Hotel Designers Prioritize Durable Spaces Over Passing Trends

By Daniel Okafor

Three hospitality design specialists gathered at the Egger Showroom in Clerkenwell during the London Design Festival to ask how a hotel can outlast the moment that shaped its design. Marriott International’s Despina Kalapoda, Goddard Littlefair’s Sarah Williams and textile designer Emma Shipley joined the panel chaired by Hotel Designs editor Sophie Harper.

Their answers differed in detail but converged on one proposition for owners: what endures rarely shouts loudest. Durable work protects a brand’s core promise, anchors a hotel in local culture, permits materials and technology to change without a full reset, and keeps people at the center of the experience.

Brand discipline before novelty

Kalapoda began with consistency. Each Marriott brand rests on fixed principles drawn from the identity of its guest, while leaving room for local character. “These are things that each brand needs to remain true to,” she said. That gives design teams a stable base to refresh instead of an excuse to reinvent every soft finish whenever aesthetics change.

Her sustainability test was similarly concrete. Build a solid base, refresh what can be refreshed, and ask whether an item truly needs replacement. In Barcelona, one hotel was obliged to tile over its bathrooms rather than create waste. Kalapoda called the development-stage approach more efficient than waiting for the next renovation.

The panel offered no project budgets, room counts or savings figures. Its economic logic was sequencing: decide materials and longevity before construction, rather than through repeated renovation, and direct spending toward preserving usable assets. That limits the waste and replacement cycle identified by the speakers, even without a stated cost comparison.

Local identity over trend

Williams moved the argument from brand to place. A narrative rooted in landscape, architecture and local culture does not date, because, as she said, “That’s not based on trend. That is based on the true DNA of the place.” The point gives designers a durable reference when fashion changes around them.

The most demanding brief may be a space that serves coffee by morning and cocktails by night. Williams argued that the answer lies in invention rather than compromise, with people treated as part of the performance. At the Corinthia London, a single display table turns afternoon tea into evening theatre. Her insistence was simple: people have to be involved, not merely accommodated.

Williams also said luxury has yet to fully embrace recyclable materials. She placed responsibility for changing that perception with designers, adding a sourcing and specification problem to the visual brief. For operators, that makes material choices part of the hotel’s operating life, not merely an opening-day image.

Materials and technology guests do not have to see

Shipley offered the human counterpoint. Her hand-drawn, nature-inspired textile collections have sold steadily since 2018. Shipley said people have always found inspiration in nature, argued that this will continue in the digital age, and expected handcrafted work to become more relevant. Textiles, she noted, are the gentlest way to renew a room.

The humble hotel television produced the panel’s sharpest technology test. Kalapoda noted waning enthusiasm for in-room screens. Williams said she resents the television because it dictates where the bed goes, and therefore where the view can sit. A recent treehouse stay, watched over by an Alexa, left her wanting only to escape.

Their conclusion was functional: hidden technology serves the guest, while visible technology can intrude. The discussion identified no replacement system, supplier or payer, so it offers a design principle rather than a procurement recommendation. For hotel operators, the practical test is whether a room can absorb changing technology without surrendering its layout to it.

What does this change for hotel owners?

None of the speakers claimed to know what a hotel room will look like in 50 years. They did agree that longevity depends less on a fixed feature than on how a space makes people feel. The practical guidance for owners and designers is therefore:

• Protect the brand’s nonnegotiable principles while allowing local character to vary.
• Retain durable hard elements and refresh soft finishes where possible.
• Anchor concepts in landscape, architecture and local culture rather than a temporary look.
• Use textile and other material changes to renew rooms with minimal disruption.
• Keep technology subordinate to the guest experience and the room’s sightlines.

These choices favor assets that can be adapted without repeatedly starting over. They also give operators a more disciplined brief for new-build and renovation decisions, although the panel produced no financial metrics for comparison.

For the next renovation cycle, the panel’s standard is clear: preserve the brand and place, renew what can be renewed, hide technology that does not earn its visibility, and judge the result by whether people still feel connected to the space.