Home / ANALYSIS / Hospitality Trends / The devil is in the details

Chrome hotel?s Pulp Bar by Sanjay Puri Architects.
[More Images]

Hotelier India talks to some of the leading architects and interior designers who have worked on hospitality projects in India and abroad, on the challenges involved in creating hotels.

In the dynamic and burgeoning hotel industry in India, design is a crucial factor in making or breaking the image of a hotel.

While the visual appeal of the property plays a big role in branding a hotel, it is the attention to detail encompassing all the different aspects of the hotel that finally create an impression on the guest.

Story continues below

Advertisement

COMMENT Comment on this article

There’s been a global surge in tourism in 2010 and the domestic traveller has definitely made his presence felt.

With so many international and local brands coming on the scene, it is essential that hotels are able to differentiate themselves from the competition, whether they are luxury, mid-market or economy.

Design plays an important role in this scenario with the onus on architects and interior designers to be more creative and develop creations that are sustainable, efficient and aesthetically appealing.

Speaking about the Indian scenario Sanjay Sethi, Managing Director and CEO Berggruen Hotels says, “People are travelling a lot more now, especially on business. Therefore hotels need to be designed in line with global expectations.

In fact, we’ve used mostly local architects and interior designers, and while we have worked with 100% local architects, with our interior designers we’ve got a mix of local and international.”

Local talent v/s international expertise
When asked about the trend of brands hiring international architects and interior designers instead of using the local talent, Sethi adds, “The only reason that some hotels go for international designers is purely on account of their understanding of and exposure to the global scenario, a lot of these firms are large and have offices across western countries and across Asia.

What that does for them is it gives them a talent pool at a global level, and those ideas merge into building an internationally acceptable hotel.
That’s been the logic so far but what’s happening now over the last few years is that a lot of Indian architects have done similar things; they’ve done hotels abroad and have adapted that for hotels in India. Therefore you see them more in the Indian markets.”

Adding to that Architect Khozemat Chitalwala who heads Designers Group, a 23-year-old architecture and interior designing firm, says, “The perception of the client is that the Indian designers do not have exposure to international trends. But I feel it is changing slowly, thanks largely to the fact that the world is becoming a smaller place.”

On the other hand, architect Rahul Kadri of Kadri Consultants Pvt Ltd suggests there is as much amazing talent in India as there is abroad.
“Promoters are looking for that something extra and find an easy answer in using an exotic designer. Sometimes this leads to freshness in the approach. But essentially a good designer is a good designer and could be from anywhere and we have many in India,” he says.