When Ian Schrager used to run the infamous New York nightclub Studio 54, back in the late Seventies, it was the epitome of decadence and grandeur. Where people arrived semi-naked and half-cut, and where the ice buckets were big enough to bury small dogs in.
After he went to jail for tax evasion, he reinvented himself as a hotelier, with big brands like Morgans, The Royalton and Paramount. In 2011 he opened Public in Alphabet City, the formerly dodgy area in New York’s East Village. This ushered in a new era of hospitality, primarily as there wasn’t any: no reception, no concierge, no bellboys etc. Everything was pretty much done digitally, so you could walk from your cab straight to your room without a soupçon of human interaction. If you wanted to eat you simply ordered food from the restaurant next door, and if you wanted any kind of room service you pressed the digibox on the wall.
