Mr. Hill

Architecture & Design

How is Hotel Design Affected by Pop Culture?

By Roger G. Hill , Chief Executive Officer & Chairman, The Gettys Group Inc.

Co-authored by Karrie Drinkhahn, Principal, Gettys

We work in a time when cutting-edge, next-generation creativity and ingenuity must happen at just the right moment — when rapid technological breakthroughs open a spigot of rapid transactions, real-time news and an unprecedented rise in pop, fashion, celebrity and design trends. As design thinkers and thought partners, Gettys’ observation and insights into today’s (and tomorrow’s) pop culture helps our global hotel brand partners sustain both their current and future guests.

Pop culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred through an informal consensus within the mainstream of any given society. In the hospitality design industry, there are several areas where pop culture and its trends affect our work, which we’ll explore in this article. This ranges from personalization (or guests designing their entire experience) to wellthy living (or the desire of living/being well).

Pop culture and technology have one common thread: they are always changing and advancing. At the same time, technology and its developments are increasingly accessible and attainable for consumers. The sustainability is a continuous need and challenge. While it isn’t easy, and often times cumbersome, our environmental responsibility is to find ways to make our designs sustainable at the same time.

Technology Enables Luxury at Your Fingertips

Through increased personalization, hotels use cutting-edge technology to influence customer convenience and the experience. At some properties, guests can design their entire experience, including the level of service, all on reliant technology.

Countless hotels and restaurants use the latest social networking channels to attract clientele, such as geo-located deals, check-in discounts and more. This allows for community creation in a hotel setting.

Taking it a step further, The Trump Hotel Collection uses a mobile offering that allows its SoHo and Chicago properties to leverage tablets and smartphones to speed check-in, check-out, reservation look-ups and room moves. It also allows for updated traveler profiles, preferences and housekeeping room status task sheets along with complete reports such as In-house Guest Report, Due-in Report, and Due-out Report.

The Clarion Hotel Stockholm also enhances the guest experiences through its heightened technology. The property enables guests to use mobile phones and smartphones instead of keys to access their rooms. The phones’ close-range radio chips act much like contactless payment systems at retailers and gas stations, unlocking the door with a wand-like wave. Guests who return during a four-month trial skip check-in, get their phones activated as keys and go straight to their rooms.

Though such technology is expected to take years to be adopted, hotel officials see other advantages, such as improved security since the chips’ codes may be revoked remotely.

The use of such touch technology ranges far afield, including using smartphone apps to facilitate transactions and guest access, as well as scanning barcodes from smartphones at check-out to realize discounts and deals.

Guests may also activate lights, showers and draperies with spoken commands, since voice-activation technology has gotten so sophisticated. From the hotels’ perspective, its managers can track whether the deals are worth offering in terms of return-on-investment, whether investments in such technology will entice customers to return for repeat stays and whether services such as spa treatments, upscale restaurants and other amenities that create awareness also generate additional sales.

Our team and other “road warrior” employees use the latest technologies for both work and play. As active travelers, we carry portable devices ranging from iPods to Nooks to iPads to speed our own conveniences – be it for communicating while on the road or reading the latest industry news. We see first-hand the excitement and energy such cutting-edge technologies can initiate, and potentially how to incorporate them into our latest designs.

Music Changes the Mood

Music has worked its way into the ambiance when arriving at a hotel, bar, restaurant or spa. A hot bar might be pumping the latest Top 40 hits while a hotel with a retro vibe might be playing the Beatles. As people become more accustomed to their own custom-designed tunes on their iPods and mobile devices, the greater the demand is for hotels and restaurants to stay on top of the latest music trends.

In addition, well-designed hotels ensure that guests are surrounded by pleasing sounds, from the lobby to the elevator, and enticing fragrances that give the site an immediate presence, brand and vibe.

Retailers Leverage High-Tech Designs

Indeed, luxury and moderate retailers are adapting similar technologies in design to attract tourists, highlight their aesthetic sophistication and, in many cases, increase their sales and business efficiencies.

Louis Vuitton’s store entrance on Rome’s Via Condotti features a magnificent plasma-screen staircase that uses Technicolor technology to transform the stairs from virtual trailing vines to a signature Louis Vuitton trunk to cascading water. The concept was based on architect Peter Marino’s principles of combining texture, scale, light and materiality to win attention for iconic brands. The staircase has become a tourist draw as well as a differentiating phenomenon for Louis Vuitton – a growing concept for hoteliers as they look for other ways to entice guests to their properties.

The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas resort features in its lobby high-definition video screens that display works of digital art. In addition, each room features state-of-the-art control panels that enable guests to keep their luxurious rooms at exactly the preferred temperature, lighting level and ambiance. This brings a level of personalization, comfort and flexibility to the room for both the guest and the hotel operators.

Technology is making its way into retail dressing rooms, cosmetic counters and sales checkouts, as well. Trials of augmented-reality dressing rooms include one by Topshop, which used Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensor for Xbox to let shoppers “try on” overlays of clothes in front of a specially outfitted mirror without getting undressed. Another example is Lands’ End, which offers shoppers the option of setting up a dimensional-twin avatar on which to try outfits.

When shoppers walk into Macy’s at Water Tower Place on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, they can scroll through an iPad to select a Clinique skin-care program, scan a Quick Response (QR) code on their smartphones to watch online fashion advice, or download the Shopkick app to verify their presence, accrue rewards and scan barcodes on select products. If we put this into hotel terms, it would simplify and ultimately provide the accessibility and attainability the new generation of travelers expect, not to mention the information and simplification it provides for the hotel and its brand in maintaining rewards points and understanding its guests.

Bars and Restaurants Get Creative in Mixing and Re-Matching

Even bars and restaurants are joining the thinking-person’s design regime.

One of the newest bars in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, mamoz (www.mamoz.uk), offers specialty drinks that a mixologist designs amid magnificent views and furnishings inspired by wines. Mixologist Marshall Altier emphasizes fresh ingredients with a modern Asian twist at the bar. The bar’s design showcases soft upholstery, bronze and leather furnishings and a variety of textures and materials, such as walls swathed in damask-patterned leather — all inspired by Barolo wines.

The Bedford, a historic bank in Chicago that welcomes visitors and neighborhood residents to a cozy yet sophisticated kitchen and bar. The design goal was to transform the large space into a living room look by creating smaller, more intimate areas, and to reuse bank memorabilia such as transaction counters and salvaged pieces of stone to show a new generation the elegance and craftsmanship of an historic building.

The famous Apple computer design philosophy is becoming apparent in restaurants as e-menus start to appear. Tabletop touch screens and tablet devices allow diners to order and pay by themselves, leveraging increasingly ubiquitous high-speed wireless systems.

Convenience Rules from Cupcakes to Compositions to Catwalks A myriad of other design details are popping up throughout the hospitality industry, including creative cupcakes, popsicles, pies, macaroons and locally grown and sourced foods and drinks — all designed to appeal to people sensitive to food waste, their own waists and the freshness, healthfulness and environmental soundness of getting foods from nearby sources.

These trends are evidenced by smaller portions of food, cupcakes and other bite-sized desserts replacing full cakes, veggie versions of old-time favorites such as popsicles and molecular cocktails — drinks topped with dry ice.

Even the idea for edible utensils is spreading quickly, too, as the house wares and tableware design industries embrace cutlery that includes twigs, biscuit dough, paper clay formed from shredded paper plates and refashioned disposable aluminum takeout containers.

No End to Pop Culture

Today’s ever-changing pop culture simply means there is nothing simple about it. We do our best to be ahead of the next emerging trend and technology. Knowing what’s happening “now” isn’t enough- it’s all about what’s happening “next.” Our designs – from Hong Kong to Chicago to New York to Miami – are influenced profoundly by pop culture. The excitement and innovative aspect of being on the cutting edge of global pop culture and watching how is varies from country to country is just the icing on the cake, so to speak, for our creative teams around the globe.


This article was co-authored by Karrie Drinkhahn, IIPA, LEED AP. A decade-long GETTYS veteran and Principal of GETTYS' Miami office, Ms. Drinkhahn has built her career by seamlessly combining a fresh design point of view with a deep understanding of design and architecture process.from conception to completion. Acting as the head of the Miami office, Ms. Drinkhahn is among a small handful of "cultural cornerstones" of the GETTYS family... a constant proponent of our global vision, hospitality expertise and our consistent eye towards ROI. Since opening the Miami office, Karrie has developed a strong expertise in both the residential and hospitality marketplace in the Caribbean. Working with hospitality's most respected brands, among them: the Fairmont, Marriott, Ritz Carlton, Radisson and Hilton, has contributed to her breadth of knowledge of our industry. Such notable projects include The Fairmont, New Orleans, the Hilton Grand Vacation Club in Waikoloa Beach, Hawaii; and the Quail Lodge Resort & Golf Club in Carmel, California. Prior to joining Gettys, Karrie was employed by a high-end residential firm where she worked on international projects. Ms. Drinkhahn holds a Bachelor's of Arts in Interior Design from Michigan State University and is a licensed Interior Designer with the State of Florida.

Nearly 25 years ago, Roger Hill co-founded Gettys, a Top 10 hospitality interior design, procurement and development firm. Under his leadership, Gettys has grown to a global team of business-minded professionals who specialize in hotels, resorts, spas, casinos and mixed-used developments the world over. A respected industry veteran, he is frequently called upon by hospitality and business media outlets to provide insight into the redevelopment, renovation, and repositioning of hotels. A graduate of Cornell University, Roger has served as an appointed delegate for the White House Conference on Small Business, and is a member of ULI, YPO and ISHC. Mr. Hill can be contacted at 312-836-1111 or info@gettys.com Extended Bio...

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