By Chadner Navarro

When Jennifer May was planning the 2023 opening of Ambiente in Sedona, Ariz., she wanted to make every part of the hotel's guest experience special -- right down to the coffee stations in all 40 rooms.

May, the co-founder of the luxury hotel company Two Sister Bosses, tested many brewing systems before settling on Fellow's Stagg Pour Over Set, a vacuum-insulated carafe and dripper that high-end-java aficionados favor. She paired it with a matching electric kettle and beans from local roaster Firecreek Coffee, a setup that encourages users to "slow down and savor that first, perfectly steeped sip," as May put it. "It's about the ritual as much as the result."

That discerning approach might surprise travelers inured to decades of substandard hotel coffee, from machines that sputter with scalding water to beans that are stale before you even check in. But May is among a wave of hoteliers who are dispelling those bad old Nescafé days with new, in-room coffee offerings that, if all goes well, might taste as though your favorite barista conjured them up.

Guests checking into the nine luxe rooms at the new Eriro Alpine Hide in the Austrian Alps encounter manual Chemex and French press coffee makers and beans sourced from South Tyrol. General manager Henning A. Schaub wanted the ethos of slow travel to define the Eriro experience for guests surrounded by snowy peaks. "The process of coffee making [should be] calming and peaceful," he said. The hotel eventually plans to swap out the supplied pre-ground beans for whole beans and manual grinders.

Coffee upgrades can also improve a brand's eco-friendly image. To reduce waste -- a perennial problem with convenience items like Keurig and Nespresso pods -- Germany-based 25hours Hotels added Chemex-style glass carafes to their higher-category rooms in 2021. But the move came with a learning curve, said head of brand operations Daniel Hrkać. The chain had to train staff on proper cleaning and care of the equipment, and print instructions for guests unfamiliar with the pour-over process.

At other hotels, coffee has become a route to cultural immersion. Costa Rica's Hotel Nantipa has taken to outfitting guest rooms with a chorreador. The traditional brewing device operates a lot like a pour-over. Guests must place a cloth filter over a cup on the chorreador's wooden stand, then shower the beans with hot water. Owner Mario Mikowski grew up in San Jose with a chorreador at home, and says it was never an option to offer anything else.

While May says that photos of Ambiente's in-room pour-overs rank among the hotel's most-shared posts on social media, other hotels are going the other way. When Ladera Resort in St. Lucia finished a property-wide renovation earlier this year, general manager Christian Gándara removed the French presses from rooms and suites -- a decision directly prompted by guests' feedback. "They found [it] too labor-intensive," he said. "Our guests come to relax, and they didn't want to do the work."

Henley Vazquez, co-founder of travel agency Fora, can relate. "I'd be super frustrated with a slow method of making coffee," said Vazquez, who travels two weeks of every month. "I'd rather see it personalized -- let travelers request a Chemex if they want one -- but make sure the experience isn't complicating their morning."

That's exactly why Marc & Rose Hospitality CEO John Grossman took a different route following the $15-million renovation of Casa Loma Beach Hotel in Laguna Beach, Calif., last summer. Though quality in-room coffee was a priority, after considering options from geek-approved roasters like Stumptown and Intelligentsia, he landed on a surprising solution: instant coffee -- albeit a high-end version batch-brewed and freeze-dried by the local Los Angeles company Canyon Coffee.

Guests in need of a fast caffeine fix need only stir a pouch of crystals into hot water -- no grinding, no waiting, no mess. To remove even more guesswork from the process, Grossman also added Fellow's Stagg electric kettles (preset to the ideal temperature of 195 degrees) to every room.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2024 12:15 ET (17:15 GMT)

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