Global economic growth is resulting in increased international travel by the corporate sector, and growing purchasing power in populations is leading to more leisure-related travel and rising demand for more luxurious accommodation.

According to a survey by MKG Consulting and reported by Hotel Online, about 150,000 new hotel rooms were opened by hoteliers in 2006. On 1 January 2007, the worldwide supply of the top 200 hotel groups reached 43,000 establishments and 5.5 million rooms.

However, this raises the question of how designers are dealing with the need to reconcile environmentally sensitive building requirements with the luxury that a growing number of people are prepared to pay for.

Hotels are big consumers of resources such as water and power. Even though there is an evident trend for ensuite bathrooms to become larger and more stylish, there is also recognition that hotel facilities must become ‘greener’ because of the dwindling supply and rising cost of water in many countries. Hotel customers are also becoming better informed about the importance of conserving scarce resources.

Other issues likely to confront the big hotel chains include the needs of specific groups such as aged and handicapped people, those with religious-based requirements such as Muslims, and the needs of obese people.

Hyatt Hotels vice-president of architecture and design Larry Traxler says that in general, hotel bathing areas have been ‘trending upward’ over the past five years, mainly because discriminating travelers demand a larger and more luxurious grooming experience comparable to the growth occurring in residential design markets.

“In addition to increasing bathroom sizes, we are also designing in ‘memory makers’ that most guests do not have in their homes – like in-mirror televisions, surround-sound speakers, towel-warming racks, heated floors, steam showers, deluxe toilets and foot baths. But the biggest task we are experiencing in all of our design projects would be the shift towards ‘eco-sensitive luxury’ items.

“We are requiring water-efficient toilets in all rooms, and are also trying to engineer (along with our partners Hansgrohe and Kohler) rain shower heads that are much more water conscious. The shower heads in a typical guestroom are very important when you look at overall water consumption in a large hotel.

“We strongly believe we can provide a much more sustainable hotel product that seeks to conserve energy and other natural resources but still provides the guest with the feeling of luxury and pampering they are looking for in a full-service hotel.

“There is a much more focused effort on developing these sustainable plumbing products for use in the US market, but we are still way behind the rest of the world in this respect. We are drawing on our hotels and design teams from around the world to provide us with best practice in this field and applying it to new projects in the US. It is hoped that the plumbing industry and code inspection officials can keep up with our demand for change in this regard.

“Shifts are being made in bathroom design according to guests’ needs and use patterns. In business hotels around the world, most guests are much more satisfied with a large walk-in shower than they are stepping into a small bathtub with a shower curtain. In our renovations, we are converting most of our king room bathtubs to glass walk-in showers with a bench. This conversion to showers would certainly not be a shift that we would consider in a resort environment, but it is just one way that we are responding to the evolving needs of guests.”

US-based company Kohler is a big supplier of bathroom plumbing fittings to the hotel industry around the world.