BWH Hotels GB launches Design Excellence Programme to help independent hotels enhance guest experience
BWH Hotels GB has launched a new initiative designed to help its 230+ independent hotel partners enhance guest experience and strengthen their competitiveness through targeted design improvements.
The Design Excellence Programme will provide practical guidance to hotels across the group on how to improve key areas of their properties – from exteriors and front-of-house spaces, to corridors and guest bedrooms – using thoughtful, cost-effective design changes.
The initiative has been developed as GB hoteliers face mounting operational pressures, including rising wage costs, energy bills and National Insurance contributions, alongside changing business rates and growing guest expectations.
Through the programme, BWH Hotels GB will provide expert advice on how smaller design changes can make a meaningful difference to guest perception, satisfaction and a hotel’s online reputation.
Robert Alley, Brand Development Director at BWH Hotels GB, said: “GB hoteliers are operating in an increasingly challenging environment, with rising costs and growing expectations from guests. At the same time, online reviews have never been more influential in shaping booking decisions.
“The Design Excellence Programme is about helping our hotels make smart, targeted improvements that elevate the guest experience without requiring significant capital investment.”
The programme focuses on areas of a hotel that have the greatest potential impact on guest perception, including lighting, space layout, signage and bedroom comfort.
The programme demonstrates how small, thoughtful design improvements can deliver meaningful uplift without major expenditure. Enhancing spatial flow, updating key touchpoints and introducing subtle upgrades from statement headboards and local artwork to layered lighting, improved room layouts and adding basic in room technology in the right places can deliver a noticeable uplift in guest experience.
Alley added: “Design is often seen as expensive and difficult to prioritise, particularly for independent hotels balancing commercial pressures. In reality, great design is as much about how a space works as how it looks. We know that thoughtful small improvements can meaningfully enhance the guest experience without major investment, supporting better reviews and loyalty.”
The initiative builds on BWH Hotels global Design Excellence framework and will see each participating property receive a tailored design report highlighting short-term priorities and longer-term opportunities for improvement. Recommendations will be informed by guest feedback, online reviews and expert consultation from BWH Hotels GB’s in-house design team.