This Is the Perfect Hotel for Business Travelers, but You’ll Never Stay There

Many of the design ideas came from Deloitte’s consultants, who travel constantly and can pinpoint the shortcomings of the standard business hotel. There are electric outlets everywhere—no crawling around to plug in an iron. Next to each bed is a wired remote that controls all the room’s lights and the thermostat. The glass-walled shower has its water temperature knob on the opposite wall from the nozzle, making it easy to adjust the temperature before stepping in. 

Other important design decisions involved what to leave out. Despite the resort-like setting, there’s no pool, hot tub, sauna, or steam room because nobody wants to encounter a boss in a bathing suit or towel. There are no pay-per-view movies or room service because managers want employees out of their rooms and interacting with peers. There are no suites, eliminating headaches over who gets upgraded. And in dining areas, there are no two-person tables, forcing employees to sit in large groups and make friends. 

The design thinking extends beyond the physical environment. Airport shuttles are hyper-organized: The goal is to have employees seated and en route within 10 minutes of getting off planes. Since Deloitte already has every employee’s information, there is no check-in process. Assigned key cards and ID badges are handed out as people exit the shuttles. Since nearly everything here is free (guests pay only for alcohol or personal training), there’s no need to carry cash, keep receipts, file expense reports, or tip anyone. Guest surveys show employees prize the hassle-free elements as much as the amenities.

Then there’s the food, which is fairly ridiculous—in variety, quantity, and quality. Former Four Seasons chef Michael Jackson runs the kitchen; a typical lunch spread includes lobster rolls, Scottish salmon, shrimp, mussels, roasted chicken, a chicken wing bar, three kinds of sandwiches, five kinds of burgers, a hummus station, and a long salad bar. Between meals, snack stations offer popcorn, jelly beans, trail mix, and ice cream bars. Spacious pantries located near guest rooms have soft drinks, yogurt, string cheese, and MMs. After 5:30 p.m., employees migrate toward the Barn, a hangar-sized sports pub that serves ribs, jumbo shrimp, and hickory-smoked brisket. Deloitters say alcohol-fueled Jenga and karaoke competitions often keep the Barn busy until last call, at 1 a.m.

While other big companies—including Boeing, Lockheed, General Electric, and Accenture—have large residential training facilities, people who have visited them agree that, for the moment at least, Deloitte’s is in a class by itself. “It’s the nicest I’ve ever seen,” says an outside consultant who routinely visits Fortune 500 training centers. “The amenities rival those of the headquarters of high tech startups like Google, Twitter, and LinkedIn.”