Hoosta Magazine

Olga Polizzi, owner of Hotel Tresanton in Cornwall and Hotel Endsleigh in Devon
Rooms are going to get bigger, according to hotel owner and designer Polizzi. Ten years ago most rooms were 35sq m, but this has increased to 45-50sq m. Polizzi believes people want bigger rooms as the size of homes is getting smaller: “It’s so expensive to buy a large home, especially in London, so when people stay at a hotel they want space. Space is a real luxury. Bathrooms are getting bigger and bigger. Separate showers as well as baths are becoming standard.”

Kit Kemp, co-owner of Firmdale Hotels
High-quality fabrics and original pieces of modern art will mark out the best hotels from those that won’t stand the test of time, says Kemp, who runs seven London hotels. Kemp commissions pieces from up-and-coming artists, as well as her own carpets, fabrics and wallpaper. “It’s got to that level now,” she says. Kemp believes that discerning guests are turning away from places with “cheap furniture made in the Far East”. Her quality test for fabrics is: “Never use a material that you wouldn’t want to sit on in the nude. It mustn’t be too prickly.”

Ken McCulloch, owner of Dakota hotels and the Columbus in Monaco
Stylish design will soon be standard at all top hotels, no matter what the price range, says McCulloch, the founder of the ground-breaking Malmaison chain of chic UK four-star hotels. He recently launched Dakota hotels, a hip chain that prizes itself on offering rooms for less than £100. He says: “Great design should be a given.” But he believes that the hotel industry has been cynical as many owners have introduced “design as a kind of quick fix”. These hotels are “hopeless” without a culture of good service and good food.

Anouska Hempel, hotelier and owner of Anouska Hempel Design
Bigger rooms divided by screens will replace the traditional bedroom and bathroom formula, says Hempel, who is partly redesigning her Blakes hotel in London. “Spaces have opened up amazingly for me,” she says. “The young are travelling much more and they need the space to move around in a very different way but they need to be able to close bits off with screens too…everything will connect and be fluid.”

Via The Times
March 29, 2008