MODERN LIVING: Airport Hotels

One great disadvantage of the Air Age appears the moment the passenger gets back to earth. The weary traveler is set down on airfields far on the city's outskirts, usually miles away from downtown hotels. Businessmen in town for short conferences spend more time getting to and from appointments than conferring. Travelers waiting between planes often spend most of the night in an airport chair. Last week the air passenger was finally getting a break on the ground.

At the Los Angeles International Airport, a luxurious ranch-type hotel with a palm-fringe'd patio and swimming pool opened for business, was already booked a month in advance. Built by Real Estate Man Hyatt von Dehn, 45, his Hyatt House has a $75-a-day executive suite for business conferences, 69 other rooms at $8 to $14 a day. At New York City's La Guardia Airport, former Hotel Owner (Manhattan's Paramount and Weylin) Louis Ritter, 48, had the first 40-room section of his $2,500,000 La Guardia Hotel (future size: 265 rooms) open for business. Guests found an 85-place restaurant and bar, with TV and air conditioning in all rooms (rates: $8 to $14).

The main objection to airport hotels in the past has been the thunder of passing planes. To deaden the sound to a comfortable sleeping level, Los Angeles' Hyatt House incorporated sound baffles and special soundproofing into the hotel's walls, suspended the ceilings. The La Guardia Hotel also hangs its rooms from flexible steel spring clips so that sound waves striking the building will not set walls to reverberating. With both hotels already heavily booked, Ritter and Von Dehn each plan to build similar hotels at other major U.S. airports.