Schematically AirBnB seems to be exerting downward pressure on hotel rates - as are micro-hotels - the pod style tiny hotel rooms many of which are on a common bath. At the same time co-living and co-working seem to be merging into something like the resuscitation of the old private club with elements of the old company town reappearing as well. And one mustn't forget that serviced apartments and individual hotel rooms now tend toward the same endpoint.
At any rate I worked up a design which seems to me to be the smallest possible footprint which can sill offer private bath [a non-negotiable amenity in my book], micro kitchen, office, and king size bed. [ In my younger days I stayed at a hotel in London with a shared bath - but at this stage of the game I think I'd sooner stay home. ] In this way the place can work as either a serviced apartment or a hotel room. I tried hawking my ideas to a number of boutique hotel developers and micro hotel operators but no takers so far :)
Of particular interest to me is a company call Industrious in the co-working space. If I understand correctly their business model is based on a partnership / profit sharing arrangement as distinct from leasing and then subleasing as is the case with WeWork. I find this very appealing. It sidesteps the conventional risks of both a purchase or a lease, saves time and energy, and puts all of the focus on offering the consumer better price, better design, or both.
@Robert Carpenter curious to see if you pursued this idea further? I think in highly dense cities like NYC, a model like this could work super well. There was an interesting BP podcast episode w/ someone who had a model renting our rooms in single family house's that included amenities and such and was highly profitable.