Designing the future of hospitality
As India’s hospitality sector expands rapidly across business, leisure and mixed-use developments, the conversation around hotel design is undergoing a fundamental shift. The industry is moving away from spectacle-driven luxury towards spaces that are operationally intelligent, climate-responsive and deeply rooted in guest wellbeing.In an exclusive interaction with BW HOTELIER, Salil Khare, Chief Projects Officer, Chalet Hotels Limited, discusses how hospitality projects are being reimagined through the lens of sustainability, contextual design, operational resilience and long-term efficiency and why the future hotel will be judged not only by how it looks, but by how intelligently it performs.
Hospitality design in India is clearly evolving. What has fundamentally changed in how projects are being conceptualised today compared to a few years ago?
Hospitality design today is moving away from spectacle-led luxury towards far more experience-led and operationally intelligent environments. Earlier, projects were often centred around creating visually grand, highly ornamental spaces designed to impress. Today, the focus is increasingly on “quiet luxury” spaces that prioritise comfort, emotional connection, wellness, and a strong sense of place.
Design has become significantly more human-centric, with greater emphasis on natural materials, local craftsmanship, and contextual architecture. Materials such as stone, terracotta, and bamboo are being used not just for aesthetics, but because they create warmth, age gracefully, and help establish authenticity. Wellness is also no longer limited to add-on amenities like spas; it is now embedded into the architecture itself through natural light, ventilation, greenery, and calming spatial design.
There is also a stronger focus on flexibility and functionality. Spaces like lobbies are now expected to support multiple experiences like work, leisure, social interaction, and community engagement. At the same time, technology is being integrated more seamlessly to enable frictionless and personalised guest experiences.
Most importantly, sustainability has moved from being an optional consideration to a core planning principle, influencing decisions around materials, energy efficiency, water management, and climate responsiveness right from the concept stage. Overall, hospitality projects today are being conceived as holistic, adaptable, and commercially sustainable environments rather than just visually impressive assets.
There’s a strong focus on sustainability in design today. Where do you think the industry is still falling short in translating intent into measurable outcomes?
While sustainability has become central to hospitality design conversations, the industry still faces a significant gap between intent and measurable operational outcomes. One of the biggest gaps is the lack of robust performance tracking and real-time operational data systems, which makes it difficult to accurately measure long-term impact across energy, water, and resource efficiency.
There is also sometimes an overemphasis on visible “green” features, while deeper issues such as embodied carbon in materials like concrete and steel receive relatively less attention. In some cases, projects rely on imported sustainable materials, which can inadvertently increase the overall carbon footprint through procurement and transportation.
Another major challenge is the disconnect between design intent and operational reality. Sustainability cannot succeed only at the concept stage; it has to continue through procurement, commissioning, and day-to-day asset management. Even well-designed systems can underperform through excessive water usage, overcooling, or inefficient operational practices Additionally, short-term ROI pressures can sometimes lead to value engineering decisions where long-term sustainability investments are deprioritised. The industry now needs to move towards more lifecycle-based thinking, where sustainability is evaluated not just at the construction stage, but across the full operational life of the asset.
At what stage in a hotel development lifecycle do sustainability decisions have the most impact, and where do you typically see value being lost?
Sustainability decisions have the highest long-term impact during the concept and planning stage, because that is where the asset’s environmental and operational performance is fundamentally shaped. However, value is often lost during three critical stages.
• First is the value engineering phase, where high-performance systems are sometimes downgraded to reduce upfront costs, despite delivering significant long-term operational savings.
• Second is the procurement stage, where specified sustainable materials may get substituted due to cost or availability constraints, impacting both quality and environmental performance.
• Third is during commissioning and operational handover, where complex sustainable systems are not always fully understood or optimally managed by operations teams, leading to inefficiencies over time.
Ultimately, sustainability delivers the best outcomes when it is treated as a core structural driver throughout the lifecycle of the asset, rather than as an isolated design intervention.
Which design interventions have delivered the most tangible impact on operating efficiency, particularly in areas like energy and water usage?
Some of the most commercially impactful sustainability interventions are often the least visible to guests. In the Indian context, the biggest gains typically come from reducing thermal loads and improving water reuse systems.
For energy efficiency, high-performance building envelopes, including insulated facades and double-glazed low-E glass, significantly reduce heat ingress and lower HVAC demand. Systems like Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF), heat recovery systems and occupancy-based room controls also help optimise energy consumption while maintaining guest comfort.
On the water side, advanced sewage treatment and recycling systems allow treated water to be reused for flushing, landscaping, and cooling towers, substantially reducing freshwater dependency. Low-flow fixtures and smart metering systems also help drive significant operational savings without impacting the guest experience.
Importantly, these interventions are no longer just sustainability initiatives, they are increasingly strong business decisions as well. Many of these systems deliver measurable operational savings and stronger lifecycle efficiency over the long term.
There is often a perceived trade-off between sustainability, cost, and guest experience. How do you balance these in real-world projects?
The perceived trade-off between sustainability, cost and guest experience is often overstated. In reality, the balance largely depends on how early sustainability is integrated into the project. When sustainability is considered from the outset, it becomes possible to make smarter design and engineering decisions that improve both operational efficiency and guest comfort simultaneously. Investments in efficient HVAC systems, insulation, natural ventilation, or daylight optimisation often enhance the guest experience while also reducing long-term operating costs.
There is also a growing shift towards quality over excess. Thoughtfully designed spaces using durable, locally sourced materials often feel more authentic and luxurious while carrying a lower environmental impact.
Ultimately, sustainability should not feel like a compromise. When integrated thoughtfully, it enhances operational performance, strengthens guest comfort, and improves the long-term quality and resilience of the asset itself.
In the Indian context, what are some key challenges in implementing sustainable design – from approvals to execution and vendor ecosystems?
In India, the challenge is often not ambition, but execution consistency across the full project lifecycle. At the approvals stage, fragmented regulations and lengthy processes can delay implementation of sustainable infrastructure such as renewable energy systems, rainwater harvesting, or advanced water treatment solutions. There is also often greater focus on compliance documentation rather than long-term performance outcomes.
From an execution standpoint, the vendor and procurement ecosystem continue to evolve. Reliable access to high-performance sustainable materials and systems is still limited in some cases, and on-ground substitutions can impact the original design intent.
There are also execution-related skill gaps, particularly for systems that require precision installation and commissioning. Sustainable infrastructure is often more sensitive to execution quality, which increases the need for oversight and technical expertise.
Finally, operational continuity remains a challenge. Even well-designed systems can underperform if operations teams are not adequately trained to manage and maintain them over time.
Overall, the industry needs stronger alignment between design, procurement, execution, and operations to fully realise sustainability outcomes.
How important today is contextual design – such as the use of local materials and climate-responsive architecture – in driving both sustainability and guest experience?
Contextual design has become increasingly important because it strengthens both sustainability performance and the authenticity of the guest experience. Using local materials reduces transportation-related emissions and supports regional economies, but it also helps create spaces that feel more authentic and rooted in their surroundings. Today’s travellers increasingly value experiences that reflect local culture and identity rather than generic global luxury.
Similarly, climate-responsive architecture – through orientation, shading, ventilation, landscaping, and passive cooling strategies – significantly improves thermal comfort while reducing energy demand. These interventions may not always be visible to guests, but they meaningfully shape how a space feels and performs.
Ultimately, contextual design creates hospitality environments that are more sustainable, more resilient, and far more emotionally engaging for guests.
Looking ahead, what will define a truly future-ready hospitality asset in India from a design and sustainability perspective?
A truly future-ready hospitality asset in India will be defined by resilience, adaptability, and long-term operational efficiency. The focus will increasingly shift towards assets that are climate-responsive, resource-efficient, technologically enabled, and deeply connected to their local context. Future-ready hotels will need to manage energy and water far more intelligently through renewable integration, recycling systems, smart building technologies and data-led operational optimisation.
At the same time, flexibility will become critical. Hospitality spaces will need to adapt more dynamically to changing guest behaviour, evolving travel patterns, and multi-functional usage requirements. Wellness, biophilic design, and indoor environmental quality will also become increasingly central to how hospitality assets are designed.
Importantly, future-ready hospitality will not be defined only by technology or sustainability certifications. The real differentiator will be the ability to create hospitality assets that are operationally resilient, locally relevant, resource-efficient, and adaptable to changing guest expectations over time. The future hospitality asset will be judged not just by how it looks, but by how intelligently and consistently it performs.
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