Worldwide Trends

Here are a few interesting tidbits I gathered especially for you from what’s hot in the hospitality business right now.

Enjoy!

1. Connectivity

Remember when our overnight bag was filled with zip lock bags holding cosmetics? Well, you must admit that today these same bags in your case hold cables, charges, spare batteries and several other gizmos and gadgets for all the electronic devices we carry everywhere: smartphone, tablet, laptop, music player… the list goes on and on.

In light of the “gadget” era we live in, planners of hotel and guest rooms must take into account the growing need of guests to stay connected anywhere and anytime. It has become crucial to supply rooms with enough wall sockets (if possible combined with USB) to load and use different devices in the room. It goes without saying that free wi-fi is now something to be taken for granted- like hot water in the shower. Deny guests these services that today they feel they cannot live without – and they will not be coming back.

2. Design Trend – return to crafts

In popular design today we see many times a return to traditional crafts. This could be a reaction to the computerized and industrial world in which we live. Designers and artists are returning to traditional crafts that emphasize the human aspect of production, the effort involved in creating an object and the uniqueness of a hand crafted object.

This trend is what the exhibit “Gathering”, currently showing in the Holon Design Museum, is all about. Visiting this exhibit I was especially impressed with the unique light fixtures. These are not only museum pieces – I could see them hanging in the lobby of a designed boutique hotel….

photography: Itai Benit

3. Branding – the deconstruction of the traditional logo

Until recently, hotel logos had a known, even format. They were all a kind of pyramid with graphic hotel icon on top, hotel name below it and location at the bottom.
An example of this widespread design:

This type of traditional logo is still relevant for hotels with a distinguished, luxurious image and respect for tradition.
Today, new or renewed hotels that want to appeal to younger less traditional customers are trying to create an image of a hotel that thinks “outside the box”. These hotels are also allowing themselves to make changes in the traditional hotel logo format. We are seeing examples of logos that relay all the necessary information about the hotel, but in a fresh, unconventional way. You can see one example of this below: