Chapter 4 Hotel accommodation design

Roy C. Wood

Useful slide presentations (online)

  1. The following web link will take you to a set of PowerPoint slides on hotel room design from P. Robinson, M. Lück and S. J. L. Smith (2013) Tourism, Oxford: CABI Books

    www.cabi.org/openresources/39762

Useful videos

There are a number of useful TED talks. Among these, the following offer some useful and interesting insights into design issues.

  1. Paul Bennett finds design in the details

    www.ted.com/talks/paul_bennett_finds_design_in_the_details#t-7269

  2. John Maeda on the simple life

    www.ted.com/talks/john_maeda_on_the_simple_life

Similarly, on YouTube there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of design oriented resources, some little more than extended advertisements, others more engaging and reflective, and emphasising the importance of design issues to the hotel industry. See in particular the following examples.

Hotel room interior design ideas

Hotels come up with unique rooms design (Marriott’s experimental room design)

Interior Design Elements & Principles of Design Tutorial

Further discussion questions

  1. Reading both Chapter 4 and Chapter 13 (on co-creation), what methods might be employed to ensure that the design of hotel guest rooms truly reflects the needs of the customer rather than the owner/designer/hotel company?
  2. Reading both this chapter and Melissen’s comments on hotel sustainability (Chapter 13) what might be done to overcome both the waste of paper and the use of energy expensive technologies employed in informing guests about a hotel’s facilities?
  3. In what ways might the loss of revenues from temporarily closing guest accommodation for refurbishment be offset by other business activities?
  4. What truth is there in the proposition that when it comes to guest room design, less equals more?