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Hotel rooms are under more pressure than ever — rising costs, higher guest expectations, sustainability targets, and shorter refurbishment cycles all demand smarter design decisions.
The Hotel Room of the Future brings together forward-thinking suppliers and partners to demonstrate how hotel rooms can:
• Improve sleep and guest comfort
• Reduce water and energy use without changing guest behaviour
• Use materials that last longer and are easier to maintain
• Support sustainability through design, not signage
• Create better guest experiences without added complexity
This room is designed to be experienced, not explained.
The Hotel Room of the Future is a full-scale, buildable hotel room designed by Harp Design to explore how hospitality spaces can genuinely perform better — for guests, operators, and the planet.
This is not a concept room and it is not a prediction of some distant future. Every product, material, and system used here has been selected for real-world hospitality use, informed by live projects and ongoing conversations shared through The Interior Design Podcast.
The room challenges some of the most entrenched assumptions in hotel design:
• Why do guests still sleep badly in expensive rooms?
• Why are hotels still wasting huge volumes of water without noticing?
• Why are rooms designed to be ripped out every few years instead of adapted?
Rather than offering a single answer, the Hotel Room of the Future brings together a group of forward-thinking suppliers and partners to demonstrate what is already possible — right now — when design decisions are informed, intentional, and evidence-led.
Why this room exists
Hotels are under more pressure than ever. Rising energy and water costs, higher guest expectations, sustainability targets, staffing challenges, and shorter refurbishment cycles all demand smarter design decisions.
Through its hospitality work, Harp Design repeatedly encounters the same issues: rooms that look good but don’t perform, materials that don’t last, and sustainability strategies that rely on guests changing their behaviour.
Many of these challenges are discussed openly on The Interior Design Podcast, where designers, suppliers, consultants, and hotel operators share what actually works — and what doesn’t. The Hotel Room of the Future is the physical outcome of those conversations.
Does this make the hotel work better?
The Design Principles Behind the Hotel Room of the Future
Wellbeing
Guests rarely complain about discomfort — they simply don’t return. Sleep quality, lighting, acoustics, and tactile comfort are central to the design of this room, supporting better rest without adding complexity or gimmicks.
Sustainability
True sustainability should not rely on signage or behaviour change. Water, energy, and material savings in this room are built into the systems and specifications themselves, operating quietly in the background.
Longevity
Hotel rooms should not be designed for short lifespans. This room explores how materials, finishes, and construction methods can be selected to last longer, be repaired, dismantled, and reused.
Designed to live beyond the exhibition
Unlike most exhibition builds, the Hotel Room of the Future has been designed to be dismantled after the show. Key elements will be reused within The Interior Design Podcast studio, extending the life of materials and challenging the throwaway culture of temporary installations.
This circular approach reflects how Harp Design believes hospitality interiors should be delivered — responsibly, realistically, and with long-term value in mind.
Meet the partners behind the Hotel Room of the Future
Explore how each element of the room contributes to better hotel design:
Click on the name to see how each element was fundimental in the design.
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Contract Furniture Group - Wardrobe, bedside tables, vanity unit and furniture.
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Scent Company Coming Soon
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Tech Company Coming Soon
Each partner has a dedicated page exploring what they supplied and why it matters.
Each supplier involved in the Hotel Room of the Future is a sponsor and partner of the project, selected not just for their products, but for the thinking and expertise they bring.
Explore how each element of the room contributes to better hotel design through the dedicated supplier pages.
Continue the conversation
The Hotel Room of the Future is not the end of the discussion — it’s the start of one.
Many of the ideas explored here are discussed in depth on The Interior Design Podcast, where Harp Design shares open, honest conversations with the people shaping the hospitality industry.
Scan, explore, and question how hotel rooms are designed.
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