This book takes architects and designers on a worldwide journey to discover the most stylish and appealing spots, from an urban getaway in Europe to a resort on a South Pacific island, providing a serene ...
“A Kimpton is not a temple of furniture. Design cannot be too cool to be comfortable.” --Niki Leondakis, coo
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By Mary Scoviak
Designers who hope to write the visual stories for any of the 19 hotels in Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group's pipeline will have to convince chief operating officer Niki Leondakis they can marry lifestyle with livability, and that they can do it in a unique way. They have to know how large an iconic half-moon table needs to be to hold a roomservice tray, why the edgy pendant lights will work well for reading in bed and whether the zebra-patterned chaise is durable enough to withstand prolonged lounging.
Cool for cool's sake is a design deal-killer for Leondakis. "One firm's presentation focused on really cool-looking furniture it had designed in-house," says Leondakis. "Any element could have been a museum piece. The furniture made us want to look at it, but no one wanted to sit on it. We're about high style balanced by comfort, not style at the expense of comfort."
Designers also have to incorporate the brand elements that have grown this San Francisco-based group's portfolio to 42 hotels in 19 cities. Even before Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell launched Morgans hotel, New York, and long before W was a twinkle in the eye of then-Starwood Hotels & Resorts' chairman Barry Sternlicht, Bill Kimpton knew that "every hotel tells a story."
Innovation is key - as the impact of Kimpton's home-grown Monaco and Palomar brands attests. But so are Kimpton's signature elements of care, comfort, style, flavor and fun, which unify its own brands and its managed properties.
Schooled by 26 years that took her from managing Marriott hotels in Nashville, Tenn., to her current post, Leondakis thinks like an operator, a designer and, after hundreds of thousands of frequent traveler miles, a guest. She spoke to Hospitality Style about what wows her in a presentation, what's on her design radar for the next generation of Kimpton hotels and what makes for a "three-sock" renovation.
What gets your attention in a presentation?
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