(Newswire.net — September 23, 2019) — When visiting a high-end hotel, everyone has certain expectations. In particular, guests expect these settings to be trendy, comfortable, and well-appointed with luxurious furniture and attractive fixtures, but it can be hard for hotels to continue operating while keeping up with trends. Just recently, for example, The Milestone Hotel in London renovated one of its suites, outfitting it with furniture inspired by Duchess Meghan Markle. Markle had married into the royal family just over a year before when the suite was announced, suggesting the hotel had made a rapid turnaround in the course of designing the space.
Royals aren’t the inspiration for most hotel design, of course; most prefer to stick with more mainstream trends. When visiting some of the finer establishments today, keep an eye out for these modern stylings, looks largely adopted from conventional home interiors.
Minimalism Meets Ornamentation
One of the most important trends at play in hotels right now, particularly in larger spaces like lobbies and luxury suites, are creative space manipulations. This can be done using railings to complement the architecture as well as to introduce different levels to the space. Railings can be simple or ornate, flow from the rest of the structure or be set apart, and they’re both functional and decorative.
Another way that hotels are combining the simple and the ornate is by pairing elegant, bare furnishings like marble and nickel or stainless steel with a statement wall. Some opt for a standout mural, which can fill the whole room, while others prefer a multi-colored Neo Memphis paint style, reminiscent of modern art. Hotel designers particularly favor statement walls because paint is a budget-friendly way to create a serious impact and can reduce costs elsewhere in the room by eliminating the need for more expensive furnishings.
The High-End Lounge
While hotel construction is undeniably expensive, one of the most expensive parts are the furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) costs, and these costs only continue to climb. Indeed, even savvy developers typically rely on FF&E financing to purchase high-end furnishings for their properties. The fact is, while obviously your hotel needs to be structurally sound, no one is looking at the steel beams inside your building. What they’re focused on are the lounge features, the elements that make them feel at home and pampered at the same time, an aesthetic that was on display in HDExpo’s Social Hub.
In The Social Hub, visitors to the HDExpo could kick back and relax while connecting with other hospitality professionals, but that was hardly the space’s only function. Rather, in this space, appointed with hand-painted pillows, lighting featuring cut crystal, and attractive upholstery, hoteliers and others associated with the industry could sample exactly the sorts of luxury that their guests have come to expect from their properties. While some hotels can get away with imitation luxury, such as ceramics modeled on more desirable materials like marble, guests paying the greatest premium want their hotel room to be a piece of art.
The Green Hotel
Finally, just as the hotel industry features accommodations at many different price points, it also offers a number of different aesthetic philosophies, and one of the other popular looks right now is the eco hotel. Premised on sustainable architecture and careful material selection, many of these hotels are also focused on providing a healthy environment for guests with clean air and comforting lighting that encourages guests to rest well and relax. Using natural materials like wood, brick, marble, and real plants are central to both approaches and limit the amount of off-gassing, the unpleasant and dangerous release of chemicals known as VOCs that most associate with new carpets, paint, and cars.
It’s hard to say how long any particular hotel design trend will last, but for hotel owners to attract guests and command top prices, they need to stay on the cutting edge. While minimalism and eco-residences may be all the rage right now, trends change quickly and developers need to stay alert to what’s dominating the market.