Designing for mid-market hotels

Studio HBA is a young, growing, dynamic brand within the HBA group. With an expansive portfolio encompassing hospitality, residential, food and beverage, wellness and workplace, Studio offers the same levels of innovation, creativity and professionalism associated with HBA across a broad spectrum of design disciplines and with a keenly focused local context.

Currently engaged in over 200 projects West Coast of America to the prosperous and expanding cities of The Middle East, India, China, Indonesia and Myanmar Studio HBA sees itself moving in the right direction. As Principal of Studio HBA in Dubai and Bangkok, Justin brings focus to the Middle East market by capturing demands of the expanding hospitality sector for midscale and lifestyle brands while also taking on retail, residential, food and beverage and commercial projects.

Studio HBA is presently working on Hard Rock Hotel Dubai, Aloft Hotels, Elements Hotels, Novotel, Ibis Styles, Ramada Plaza, Time Royal Design Hotel, Venu Hotels and Arif Hotel in Saudi Arabia, amongst a variety of other projects such as F&B, serviced apartments and leisure projects.

Downtown Design: With Expo 2020 just a few years away there seems to be a rising demand for mid-range hospitality to suit every traveller, how do you think hotel properties are responding to this?

Justin Wells: In short yes. This part of the hospitality sector is moving quickly to satisfy pent up demand. We see new brands entering the market and established brands from multinational operators opening. There is still a range of rack rates amongst the midscale and lifestyle segment that will cater for cost conscience travelers.

DTD: Do you believe the mid-market hotel industry is experiencing a temporary boom that will stagnate in time?

JW: It seems very difficult to predict the length of time of a boom, however it is clear that a global trend is developing midscale brands and in more recent times, lifestyle and white label brands are entering many markets around the world and that is the case in the Middle East.

DTD: Does mid-range hospitality necessarily mean that original lifestyle brands cannot be incorporated into their design?

JW: Lifestyle brand offerings are often about experience, rather than formulaic responsiveness. It can often mean less about the star rating and more about the memory, originality or authenticity of the hotel. People look to tell stories about their travels and seek something memorable to take to social media or share with friends. Midscale brands recognize this trend of the millennials which has resulted in changes of brand identity to lean toward some of these lifestyle trends. To summarize, we see a closing of the gap between multinational operator Brands to bespoke lifestyle hotel brands.

DTD: How is designing for mid-range hotels different from luxury hotels? (e.g. do you opt for brands that offer cheaper products? Does quality pay a price in an attempt to keep things at a budget level?)

JW: Understanding brand identity is needed for any hotel design, however mid-range hotels often are quite refined in their needs for their clientele. Refined in the sense ‘stripped back’ so the spectrum of design influence can often be narrower than would be expected of a luxury brand. Capital expenditure consideration is also a given. Midscale has budgets that commands respect and our story telling of design needs to work with this constraint. Studio HBA understands materiality and responds with creative solutions. Budget constraints don’t have to mean cheap. We procure our FF&E (Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment) often through trusted suppliers that we know their construction methodology is sound and via these established relationships we can propose options of price range for our clients.

DTD: What are your greatest challenges when designing for mid-range hotels?

JW: Design education for our clients is often a challenge. We like to take our clients on a journey that they have often not experienced before. We work collaboratively but at the outset some clients have an expectation or vision for what their hotel might be. It’s up to us to work through design ideas that we feel have intrinsic value to the hotel. Speed of delivery is often pushed around a lot in the Middle East. Hotels often take 3 years from commencement to opening, and many project managers are pushing very tight timelines on the designers in the creative phases. It would seem more logical that getting the design right whilst still being respectful of time is paramount for all stakeholders; after all these hotels will be built and in the market place for many years to come.

DTD: With Dubai opening its doors to over 14.2 million tourists in a year (figures from DTCM- 2015) it gives everyone a chance to appreciate good design, meaning hotels need to continually improve themselves to be better. Do you think the hospitality industry in the region is responding to such needs?

JW: We push for good design outcomes on all Studio HBA projects. I am sure our colleagues in the industry also strive to push the design quality for their projects. Therefore, it remains the appetite of operators and clients to see where design can go in the Middle East over the coming years.

DTD: As an international design firm renowned for hospitality design, what insight can you offer on the differences between mid-market hotels in the region versus those in other parts in the world?

JW: Global trends are just that. They often take time to meet some markets and we are seeing the beginning of some trends arriving in the Middle East. As an example, urban infill in established cities create opportunities for the bespoke or white label hotels. These types of hotels often have small key counts, they are often located in interesting buildings that tell of some history or story and most importantly are unique for their aesthetic or offering. They also attract users through other reasons such as roof tops, or cinema etc.

DTD: Please tell us about one of your projects and the unique challenges you faced with it

JW: Some interesting challenges we face is when a client wants to elevate the quality of a brand standard or even star rating of a hotel during the design process. Occasionally clients want to modify some core experiences of a particular brand standard as they feel the Middle East demands more. We become the pivot between client and operator to test this process often requiring moderating design intention prior to implementation.

Another challenge is to develop design for cultural considerations with brands not yet tested in the Middle East market. Hard Rock hotel is a specific example of this. Being the first Hard Rock Hotel in the Middle East, we worked with the operator extensively to calibrate what Hard Rock should be in this market and what the offering and experiences should be.

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