hospitalitystyle.com

(September 2008) posted on Tue Sep 09, 2008 EDT

Want to work with one of the world’s fastest-growing hotel groups? Be prepared to show you’re nimble, flexible and creative.

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By Mary Scoviak

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From January to the end of July, Rezidor Hotel Group signed 38 hotel contracts, putting it on track for its second consecutive year of record-setting development and spurring it toward its goal of adding 20,000 rooms from 2007 through 2009. That pace leaves Gordon McKinnon, Rezidor's executive vice president of brands, seeking designers who can deliver fresh, modern concepts for more than 9,300 rooms.

They'll need to prove they have the expertise and flexibility to work throughout Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and across sectors from five-star Regent to the fashionable new Hotel Missoni brand, upscale Radisson and mid-tier Park Inn. And, they'll have to talk fast if they're going to match McKinnon's need for speed.

"My team has a lot of hotel resources to manage given our pipeline, so I look for designers with whom I can develop a short-hand way of doing things. They have to show me they can work within standard brand parameters and still be creative," says McKinnon.

He homes in on firms that demonstrate they can navigate the development process alongside Rezidor and craft interiors that will enhance its flags. "Too many designers design for themselves. They don't see the brand context. I'm not talking about being cookie-cutter for the sake of standards. What I want is a look that reflects the big picture of where Rezidor's been, where it is and where it's going," he adds.

Sense of place is essential, says McKinnon, but the brand should be the foundation of design. "Once someone starts by saying, ‘This is the future,' you know he/she is off track already. I've seen too many hotels designed in a vacuum. Sure, it's a beautiful hotel that happens to have a Hilton or Sheraton flag, but it has nothing to do with Hiltons and Sheratons in other cities. We don't want loyalty to one hotel; we want loyalty to Rezidor."

For McKinnon, design is a crucial means of creating continuity between Rezidor's 240 existing hotels in 45 countries and their hundred or more sisters scheduled to come online within 18 months. While he's open to newcomers as well as established designers, young firms should expect to start small.