Hospitality enters a new era with hotels around the world turning their focus to the composite experience
For a hotel brand, ensuring guests stay loyal has never been a greater challenge than it is today. The variety of options for travelers are near endless: from luxury to technology to theme-based hotels, not to mention home-rental companies such as Airbnb and the proliferation of design-led hotels in cities the world over leveraging collaboration between artists, designers and the local community.
These days, design concepts are being taken to an even higher level with hotel operators and designers creating boutique art hotels, converting interesting derelict spaces and using tech to enhance experience and provide unforgettable moments.
It’s an exciting experience-driven time and Downtown Design is pleased to highlight some of its favorites from around the globe:
Creating a bold statement for today’s global mobile citizens, Rob Wagemans of Concrete designed the trendy ‘home from home’ citizenM hotel in Rotterdam (as well as 6 other locations worldwide). The scheme falls in line with citizenM’s signature black and red scheme, use of Vitra furniture and company founder Rattan Chadha’s highly-regarded contemporary art collection giving the interiors a fun, contemporary cool twist. The brand prides itself on staying ahead of the tech-curve fitting touchscreen mood pads into each room to allow guests to control comfort levels such as lighting and temperature and, further still, ‘memorising’ those preferences for future stays.
A warehouse turned hip hotel in Hongkong’s old industrial district Wong Chuk Hang, Ovolo Southside’s interior design remains firmly connected to its past. Paying tribute to its industrial past, the hotel showcases art installations and graffiti through much of its spaces. Architect of the project Paul Kember of KplusK Associates decided to maintain the warehouse’s original structure hence each of the rooms have a unique shape and size providing guests a different experience depending on which room they stay in.
For a completely out of the box experience, Amsterdam’s Hotel Not Hotel serves just that on a plate and more. Hotel Not Hotel offers its guests the options of sleeping in a completely restored antique tram, behind a secret bookcase or in a printed house. With the idea of letting adults feel like big kids, the designer duo Bruno Bont and Tijmen Receveur wanted to give guests a new type of experience when exploring the city. The hotel features communal places so cozy guests struggle to leave.
A new foray into Istanbul, I-AM designed the brand, interior and digital elements for The Cloud 7 Hotel which is conceptualized as a hotel for young, active and tech-savvy travellers. The lobby is designed as an open space for socializing, rather than the hotel norm of creating defined spaces. By doing away with the reception area the hotel allows guests to check-in and check-out themselves via shared tablets.
With relaxing accommodation, modern details and priority given to technology and communication innovations for guests, the hotel brand remains true to its motto of “dream, discover, inspire, live, meet and share”.
A boutique art hotel in Canberra, Australia, Hotel Hotel is a collaboration of more than 60 artists, makers, architects and designers. The 68-room hotel has a quirky charm with its design inspired by Australian shacks. The walls are made of clay, beds of salvaged oak, and each room is topped off with thoughtfully-selected original artwork, collected objects, and restored 20th century Australian furniture.
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