DESIGN TRENDS OF THE FUTURE
With sustainability already highlighted as a priority for hotel design going forward, what other trends should hoteliers take note of?
The designers were unanimous in their opinion that the most important trends revolved around the guest experience, rather than particular design styles or concepts.
According to Aukett Fitzroy Robinson’s Anne Kuzyk: “The current major trend is the global lifestyle issue. Guests are not just concerned with the convenience of location, level of service and the size of guestrooms. What counts is the overall guest experience; a magical word that encompasses just about everything. It includes everything from the appearance and style to the attentiveness of the concierge; from the cachet of the chef and the atmosphere at the bar to the crowd that it attracts; from the spa treatments to the state-of-the-art gym.”
Chuck Wood takes this a stage further, asserting that a vital consideration for Rockwell Group is to establish an “emotional connection” between hotel and guest.
“I think that there is a growing focus by operators and owners on creating and developing a hotel product that is really focused on building a very strong emotional connection with their target guest segment and that is very much at the heart of how we approach any of our projects — creating an environment that is immersive but builds strong connections with the guests and allows people to interact in very pleasurable and positive ways,” says Wood.
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This is partly achieved through creating a product that is “connective and emotive” of its physical, cultural and historical location,” he adds.
“A great example of that is Six Senses Hideaway Zighi Bay, where it is a very unique experience that is very much tied to the community in which it is located. They’re working very hard to connect with the local population and not just supporting the community by building housing but also trying to support and foster local craft traditions and exposing all of this to the guests as part of the experience,” he explains.
“I think that kind of focus on a particular kind of experience that is more unique is something that is going to become more and more of a trend as opposed to a certain level of consistency that you might expect between chains.
Another trend stemming from this, continues Wood, is the adaptation of entrepreneurial brands outside of the hotel business that already have very strong emotive connections with their customers.
“We have developed a hospitality concept for Nobu, which everyone knows is a high-end chain of Japanese cuisine. Nobu himself has a very strong personality that’s very tightly bound to the restaurant brand and people look to him as a kind of concierge — every meal is a handcrafted, deep experience for people and we found that those attributes map very well to a hospitality offering. There is a first Nobu hotel being designed right now for a location in the US,” reveals Wood.
“We have one or two specific locations in the US, I know they have had some conversations with developers here in the Middle East, I believe they are probably interested in coming here at some point,” he adds
Significantly, Wood says: “It’s a different game altogether from taking a celebrity’s name and slapping it on a building.”
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