When it’s done right, you don’t notice. When it’s done wrong, it can be a nightmare.
As hotels attempt to make your stay more pleasurable, they increasingly turn to experience design. A blend of science and art, creating a room that’s welcoming, whilst making you feel special, is not easy. So how do they do it?
First impressions count
“It’s more about volume than square footage,” explains Chris McDonough, Design Principal at The Gettys Group, a Chicago-based hotel design and development firm. “Any efforts for higher ceilings should be taken to give a sense of airiness. We also try to be very detailed and thoughtful with the scale of the furniture so it all feels just right and bespoke within the space.”
When you walk into a room, your eyes are immediately drawn to the corners. To make the space seem bigger, designers use clever tricks to instead draw your eyes towards a focal point in the middle of the room. This is inevitably the bed.
While the bed may seem like the simplest part of a hotel room, there’s more to it than meets the eye, and as Jacobo San Nicolás, Radisson Hotel Group’s SVP of Projects explains: “Our intention is not just to make our guests easily fall asleep, but to rather surprise them by showcasing things that they don’t usually have at home.”
The desk
A true piece of multi-use furniture, the desk is all things to all people. From a functional place to work while on a business trip, to the setting for a room service feast, location and placement is carefully planned explains San Nicolás.
The bathroom
It may be small, but the bathroom is a place for the hotel to really shine. “The bathroom is critical in providing the guest with a positive experience,” explains McDonough. “Besides lighting, the shower experience is paramount. If the guest feels they are underserved on this front, we have not done our job.”
Towels and fixtures such as pendant lights are key here. Not just for setting the mood, but also to help with the room’s acoustics, dampening excessive noise and making it seem like a space to unwind.
The amenities
Those little extras you find in your room aren’t there by chance, they’re carefully planned and another way hotels connect guests with their new surroundings, making them feel at ease. From fluffy robes to local magazines, everything is designed with the guest in mind.
In a luxury hotel, nothing is left to chance. So next time you’re away from home, take a moment to fully take in your surroundings. There’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.
To discover world-class hotel rooms for yourself, click here to explore Radisson Collection.