Does advocacy for progressive social change mix with hotel development and branding? We are about to find out with activist-hotelier Katherine Lo’s brave and some would say very much on-trend Eaton Workshop, just opening its first properties in Hong Kong and Washington, D.C.
“A hotel can be a model to move slowly toward the world that we want,” says Lo, president and founder of the concept, who is harnessing her interests and experiences in activism, anthropology and film toward this new enterprise that goes much further than typical corporate social responsibility and LEED certification initiatives.
Read more about Kat Lo: Editor’s View — How hotels can lead change
“With the U.S. election, and also what’s happening in Europe and in Asia, when people feel that they need to speak up for what’s right, I think that passion and drive is a lot more pronounced and urgent in the last few years than it has been for a long time,” says Lo, who has attended the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Accord, has been a delegate for Greenpeace and more recently trekked to executive produce a documentary on resistance against the oil pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in the Dakotas. “So I’m inspired by seeing what’s happened around the world… I believe in building positive models to reflect or move slowly toward the world that we want. And funnily, I guess strangely, a hotel could be that model, even though people don’t typically think of them that way.”
The Eaton ideal
Eaton Workshop ties together content creation, holistic wellness, a co-working members club and an emphasis on social and environmental good inside a comfortable, high-design hotel gathering place for “for an inclusive tribe of change makers and creatives.”
The D.C. hotel will have 209 hotel rooms, a radio station, a 50-person cinema, a wellness center with yoga, meditation and alternative treatments, a coffee shop and juice bar, a restaurant and bar, a rooftop bar, event space for up to 182 people, rotating art exhibits and a co-working club that can accommodate up to 370 members. Eaton Hong Kong, in Kowloon, will have similar amenities and include a two-story food hall, 185 guest rooms, a bar with a music speakeasy venue, two recording studio guestrooms, a rooftop pool, rotating art gallery, an envelop-pushing speakers’?auditorium and event space that holds up to 700. Projects in San Francisco and Seattle are under development, and “Kat” wants to grow further with an eye on management contracts as opposed to the current ownership model.
From providing job opportunities for local youth to hosting artists-in-residence for refugees and activists, conferences for change makers and public art, music and film festivals exploring topics of social change, Eaton Workshop wants to be a “catalyst for creative and awakened youth and a tribute to their mentors and predecessors.” Properties are intended to be an incubator and a resource for the community. For example, at a chef’s table, chefs can offer master classes to apprentices. In each market, the brand will focus on mentorship of local youth through in-house offerings and programming, training and job opportunities.
It’s what Lo believes consumer want to connect with and to reflect their values. “It has the potential to be really powerful. I do not think it’s been done successfully so far, because most of it is still just branded?content,” Lo says. “So without merit, it doesn’t stand on its own two legs as actual content. The world is moving in that direction, where advertising is actually replaced by real live content that has merit.”
Change agent
The daughter of Hong Kong-based Great Eagle Holdings and Langham hotel brand Chairman K.S., Lo joined the hotel division of Great Eagle Group in 2011 and acted as executive director of Langham Hospitality Group, directing the development of The Langham Chicago, which opened in 2013.
If the Eaton brand sounds familiar, it was created by Great Eagle, but it languished and lacked momentum. About five years ago, Chairman Lo asked his daughter to reinvent it as a forward-thinking brand. “So even though the name is the same, it’s?completely different, and also, we took it out from under Langham Hospitality Group and just made it its own independent venture,” Lo says.
While idealistic, the Eaton team has done its due diligence and believes the concept pencils out profitably. Lo says there is a growing belief that having ethical standards in a company’s charter is ultimately more profitable. For example, coffee partners are committed to sustainability and fair trade.
“To us, that’s the utmost criteria when selecting all partners and vendors at every level, from social collaborations to physical materials,” Lo explains. “So I hope that we can create a handbook or a model for how a hospitality business can actually execute those values at every level with the project, and still be profitable at the end of the day.”
The other question Lo needs to answer is whether enough consumers want to stay at a hotel with a big focus on activism. “I have a lot of balance in my life between work and play, and I think that translates into what Eaton offers — equally as much effort into our social impact initiatives as into our food and beverage, bar, music and entertainment offering,” she replies.
Lo also believes that her teams believes in the change, as well. “I’ve hired many people who came from a very traditional hotel backgrounds. I’ve seen them embrace these concepts and come up with amazing ideas that I never would have thought of. So I would just encourage people who have been in this industry for a long time that, yeah, there’s always room for change.”