In last month’s column, we discussed the mergence of celebrity chefs as a phenomenon in the hotel industry.

But that trend is just part of what’s going on in a larger way in hospitality: the meshing of the popular culture with the hospitality industry. Consider these developments.

Hilton has created a Harmony Piano, a touring piano that is being signed by dozens of top musicians as part of an image-building/charitable campaign.

NYLO, a new hotel brand; and Embassy Suites used TV reality shows as a platform for new uniform designs.

A cluster of celebrities are thinking about or actually jumping into the hotel business—Liam and Noel Gallagher (of the band Oasis) aiming to open a group of rock-and-roll style hotels, John Malkovich opening a hotel in Wales, Bono part owner of The Clarence in Dublin, Olivia Newton-John running a luxury retreat in Australia, Nicky Hilton opening hotels in South Beach Miami and Chicago, and George Clooney looking into the Las Vegas hotel business.

Georgio Armani, Donatella Versace and other fashion royalty are getting into the hotel business.

Celebrity architects are being recruited by lodging companies; Frank Gehry who designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, is designing a wine hotel in Spain that will be operated by the Starwood hotel company.

What’s going on here? Well, Katie Davin, associate professor of hotel management at Johnson & Wales University, a top school for burgeoning hoteliers, says, “Hoteliers have been involved in celebrity restaurants for quite a while, so this is a logical step. A celebrity name gets people in the door but I don’t think it’s enough to sustain loyalty.”

And a celebrity name on a door might not be a significant lure for business travelers. According to Davin, “Business travelers are not that star struck; they want their business amenities, loyalty points and a good bed.”

However, for leisure destinations, Davin says, “Celebrities understand privacy because it’s what they want when they travel. Attaching their name to a luxury property might attract other celebrities and wealthy travelers.”

However, Davin cautions, “With celebrities owning hotels, it has to make sense. Remember the Fashion Caf? run by supermodels in New York? It just didn’t last very long. (In fact, Britney Spears herself had a very short-lived restaurant in the Big Apple.) However, when Emeril puts his name on a restaurant, it works because he’s a great chef.”

Similarly, Davin says, “If Donatella Versace puts her name on a luxury resort, that makes sense.”

At Hilton, according to Abby Spatz, senior director of advertising and marketing, “Music is a huge emphasis for us. Our new ‘Travel Should Take You Places’ campaign is a music-based campaign where we work with a number of emerging artists as well as the piano because music is a universal way of communicating the emotion of travel.

“We’re talking about all the things travel should do—whether it’s business or pleasure—and it’s a way of stepping back from product words,” Spatz says. “For instance, we have great beds but we hope our guests expect that; we would rather tell them how travel refreshes their spirits and reminds them of what’s important.”

Hilton will build on its music image with a contest that will culminate in a private concert with British singer/songwriter James Blunt in November, and a contest for singer-songwriters.

The payoffs can be huge—two of the artists Hilton worked with had their music played on episodes of TV’s mega-hit Grey’s Anatomy and the commercials themselves are almost all on iTunes’ list of top ad songs, according to Spatz.

But Hilton is not just counting on music. As Spatz notes, “As part of our partnership with the Olympics, we did a makeover of the team’s dorms in Colorado and marketed the beds as “Sleeping on the same beds as the U.S. Olympic team.”

The Hilton Harmony Piano was launched at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, before being sent on a road tour. The piano is decorated with more than 75 signatures collected in the name of music education—including artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West, Stevie Wonder and Tony Bennett to name a few.

The grand piano is in the midst of a year-long, eight-city U.S. tour, stopping at Hilton properties in San Francisco, Austin, Memphis, Chicago, Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles.

Hilton is donating $1,000 to the Grammy foundation in support of music education for each artist who signs the piano. On the road, the goal will be the same—to get musicians to play a little tune on the instrument and add their names to the signatures.

At each stop on the tour, students will have opportunities to view the piano and listen to musicians play on it; and Hilton will donate another $1,000 to each school participating.

At the end of the tour, the piano will be auctioned off at next year’s Grammy Awards show, with proceeds going to the Grammy Foundation.

The "New" Hilton

Nicky Hilton, yes, sister of Paris, is serious about the hotel business—and already has two projects in the works—a condo hotel in South Beach Miami, and a traditional hotel in Chicago.

Ms. Hilton has teamed up with a Chicago-based developer called Falor for the projects.

Under the name Nicky O, these hotels will be fun with amenities like an E! Channel news ticker providing entertainment info in the elevators, and cupcakes rather than chocolates on the pillow at turndown.

Reality Meets Hospitality

Daniel Vosovic, star of the TV hit “Project Runway,” where fashion designers work on challenges with strict deadlines and tight budgets, was selected to create the uniforms for the new NYLO chain being launched by veteran hotelier John Russell.        
NYLO, Russell says, aims to change the face of business travel with “a new class of hotels that are boldly designed, engaging and fun. “

Meanwhile, the designing of employee apparel for Embassy Suites, a Hilton-operated brand, became a “task” on showman/entrepreneur Donald Trump’s show The Apprentice. 

Artists and Architects

A serious artist has been called on to make one new hotel hip. Ian Schrager, who as much as anyone made hotels “cool” by appealing to the hip and the fashionable—is now seeking to stay “cool” by running from the creature he conceived.

For his latest venture, the $200 million redo of the historic Gramercy Park Hotel in Manhattan, Schrager rebelled against his minimalist, “everybody wear black” past and brought in even more rebellious artist Julian Schnabel to design the interior.

Schnabel in turn took his vision far from the austere mode of Schrager’s longtime collaborator Philippe Starck—going more kitsch than cool—creating walls and columns lined in wood taken from old barns and mushroom crates.

And in Europe, Frank Gehry, who put Bilbao, Spain on the tourism map with his Guggenheim Museum, is designing a “wine hotel” about 80 miles from Bilbao at a 15-year-old winery.

Remember: Hotel starts with “hot.”