The Future Operator: Designing for Hybrid, Flexible, Experience-Led Models

Monthly Column By Ed Murray

For decades, hotel design was defined by fixed typologies. Lobby here. Bar there. Restaurant at the back. Bedrooms above. Each space with a single purpose, a clear boundary, a predictable rhythm.

In 2026, that model no longer reflects how people live – or how hotels make money.

Guests now arrive with laptops as often as luggage. The 10am coffee becomes an informal meeting. The lobby becomes a workspace by day and a social hub by night. A guest might check in, take a call, have lunch, and stay for drinks – all without leaving the same seat.

The most successful hotels are no longer organised as a sequence of rooms. They operate as a continuous social landscape.

This shift is redefining what operators need from design.

Take the lobby, once a space of transit. Today, it is expected to generate revenue throughout the day. That requires more than better furniture – it demands flexibility. Loose seating that can flex between solo working and group occupation. Power and connectivity that are integrated, not apologetic. Lighting that transitions from daylight productivity to evening atmosphere without the room ever feeling “reset”.

Food and beverage has become the anchor of this model – not as an amenity, but as a destination in its own right. The most effective schemes blur the line between hotel and neighbourhood. Restaurants with their own street presence. Bars that operate independently of reception. Spaces that feel as natural for a local Tuesday lunch as they do for a guest arrival drink.

We are also seeing the rise of hybrid spaces that collapse multiple functions into a single footprint. A breakfast room that becomes a co-working lounge by mid-morning. A private dining room that hosts meetings during the day and events at night. In one recent project, a ground floor lounge was designed to accommodate everything from solo working to informal presentations and evening DJ sets – with no physical reconfiguration, only a shift in lighting, layout and operational tone.

This is not just a spatial challenge – it is an economic one.

Every square metre must justify itself across the day. Underused hours are no longer acceptable. The ability to layer uses – breakfast, work, dining, drinks – within a single space is not simply efficient, it is critical to performance. Design becomes a tool for increasing dwell time, driving secondary spend, and supporting operational flexibility.

The role of the designer, therefore, is changing.

Operators are no longer asking for a building that “looks good”. They are asking how design can support their business model. How can a space attract non-residents without alienating guests? How can it flex between quiet and energy? How can it feel curated, but never controlled?

The future operator is not selling rooms. They are curating experiences across time – the room is just the ticket in.

The most successful hotels will not be those with the best bedrooms, but those with the most intelligent public areas..

Design isn’t just about defining space. It is also about enabling behaviour.

Written by Ed Murray, Partner at Studio Moren