Top Floor

Susan Barry

Top Floor is a weekly podcast with tangible tips and excellent stories from the experts and characters who elevate hospitality. Host and elevator operator Susan Barry explores the idea that everything is marketing in the hotel business. Our interviews with creators, thought leaders and hospitality groundbreakers are designed to provide practical tactics that hoteliers, restaurateurs and travel mavens can use to promote their businesses. Along the way, we answer burning marketing questions submitted on the Emergency Call Button and share the funniest, craziest, just-plain-weirdest stories down at the Loading Dock. Need to press the Emergency Call Button? Or have a story to share at the Loading Dock? Reach us at 850.404.9630 to be featured in a future episode.

Categorias: Negócio

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Stacy Garcia is a designer, entrepreneur, and trend forecaster known for bold patterns and a sharper-than-average crystal ball. She built a multimillion-dollar textile studio serving hospitality and residential design worldwide. Susan and Stacy talk about palette, pattern, and personalization.

• The secret life of hotel lobby books • Why surface pattern design trains you to think bigger than walls • Analog printing's quiet comeback and why faster sometimes beats newer • How digital manufacturing unlocked murals, customization, and creative freedom • Why "home away from home" might be the wrong goal for hotels • How QVC teaches you to sell in 30 seconds or less • The real shift away from millennial gray toward warmth and richness • Why design fads age badly in hotels, and what to do instead • The future: opulent heritage, jewel tones, and warmth

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Our Top Three Takeaways

1. Hospitality design should create fantasy, not mimic home

Hotels succeed when they offer guests something they cannot or would not do at home. From the early days of themed Las Vegas hotels to today's boutique and luxury properties, the goal is escapism, inspiration, and emotional impact rather than comfort-driven familiarity. The "home away from home" mindset limits creativity and dilutes value, especially when guests are paying premium rates for a distinct experience.

2. Design decisions should allow for evolution, not permanence

Hospitality spaces live longer than most design trends. The strongest properties are designed with flexibility in mind, allowing certain elements to evolve over time without requiring a full renovation. By identifying areas that can be refreshed, remerchandised, or reinterpreted as guest expectations shift, hotels can stay current while protecting long-term investment and brand consistency.

3. Color is the most powerful, cost-effective design lever

Color is the first thing people register in a space and has a deep psychological impact. Hospitality is moving away from the long era of gray and blue toward warmer neutrals, earth tones, jewel tones, and heritage-inspired palettes. While the industry moves more slowly than residential, thoughtful use of color can create an immediate emotional impact without requiring a major capital investment.

Stacy Garcia on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacygarcia/

Stacy Garcia Design Studio https://stacygarciainc.com/

LebaTex https://www.lebatex.com/

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