LivSmart Studios by Hilton has opened an extended-stay hotel at 3302 S. 5600 West in West Valley City. (Darrell Kirby/City Journals)
The laundry room at LivSmart Studios gives offers hotel guests a stark choicenew commercial washing machines plus a comical quote. (Darrell Kirby/City Journals)
It’s the first of its kind in Utah, and it’s in West Valley City.
Hilton Hotels has opened LivSmart Studios at 3302 S. 5600 West featuring 114 studio apartment-style rooms extended stays of one night to months at a time. At the time the ribbon was cut in late September, it was just the sixth LivSmart to open worldwide and the first not only in the Beehive State, but in the western U.S.
The four-story hotel is intended to provide a place to stay for traveling businesspeople, out-of-area visitors, and anyone else wanting a fully-contained room with a kitchenette stocked with essential appliances, dishes, utensils, and a work space along with the standard hotel features of a bed, TV, bathroom, and closet.
Josh Sutton, director of sales and marketing for Wittwer Hospitality, a St. George-based hotel property management company, said building LivSmart Studios along the busy 5600 West corridor is to take advantage of nearby Salt Lake City International Airport, shopping, restaurants and, notably, the under-construction University of Utah Health hospital less than a mile to the south.
“They (developers) felt that an extended stay was a great option for this area,” he said, explaining that it would provide a place to stay for people who have family members or friends in the hospital.
LivSmart Studios is part of the Hilton extended-stay hotel portfolio that includes Homewood Suites and Home2Suites. “We’re meant to be the more affordable of the options,” Sutton said. “With the growth that’s going on around here……there’s just so much demand right now.”
“We saw a meaningful opportunity in West Valley City to develop a property that supports the community’s continued growth and the evolving needs of travelers coming to the area,” said Shayne Wittwer, CEO of Wittwer Hospitality.
The hotel has a laundry room, fitness room, lockers for package deliveries for hotel patrons, and a swimming pool, the latter being a first among the existing LivSmart Studios.
It is also pet-friendly as evidenced by the container of dog treats that sits on the front desk.
Looking into the future, Sutton said rooms at LivSmart Studios in West Valley City figure to be in high demand when the Olympic Winter Games arrive in 2034.
Multiple industry sources say extended-stay hotels are the fastest growing segment of the hospitality industry. Global revenue for the market is estimated to hit $68 billion this year, with most of those earnings coming in North America, largely driven by an increasingly mobile population and businesses seeking more flexible accommodations for their people.
