Premier Inn, the UK’s biggest hotel chain, has unveiled its brand-new hero Next Evolution Style* rooms, marking a major shift in room design in its mission to create the best hotel experience ever for guests.
The new designs are fuelled by insights into shifts in cultural trends including the evolving working environment and the increase in social content creation.
Exact features can vary by hotel, but consistent enhancements in every Next Evolution Style room include a stylish, softer and fresher interior décor, calming neutral and dove grey colour palettes, enhanced lighting, luxurious double shower heads and floor to ceiling curtain. These ensure full blackout to aid the highest quality sleep through total darkness.
Most new rooms offer feature fabric headboards in the brand’s signature purple offering an added sense of luxury at great value, allowing guests to feel cocooned for a great night’s sleep. Bedside charging and USB ports aid connectivity. Soft purple lights have also been installed in most bathrooms to be used as a night light to avoid a any unexpected bumps in the night!
The rise of social content creation has had an impact on design factors too, with guests wanting to share their experiences. As a result, more ‘Instagrammable’ features have been installed in hotels across the estate. These include neon signs in some reception and dining areas, our feature headboards, modern fabrics and artworks, and softer effect lighting to wrap the room like a cocoon and give a better lighting effect to images.
The previously static desk has now been switched out for a flexi table. With the new, more flexible way of working post-COVID, many of us work from home in more social settings at the kitchen table or on the sofa, so Premier Inn has evolved its working space to move away from a fixed desk to inspire a more relaxed working environment for business travellers and convivial areas for leisure guests. The flexi desk also removes the desk directly facing the bed, further promoting switch-off and relaxation.
The room has also been segmented into three zones – the getting ready area featuring vanity mirrors with plug sockets and hair dryers as standard with easy access to the bathroom – most also including flocked clothes hangers, the sleep area where the bed is situated, and the ‘hive’ area to work, enjoy a drink, charge devices etc.
Design tactics have been followed to open up rooms, generally using floating, open furniture to make the room feel more spacious by allowing you to see the floor underneath. This also reduces the amount of items guests accidentally leave behind, with socks, underwear, chargers and make up bags being the most commonly lost items.
Sarah Simpson, Head of Product & Proposition at Whitbread, said: “We have worked hard to enhance our hero room design and are so proud to launch our new rooms which are based on meticulous guest research, introducing more flexibility and personalisation for guests than ever before, as well as creating a more efficient environment for our team members to service the rooms. We have striven to create a warm and welcoming environment where guests can feel comforted and cocooned for the best night’s sleep possible”.
The hotel chain used first hand feedback from those who regularly stay in Premier Inn hotels to ensure the new design reflects everything guests want in a hotel experience. The main finding was that people want their hotel experience to be warm and welcoming, like a home away from home, which the brand has worked to reflect with its new hero design.