You Don’t Need Beds to Practice Hospitality

Hauser & Wirth proves you don’t need beds to practice hospitality, you need places people want to stay with.

On paper, Hauser & Wirth is a gallery.

But in places like Somerset, Menorca, and Los Angeles, it doesn’t behave like one.

You don’t just arrive, look, and leave.

You stay.
You have lunch.
You walk the gardens.
You sit.
You return.

The art is there, yes. But it’s not the whole story.

What they’re really building are 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀, not just exhibition spaces, but environments that invite time, attention, and staying.

In Somerset, the gallery is wrapped into farmland, gardens, a restaurant, and paths you wander without a plan.

In Menorca, the art lives inside a former naval hospital, alongside slow food, sea air, and long afternoons.

Nothing about it feels optimized for speed.
Far from it.

It’s optimized for 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴, even if you don’t sleep there.

And that’s what makes it interesting from a hospitality lens.

They’re not designing for visits.
They’re designing for 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻.

They’re not selling access to art.
They’re hosting a 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 with a place.

In hospitality, we often assume the product is the room.

But Hauser & Wirth proves something else:

The real product is 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.
How a place makes you move.
How long it makes you linger a little longer.
How often it makes you want to come back.

They don’t treat culture like inventory.
They treat it like a 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲.

And in doing so, they’ve built something many hotels still struggle to achieve:

A destination people don’t 'consume.'
A place people keep.

Which makes me think this:

The future of hospitality won’t be defined by how many beds you have.

𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼.

Image via Hauser & Wirth