Understanding Design Trends

Design Trend Review 2023: Keeping your Resort Relevant

Margit Whitlock May 2, 20232 years

I’m going to let you in on a secret. Every trend in the design world coincides with larger movements in greater society and their shifts in values. From material and color palettes to furniture arrangements, EVERY design trend can be traced back to a macrotrend. Getting a grip on macrotrends and understanding how your brand aligns with them can lead to successful design choices for your resort, ensuring it remains relevant to today’s traveler. Let’s dig into a few of the macrotrends currently driving hospitality and resort design.

Work From Home is Here to Stay

The employees have voted and the ballots are in! After the great social experiment of working from home, the benefits have been noted. Waves of companies are continuing to offer employees the opportunity to work from home or use a hybrid model. With the change in what it means to “go to work” we have seen the rise of “Bleisure” travelers. Yes that is a NEW word to add to your vocabulary.

Bleisure travelers combine business and leisure, either by extending work trips to explore locations they have been sent for work or choosing to work from a desirable destination. We predicted this would be the case a year ago in our Resorts Trade publication The BEST Place to WORK.

As a result, hospitality design has forgone the business center and instead, is integrating technology throughout rooms and lobby spaces. In some cases, lobby design has taken note from the coworking industry with private and social zones. Now the guest unit layout is taking a nod from home work environments, creating zoning to accommodate the working vacationer with functional multi-purpose space.

Sustainability is Key as we Get Back to Nature

Consumers have become far more conscientious about their impact on the environment and expect the resorts they call home when traveling to do the same. Therefore, we are seeing features, once cutting edge, become the standard such as energy and water saving technologies. Designers are selecting finish materials with an awareness of the product’s life cycle, opting for natural and recycled or recyclable choices.

More, Biophilic design, which aims to use architecture and design to better connect us with nature because of our biologically driven need to do so, is on the rise. As a result, we are seeing the outdoors come inside, with the integration of live plants in large applications, organic shapes in structures, and materials and colors found in nature. There has been a move away from the long popular gray as a color trend toward warmer, lighter wood tones as one finds in nature.

Ecotourism and Edu-travel is also growing. Defined as responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people and pays special attention to the education of guests. Travelers want to experience their destination in a more intentional way, with awareness of the local culture and natural environment. This means, your resort’s amenities are more than what is on your property and anything you can do to connect guests with what is unique to your location is a win.

Wholistic Wellness

The use of earthy tones with neutral and soothing colors is a result of both a move toward nature and a more wholistic view of wellness. As we come to understand more about the importance of mental health, consumers are looking for places to stay that help reduce stress and promote calm. Comfort is an increasing design requirement. As a result, we see more curvature in designs, more rounded comfy furniture, and softer fabrics. Visual interest is achieved with varied textures, shapes while layering materials and colors. As a side note: Pastels are back!!

Wellness is no longer achieved with just an elliptical machine and weights at your resort. The gym is still important, but “Luxury” and “Wellness” have become synonymous. Increasing accessibility to the spa experience has not only impacted color schemes, but it is also changing the amenities game. In-room massage and spa treatments are highly desirable and so are in-room yoga and meditation. We saw this trend gearing up last year.

Global Views and Localism

Along with the interest in localism as a tenant of sustainability, consumers are becoming more aware of varied cultural identities and are looking to experience and celebrate them. Travelers want to be immersed in the local culture, experiencing it through cuisine and décor, and embracing the history and character of their location through shared experiences with locals.

Your resort’s Food and Beverage offerings is the best place to express your local identity. Create a environment that speaks to the local culture as well, design that is desirable for both residents of and visitors to the city. Tap your brand into the roots of the local soil for that ultimate guest experience!

Margit E. Whitlock is Principal and Creative Director for Architecture and Interior Design at Architectural Concepts Inc., a San Diego, CA based Architectural and Interior Design Firm specializing in hospitality design. She is an accomplished speaker and frequently published in magazines such as Developments, Resort Trades, Hotel Business, Hiatus, Vacation Industry Review and Resort Management and Operations. You can reach Margit here: Margit@4designs.com / www.4designs.com

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