Meeting the needs of sustainability, economics, and luxury in the specification of hotel interiors

Authors : Jadallah, Ruba​

Abstract : The hospitality industry and specifically luxury five-star hotels have started to adopt a more active approach to sustainability and applying it within their construction and operational practices utilising LED lighting, recycling water, and reducing the washing of towels, thus saving hotel owners money and reducing impact on the environment. In addition, there is a need for ‘green’ hotel buildings to provide both guest and employees with a healthy and comfortable indoor environment. However, there is the potential for contradiction here in terms of sustainability and luxury in the context of the indoor environments for five-star hotels in terms of materials and finishes, that is the need to preserve resources could have a negative impact on the superiority and luxury ‘wow’ factor of the five-star hotel experience. In this paper, the researcher explores these important concerns and limitations regarding the hotel industry and its move to become more sustainable. In particular, this paper considers an approach whereby interior designers can address and balance both the need to select material finishes which create five-star luxury and which reduce environmental impact. This paper is based on a comprehensive literature review conducted to identify these conflicts in addressing ‘green’ indoor and luxury hotel environments. As such, this paper proposes an approach to analysing materials and finishes that can contribute to ‘green’ hotel, indoor environments while maintaining luxury. The paper addresses the needs of hotel owners, designers, suppliers and the environmental assessors BREEAM, proposing a guide to assist hotel owners/developers produce cost effective, safe, healthy and comfortable environments. In addition, it will help designers in selecting luxury sustainable material finishes for hotel buildings. The hotel industry needs more research on sustainability. Studies such as this will provide interior designers with an informed process on specifying for sustainability and luxury in the context of the design challenges they face in the hospitality field.

Keywords : Interior design, Sustainability, Sustainable Interior design, Materials, Sustainable material finishes.

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