Yet one leading car manufacturer brochures its design capabilities with the comment “If the product is not functional, it can’t be beautiful” and so it is with hotel interiors. Designers work with manufacturers to produce many bespoke products to match their individual vision of the future. It is important that manufacturers too look at where future trends are leading when investing in the production of standard ranges, whether Wallcoverings, furniture, carpets, lighting or fabrics.

Individual hotels have in recent years followed a fashion agenda, whilst others have recognised that fashion is short lived and that keeping up with fashion needs constant investment. In turn this drives the need for higher rates of return from the initial investment. In fashionable city centre environments this is possible, but for the bulk of commercial hotels their location and clientele make this difficult to achieve with acceptable room rates.

Commercial design is not design without style, but it does perhaps pay more attention to function both in terms of the interior working for guest satisfaction and with the interior enhancing the return for the operator, possibly more than design purists like. As the car manufacturer realises form must follow function so in an hotel interior that function is clear, isn’t it? There is the nub of the issue, for no, the function is not clear to many.