Part of managing a brand identity is managing the guest perception and design plays a large part in this. As Olga Polizzi of the Rocco Forte Collection of luxury hotels has observed, “design may only be 15% of the cost but it can leverage 70% of the income”. As groups move away from owning their properties to become brand managers and Franchisors the importance of their process for managing design becomes ever more important. As we have seen in the acquisition of the Regent in Berlin the move from one brand to another is not an easy transition. Equally it is difficult for a brand such as InterContinental to maintain the brand standards across hotels in as diverse locations as the InterContinental Park Lane or the InterContinental Berchtesgaden, a previous Review (see Berchtesgaden)

However the essence of any successful brand is that wherever you are in the world the appearance of the brand is recognisably of that brand. Thus a Coke bottle in China is the same as that in the USA. Here InterContinental have managed to get the feel of the two hotels similar. They are not alike but there is a family likeness in their style, quite a well managed and difficult trick in different countries with different designers, and a tribute to the design management skills of Simon Ford, InterContinental’s Head of Architecture and Interiors.

Despite this similarity of feel, the 60 suites are markedly different to the 275 bedrooms. Treatment of the bedrooms is described by the hotel as 'classic with a modern twist' and as 'reflecting the colours used in a stately home'. Presumably this is the hotel reading of what is wanted by overseas visitors, but it does result in very conservative, even slightly old-fashioned rooms, in stark constrast with the suites which are modern and stylish and yet more classical than the standard bedrooms.

The style of the furniture in the standard bedrooms is traditional, with a heavy mahogany stain as standard.In this respect the rooms are disappointing and do not compare with, say, the InterContinental Berchtesgaden. 'Classical' and 'traditional' can also mean old fashioned. Fortunately here this is not something that is apparent in either the technology in the rooms (flat screen TV's for example) or in the bathrooms.

Meanwhile the suites have a proper sense of the dramatic. Classical yes, but strongly contemporary with their imaginative use of veneers and the best bathrooms I have seen in any London hotel, certainly putting to shame the feeble efforts to create a high standard at a newly refurbished rival hotel up the road.

"[the suites are]strongly contemporary with their imaginative use of veneers and the best bathrooms I have seen in any London hotel"

The bathrooms in both the standard rooms and the suites are strong in their use of materials and provide the latest in bathroom technology, from walkthrough showers with rainheads and body jets (why doesn't every five star hotel offer both of these?)to the imaginative use of marble, stone and composite materials.