Functional is not a dirty word

While many of my industry colleagues from the Gulf were being given distinctly depressing news regarding much belt tightening at the World Travel Market in London, I myself was in that fair city for a much more celebratory occasion: the European Hotel Design Awards, which took place at the slick Sofitel London Heathrow, at Terminal 5.

Hospitality projects from all over the continent were nominated for projects in each of 17 categories.

The sardonic American TV chef Anthony Bourdain was the MC and did a great job despite the fact that nobody in the back half of the 850-strong audience stopped talking during his keynote speech - I would have loved to hear him ask, "Is my speech interrupting your banter?".

Maybe I've been an expat too long, but isn't that just plain rude? I suppose good manners went out in Europe at the same time as the use of ties with business suits.

Anyway, my interior designer friends from Sweden (see Hotelier Middle East, October 2008) did win a gong in their category and our table was certainly the noisiest in expressing its glee.

This despite the fact that the Citizen M Hotel at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport won no less than four categories - the overall European Hotel Design of the Year award, and others for graphic design, innovation and technology.

Look up the web site and you'll see it's a pretty cool concept, involving off-site construction of the hotel rooms in a factory and extensive use of technology to enhance the guest experience.

And yes, the graphics are very funky, combined with some great copy writing. Here's an extract from the opening web page: "To all who travel the world with wide eyes and big hearts.

To those who are smarter than a dolphin with a university degree and realise you can have luxury for not too much cash. To those who need a good bed, a cold drink and big fluffy towels. To all who are mobile citizens of the world. Citizen M welcomes you all."

And then there's the Credit Crunch Special: "Sleep with us for 69 euro per night". Great stuff.

My wife and I stayed in London at a hotel that shall remain nameless, because to be honest, we were a little underwhelmed. Living in the Gulf, where everything is so darned new, one craves to stay in a historic hotel back in the Old Continent.

We found just such a property in central London, dating back to the 19th Century, complete with period features such as a large winding staircase leading up from the lobby.

The first impression was indeed of a cozy period hotel. But on staying for a few days, it became clear that the property, operated by a well-known international chain, was suffering from a severe identity crisis.

Fairly loud ‘chillout' music filled the Victorian bar area and lobby and, far from chilling us out, began simply to get on our nerves. A beautiful dining room with a lovely moulded plaster ceiling had otherwise been dressed down into the interior design equivalent of a pair of jeans and a tee shirt.

The disinterested attitude of the staff reflected this lack of belonging. F&B orders were slow and in some cases, just never arrived. No doubt they were preoccupied with putting in time before getting their UK citizenship, or returning to their studies.

Way more inspired was the Haymarket Hotel, the latest boutique hotel project of Firmdale Hotels, headed up by owner-operators Tim and Kit Kemp. He deals with the business side of things, while she puts heart and soul into the interior design.

Without doubt it was just such a personal investment - not of money, but of passion - that was missing from the chain-run hotel we stayed at.

Haymarket Hotel is situated in the heart of the theatre district. It's a landmark building designed by the legendary John Nash, the master architect who developed much of Regency London, including Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the adjacent Haymarket Theatre Royal.

With 50 over-sized rooms (by London standards) each with a unique design, a buzzy restaurant and bar in deep crimson shades called Brumus, as well as several exclusive private event rooms (including the Shooting Gallery, with five metre high ceilings), a gym, a beauty treatment room and a stunning basement swimming pool complete with a pair of giant angle-poise lamps and a spectacular lighting installation, the property features a vibrantly colourful ‘contemporary English style' - think Laura Ashley meets Philippe Starck! Seriously, it's a very successful mix of recognisably English elements such as flowery wallpaper, with cool contemporary touches. Definitely worth a visit.

By contrast, I found the famous St. Martins Lane Hotel near Covent Garden a bit of an anti-climax. I had seen so many photos in hotel design books showing those famous stools like golden teeth in the lobby that when I finally saw them in person, it was a case of "big deal".

Presumably the reason nobody was sitting on them was either out of reverent awe at Starck's daring, or because they were so uncomfortable. Perhaps also, it was a case of the ‘shock of the new' quickly turning into ‘old hat'.

In my view, the Haymarket creators did well to be a little less cutting edge and a little more timeless in their design choices.

Today's hip hotel is tomorrow's Afro haircut, and that's a lesson that many of the Gulf's hospitality developers would do well to learn, especially in Dubai where they are such dedicated followers of fashion.

Guy Wilkinson is a director of Viability, a hospitality and property consulting firm in Dubai. For more information, email: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

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