Hoosta Magazine

No-frill chic is a new consumer trend that is going to deeply affect the hotel industry, by shifting consumer expectations and changing the traditional segmentations in which marketeers try to squeeze - with decreasing success - the modern travellers.

Trendwatching defines the No-frill chic trend as:
“low cost goods and services that add design, third-party high quality elements and/or exceptional customer service to create top quality experiences at bottom prices.
No-frills chic is important to all consumer sectors because of its power to change consumer expectations. Frugal consumers will like the chic experience at virtually no extra cost, dumping ‘no-chic’ low cost offerings. Old-style ‘luxury’ consumers may be tempted to forego more expensive, traditional products and services. This is in many ways a natural evolution of the no-frills concept. In the end, there aren’t that many goods and services that require no experience at all.”
When it comes to hospitality, the concept is very well represented by a wave of new hotel companies that promise to (finally) bring some real innovation to the industry by combining style with budget, mixing the chic with affordable rates.

No-frill chic hotels want to appeal to both budget consumers who will love to experience some extra chic at no extra costs, and to the more demanding travellers who are ready to welcome a non-traditional concept of luxury and service. The spectrum is indeed quite wide, and ranges from the core “no-frills/back to the basics” model (very close to the low-cost airlines concept) to a more chic level, where also the sophisticated desing-minded types and the business travellers can feel confortably cocooned by stylish architectural details.

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