The Hospitality Design
Excellence Award
Inaugural Edition · Open for Submissions
Honouring designers who shape the most memorable spaces in travel and dining — hotels, resorts, restaurants, spas, and the heritage properties that carry a culture forward.
For Those Who Define How People Arrive
A guest who steps through a hotel lobby, into a spa retreat, or through the door of a beautifully conceived restaurant is experiencing design at its most immediate. There is no brief to read, no explanation offered — only the space itself, and whether it delivers.
Hospitality design is one of the most demanding disciplines precisely because it serves an audience that has not chosen to be a critic. The lighting must feel right before anyone notices it. The material must reward a thousand handprints before it earns its keep. The sequence of spaces must tell a story that guests feel without being able to name.
The Hospitality Design Excellence Award by Design Authority recognises the firms and designers who understand this. Whether your work is a destination resort or a neighbourhood restaurant, a heritage hotel or a purpose-built spa, we are looking for work that makes people feel something they did not expect — and brings them back.
What Recognition
at This Level Unlocks
Winning a Design Authority Award carries weight that extends well beyond a certificate on a wall.
Global Visibility
Finalists and winners are featured across Design Authority's editorial platform, social channels, and press releases — reaching developers, hoteliers, and F&B groups worldwide.
Client Credibility
A DA Awards badge is a peer-acknowledged signal of excellence — one of the strongest credentials a hospitality practice can carry into a new hotel or resort pitch.
Open on Merit Alone
Unlike invitation-only awards, the Design Authority Awards are open to all — meaning your recognition is earned entirely on the quality of your work.
New Business Opportunities
Our Winners Directory places your studio in front of hospitality operators and property developers actively searching for exceptional design talent.
Lasting Documentation
Every winner receives a permanent editorial profile — a beautifully written record of the project and the practice behind it, preserved in perpetuity on our platform.
Digital Emblem & Badge
Winners receive an official Design Authority Awards digital emblem — a high-resolution mark of distinction for use across your website, portfolio, and new business materials.
How Entries Are Judged
Every entry is scored by our editorial team against five criteria — Form, Function, Craft, Innovation, Emotion — contributing 70% of the final score. Public appreciation adds the remaining 30% — this is an award that rewards holistic excellence, not a single dimension of skill.
Atmospheric Design
Does the space create a distinct, transportive atmosphere? We look for work where every design decision — light, material, scale, sequence — serves a unified guest experience that is impossible to forget.
Guest Experience Flow
Hospitality design is choreography. We assess how naturally guests move through the space, and how each transition — arrival, check-in, dining, retreat — is handled with intention.
Contextual Sensitivity
Great hospitality design does not exist in a vacuum. We examine how the project responds to its location, cultural context, and the story of the property — particularly for heritage projects.
Craft & Material Intelligence
The difference between a good hotel and a great one is felt at the smallest scale. We look for meticulous detailing, the appropriate use of materials, and an elevated standard of finish throughout.
Originality & Identity
Does the property have a clear point of view? We value work that goes beyond international style to deliver a design identity so distinct that guests would recognise it without being told where they are.
Memorability & Return
The ultimate measure of hospitality design is whether guests return. We ask: has this space created an experience so considered, so well-executed, that it earns loyalty?
This space is reserved for
work that guests never forget.
Could it be yours?
The inaugural Hospitality Design Excellence Award by Design Authority is open for submissions. The properties recognised here will be chosen by the people who have experienced spaces like yours.
Open Categories
Enter by the type of space your project is. One flat fee. One entry. Your strongest work.
Frequently Asked
Your Work
Deserves to Be Seen
Submissions close 20 August 2026. Don’t let the window pass.