This month, Hotel Designs has been investigating how to design the instagrammable hotel. Exploring how art and accessories in hotels can be used to create an authentic sense of place, Richard McCready-Hughes, Creative Director at Goddard Littlefair, tells Hotel Designs how this was achieved at the Principal Edinburgh Charlotte Square hotel.

‘Interpreting our client’s brief correctly and effectively is paramount and we conduct in-depth research into market and lifestyle trends to pinpoint exactly what a target market demands,’ Richard explains. ‘Working on the Principal Edinburgh Charlotte Square, we were briefed to focus on a traveller tribe that wanted all the reassurance of luxury service, but was also looking for a sense of authenticity, belonging and assimilation with the city they were visiting. We wanted the hotel to speak immediately to these guests and evoke the sense that they were instinctively ‘understood’ and being welcomed into the home of a much loved, slightly eccentric, family member. Carefully-selected artwork and vintage pieces provide a sense of place, familiarity and nostalgia, but the overall effect is one of warmth and modernity.’