have these services available just to a community’s residents, some project designs are trending outward to the community at large.
One Colleyville, Texas-located project three: Living Architecture is working on will feature a third-party “upper-end branded” spa that will set up shop within the community, and Berg says the spa’s planned placement near the front of the building is very purposeful.
In the past, these types of communities have been “islands of seniors that are walled away in an exclusive environment” that can be “really nice,” but don’t attract a multigenerational crowd into the vicinity of seniors, he says. This particular community, which is still in the design and zoning stages, will be located between a public school and a retail center.
“The whole idea is to pull the larger community into the senior community itself for retail-esque needs like the spa,” Berg says. “It’s more of an inclusive concept of mixing potential clientele.”
Something else communities could consider is outsourcing meals to a restaurant located just outside a senior living residence, Berg suggests. Or, conversely, a community can pull in the outside community by providing restaurant-style dining services, which can enable providers to look at the larger community as a revenue stream.
More hospitality-style features can come from how individual apartments are designed within the community. In multi-level residential buildings, bathrooms are generally stacked up against corridor for the most efficient plumbing design, says Berg. But someone might be used to having a bathroom at home with windows, and oftentimes hotel resorts will have bathrooms with lots of natural light.
“In some of our designs, bathrooms are grabbing daylight and filling them up with natural lighting,” Berg says. “It’s a very, very healthy aspect of living; if you take a bathroom and make it a spa environment, it can become a much more amazing space.”
Hospitality Designs Don’t Have to be More Expensive
While it may seem like adding these types of features would add lots of costs to a development, this doesn’t have to be true, according to Berg. In many cases, his firm “trades” square footage within the building.
“We’re not necessarily designing a bunch of little rooms around a bunch of different things, like a specific library, a cafe, etc.,” he says. “The spaces are a little more open, and get more daylight; they’re very dynamic spaces that can have a multitude of things going on and can transform depending on the occasion.”
It’s a different way of thinking about and organizing space, he continues, and it’s not always about making a unit bigger, but more about where the square footage is applied. Instead of a dining room meant specifically for eating, how about a “great room” that can serve a variety of purposes?
“We’re moving square footage around into what we think the next generation is going to demand,” he says. “The way we look at it is, we’re going to exceed the expectations and meet the coming need for the boomers.”
The senior living industry is starting to get more diverse, according to Berg. “Our clients are realizing that they’ve got to change their mindsets in terms of competitively attracting their prospective residents into their communities. The mindset is moving outside of the old model; we’ve found a lot of attraction to these [new] ideas.”
Written by Alyssa Gerace
Category: Architecture, Development, Senior Housing, Senior Living
Really like the idea of bringing the rest of the community into the senior living community to use their resources such as a spa or restaurant. Symbiotic relationships are key!!!
I hate to disagree but I don't think the hospitality model is new or novel. Most every senior facility I have walked in looks like a hotel, they have the same red gold green taupe color scheme in every hotel and the same hotel furnishings. As a boomer I don't care now nice a hotel is, I don' t want to live in a hotel!! The thing is boomers in facilities and a hotel is the box idea that has been regurated for too long. On radio show interview yesterday one-care diary I went over a NEW concept of small quaint neighborhoods that are truly a home! We live out our life's with independence and purpose as we take care of each. We have to rethink not just add amentities, amenities cost no matter how you cut it. 3000-4000 a month to live Ina facility and have 500 square foot apartment is insane eapecially in independent living where care is extra. We need a new model, not more bells and whistles on the old. Sorry I am very passionate about this, because I hear my peers talking and no one says I want to live in a nice hotel. Its time to listen!
Guess I didn't read a hotel invironment as a goal for this concept. I like the layout description…ie; the more open atmosphere. It appears there are some really good ideas here. The fact that it can be done with the cost about the same. I have also looked at the senior living facilities, they are just not for me. The need is certainly there for much improvement in what now exists.
Kathy has some great ideas, I could live in that environment, We all want to live close to our own area. I suggested a beautiful area that has the need in Illinois, north of Chicago, I am not a hot weather person, nor are my friends.
An accurate, updated, research based and data driven study would negate most of the points made in the original post. A true – reliable and valid needs assessment should be done. The only premise I would agree with here is the idea of improved natural lighting. I find all other proposals extremely unattractive. Based on the conversations held with my peers – no one is looking for anything like what you are describing. I still work in the field.- late 60's age group. RN, LNHA, M.Ed.
I am on the younger side of the baby boom generation as well as a professional geriatric care manager. I see my generation staying independent as long as we're healthy, but perhaps "down-sizing" in our 60s as I could see myself doing. I live outside a small suburb of Boise now and could see myself living in a town home with amenities such as restaurants, theaters, athletic clubs, libraries, and shopping within walking distance. Why pay for extras (in a building) that one can access in a community that already exists. It helps keep the community multi-generational as well as supports the tax base. That's the concept that architects should be pursuing if targeting the younger, health conscious boomers, in my opinion.
As a Broker selling fabulous condominium properties, I see boomers downsizing to condos with amenities so agree that when needing additional assistance this will be key. There will always be people that love the multi unit living style with all the communtiy feel as well as the amenities. People that think it is like a hotel may not choose this option when moving to senior living, but many will! The key is fabulous open contemporary floorplans with healthy lifestyle ans social built in. Face it….we boomers never want anything that makes us feel old! The boomers I see moving into condos often change their furnishings to modern and love the Happy Hours as much as the spas….This group will want the same as they move to senior living or the need for assisted living etc. becomes a need. There is a home-style right for everyone and I work with so many ready for this carefree, exciting lifestyle at younger and younger ages!
I am one of those new age seniors (70 years young) and I don't want to live in a resort. I want to continue to live in a way that gives purpose to my life. I want to be involved in the community in which I live and to me that goes well beyone the street on which I live. I want to continue to take risks. I want to continue to learn something new each day. I want to meet new and exciting people who expand my mind and my experiences. So until there is a senior living community that can provide me these wants I will remain in my own home.
In the UK we have retirement villages …quite often referred to as 'luxury retirement villages. A resident could start their senior years renting or buying an independent apartment within the village with access to care facilities.Some villages that we have worked in offer different stages of care..the resident may need to move into the care Home on the site as they become less independent and require round the clock care.
I feel this kind of care facility offers the resident a more gradual move into care and possibly a much easier transition for the family.
The hotel look has been around for a while in the UK however we like to make the environment stimulating and happy for the residents and staff.