Starwood Hotels & Resorts has launched two new programs by Le Méridien and Westin Hotels & Resorts that reinvent the kids club concept to address the growing needs of traveling families.
While both brands celebrate the importance of play and recreation, the Westin Family program centers on naturally inspired physical spaces and signature amenities and programming for children at each of the brand’s hotels and resorts. It includes the Westin Family Kids Club—which aims to provide child-dedicated spaces to eat, play, and sleep—and an extension of the brand’s vertical garden that provides children with the opportunity to garden and interact with nature.
“Gone are the days that children want to spend time in a space with over-stuffed book shelves, plastic chairs, and cartoon character posters plastered on the wall,” says Erin Hoover, Westin’s vice president of global brand design. “Westin has taken special care to create spaces that are both good for the environment and healthy for younger guests. We consciously used responsibly sourced, recycled, and low-impact materials with the goal to improve indoor air quality, encourage exposure to natural light, and promote outdoor activity.”
Drawing upon each hotel’s location, the Le Méridien Family Kids Club emphasizes the importance of creativity, culture, and cuisine throughout child-dedicated midcentury-style spaces. These feature bold arrival art, flexible seating, artful toys, locally informed food, and a design that playfully nods to the Le Méridien Hub lobby concept—inspired by coffeehouses, travel, and culture.
“Our guests are creative and curious-minded travelers, and the design and programming at Le Méridien Family Kids Clubs reflects that, creating a framework for our little guests to express their creativity in unexpected ways while also learning about the destination they are visiting,” says Julie Frank, global director of global brand design, Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts.
Both brands aim to integrate the new kids club concepts throughout international markets that include the U.S., the UAE, Spain, Mauritius, and Thailand, with additional locations scheduled to debut next year.
