Fernando Arroyo Lopez to present “From the Exchange to the Lobby: 100 Years of American Luxury Hotel History”

Fernando Arroyo Lopez, a hospitality doctoral student and recipient of the Winterthur Research Fellowship with the Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware, will present “From the Exchange to the Lobby: 100 Years of American Luxury Hotel History” at the museum’s research happy hour at 5 p.m. on May 27 via Zoom. No password is required to attend the online event. 

In this presentation Arroyo Lopez will talk about American Hotel Lobby History, from its inception in 1829 with the Boston’s Tremont House until those of the 1930’s.  

“The main goal of this talk is to take the audience through a journey that connects the dots between the creation of the ‘Exchange,’ a space that was initially a place of busy commercial male that were doing business in a hotel space; to the formation of the modern ‘Lobby,’ a venue for display, relaxation, rendezvous available to both men and women, much like a giant public living room in American luxury hotels. Different technologies, management and décor were adopted during these 100 years, representing the cultural changes that were occurring in American society.”  

Arroyo Lopez said the country’s accelerated and social media-driven planet requires all features of the hotel industry to be cautiously reexamined from the perspectives of their importance and position in the life of millions of Americans and worldwide travelers.  

“In designing more personalized experiences that are worthy, easy to mix and match, and by correctly enhancing the way consumers sleep, relax, socialize, and travel, hoteliers will take advantage of their lobbies to truly create longstanding impressions that start before guests arrive to the property and continue long after they leave. This work will help to create the first step of the development of this important interdisciplinary topic.” 

For more information about the event, email farroyo@go.olemiss.edu.