Designing for How Guests Want to Feel: Hospitality Design Trends Evolving in 2026

^{Process Imagery from Untitled Custom Collection of Broadloom & Rugs}

^{Article by Amanda Hopkins, Hospitality Marketing Manager | published by Shaw Contract}

Each year, Shaw Contract’s DesignED Custom program takes us into rooms with hospitality interior designers across the country, listening closely to what is shaping their work and influencing the projects on their boards. In 2026, what we heard marked a clear departure from the energy-driven design that defined 2025.

The conversation has quieted, slowed and become more intentional. Designers and their clients are asking a different question now: not just how a space looks, but how it makes guests feel and how long that feeling lasts. Across markets, brands and property types, four consistent directions emerged.

^{Axminster by Shaw Contract Hospitality}

The Artisan Moment: When the Hand Behind the Design Matters

One of the strongest themes we heard this year was a growing desire for spaces that feel made rather than assembled. Designers described a renewed pull toward handcrafted details and moments of visible human expression woven into the fabric of a property: hand-painted murals in amenity spaces, locally commissioned artwork rooted in place and site-specific installations that give every surface a reason to exist.

This is not a decorative trend. It is a philosophical one. Clients are increasingly fluent in the difference between what feels generic and what feels intentional, and they are willing to invest accordingly. Wimberly Interiors’ 2026 forecast reinforces this shift, noting that collaborations with local artists and ateliers are giving hospitality projects a distinct cultural voice. Art in hospitality spaces is moving from something applied to something embedded, with sculptural walls and dimensional surfaces turning architecture into a storytelling medium.

Designers told us this impulse shows up most clearly in food-and-beverage environments, where creative freedom is greatest and constraints are fewest. Restaurants, rooftop bars and lobby beverage concepts have become laboratories for craft: hand-blown glass pendants above a bar, custom porcelain tile that functions as both surface and statement, bespoke metalwork on bar fronts, limewash or tidelike wall finishes and locally woven textiles used as wall panels or banquette upholstery.

Far from finishing touches, these elements often are the concept. What gets developed in these spaces frequently set the creative tone for the rest of the property, migrating from restaurant to guestroom to corridor and beyond.

^{ROAM | Tropical Retreat Custom Collection of Broadloom, Rugs and Carpet Tile Process Image}

Quiet Luxury, Redefined: What Designers Are Actually Hearing From Clients

If one phrase surfaced more than any other in our 2026 conversations, it was quiet luxury. Designers were candid about the term: it is used often by clients and defined rarely, and it is widely misunderstood in the broader design dialogue.

When designers pushed past the label to what clients were truly asking for, a more precise picture emerged. They described interiors that feel deeply considered and highly designed, where every detail has been edited with intention and refined craftsmanship speaks quietly but unmistakably. In this context, luxury is something a guest senses before they can articulate it.

Residential design has been speaking this language for years, prioritizing material quality over visual volume: honed stone that improves with age, custom millwork so precise it reads as effortless, lighting that makes a room feel perpetually like late afternoon. In 2026, that residential sensibility is migrating directly into hospitality. Designers told us their clients are arriving with references pulled from private homes rather than hotels, drawn to spaces that feel curated and lived-in instead of staged for arrival.

Skift’s 2026 luxury hospitality report frames this shift succinctly, noting that the fastest-growing segment of luxury travelers now pays a premium for less: less noise, less stimulation, less congestion. Hilton has given this instinct a name, calling it hushpitality. What we heard echoed that insight exactly. Guests are overstimulated, and the properties earning loyalty are the ones designed to offer genuine relief.

For designers, the challenge and the opportunity lie in creating spaces that feel restrained without feeling spare, where richness and restraint exist in the same breath.

^{The Hotel at The Moore | Design Firm: Studio Collective | Project Location: Miami, Florida, USA | Photographer: Kris Tamburello}

The Invisible Amenity: How Wellness Is Being Woven Into Hospitality Design

In our 2025 trend report, we explored wellness through visible touchpoints: cold plunges, botanical installations and spa-like bathrooms designed to create a sense of retreat. That conversation has not disappeared, but in 2026 it has expanded and matured. 

Across DesignED Custom sessions, designers described a clear shift in client expectations. Rather than asking for designated wellness amenities, owners are seeking spaces that feel restorative by nature. The words that surfaced most consistently were calm, simple, natural and timeless. Guests are choosing properties based on how a space makes them feel from the moment they arrive, not solely on a list of amenities.

This shift is influencing how designers approach every square foot of a property. Indirect lighting and acoustic performance are being treated as foundational design tools rather than afterthoughts. Natural materials, restrained finishes and a move away from trend-driven specification reflect a broader goal: creating interiors that age gracefully and feel genuinely cared for over time. For owners and operators, this integrated approach supports guest retention and repeat stays by making wellness part of the everyday experience rather than a separate, scheduled amenity.

Wellness is also showing up in subtler moments of the guest experience. Designers cited healthy food and beverage offerings in lobbies, sleep-support amenities in guestrooms and yoga programming that spills into courtyards and circulation spaces rather than staying confined to dedicated studios.

Sustainability and material transparency are increasingly baseline expectations, with LEED requirements and third-party certifications entering conversations as standards rather than constraints.

Wimberly Interiors’ 2026 forecast reinforces what designers shared with us, describing wellness as biophilic cues, breathable finishes and gentle airflow integrated into the architectural fabric. As their report notes, true wellness is achieved when guests feel better without needing to name why.

^{ROAM | Tropical Retreat Custom Collection of Broadloom, Rugs and Carpet Tile | Custom Pattern AF5662}

Location as the Brief: Why Where Always Comes First

Across DesignED Custom conversations, location emerged as the most influential starting point for hospitality projects in 2026. Owners want properties that feel inseparable from where they sit, with geography acting as the lens through which every design decision is made and revisited.

Designers spoke about drawing from regional geology, local history, craft traditions and natural palettes to inform material, color and pattern selections. What has shifted is how early and deeply that work happens. Rather than layering local references late in the process, teams are building entire palettes, art programs and custom specifications around the character of a place from the outset.

This approach has become both a design philosophy and a brand strategy. Accor’s Emblems Collection and IHG’s Noted Collection are structured around story-driven, hyper-local properties that could exist nowhere else. Portobello’s 2026 Trendbook captures the sentiment designers echoed repeatedly: guests are no longer satisfied with spaces that feel interchangeable. They want to feel where they are.

The words authentic and timeless surfaced again and again in these conversations. When design is genuinely rooted in place rather than trend, it tells a story only that property can tell and remains relevant long after opening day.

^{Axminster by Shaw Contract Hospitality}

Key Takeaways

• Hospitality design in 2026 prioritizes how spaces make guests feel, shifting from visual impact to emotional longevity and comfort.
• Artisan-led design is shaping hotel interiors, with handcrafted details, local collaborations and custom surfaces driving authenticity.
• Quiet luxury in hospitality favors restraint over spectacle, borrowing from residential design to create calm, edited environments.
• Wellness is becoming an invisible amenity, embedded through lighting, acoustics, materials and spatial flow rather than stand-alone features.
• Location now serves as the design brief, with geography, culture and craft informing material, color and pattern decisions from the outset.

^{Rosen Shingle Creek | Design Firm: Rosen Shingle Creek | Project Location: Orlando, F | Photographer: Amanda Hopkins}

Looking Ahead: A shift from visual impact to emotional resonance is redefining what hospitality success looks like.

The four macro directions shaping hospitality design in 2026 — the artisan moment, quiet luxury, integrated wellness and location as the brief — point toward a shared evolution. Hospitality design is moving away from making a first impression and toward creating a lasting one.

In 2026, the success of a hospitality space is no longer measured by what guests notice at first glance, but by what stays with them after they leave. The spaces that endure are those that feel considered and human, where every material, every detail and every decision trace back to a clear intention. Shaw Contract Hospitality partners with designers from concept through completion, supported by a team of artists and custom specialists who help bring those intentions to life. Because the most enduring hospitality spaces are built one thoughtful detail at a time.