With the extended-stay market cranking up in popularity, Hyatt Hotels Corp. is creating bold new spaces for its newly branded Hyatt House hotels. With the design and thought leadership of Stonehill & Taylor — architects and interior designers — Hyatt is creating dynamic public spaces and a broader selection of private spaces.

Plans for new buildings will be completed within the month, with retrofit plans also underway. Hyatt is converting 38 existing Hyatt Summerfield Suites and 16 recently acquired Hotel Sierras to the new brand. Stonehill & Taylor was working with the hotel company long before the brand was announced in late September.

“We worked with Hyatt doing research and anthropological studies to understand the guest,” says Michael Suomi, principal and director of design at Stonehill & Taylor. “We visited and stayed at different room types of the major competition in the category to get an understanding about what makes those brands special in their own way; to determine what works, what doesn’t work, what surprises the guests, what the staff is like, what the public areas are like. We did pretty extensive research.”

“I think,” he says, “across the board, the category was a little tired.”

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With short-stay guests growing, over the past three years, to as high as 30%, Suomi says Hyatt is doing something new to the category: a transient guestroom.

“They don’t need a full kitchen. They don’t need as much storage or big living room that the other guests get. So, we decided to design a special transient guestroom,” he says. “It has a food-and-beverage refreshment station with a mini-fridge, microwave, coffeemaker, glassware. It’s just enough for two to three days and guests can get ready-make gourmet food from lobby marketplace and still eat it in their room.”

The transient room is one of four “apartments” within the property. Others include a studio and one bedroom. The fourth, a two-bedroom, is formed by connecting a transient with the one-bedroom.

While room sizes in the suites are generous, long-term guests appreciate large, open public spaces, says Suomi. And so, the lobby concept addresses that.

The larger spaces make it easier for hotel guests to welcome their own guests such as colleagues, friends and relatives, for a brief visit.

“It will accommodate your needs socially if you’re there singly, with a group of colleagues from work,” he says. For example, in mid-October, Suomi was traveling with five colleagues. They were staying at different hotels, but needed to convene in the public space at one hotel to work together. They needed a large enough place where guests of guests were welcome to work.

Reaching into his research, he says extended-stay properties usually have a group of stand-alone spaces, or niches, for different functions — check-in, breakfast, business center. The new Hyatt House layout will have a multi-purpose Great Lounge with a town-square feel so people don’t feel isolated when they travel for long periods of time, he says.

This exaggerated living room will have super-sized U-shaped sectionals, a large coffee table and a sizable HDTV. A low wall will surround the area, serving as a dining spot for breakfast or standup drink rail in the evening.

Touch screens will be built into desks and coffee tables, so guests can log in and print their boarding passes to the reception desk.

Hyatt House will introduce a new Signature chair for today’s digital devices. Still in development, they’ll have high backs and swivel for privacy. For convenience they’ll include outlets for charging digital devices and a foldout tray work surface. Other possible inclusions are massager, heating element and reading light.

Lounges overlook a backyard with social seating, a fire pit and an outdoor kitchen that includes a built-in gas grill and cooking sink.

The lobby kitchen that serves breakfast doesn’t go dark after the early morning meal, it becomes a bar in the afternoon. “We wanted a kitchen that was open all the time,” says Suomi, “one that could transition with different food and beverage offerings.”

The redesigned marketplace will offer traditional and gourmet groceries and other items for purchase. Hyatt studied retail merchandising displays at gourmet retailer Dean & Deluca for ideas. Nearby items like a rice cooker, Xbox 360 and a bicycle will be available for guests to borrow.

“We want guests to see and experience things they love, but don’t necessarily have at home,” says Suomi.