The most memorable hotels, restaurants, and food and beverage venues communicate through all the senses.

For hospitality entrepreneurs starting out with a new project, this distinction matters because budgets are finite, every design decision carries a cost, and it takes a lot of vision to see clearly how to make something better that doesn’t exist yet. The end goal remains to create a venue that people remember, return to and recommend.

What The Eyes of the Skin Can Teach Hospitality Property Owners and Developers

One of the most influential books on sensory design is The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses by architect and theorist Juhani Pallasmaa. First published in 1996, the book challenged the dominance of visual thinking in architecture and argued that great spaces engage the entire body, not just the eye. Pallasmaa describes how contemporary design culture often privileges sight at the expense of touch, sound, smell and embodied experience. Although written for architects, the book is remarkably relevant to contemporary hospitality.

Today’s hospitality industry is increasingly shaped by photography, social media, and digital marketing. Venues are often designed to look impressive in a photograph. Yet guests do not experience a hotel lobby, restaurant dining room, or cocktail bar as an image. They experience it through movement, texture, temperature, acoustics, scent and atmosphere. So the question every hospitality leader and entrepreneur should ask is: how will this venue feel as good as it’s going to look?

Hospitality Design and the Forgotten Power of Touch

Among all the senses, touch may be the most overlooked, Pallasmaa explored haptic perception to describe how we understand space through our bodies and our sense of touch, and how architecture becomes meaningful when it engages the skin, muscles, and memory. In hospitality, haptic experience appears everywhere:

• The weight of a brass door handle.
• The texture of a menu cover.
• The quality of the dinner ware and the glass you drink from.
• The softness of a banquette.
• The grain of timber beneath a guest’s fingertips.
• The way a bathroom tap operates.
• Even the texture of the packaging of bathroom toiletries.

These details may seem minor in isolation, yet together, they create a powerful emotional impression. Architectural literature frequently references the work of architects such as Alvar Aalto, whose buildings were designed to be experienced physically rather than simply viewed. Rich material textures, crafted details, and human-scaled environments create a sense of intimacy and connection. Hospitality venues can learn from this approach; guests rarely remember the exact dimensions of a room but they remember how the room made them feel.

Why Many Hospitality Projects Miss the Opportunity

Many hotel and F&B developers understand branding. They know how to define a target audience and create a visual identity, what is often missing is a deeper understanding of sensory communication. When design teams focus primarily on visual outcomes, projects can become what Pallasmaa calls “retinal architecture”—spaces designed mainly for visual consumption rather than lived experience.

A restaurant looks spectacular in renderings but feels noisy and uncomfortable.

A hotel lobby photographs beautifully but lacks warmth.

A luxury venue specifies expensive materials that never create emotional connection.

Did any of these sound familiar?

The irony is that these shortcomings often emerge despite significant investment, however, world-class hospitality experiences are rarely defined by expensive gestures alone. More often, they are defined by thoughtful sensory decisions that make guests feel understood.

The Small Details Matter as Much as the Big Story

Hospitality professionals often, quite rightly, invest considerable effort in creating a compelling brand narrative, but guests do not experience a brand strategy document, what they do experience is hundreds of small interactions.

Consider:

Arrival

How does the front door open?

What sound does it make?

How does the lighting transition from outside to inside?

Seating

How does a chair support the body during a two-hour meal?

Does the table surface feel inviting or cold?

Acoustics

Can guests hear one another comfortably?

Does the room create energy without creating stress?

Materials

Do surfaces age gracefully?

Do they invite touch?

These moments communicate brand values more powerfully than many marketing messages ever could and the smallest details often become the strongest signals of care.

Understanding Hospitality’s Real Job To Be Done

Hospitality is about helping people achieve a desired emotional outcome. A couple celebrating an anniversary wants something different from a business traveller arriving after a delayed flight. A guest attending a wedding wants something different from someone seeking solitude and restoration. The most successful brands recognise this and design for the occasion, and when they do the venue develops a sense of intuitive hospitality—a feeling that the brand anticipated their needs before they expressed them.

Conclusion: Hospitality Design Is About Human Experience

Juhani Pallasmaa’s insights remain relevant because they remind us that people experience places with their whole bodies. The best guest experiences are multisensory, emotionally intelligent, and deeply considered.

For hospitality entrepreneurs, this presents an opportunity. Instead of asking, “How will this look?” ask:

• How will this feel?
• What will guests remember?
• What sensory cues communicate care?
• Does the space understand the occasion it is serving?

Answer those questions well, and your venue will stand apart in a market increasingly crowded with visually impressive but emotionally forgettable experiences.

Ready to Create a More Memorable Guest Experience?

If you’re planning a hotel, restaurant, bar, or hospitality venue and want to ensure every design decision strengthens your brand and guest experience, book a free consultation.

Together, we can identify opportunities to create a hospitality experience that resonates through every sense—not just the eyes.