Hospitality Design

Hospitality design includes such projects as hotels, resorts, restaurants, country or golf clubs, athletic and city clubs, as well as casinos and cruise ships. For an interior designer in this specialty, it is important to understand the client's business, including operational procedures, image and use requirements as well as budget and financial constraints. Our design solutions have to be responsive to goals, budgets and aesthetic objectives established by the owner so they are market-driven designs. The facilities we design are destinations for the end user, so we design for two sets of clients-our client as well as his customer.

It's important to work with the client from his or her perspective. Hospitality clients are very concerned with cost. To understand why, you must be knowledgeable about their debt service, what they spend on project, time frame for payback and exit strategy, projected profit and cost of doing business. Their funding must cover all costs, including fees. To be successful, the designer must understand why working within the budgeted amount is so important. Every dollar put into the project has to support the owner's ultimate financial goals and satisfy debt service. Owners respond well to designers who can assure them that their design solution will give them the edge in meeting or exceeding their financial goals for the property.

Optimizing the budget and offering options is a major concern of clients. In hospitality design there's enormous wear and tear on the interiors, especially seating, flooring and fabrics. By presenting options and pointing out differences in quality, what the overall cost will mean to the budget, and where dollars can be saved on something else, we relate design and cost to longevity. Business people understand that. Without this knowledge, our decisions will not be valid and will often be rejected.

Today people are eating out more than ever, so we find restaurants becoming a destination or a part of something happening-eating is only part of the overall experience. Design, along with food and service, creates a reason for the diner to return.

In summary, hospitality designers must provide design that will produce greater customer satisfaction and improve the client's bottom line. Hospitality designers sell the value of the investment in the design and the return on the investment by relating recommendations to the client's desired image or targeted audience, keeping within the budgeted amount and still maximizing quality and longevity of design and products. The client will see the return on his or her investment when the end user finds it appealing and spends dollars, and he or she doesn't have to redo the design too soon or often.