By Jacqui Barrineau | March 13, 2026
From the Hotel Interactive Newsroom
In 10, 15 years, how would you describe your ideal hotel stay? What features will you expect while traveling for work? There’s no crystal ball for the future of hotel development, so executives today are hard at work trying to determine who tomorrow’s guests will be. And it’s how tomorrow’s guests live and work while on the road that will shape decisions about design, branding and the bottom line.
At the recent BITAC Luxury 2026, moderator Cody Adent of Vibrant drew out candid insights from executives Purvi Panwala and Russ Urban. They exchanged notes on missteps with designers, the pull of experiential stays over flashy finishes, the rise of work-from-anywhere and wellness-minded travelers, and the discipline it takes to keep lenders confident while still pushing projects forward.
Adent opened the conversation by asking, “What’s the one design decision you’ve regretted in a past project? And what would you do differently?”
Panwala, whose Panwala Property Management Corporation specializes in boutique hotels and FF&E manufacturing, recalled a project where the designer’s vision didn’t align with her team’s, extending the timeline and affecting the budget.
“My biggest regret was maybe not vetting that out a little bit more thoroughly,” she said. “[Not] going with the person we usually design with, so we knew what the outcome would be.”
Urban, CEO of Electra America Hospitality Group, expanded on that point, recalling a mistake of failing to study the demand base before making design decisions for several assets. When a design didn’t resonate with the customer, Urban and his team had to back up and make adjustments.
“The most important thing is to understand who your customer is going to be and use that to help drive design decisions,” he said.
Experiential vs. Physical Environment
Looking 10 years into the future, Adent asked the executives for their forecasts: What design trends will define tomorrow’s luxury properties?
It was a question on many minds at BITAC Luxury 2026, where panelists repeatedly returned to how travel expectations have continued to evolve since COVID-19. As tourism continues to shift from post-pandemic travel patterns, future luxury travelers will be seeking guest experiences that are more focused on the experiential rather than physical environment. Urban pointed to his own recent “glamping” experience with his wife near Mount Rushmore. The tent itself was “a very, very simple physical environment,” he said, but “the overall experience that they gave us was a luxury experience.” For him, that contrast captures where luxury is headed: fewer expensive finishes, more immersive experiences.
Reworking Space for the New Workday
Away from the top-tier experiences lies the more routine reality of remote work. If experiential luxury is about how a stay feels, the work-from-anywhere trend is forcing hotels to rethink how their spaces actually function for guests logging on from the road.
Panwala pointed out that the work-from-anywhere trend is already reshaping hotel design and will continue to do so in a big way. Many remote workers already look for alternative “office” environments; Panwala said she sees an opportunity for hotels to become that destination.
She suggests creating shared spaces that are more thoughtfully designed for productivity than the usual open coworking areas, which can be loud and distracting.
“You also have to be cognizant of the space that you’re using,” she said. “So maybe create mini boardroom nooks in your lobby so that [guests] can have those meetings.” For the solo worker who needs more privacy for virtual meetings than a bustling lobby can offer, she suggests designing a modern phone booth.
Of course, Panwala’s vision for work-from-anywhere designs extends to the guestrooms.
“In your room, you need more outlets,” she said. “You need the best internet.”
A few small, practical touches can make remote work easy, she said, and they can make the room look good on camera. She suggested options like monitor rentals and spaces designed to look polished on camera, with features such as a styled bookshelf or another attractive backdrop for on-camera calls. Details like that, she said, could draw remote workers to a property instead of a coworking space or home.
Wellness Moves into the Guestroom
Panwala said she would like to see luxury properties think more broadly about in-room and on-site wellness. In her view, that could include features such as mirrors with embedded personal training programs, along with simple equipment such as mats and stretch bands. She also sees the potential for partnerships with nearby providers but also emphasized that wellness does not have to center only on physical exercise.
“ ‘Wellness’ doesn’t always have to be fitness,” she said. “Sometimes people want a quiet space — maybe a meditation space. Maybe you can designate one of your guest rooms as a soundproof meditation space.”
With enough creativity, she suggested, hotels can turn existing space into something more intentional and distinctive for guests.
Urban built on Panwala’s point by describing how his company has leaned into the overlap between business and leisure travel, particularly in all-suite and extended-stay hotels. He said the strategy gained traction in 2022 and has continued since, helping properties attract business travelers who extend trips and bring a partner along, especially during traditionally slower periods such as Sunday nights.
When it comes to wellness-centered amenities, Urban said his team has taken an outsourced approach, partnering with outside operators to shape the properties’ offerings. At one Miami property, for example, he said the hotel brought in a pickleball operator to activate outdoor space originally built for tennis, while still keeping the area flexible for events. He added that creating options that appeal to guests’ broader interest in wellness and athletic activity is “really important.”
Leveraging Local Authenticity
From there, the discussion shifted to what happens outside the hotel’s walls. Urban argued that properties courting luxury travelers should start with local partners rather than defaulting to familiar global brands. When it comes to coffee, craft beer and similar touchpoints, he said he is “a real believer” in using local vendors, even if costs run higher than a standard program with a national chain. Guests notice the difference, he said, and are willing to pay more for an experience that “really appeals” to them and reflects the neighborhood.
Panwala offered examples from her own portfolio, where local relationships are part of the concept. At a music-focused lifestyle hotel in Brooklyn, her team works with nearby institutions such as Barclays Center and Scratch DJ Academy to bring performances and DJ classes onto the property. Partnerships like that, she said, let guests feel plugged into the surrounding scene “without even leaving the property,” while also building ties with the community that can support the hotel through events and referrals.
That mindset is not limited to entertainment markets. Adent cited properties in Utah and Memphis that have leaned heavily on local restaurant, coffee and sports partners to create reasons for guests—and residents—to keep coming back. In his view, those examples show how hotels can use neighborhood collaborations to reduce reliance on transient demand alone and position the property as a regular stop for locals hosting friends and family.
Blurring Residential and Hotel Lines
Another theme was mixed-use concepts and how residential-style product can change the economics of a project. For one of her developments, Panwala said her team chose to add a residential component specifically to improve profitability. Extended-stay units, she noted, can provide steady, higher-margin revenue compared with a purely transient model, especially when the property can flex between long- and short-stay guests as demand shifts.
Designing for that mix requires flexibility. Panwala cited features such as sliding or movable walls, layouts that bring in natural light, and well-considered outdoor areas as ways to keep units comfortable for longer stays while still working for shorter visits. “If you’re there for a long time, you don’t want to feel like you’re kind of stuck in a little room,” she said, stressing the need for space that can adapt to different types of guests and lengths of stay.
Capital, Brands and the Story Behind the Design
As capital sources grow more selective, both speakers said design now has to carry more weight in conversations with lenders and equity partners. For Panwala, that starts with a clear visual story. Especially for boutique or independent projects, she said, high-quality renderings can help potential partners understand the narrative as well as “how beautiful it’s going to look” and what the guest will actually experience. That level of detail, she said, builds trust and makes it easier to secure funding.
Urban connected that point to the rising role of soft brands. He said large hotel companies have “glommed on” to the demand for boutique-style properties by creating soft-brand collections that offer more individuality while still sitting on a major distribution system. His firm is in the process of converting several hotels into soft brands, in part because, in his conversations, “lenders are all over this.” According to Urban, many capital providers want the differentiation of a more independent feel plus the perceived backup of a big-brand reservation network.
Budgets, Timelines and the Risk of Basis Creep
When Adent asked how owners can control costs without sacrificing guest experience, Urban brought the answer back to process. Projects, he said, should start with a realistic budget and stick to it rather than chasing new design ideas midstream. Adding features late in the game, he said, can create “basis creep” that is hard to recoup, especially if those changes are driven by personal taste instead of projected returns.
Both Urban and Panwala stressed that keeping scope in check is easier when the full team is involved from the outset. Urban said developers should have the architect, designer, operator, contractor and brand representative at the table “day one” so that design decisions are tested against operating realities and construction costs early, instead of being value-engineered under pressure just before groundbreaking.
On the procurement side, Panwala urged owners to verify lead times and material choices line by line, matching FF&E quality to the holding strategy and holding vendors to the delivery dates they first commit to.
Designing Ahead of the Next Guest
Looking beyond current projects, Urban said his biggest concern is that the industry tends to respond to guest behavior only after it is obvious.
“I do fear that the hospitality industry as a whole has not been as forward thinking as other industries,” he said, describing hotels as “more reactionary.”
As one example, he pointed to the slow shift toward pet-friendly policies: a niche offering a decade ago that has now become common across price points. In his view, similar patterns are emerging around families, wellness and other lifestyle preferences that will define the next wave of demand.
Panwala said she is less afraid than energized by what comes next—whether that means new markets such as Miami, new concepts or new ways to use existing space. For both executives, the message to the BITAC audience was that decisions made today on local partnerships, product mix, brand strategy and capital discipline will shape how well their hotels meet the expectations of tomorrow’s travelers.
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Jacqui Barrineau is editor at Hotel Interactive, an online trade publication featuring event recaps and curated news stories on developments, trends and thought leaders in the hospitality industry.
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