There’s no doubt that hotel construction is on the rise. Look around the world and take into account the continually growing assortment of hotel products entering the market. As With hospitality development continuing to grow we see all too often that not all products (hotel properties) are created equal.
To the misfortune of the designer many properties entering the market face considerable negative criticism due in part to many things like the shang-bang construction, ostentatious colorizing or architectural theme and even more caustic in today’s market is the irresponsible landscaping surrounding the building. Creating unique, memorable and economically viable hotel environments is what hospitality designers do, however we are not the financiers of the dreams, we are merely the dream weavers that have the enviable task of creating the folly of others.
As a designer my intent below is to pinpoint three very important considerations when working with an owner to build, renovate or re-flag a property. Owners are in most cases not architects nor are they interior designers yet like architects and designers they do have dreams, opinions and dislikes which often tend to leave their mark on the properties being addressed and sometimes marks that sometimes tend to be negative, the considerations below will hopefully help guide the designer and owner toward a union crowned with success and happiness.
1. VALUE ADDED DESIGN – Creating value through design without adding cost.
Design for the most part is often undervalued and tends to leave the end-user less than engaged; on the other hand when products are designed well, the consumer takes notice. Companies then track through sales when a product or service is successful and the value of the design then becomes easily quantifiable. The design of hospitality environments however isn’t so easy to quantify, due to the fact that it is very difficult to directly measure the design impact on the end user. So, how could Design Equity be measured? It could be defined as the extent to which a brand is identified by its design awareness, perceived quality, associations and loyalty.
Design Awareness: How familiar are people with the distinct visual and graphic language of the brand? To what extent is design the face of the brand? Is it possible for a designer to achieve significant enough design impact to create value?
Perceived Quality: How accurately do people associate the quality of the brand with the quality of the design? Has the designer fulfilled the expectations of the users?
Design Associations: What attributes, situations and connotations do people associate with the brand through the design? To what extent has the designer connected the customer to the brand?
Design Loyalty: To what extent will a person return to the product or utilize the services purely based on the way that it looks or feels? Has the designer been able to marry the design to the offerings of the property?
Understanding what gives a hotel it’s heartbeat and what leads to a flat line is the quantifiable difference a good designer makes. Designers should be all knowing – understanding the culture for which the hotel is being designed, is it a middle America business traveler hotel or a bustling mid city boutique that is expected to attract the enviable media savvy crowd or is it imagined to be a resort catering to the healthy conscientious green yoga, vegan guest. Whatever the guest profile the designer should have the skills to maneuver the onslaught of design challenges that will need to be addressed.
2. TRUSTED CONFIDANT – Bringing value to a project by being a trusted and respected confidant.
Gaining the trust of the owner and becoming the trusted confidant is not as easy as one would think, seemingly endless hours of meetings, piles of scrutinized design sketches and numerous dusty site visits all often take place well before a designer is ushered into the realm of trusted confidant. Earning the unspoken title of trusted designer often entitles one to begin pushing the envelope and pressing the comfort level of the ownership, but this title can often be unrealized.
Designers themselves have an innate talent for making connections and distilling information into its essence. They are often dreamers and visionaries who are natural drivers of direction and catalysts for solving complex problems. The nature of their work is conception, development and implementation. The good ones know how to shape innovation. Designers are also very often the customer’s advocate and should therefore be allowed a stronger voice as the champion of the user.
Designers are well study in architecture, interior design, landscape and planning, well versed in art, art history, socio-political economics and haute couture, they are passionate about modern, mid-century, and antique furnishings, they understand the intricate operations of every aspect of a hotel, restaurant, cruise ship, theme park, casino, parking garage and clock radio.
Owners wanting to leverage these skills and knowledge would benefit from becoming more active in including designers in the strategic and developmental processes. In addition, designers are very often given second-handed insights to work with, which have emerged from the conceptual stages of a project and they are then required to work with this information to generate the finished product.
3. STANDARDS – IDEALIZED – Incorporating value with design savvy and industry know-how.
Whether Diamonds or Stars a long standing rating system has been established and these systems are only the beginning. American Automobile Association’s Five Diamond and Mobil Five Star ratings establish two of the hospitality industries most prestigious sets of criteria.
The rating systems established by AAA and Mobile consist of mercilessly unwavering criteria this criterion is used to rate each and every property throughout the world. Owners no doubt would prefer to reach for the stars so to speak when funding the design or redesign of a property because obviously where you have more stars and diamonds therein you will also have more dollar signs, however the ability to leverage the cost associated with attempting to attain these ratings is sometimes unthinkable, however there is a plan.
Whether new construction or a renovation a considerable investment is being made to achieve an even more considerable return, it is the magic imbued by the designer that will truly need to stand the test of time and serve as the daily quantifiable reminder of the investment made. That magic comes in the form of both exquisite design talent and an understanding of how to utilize standards, standards are specific criteria used by each hotel brand to enforce the design consistency of all that brands properties. A new hotel development may not be flying under a specific flag at the time of design conception, as well in the case of renovating or attempting to re-flag a property the standards are of utmost importance. It is in the best interest of the all to begin courting prospective flags early on.
