International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Hotel Design: The Need to Develop a Strategic Approach

Amanda West Elizabeth Purvis
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Amanda West Elizabeth Purvis, (1992),"Hotel Design: The Need to Develop a Strategic Approach", International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 4 Iss 1 pp.
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 HOTEL DESIGN: THE NEED TO DEVELOP A STRATEGIC APPROACH 15

H
otel design can contribute much to aesthetic appeal; the second, that the nature of this
marketing and to the service offered aesthetic appeal can be controlled in line with particular
by hotels. market and profit objectives.
Design incorporates four core areas; corporate identity,
product design and development, retail and interiors and
brand and packaging design.

Hotel Corporate Identity

01ins[3] notes that many design consultancies claim to offer
identity services, but they interpret this area in different
ways. In the design industry it has traditionally been used

Design: to refer to the visual elements of an organization's identity

— its symbol, logotype, colour schemes, typefaces and
so on. These all act as a visual trigger to recall the
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organization. A distinction can be made between this

The Need aspect, the visual identity, and the corporate identity.

In many quarters corporate identity is now seen as

something much broader. It can be defined as an

to Develop a encapsulation of what an organization stands for and how

this manifests itself, wittingly or otherwise, through all
the communication channels at its disposal. Obviously the
products and services the organization offers are important

Strategic elements in the corporate identity. Other key channels are:

(1) Its people and how they behave.
(2) Its formal communications such as print and

Approach advertising.
(3) Approach to design, including the design of its
buildings and environment, the uniforms worn by
its staff and, of course, its visual identity.

Amanda West and Elizabeth Purvis Product Design and Development

This core area is concerned with the way a product looks
and how it performs. External appearance influences
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 4 No. 1, 1992 perceptions of product quality (see, for example, Engel
pp. 15-22 © MCB University Press, 0959-6119 and Blackwell[4] and Kotler[5]), and therefore has a key
role to play in adding value.

Introduction In image-conscious markets, people want the products

they buy to reflect the self-imaging they wish to project
The level of investment in hotel design implies that both (see, for example, Douglas and Isherwood[6]). Design can
hotel companies and design companies specializing in hotel play a central role in helping to achieve competitive
design would have a clear interest in ensuring that hotel differentiation through improving product function, adding
design provides a significant return on that investment. "desirable" features or by offering "style". Design and
Sadly, this is often far from the truth on both sides, and styling are often seen as synonymous and it is this
stems from the lack of any semblance of a scientific definitional confusion that can limit the central role of
process governing the commissioning of design work or design in company success. As Blaich notes, "styling"
the management of design in a hotel context[l]. represents a much more limited set of activities in the
final phase of a sequential development process rather than
being a central feature in product development[8]. It is
The Role of Design suggested that the relationship between design and the
Design has been described as "art with a purpose" [2]. surface appearance of any product or environment
This brief definition of the concept highlights two key underlies the popular image of design noted by Walsh et
issues that are central to the analysis of design in any al.[9] as being "concerned with fashion, style and a trendy
context. The first is that design is, in part, concerned with colour supplement lifestyle".
 16 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT 4,1

Brand and Packaging Design

The role of packaging design is to communicate and create
loyalty between manufacturer, retailer and the consumer.
The packaging of any product performs two specific roles:
(1) A functional role — this includes protecting the
product, enhancing its visibility to customers and
making it easy for consumers to use. In some
cases, a particular packaging design idea may
increase the shelf-life of a product, as with boxed
wine, for instance.
(2) A communication role — packaging design, like
advertising, is a means of creating dialogue with notoriously inaccurate. The best estimates suggest that
customers. In certain fast-moving consumer goods the world market for industrial design and commercial
markets packaging has to be relied upon to architecture is worth £6 billion. Interior design, which
communicate to particular target groups the includes retail projects, is valued at approximately £1
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proposition and personality of the brand. billion[12]. Figure 1 outlines the available expenditure
breakdown.
Packaging works on several levels, it can communicate
verbally — carrying written information — and visually In summary, design has been identified in contemporary
through values associated with the quality, weight, finish, markets as vital to company competitiveness. Statements
shape and materials used in the packaging itself. such as "effective design is an essential tool that UK
management ignores at its peril"[3], and, "design is no
longer a luxury, but a necessity" [3] reinforce this view;
Architecture and Retail Design whilst recent empirical research within the manufacturing
Banham notes that: sector concluded that the commercially most successful
Over the past ten years, the face of the UK high street has firms were those that invested resources in design and
changed dramatically. Led by pioneers in the fashion industry, managed it effectively.
more and more retailers have awakened to the benefits of
design as a marketing tool[3]. This central role for the core areas within the concept
of design, outlined above, lies uneasily with the popular
Design is used to raise sales by displaying merchandise image of design as associated with fashion, style and a
more effectively, targeting particular customer segments, trendy colour supplement lifestyle (see, for example,
giving the retailer a recognizable identity and improving Blaich[8] and Walsh et al.[9]). This view of design as
customer circulatory patterns. concerned with glossing the end product is problematical,
increasing the tendency to assess design entirely upon
The development and implementation of new retail external, or surface, appearance.
concepts has been referred to by one architect as,
the setting up of conversations in space [11]. Figure 2 advocates the approach to be taken on hotel
design within this article.
The nature of conversations is that they are concerned
with who says what to whom. Retail design is concerned The popular image of design can be seen to be reinforced
with consistency across every aspect of the retailer's by the historical evolution of the design industry. Alice
message, through exterior design from building style, facia Rawsthorne, design editor for the Financial Times, states:
and logo to interior design and decor, fixtures signage, For decades design has been an archetypal cottage industry
point of sale, display and even staff uniforms. That the in which artisans and entrepreneurs have practised their craft
retailer's side of the conversation is comprehensive to within small companies[12].
target customers is vital. A design must not only be
appealing, but also effective in that it delivers sales. Retail Such a structure has allowed somewhat idiosyncratic
design should be accountable. practitioners specializing in certain "looks" to generate
enough turnover from "one-off" projects, to support their
businesses. Recent evidence of the persistence of a highly
fragmented structure in the hotel design area is given by
The Value of Design Markets Hotels Magazine(June1990) in a survey of the turnover
In attempts to realize the potential benefits of design, of the major USA and European hotel design companies.
growth in company spending throughout the last ten years The largest, Hirsch Bedner and Associates of California,
has been rapid, resulting in the 1980s being termed "the had a total fee income of just $9.22 million in 1989. This
design decade" [3]. The fragmented nature of the design is relatively very small compared with turnover in other
industry, previously examined, means that any data areas of marketing services. Jane Langley notes, from her
outlining the size and value of design markets are own scan of the industry:
 HOTEL DESIGN: THE NEED TO DEVELOP A STRATEGIC APPROACH 17

Figure 2. Design in the Context of Hotels perceptions of what design can do for them and how it
can slot in and be managed as part of a complete product
or brand-building campaign.
What it is
• A process; rather than a single-stage, surface To determine useful role models for evolving such a
styling activity process in hotel design, it is useful to look first at more
• This process is concerned with combining elements highly evolved design and communications segments, and
materials and components to determine applicable elements from these unique
• Decisions taken on this combination affect: features of the hotel design process. Advertising is perhaps
— physical attributes (function, appearance, dura- the longest established area to use design for
bility, safety) communication and selling purposes and, perhaps because
— market attributes (desirability to certain customer of the very longevity of the industry and its
groups — image, status, lifestyle) competitiveness, it has established a high specific and
financial implications (initial product cost, pricing, effectively monitored management process to serve clients
payback period) and potential product buyers. The essence of good
• May involve specialist knowledge and decisions advertising is an in-depth analysis of the client's product
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relating to any or all of the four core design areas: and its target audiences. From this analysis (combined
— corporate identity
with the size of the client's budget) stems the decision
to make a certain type of advertisement and which medium
— product design and development
to choose for optimal communication. The core of the
— brand and packaging design process is developing a clear sense of which message is
— retail and interiors being conveyed and how best to convey it. In simple terms
the "who", the "where", the "what" and the "how".
What it isn't
• A n offshoot of fine art Advertising is viewed as an integral part of the total
• Concerned w i t h only surface aesthetics or marketing mix and the client's selection of advertising
the inherent merit of one fabric or furniture over agencies is based not only on cost and reputation for other
another client work (and mistakenly, occasionally, on the basis of
• Ergonomics — the purely physical fit between creative awards won) but most importantly on the agency's
customer's bodies and the furniture w i t h w h i c h perceived understanding of the client product, customer
hotels surround them base and its objectives. An agency's ability to manage and
monitor the process of the creative work and to evaluate
it in such a way as to justify the expenses incurred is also
Companies were either brilliant on the business side, but a deciding factor. As advertising is often not simply about
not innovative, or brilliantly innovative but hopeless on selling product but also about selling "image", it is not
handling the business[13]. always possible to quantify precisely the effect of
Questions arise, therefore, as to the ability of the design advertising in money terms, but other methods of target
industry in its historical form to move beyond design as customer evaluation such as "recall" tests and "image"
aesthetics towards design as aesthetics effective when tests have evolved to demonstrate whether any message
directed at a particular purpose. "One-off" projects, and and, if so, what message is getting through.
limited numbers of staff united in a belief in the designer's
intuition, have led to a lack of attention being paid to the If the campaign is not working the client rarely immediately
evaluation of particular design schemes once in operation. changes agency. Because of the data built up during the
Client, end customer and employee user perspectives have analysis and evaluation phases and constant monitoring
not been solicited and documented in any systematic way. by both client and agency of changes in the desired target
Because of limited design evaluation, the effectiveness market for the product, it is often possible to amend the
of particular schemes and space arrangements have not campaign message, design treatment or media in order
been tested. to be more effective. For this reason many consumer
product and service companies retain the same agency
for many years as a level of understanding and personal
Hotel Design Management: Lessons from communications are built up which would be difficult to
Advertising replace.
Consumer goods companies have known the value of
design in attracting attention, but also in communicating
and differentiating product values for decades. In a very The Lackof Account Handlers
real and well-documented sense the relationship between The business of advertising has also contributed another
designer, or design consultancy, and client is a symbiotic key ingredient, that could make the design process more
one — with consultancies responding to shifts in client effective. The development of the "account handler" or
 18 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT 4,1

"account executive" whose role is to interact between thousand instructions, testimonials or sales pitches.
the client and the creative teams, bringing both their Naturally, a supportive combination of these ingredients
opinions to bear in a constructive way, has been hugely is usually the most effective. However the advantage of
important. It is crucial that the account handler is neither design is that it is immediate, relatively consistent in its
a pure "creative" nor a pure "client" advocate but that effect on the viewer and subliminal. In this light, it is
he understands both standpoints and can see beyond the instructive to look at examples of hotel advertising in the
small issues and jargon, constantly referring both parties UK to assess changing agency and client perceptions of
back to the real point of the campaign, i.e. to communicate the role of interior design in the hotel product mix.
product and image to target customers. The successful
account handler will maintain open channels of The black and white portrait photograph campaign,
communications with the client throughout and beyond undertaken by Crest Hotels in the mid-1980s, is a good
the campaign and will also become a key role in the agency example of an attitude to hotels which believes that the
in terms of generating repeat or add-on business. customer's image and lifestyle dictate the product. For
argument, we shall call it the "no product" approach.
Most agencies which specialize in the areas of corporate Whether or not the customer uses the hotel is clearly
or brand communications have in turn developed a design determined by whether or not he or she identifies with
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management process not unlike that of advertising. Often the customer shown in the advertising and believes in his
the various agencies work in collaboration under the testimonials for the product. No picture of a hotel, either
control of a marketing manager or a design manager on interior or exterior is shown. That the hotel exists, and
the client side. Some clients use the design and marketing is appealing, clearly demands consumer trust in the overall
agencies owned by their advertising firms for maximum proposition and the character making it.
synergy and this philosophy has been the basis for the
build-up of communications groups such as WWP, Saatchi Another approach could be termed that of the "side step".
and Saatchi and Aegis. This was epitomized by Thistle Hotels' "eggs" campaign.
Here a quality proposition was made for Thistle hotels
Hotel design consultancies have not yet evolved the based upon the variety of eggs available in their
account handler system to the extent that it exists within restaurants. This was held up as a symbol of the extent
other design areas. Often it is designers who meet directly to which these hotels were equipped to meet the
with the client even at the earliest and presentation stages. exactingly individual demands of their customers. A similar
Designers are highly versed in visual ideas and creative method is often used by supermarkets to stress the rarity,
jargon. They are not necessarily great verbal variety or quality of their produce. Witness recent Tesco,
communicators, nor are they trained in hotel marketing Sainsbury and Marks & Spencer campaigns. The
or even marketing of any other product or service. As difference is that supermarkets exist to sell items like eggs
a result they frequently fail to ask the client questions and sausages and even French cheeses. This is their
about the marketing objectives and positioning of the hotel product. Eggs are not the primary product of hotels and
which would make their own design role considerably one imagines that the reason eggs were seized on to
simpler and more logical. Jargon from both sides, demonstrate the brand features of Thistle Hotels was due
understood clearly by neither party, often befuddles the to the absence of any consensus by client or agency on
whole process. Hence the reliance on what are termed what the real product was. Certainly, it was not deemed
"visuals", essentially pretty pictures by visualizers, briefed to be bedrooms or restaurants or any designed space
by designers depicting what the client can expect from within the hotel!
his lobby/bedroom/restaurant/bathroom/conference
room/presidential suite. The results are at best lucky
guesses, at worst costly and necessarily formulaic design More recently, however, there has been a move towards
solutions, which give the client no more than his brief recognizing the value of the hotel's interior design as both
described. integral to the hotel and essential to communicating it.
The Royalton Hotel in New York, and indeed all the hotels
As a result of design consultancies' communicating no of The Morgan Group, are sold on the basis of their
knowledge of marketing or of hotels, beyond their own interior design and indeed their named interior designers.
limited role within them, the client tends to treat them Instead of the hotelfittingto the customer, the customer
as a technical service, much like an electrician or a is expected to fit to the product and that product is the
plumber. Indeed, many hotel groups place design under hotel building, design and fabric. The customer is buying
the supervision of the Director of Technical Services rather the hotel and everything in it on a visual level and in so
than under the Marketing Department. doing becomes part of it. Of course this limits the appeal
of the hotel either to those who are genuinely attracted
to it visually or to those who want to be associated with
Hotel Design in Advertising those who are attracted to it visually! But at least the hotel
A picture can, we are told, speak a thousand words, so will inevitably deliver to those customers who buy the
a well thought-out design scheme can substitute for a visual proposition. In this country, Edwardian Hotels'
 HOTEL DESIGN: THE NEED TO DEVELOP A STRATEGIC APPROACH 19

recent campaign for its Heathrow property, The Skyway, If the product element of the hotel as designed space is
featured its interior design and the atmosphere of calm allowed to figure, many of the messages thought necessary
it created as the major selling proposition. from human service can be communicated to the customer
effectively. Well designed spaces will indicate their function
and atmosphere, space planning will direct guests to
Hotel Design as Part of the Whole Marketing Mix discover and make sense of the hotel's public and private
In its broadest sense, marketing is about fulfilling and areas, and to make up their own mind about where they
creating demands and design is a valuable component of feel most comfortable. Ideally, guests will come to see
this aspect of marketing because it provides a visual the hotel as a product for their own use and will buy the
reference and distinguisher. So hotel groups, like any other proposition of the product again, either on a repeat visit
company which sells both a product and an image to or in another group-owned hotel. Currently, this product
potential customers, need to determine the "who", element of the hotel marketing mix, which is dependent
"where", "what" and "how" of their specific product on the strategic use of interior design, has only been
and customer group. They are selling a product which has allowed to come to the fore in low- or no-service hotels.
a physical as well as a non-physical dimension. Here, we Sadly, this has reinforced the mistaken belief among many
have called these separate dimensions design or physical hoteliers and even interior design companies that the
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product and service. By service is implied all the largely physical hotel product is a second-best alternative to high
non-visual and human elements of the hotel experience levels of personal service. Until the product element of
which make staying in one hotel different from staying in hotels is as closely scrutinized as the service element,
another. Such elements include the quality and nature of it will be difficult to create an hotel which balances the
the welcome, the choice between a high human level of product and service elements or even favours the product
service, valet service for example, or a more do-it-yourself side.
or hi-tech approach, such as in-room or on-screen
checkout. There are elements of visual design involved
in selling the service element of a hotel such as uniform
design, brochures describing the range of services,
menus, etc. Bedroom and public area layout also comes
into this category in the sense that if effective they should
Product design
direct the guest around the space in the most natural and should be part of the
efficient way (in such a way to minimize the need for extra
direction-giving staff). marketing mix
Information from customers, potential customers and the
experiences of other service industries will be needed
Building a hotel brand as a to fulfil the potential of hotels as physical as well as service
products. Currently, guests are frequently asked to
service proposition brings comment on their opinion of the service offered in room
questionnaires. What is often lacking in such
inherent weaknesses D questionnaires is a lateral approach where guests are asked
what they would like to see rather than what already
But largely the service element is the human element exists, what they expected to see and failed to receive,
which is so important in the placing of the hotel within or even what they would suggest as major new innovations
the guest's personal frame of reference. Ideally, this on the service front from their experience of other hotels,
human element and the structural and visual elements of or even other service industries or product types.
the design need to act together to achieve highly defined Questionnaires are unlikely to prove the most effective
objectives. Building a hotel brand as a pure service way of gathering such information. Though guests will
proposition brings with it inherent weaknesses. Because often comment or complain about certain visual elements
service elements are human they are inevitably of the design, "room too dark", "difficult to reach the
inconsistent and depend on high levels of personal attention light from the desk", etc., questions relating to the design,
and training, both of which are costly to the hotel group impact, clarity or atmosphere of the product are rarely
and sometimes actually irritating to the customer. Much put. Even if they are asked, there is little indication that
has been made of the nuisance factor to guests of poorly such information is used as the basis for commissioning
trained personnel, but well or overly trained staff and over refurbishment or new design work and, specifically, that
personal attention can also be inappropriate. Guests' such information is ever shared with hotel design
requirements for privacy, efficient time usage and calm consultants.
may mean that they would actually prefer not to need staff
to show them around the hotel explaining services and What seems to be lacking on both the hotel and the design
facilities. consultancy side is the realization that the visual signals
 20 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT 4 , 1

sent out by hotels, which are always the crucial first will often ask preselected design consultancies to take part
impression, can substitute or at least complement the in a creative "pitch" and will select the design scheme
overall market andfinancialobjectives of the hotel, its which comes closest to their own mental vision of the
service philosophy and, if part of a group, the brand or hotel, rather than choosing the design consultancy which
corporate philosophy. best understands their overall objectives.

The failure to view product design as part of this total

marketing mix is evident in two key areas which bedevil
the design process in a hotel context: the brief and the
evaluation process. Design work starts after
a brief initial meeting
The Hotel Design Brief with the client
Design work in hotels is all too often undertaken in a
piecemeal and reactive way. Refurbishment of bedrooms,
for example, usually has to take place every seven years To the hotel design consultancy's demerit, they are usually
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to cope with wear and tear. Sometimes such design work so keen to begin charging fees for design work that they
is undertaken in-house and, if so, is rarely undertaken on will often embark on a costly creative pitch on the basis
any analytical basis or with any consideration of the of that brief alone. If they have already been retained they
design/market segment relationship. It is not unknown for will start design work following only a brief. If they have
hotel managers simply to send for a painter and decorator already been retained they will start design work following
and to order new curtains and furniture. Such design only a brief initial meeting with the client.
decisions are based more upon personal tastes than any
other foundation of environmental design experience, or
relating of this design work to the hotel and its overall lack of Clear Objectives or Systematic Evaluation
customer objectives. Even if the decision is taken to go Because the design process is not approached in a marketing
to a specialized hotel design consultancy, it is often with context on either side it is rarely given concrete objectives.
a view to restoring the hotel to its erstwhile decorative Its contribution to the success of meeting the hotel's
standards in stages, rather than approaching the whole objectives cannot therefore be easily evaluated. The need
design project as a single proposition. for moving away from this nonsensical and illogical spiral and
towards a more constructively managed process should now
be clear to all concerned. It is surprising that the system
has progressed along these lines, and seemingly globally,
for so long without either side substantially altering the terms
The architect's of reference, such as they are.

plans often determine A hypothetical "ideal" alternative to the current process

would progress something like this: having passed on the
design policy D fullest possible brief and clarified it in some depth with
the consultancy account handler, the hotel operator would
be able to carry out even the most costly design project
The brief given to hotel design consultancies, even by large in the secure knowledge that he and his design consultant
hotels and major groups, is thus often no more than a were working on a basis firmly rooted in the customer,
description of room purposes and dimensions with a two- as well as thefinancial,expectations for the property. At
sentence introduction which describes the location and the completion of the project, the design could be easily
star rating of the property in question. Surprisingly, this evaluated through questioning those same or even new
approach to the brief is often true even of new hotels and customers. Any deficiencies could, therefore, be amended
stems all too often from the fact that the architect's plans before moving into the next project.
rather than the objectives of the hotel determine design
policy. Design consultancies are rarely given a brief which One further obstacle exists to developing a process of
outlines in detail the marketing objectives of the hotel in design management which is integral to the marketing
terms of customer profile, expected room rates, reason objectives of hotels. This is the conflict in hotels between
for stay, special features of the hotel or locality, corporate what is judged effective design by the client and by the
philosophy, experience with other hotels within the group, end user.
features considered comparable from other hotels and so
forth. If anything, words like "quality" and "luxury" are
used in a very loose sense and thus convey little of what The Conflict between Hotel Owners and Hotel Guests
the client or the prospective guest would expect in terms Theoretically, what the customer likes and responds to
of design features. Following such a brief, hotel companies designwise should also be that which the hotel operator
 HOTEL DESIGN: THE NEED TO DEVELOP A STRATEGIC APPROACH 21

prefers as it would seem to encourage long-term customer for higher-end hotels to spend time analysing customer
loyalty. But there are many instances where a conflict has behaviour, profile and responses to design in order to
arisen. For example, guests are known to prefer larger formulate clear objectives for the design consultancy.
bedrooms and bathroom sizes which have been increasing
on a domestic level over the past ten years such that most The value of design for budget hotels comes in the
business guests' domestic bathrooms are now twice the development of the room module which is, in many ways,
size of the bathroom "pods" which they find even in the ultimate test of good product design. A well-designed
luxury hotels. Sales of patterned carpet have been room module is worth significant investment from the client
declining over the past ten years yet hotels persist in firm because of its duplication value over time and the
preferring patterned carpets over plain. Yet with the strong brand image it will convey to guests. To create the
exception of "all suite" concept hotels and hotels in the best possible prototype demands clear communication
Far East, bedroom and bathroom sizes have not really kept between client and designer on the specific needs, tastes
pace with guests' expectations, especially in Europe, nor and habits of customers and the desired image of the
have plain carpets replaced patterned on any grand scale. brand. With such clear objectives several prototypes can
The root of the problem is that hotel operators judge then be developed and tested with guests to develop only
design effectiveness primarily on rates of occupancy, the most successful option as the brand standard. For
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possible room rate increases, longevity and low budget hotels, in particular, a well-designed room module
maintenance (patterned carpets last longer than plain and can build in dual or triple function features which will
require less cleaning). Hotel design is rarely judged in benefit the guest but also minimize costs: the design of
terms of success in shifting customer perceptions and Acor's IBIS brand bedroom and bathroom modules is a
customer base, in attracting active choice stay customers good example.
(rather than booked-in no choice guests), stimulating
verbal recommendations, encouraging cross-over function
or conference business or even for its success in directing
guests effectively towards meeting and food and beverage
areas, yet all of these elements can have a direct and long- Commercial property is
lasting relationship with profitability.
looking at enhancing long-
Hotel Design as a Property Sen/he term user benefits
In short, hotel design is judged by hotel operators not as
a contribution to the marketing of the hotel, as "service" Overall, indications are that using design solely to increase
is, but to the financial value of the property; again, much property value for sale may be an outdated concept in an
like sound plumbing. This is taking the "hotel as product" over-supplied and weakened world property market.
concept outside the realm of communicating or influencing Commercial property has already moved away from the
customer behaviour into the realm of the estate agent. focus on the external impact of the building which was
There is little doubt of design's value in this sense, and fostered by the involvement of institutional investors during
the added value which good design contributes to the value the 1980s and is looking at enhancing long-term user
of hotel property is widely acknowledged; however this benefits and appeal at the user level: the interior. As the
perspective again relegates design to the realm of economic climate comes to affect institutional investors
"styling" rather than strategy. in hotels the value of hotel product is also likely to
internalize and to be increasingly focused on building
customer franchise through design for long-term market
share.

It is crucial for higher-end Summary

hotels to spend time analysing This article has highlighted a number of issues arising from
customer behaviour the formative study of hotel design effectiveness and has
put forward reasons for the relative infancy of this field
of study and suggestions as to how growth and
development might be achieved in the next few years.
Obviously, the more highly the hotel is rated by the
classification schemes, the higher the guest expectations The problems of making design an accountable element
and the closer the hotel should come to catering to the in product success, given the stereotypes to which the
customer above all else in design as in "service". In industry is subjected, have been recognized here.
addition, the more highly graded the property the more However, it is proposed that moves towards concentration
will be spent on design and thus it is especially crucial within the design industry, together with increased client
 22 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT 4,1

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Amanda West is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Hotel & Catering Studies at Huddersfield Polytechnic. Elizabeth
Purvis has worked in Business Development for Wolffs Olins USA and as Marketing Strategist for The Richmond Inston
Design Group. She is now a consultant with Purvis and Company, UK.
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