(Updated on Jan. 22 to clarify the Fairmont Gold product in the ninth paragraph.)

The use and operation of executive lounges in hotels has shifted in the past year, leading some to temporarily close as others re-imagine the space.

Brad Cance, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia, said in an email interview that the property’s Club Lounge has halted its usual operations but is targeting a reopening date of April 1. However, the Club Level's 18th floor, which includes the Club Lounge, remains open as private event space.

Prior to its COVID-19-related closure, he said, the lounge prepared five meals daily — breakfast, lunch, afternoon snacks, evening hors d’oeuvres and desserts. Typical operating hours were from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., staffed by a full-time concierge.

The primary use of the Club Lounge now is for special celebrations, and guests can then stay the night in the appointed rooms and suites on the same floor.

“We have hosted small weddings and private events in the lounge during this time. Families who are waiting to celebrate with a larger group of friends have gathered after vows have been exchanged and held their reception [in the lounge],” Cance said.

However, the investment in labor to ensure guests still feel safe and comfortable while adhering to social-distancing measures has exceeded revenue. To offset that, he said The Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City is focusing its attention on other aspects of the property such as its afternoon tea service, which has helped “complement the lower room demand.”

He said that all weekday guests are leaving the hotel around 8 a.m. for work and returning between 5 and 6 p.m.

“In turn, we have modified our midday offerings in the Club Lounge due to most guests being out of the hotel during this time,” he added.

Sharon Cohen, vice president of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, said her team has looked to the future of the Fairmont Gold product. Fairmont decided it should enable Gold guests to take the status and service they’d receive within the lounge and extend that outside those walls to the entire hotel experience.

“That experience [and] status of being that Fairmont Gold guest has to follow the guest everywhere they go outside of the lounge,” she said.

Cohen said timing of this new Fairmont Gold concept couldn’t be better because any exclusive experience like this has an opportunity post-COVID-19 as long as it offers a secure place that fulfills guest needs.

Executive-floor experiences can meet the safety and security needs of people who don’t want to be in large groups.

“We have non-Fairmont Gold guests who are now looking at Fairmont Gold from the leisure perspective. More than that, we are starting to get requests from small board meetings that do have to start gathering in person —but again, they don’t want to be on a big conference floor,” she said.

Most Fairmont Gold floors have small boardrooms attached to the lounge or on the same floor, where “guests can almost create a bit of a bubble for themselves in terms of where they’re sleeping, where they’re checking in, where they’re having breakfast … and their meeting space all on one floor,” she said.

To market to these groups, Fairmont created programming in the summer under the banner of “intimate events in grand settings.” The brand, however, hasn’t made a hard-sell push yet as guests are still showing some hesitancy toward travel.

She noted hygiene and social-distancing practices will be visible.

“We can calculate how many rooms can be max occupied to be able to host [a small event on the Fairmont Gold floors]. It’s going to differ in every location,” Cohen said.

Larry Trabulsi, executive vice president of CHMWarnick and president of the Hospitality Asset Managers Association, said the hotels in his company’s portfolio have all closed their executive lounges.

“Our plan is to reopen them [at some point] in 2021 based on occupancy triggers. We’ve got to get occupancy to 30% or 40%; we’re reviewing that. If we don’t hit those levels, then we’re not going to open the lounges,” he said.

The reason for not racing to reopen is because lounges are costly, which was true even before COVID-19, he said. When shifting to a zero-based budget model, like most owners have in the industry, lounges are not included.

Historically, full-service hotels with lounges served complimentary breakfast in the morning and cocktails at night. Over time, evening amenity services grew so much that “at a lot of hotels, folks were getting their full dinner for free in a concierge lounge,” he said.

The other element to consider is payroll. Trabulsi said executive lounges typically have morning attendance, evening attendance and added hours for kitchen staff, and it’s “basically an outlet that doesn’t generate any revenue.”

At the luxury level, brands have sufficiently turned executive lounges into revenue-generating areas, though for other full-service hotels, that has “eroded over time,” he said.

“It’s the question of who’s actually paying for access of our lounge — and the answer is ‘we’ll get back to you,’ which usually means no one,” he said. “Nothing is free. The owners more than have to pay. [And] the costs of these lounges kept increasing. In a morning in a big, full-service hotel, you could have a couple hundred people going through an executive lounge for free and you’d be lucky if you’re getting that coverage out in the restaurant.”

Looking ahead, Trabulsi said CHMWarnick has considered combining the lounges with an existing restaurant or other revenue-generating outlet in the lobby level. He anticipates this will gain some traction, especially as hoteliers are faced with the need to create operating efficiencies but still give guests an elevated experience.

Ultimately, this option will come down to available space and the cost to build it out, he said.