At Innvision’s recent Annual Meeting, we had the privilege of hosting hospitality design executive Nigel Hatcher. After 25 years with Marriott, he retired in 2024 as their VP of Design, Luxury & Lifestyle Brands. Hatcher’s wealth of experience in designing hotels, royal palaces, and celebrity homes (in the UK while with Harrod’s) made for an enlightening and entertaining Q&A session. We are excited to share nuggets from this conversation below.

On the Importance of Art and Accessories in Hotel Design

NH: Art and accessories are the most underrated elements of a design project and unfortunately, get left to the end more times than not. When a hotel owner runs out of money within the budget, we don't get the art and accessories. I can't stress enough that the higher up in the brand range you go, the more important they are. Executives should consider hospitality art and accessories as part of the design, not an afterthought.

It's not like, ‘Well, we've got a wall here, now let's put some art on it.’ A better approach is to ask, ‘What's the art we want to display?’ By answering that question, we can then determine what we're going to put around it. The art we want to feature becomes the center of the design.

For example, when we were doing the Ceres in New York, the art program was presented at the schematic phase. We budgeted $800,000 for the artwork very early on because that was the driving force of the design.

On Creating Authentic, Localized Experiences

NH: You've got to find items from the neighborhood that speak to where that hotel is located to get the accessories right. This is an area of focus that's often undervalued by hotel ownership, in particular. Just as with the artwork, hospitality designers should put a budget for it up front to make sure it's included.

I would rather shift money from somewhere else to put back into art and accessorizing. While it’s early, we can find ways to save. But if left to the last minute, there's nothing more in the budget—and you can't go back and make those changes to find money for art and accessories that will be memorable.

On Value Engineering and Budget Prioritization

NH: I can give you a good example of a project years ago at the Renaissance in Chicago. We had a model room, but didn't have enough budget to fully design the room, including the art.

I looked around the room—it was beautiful. We had stayed in one of the old rooms the night before, and then the new room. The vinyl on the wall of the new room looked pretty much the same as the old one—it was beige.

I asked how much the vinyl would cost for all the rooms in this large hotel, and they said about $1 million for supply and install. The vanity in the bathroom was also troubling me—it was the old vanity. I asked how much a new marble top would cost for the vanity, and they said about $250,000.

I said, 'Skip the new vinyl, and will you make sure I get the marble?' The [hotel] owner immediately agreed, and from that day on, he gained confidence that I was looking after his money.

Likewise, I would rather change a sofa fabric to a different[lower] cost fabric that would allow me to get a magnificent art piece for the center of the lobby. Or we could choose engineered stone for the floor instead of real stone to get budget back for other elements.

That's where we, as a team—all the brand teams—can play a big part in the value engineering process. Sometimes money is spent where guests don't see it. We, as designers, get hung up on details, but guests come in and don't even know what color the carpet is. Ask a regular guest what the pattern of the carpet is when they leave—they have no idea.

On Creating Memorable Guest Experiences

Throughout our conversation, Hatcher emphasized the importance of focusing on elements that create memorable experiences for guests. His expertise in balancing aesthetic considerations with practical budget constraints provided valuable and practical insights for our team.

ID Studio, with its roster of experienced hospitality designers, understands that successful hotel design requires careful planning, strategic budgeting, and attention to the elements that truly impact the guest experience. We're grateful to Nigel Hatcher for sharing his wisdom gained from decades of design experience.

Contact us to begin a conversation about how ID Studio can create the highest impact within the available budget on your next project.

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