Driving the hotel design renaissance
When a hotel is built today, every aspect of its design will be closely inspected. Earlier, it was confined to branding, the colour mix, lighting, ambiance and overall aesthetics, technology, amenities and the quality of staff. Nowadays, hotel design must be adaptable to change, whether it comes in the form of evolving technology or new attitudes about travel. Planning, design and development of hotels is thus undergoing a change. Be it for intuitive in-room technology, facilitating convenience via guests’ smartphones or how to adorn every space of the property, the old styling is on its way out.
New age travellers are becoming more conscious of their carbon footprint (hidden for long in the shadows of operation), and are looking to minimise it wherever and however they can. Starting with staying in hotels that share and practice the same values – from actions immediately visible to guests (consider responsibly-sourced toiletries, energy-saving lights and air-conditioning that switch off when the room is vacant, and a towel-reuse policy) to multiple efforts occurring behind the scenes that embrace going green on several fronts.
Design is proving to be one area where hotels need to focus on. A ‘Millennial Travel’ study conducted by the US firm Resonance Consulting in 2018 revealed that millennial travellers still get drawn to what a hotel, apart from free internet and WiFi which topped the list, includes a swimming pool with 57% of the millennial respondents ranking safety as highly important. But there are some key aspects like being in control of their stay, such as enabling them to bypass the front desk to get to their room, offering the feel of the destination and how to live like a local are some areas that hotel design needs to think about. The challenge, especially for hotel chains, is how much to standardise and how much to customise so as to be in sync with the brand and with the location and lifestyle of the people.
When building a new hotel, designers would normally consider the artwork displayed on the walls as a decorative piece. Not for a hotel in Tokyo, which taking a cue from Airbnb, wanted to do something a little more grassroots and connected to the communality. Seeking a way to shine a spotlight on the vast pool of artistic talent in Japan, it employed local artists to go beyond simply making artwork to hand on the walls. Instead, the artists were invited to work together with designers to create entire rooms as immersive art experiences – which became an instant hit with both locals and foreign guests.
Ilzaf Keefahs |
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