Top 10 designs for hotels of tomorrow

How different will checking into a hotel in 2028 vs. 2008, or even as far out into the future as 2050? While architects and designers are fast at work conjuring up new hotel models, if you are world traveler, businesstravel or occasional tourist, you already know that some of these new innovative hotels of the future have dropped off the drawing board are already becoming realities.

Here is a list of my top ten hotels of the future that have just been constructed or are anticipating a debut in the very near future in strategic destinations around the globe, sea and sky, with some that can claim locations truly out of this world!

Considered the first and only 7-Star hotel in the world, the Hotel Burj Al Arab was designed to resemble a billowing sail of 321 meters. Dominating the Dubai coastline, in the evening it offers extraordinary views, encircled by choreographed color sculptures of water and fire. This all-suite hotel offers chauffeur driven Rolls Royce, discreet in-suite check in, private reception desk on every floor and a team of highly trained butlers who provide around-the-clock attention.

Hotel Burj Al Arab

The Commercial Space Station Skywalker , designed by Bigelow Aerospace, Las Vegas is an inflatable space hotel. With a preliminary phase launched in 2007 from Russia and an anticipated completion date of 2015, the hotel will be positioned 515-kms above Earth. Not only is the hotel inflatable, so is the cost of a room. While the anticipated price tag of the project is only a paltry $500 million, the room rates are expected to run as high as $1 million per night. Business men, try to claim that cost on your next expense report!

The Inflatable Space Hotel

When the London-based Thomson Holidays released the report "2024: A Holiday Odyssey," the prominent UK tour operator predicted that hotels of the future will be constructed on foldable pod constructed on stilts, which could be installed anywhere in the world. The pods would be self-sustainable, and guests could actually design their own rooms by projecting their favorite images on the walls. If and when a specific destination was no longer desirable, due a lessening in tourist demand or in the case of terrorism, the pod could simply be packed up and moved to a new location. Sort of like folding up ones’ tent for the space age!

Hotel Pods

No, not the Kevin Kostner’s 1995 movie! Sited in a dramatic lagoon-like quarry in Songjiang, China , this 400-bed resort hotel is uniquely created within the natural elements of its environs. Subterranean public areas and guest rooms add to its distinctiveness. Rock climbing and bungee jumping are unique sporting activities not usually associated with your standard hotel, but the resort also offers guests the standard fare including cafes, restaurants and sporting facilities

Little is known about the Diamond Ring Hotel as a hotel of the future that comes in the shape of an 185 metre ferris wheel. Advance notices lack descriptive detail, but indicate it will be located in Abu Dhabi and based on its preliminary architectural renderings, it appears that it will conceptually live up to its name!

Still in its design phase, this hotel would be the second (self-awarded) 7 star hotel to be built in Dubai. As already mentioned, the Burj Al Arab Hotels is the first self-proclaimed 7 star hotel in that location. It boasts over 350 luxury apartment suites, and its décor will be jungle-themed. The hi-tech futuristic hotel exudes extensive luxury and comfort with its own private lagoon, beaches, restaurants, cinemas, retail shopping, art gallery, spas and conference facilities. Its out of the world design is mesmeric enough to deliver a spell-bound experience for all visitors.

Bruce Jones who has spent much of his career designing ground-breaking submarines for the rich and famous, is now redirecting his expertise to the hotel industry on a private island in Fiji. Surrounded by 5,000-acre lagoon, the hotel’s accommodations will include luxurious 550 square feet large suites. Anyone wanting to stay at Poseidon (which will feature submarine usage for all guests) will have to ante up $15,000 for the underwater experience, or $30,000 for a couple sharing a room. The package includes private plane transport from a Fijian airport to the resort. Here, tourists in addition to submarine piloting can indulge in para-sailing, deep reef excursions, scuba diving, sea-tracking on the sea floor, water sports, , and cave exploration.

For those of us who have always dreamt of honeymoon on the Moon, your wish might need to be bestowed on your children or perhaps your children’s children. A hotel satellite under the self-effacing name of theLunatic Hotel will be constructed by designers Hans-Jurgen Rombaut of the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture in the Netherlands and Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo. However their tentative completion date is scheduled for 2050. The cost of launching tons of steel and water to the Moon is still a major challenge, but according to Rombaut, a good portion of the construction materials can be manufactured right on the Moon itself, using existing minerals and ores. However, with the cost of inflation one can only imagine the kind of deep pockets one will need to check-in to Lunatic. Rombaut is anticipating that a two-week stay in his low-gravity leisure centre will probably cost as much as a mortgage on a house (in an upscale neighborhood, of course)!

Why wonder if we’ll ever check into a hotel on the moon, when if Heerim Architects have their way, lunar hotels can be built right here on Earth? Ultramodern-chic will be coming to Azerbaijani capital of Baku with two "lunar inspired" projects, one of which (Hotel Full Moon) looks an awful lot like the Death Star from Star Wars sagas and the other, the Hotel Crescent, designed as its counterpoint. Whether or not the name“Death Star” will be a draw or detriment, these two hotels are uber-futuristic and will certainly add to the tourism one of the world’s fastest growing economic meccas. While construction dates continue to be postponed and both hotels seem like pipe dreams, one could only wonder when and if they actually do open, if they will become home to royalty and dignitaries, the likes of Princess Leia and her Jedi entourage!

Hotel Crescent Moon

Hotel of the Future #1 - Aeroscraft: The Flying Luxury Hotel of Tomorrow

The Aeroscraft is a gigantic 400-ton blimp designed to carry passengers in its spacious luxury liner-type facility. The flying hotel is equal in size to two football fields and is airlifted by 14 million cubic feet of helium, huge electric and hydrogen fuel cell powered propellers and six turbofan jet engines. The hotel will be able to accommodate 250 passengers while soaring 8,000 feet above the ground, and will provide tourists with hi-tech amenities in its guestrooms, casino, restaurants and staterooms.

Aeroscraft: The Flying Luxury Hotel of Tomorrow

While all of these futuristic hotels will be shaping future travel, Glen Hiemstra , founder of Futurist.com believes there are other factors that will define the hotels to come. He believes “that robotics will be one of the most significant technologies to affect the hotel industry in the future," says Hiemstra. He envisions a hotel where robots can do the majority of the cleaning and check-ins. "But the really far-out science fictionscenario is with nanotechnology," he says. (In short, nanotechnology is the ability to manipulate and manufacture things at the molecular level.) "In 2025 or 2030, we might be able to have rooms reconfigure themselves to whatever guests want, whether it's a king-sized bed and a couch, or a single bed and a desk."

While checking into the future sounds a lot like an episode out of the TV-show, The Jetsons, with all the innovation and appeal built into the future design, décor and amenities, it sounds like we better start making our reservations now, as there may not be any rooms at the inn, when the future rolls around!