Experiential design for Hospitality is the fusion of Branding, Storytelling, and Art. It is the backbone of a hotel’s branding, spanning from physical spaces to marketing strategy. It is Storytelling because it conveys a narrative to the visitor — not necessarily a complex one, but it must say something. It is Art because it transcends the boundaries of graphic design, which is grounded in communication, to enter the realm of artistic dynamics rooted in expression.

The project designer David Zuker carried out in 2018 for nhow Amsterdam RAI clearly illustrates how experiential design unifies what were previously isolated creative disciplines. Under the concept “Amsterdam, hub of world cultures,” Zuker developed a visual identity system that used the cardinal orientation of each room to assign it a specific cultural aesthetic, materialized in patterns and compositions of contemporary pop art. That same Storytelling extended into branding — translating the spatial narrative into all the hotel’s printed and digital marketing materials. The result was a proposal in which architecture, interior design, art, and communication ceased to be independent layers and became a single, cohesive experience.

This definition is the starting point of Experiential Journal, a publication launched in 2026 with the mission of bringing visibility to a subject absent from the Hospitality sector in Spain: experiential design applied to hotels. Public discourse — both in specialized professional media and in general publications — consistently focuses on interior design and architecture. These are key disciplines in hotel development, but on their own they no longer create the integral experience today’s guest demands. Experiential design is the evolution of several areas that had previously operated separately within the industry and that, in a new context where hotels are expected to be an active part of the journey rather than a mere place to sleep, now plays a central role in hotel strategy.

I am David Zuker and for the past 8 years I have been creating experiential design for hotels around the world. My work for renowned hospitality brands such as nhow Hotels, Anantara, NH Hotel Group, and AVANI has allowed me to develop experiential design from multiple perspectives and approaches. 4,800,000 guests have interacted with the designs I have created for 2,173 Hospitality spaces. Global media such as Forbes magazine have interviewed me about this discipline. One of my projects has received the LIV Hospitality Award.

I am the only Spanish designer specializing in experiential design for Hospitality, and that is why I felt the need to open this communication channel: to convey why this discipline is not the future but the present of the hotel industry across all its variants — Lifestyle, Boutique, Luxury, Heritage, and Bleisure. The intention of this editorial project is to establish a Spanish-language framework that can pivot between Spain and Latin America, so that brands and professionals in the sector can better understand the value and importance of new experiential dynamics in Hospitality.

What Experiential Design Is Not

Experiential design is not decoration. It is not the purchase of artwork to cover walls, nor the selection of designer furniture. It is not an aesthetic layer added once the architecture is complete.

Experiential design should also not be confused with customer experience (CX), which deals with service processes and guest interaction. Experiential design operates at the physical and narrative layer of space — it is the architecture of the atmosphere in which that customer experience takes place.

These are frequent misconceptions in the Spanish hotel sector and explain why many projects announced as “experiential” never go beyond the level of quality interior design. Spanish hotel brands have maintained traditional models in which branding was assigned to a marketing department and art to the purchase of signed works or commissioned pieces. Both practices have value, but they operate in isolation. Experiential design is precisely the opposite: the unification of all those resources into a coherent narrative that makes them inseparable.

This article will be followed by a dedicated instalment focused entirely on the most common misinterpretations of experiential design within the Spanish hotel sector.

Where Experiential Design Stands in Spain

Experiential design has developed extensively in the Hospitality sectors of Europe, the Americas, and Asia, but in Spain it is still in its early stages. Spanish hotel brands have maintained traditional models in which branding was assigned to a marketing department and art to the purchase of signed works or commissioned pieces.

Minor Hotels Europe & Americas — formerly NH Hotel Group — closed 2024 with a net profit of €212 million, 67% more than the previous year, according to data published by El Confidencial. The group operates nhow Hotels, AVANI, and Anantara — three of the brands for which David Zuker developed experiential design projects between 2018 and 2024. These are precisely the brands the group has consolidated as its premium flagship chains during that same period.

Why It Resonates with the New Consumer

The new hotel consumer needs new stimuli. Framed artwork on walls no longer captures their attention — they seek to become part of a visual narrative. Nor are they drawn to traditional branding, in which the hotel positions itself as a product rather than an experience. A 2024 community survey conducted by Design Hotels among 1,200 travelers found that 84% believe hotels have the potential to provide a genuine sense of belonging — yet only 24% of those surveyed felt they actually belonged to a community. This gap between expectation and reality defines exactly what experiential design is built to close. That is why experiential design has a tactical, existential, and transversal purpose: it is the answer to the challenges posed by the new Hospitality guest.

The Three Components of Experiential Design

1. Branding

Branding in the Hospitality sector has evolved toward a new paradigm: from a positioning centered on facilities and comfort to one that revolves around experience, turning the hotel into an active part of the guest’s journey, lived moments, and memories. Experiential design elevates hotel branding to an interactive dimension in which the consumer perceives the brand as something more than a static space — there are expectations, narrative, emotion.

2. Storytelling

Experiential design is built through visual narratives. The concept underpinning the hotel and the messages conveyed by its branding are developed with a structure that translates storytelling technique into visual codes: there is a premise — which proposes the concept —, a development — which expands it using a symbolic universe —, and a resolution — which transfers the complete narrative into the guest’s imagination, inviting their personal interpretation.

3. Art

Storytelling cannot be completed by relying solely on the tools of graphic design. Visual communication is a fundamental part of experiential design, but it remains incomplete without an artistic expression component that transcends narrative and provokes emotion. The new Hospitality consumer needs to feel, not just receive messages. The transmission of feeling is a domain reserved for art and its resources, and that is why it must form an integral part of experiential design.

The Present, Not the Future

Experiential design in hospitality is not an emerging discipline: it has been consolidating for over a decade in the most competitive European, American, and Asian markets. Its systematic application integrates branding, visual narrative, and artistic expression into a single category that unifies all these resources into a coherent narrative — delivering to the guest not merely spaces, but experiences with their own identity.

In Spain, its adoption is still in its infancy — which represents a genuine competitive advantage for hotel brands that integrate it before it becomes a market standard. Experiential Journal will analyse its applications across each hotel typology, examine how it has developed in specific contexts, and explore how it will evolve in a sector increasingly shaped by robotics and artificial intelligence.

A note on the integrated data point: The Design Hotels stat — 84% of travelers believe hotels can provide belonging, yet only 24% feel they actually belong to a community — slots naturally into “Why It Resonates with the New Consumer” and comes from a credible primary source (1,200 respondents, 2024). It quantifies the consumer gap your experiential design argument is built around, giving the section external validation without interrupting the voice of the article