Influence of Design Styles on User Preferences in Hotel Guestrooms

In this study, the impact of the differences between the hotel guestroom design styles and the participants’ gender on the dependent variables including preference, complexity and impressiveness was investigated. In the experiment, 82 Turkish persons rated the nine guestrooms grouped in contemporary, traditional and classical styles on seven-point Semantic Differential Scales for a total of five bipolar adjective pairs. According to the results, linear relationships were found between preference and complexity with preference and impressiveness indicated that preference increases with low complexity (simplicity) in line with high impressiveness. Furthermore, contemporary style guestrooms have had more positive evaluations for all dimensions compared to traditional and classical style guestrooms. In addition, males responded more positively than females. In conclusion, avoiding designs with complex features or those with excessive classical forms and using less ornate, smooth and simple forms or materials may contribute to the more positive perception of guestrooms by guests.