Send a summary and link to this article To Email Your Name Your Email Bot Test To pass the Bot Test, please type the white text that you see in the gray box. This helps us prevent spammers from abusing the system.

Printable Version

Branding by Design These days a hotel must have a strong connection to the guest through design. Here’s why. Friday, July 27, 2012 Glenn Haussman

bookmark this We are on Twitter @hotelinteractiv

Related Companies BITAC™

It’s all about the experience.

I know, I know, you say you’ve heard it before. But are you listening? While many hoteliers talk the talk, the big question is are you executing on this critical operating tenant.

Well you better. The consumer mindset has irrevocably shifted and those hoteliers stuck in 20th century thought are missing out on the ability to better connect with today’s customer. They’re missing out on the ability to charge more and may also be missing out on creating loyal guests.

At this year’s sold-out BITAC Purchasing & Design East, which was held this week at the Westin Diplomat here in Hollywood, FLA, buyers and suppliers engaged in conversations regarding the critical aspect of connecting better with the customer.

One way the hotel industry has shifted design is by rethinking how to look at customers. That is, it’s time to forget about focusing on demographics. And instead look at how people perceive themselves then create products that appeal to an individual’s thought process rather than an external trait like age.

“Demographics are very yesteryear, so we are looking at psychographics, which is a very different dynamic because most of us are aging. Many of us are in our 50s, 60s but we are most definitely not the same 50 year olds as our grandparents were,” said Chris Tompkins, SVP - Marketing and Brand Programs with B Hotels & Resorts.

At the B Ocean in Ft. Lauderdale the hotel was designed to have what Tompkins calls approachability.

He said the brand was created on the foundation of delivering experiences and to do that a hotel must be a reflection of its location. That means the tangible touchables will be different from location to location but they must all evoke a similar feeling for guests. B Hotels is opening a South Beach location early next year and has hotels planned at Walt Disney World and downtown Miami.

“We all want an approachable experience. It is about creating warm, inviting and approachable environments,” said Tompkins.

That’s the approach Carlson-Rezidor now takes and it can be seen in its Radisson Blu product, for example. In 2010, Carlson created Ambition 2015 to better define all of its brands that would give designers a clear understanding of each brand’s language. For Radisson, the language is vibrant, contemporary and engaging.

But the real action at Carlson-Rezidor is happening in the midmarket with its Country Inn and Suites brand. That brand’s ethos is ‘caring, consistent and comfortable with a touch of home’. But to keep in line with that ideal the brand is in the midst of getting a reinvention with a generation 4 prototype set to debut by year’s end.

Country is branded to ‘mom’ and she wants something that reflects her desires and personalities.

“The brand has evolved,” said Colleen Nelson, Director of Interior Design Technical Services with Carlson-Rezidor. “The brand is developing a new prototype because we realized the change in the profile of our customers. They age, they move on and you have to bring in new customers.

“We realize Country was born in USA but now has global reach in places like India and China. So we have to move on with a new generation and extend it further and there has to be something that resonates to today’s Country consumer,” Nelson added.

Designers have become unshackled during the last decade, ridding the world of the artistically confining beige box and the floodgates of design possibility opened. Now it’s about expressing a lot of different design personalities that appeal to niched groups rather than a one size fits none approach.

Take Gettys for example. The company has reinvented itself to help hoteliers from the start rather than coming into the middle of the design process.

“We are reenergizing our approach to design to partner with brands from ideation and being on board from inception means we can be more effective and efficient,” said Paula Azevedo, Design Director with Gettys. “These days it’s important to pay attention to what people want to be today but also where they are moving in the future.”

“I think for me it comes down to walking into a hotel and saying I wish my house looked like this. Then they are doing something right about speaking to you and your lifestyle. That is when [the hospitality industry] is at our best,” said Jesse Kalisher, of Kalisher, a photographer whose work is displayed in the permanent collection at the Louvre and the Smithsonian.