FULL TILT BUZZ Democratization of Design

Access to the hip, insider circle of design focused hotels has traditionally come with premium pricing.
Consumer brands such as IKEA with is never ending storybook dictionary of strange sounding 'Swedish descriptors' of product name and fashion's H & M. For hotels the European based ultra cool budget boutique citizenM took staid thinking out of the box.
Now Starwood upstart Aloft is leading the pack with a flurry of other like minded chain upstarts on the way. It's not exactly new, but there is scale and as Starbuck's has taught Wall Street, critical mass can mean everything.