Design Execs Urged To Set Trends At HD Leadership Summit

VAIL, CO— Hospitality design executives were encouraged to share ideas and best practices, and push the envelope on hotel design last week at the HD Leadership Summit, held at the Vail Cascades Resort & Spa. With plenty of time for networking and interactive sessions, creativity was in evidence during the three-day event. At the crux of the program were keynotes delivered by experts from other industries who urged hoteliers, designers, and vendors alike to take ownership of the control they have in creating desirable hotel environments. They were advised to take the lead in designing lifestyle hotels, and setting new trends themselves. “Consumers are smarter, more well traveled and getting tired of big brands offering the same flavor. They are looking for lifestyle hotels, for experiences,” said Claus Sendlinger, co-founder and CEO of Design Hotels, a Berlin, Germany-based collection of unique, independent, design-centered hotels. In fact, it was revealed that great design and service can produce a 15% to 20% rate premium within a competitive set, according to research executed by Design Hotels, said Sendlinger. Because good design no longer affords a hotel an automatic competitive edge, Sendlinger urged hoteliers and designers to find a niche within a niche to surprise guests. “There is just not enough experimentation with regard to hospitality design,” said guest speaker Charles Warren of IDEO, a human centered design company. “Even by trying new things before you are sure they will work, you will be different and that is always good,” Warren said. Finding new uses for traditional spaces, playing up technology, and serving up big design concepts on whatever scale— large or small— and in whatever hotel category, were all ways cited by the various keynote speakers at the HD Summit to help pump up a hotel’s design.