Reinforcing Brand Identity in Hospitality 

Art changes the way we interact with the world. While hotels buying art isn’t new, strategic art curation that transforms guest experience from ordinary to memorable is an emerging trend. When a hotel gets it right, art can elevate the property, the brand, and the bottom line. 

 

Who buys art for hotels?

You may be wondering, “Who buys art for hotels?” Specialized art consultants and curators, like our team at NINE dot ARTS, strategically source art pieces to build experiences that will appeal to guests. An art curator who buys art for hotels is not a salesperson (at least not at NINE dot ARTS). Rather than pushing product, our team of art curators provides professional art curation advice based on their knowledge and experience as artists, historians, gallery administrators and more. We have a wide-ranging global database of artists, allowing us to source art from local regions or far-flung regions across the globe. 

 

When a hotel decides to buy curated art, a dedicated art consultant will review the location and identify unique opportunities to bring life and art into the space. Part of our unique process at NINE dot ARTS is to begin all projects with a vision and roadmap. Our goal is to connect your story and brand to visuals within the space.

 

Building a brand for a building

In this era of social media influence, a hotel’s art collection can help build a unique and interesting space that customers will want to return to again and again. When customers are inspired by art, they often share photos on their Instagram or Facebook accounts. In turn, this promotes the property to their network, bringing in more visitors.

One of our most successful projects at NINE dot ARTS is the Maven Hotel in our hometown of Denver. There is a huge, beautiful sculpture of a hand in the lobby (“The Quantifiable and the Ineffable” by Andrew Tirado)  and it is the single most Instagrammed spot in the entire hotel. Even better, guests repeatedly mention the entire art collection as a reason to stay at the hotel. Curated art in hotels creates a holistic marketing practice that inspires communities and creates new experiences. At The Maven, guests could stay five different times and see a different art installation in each of their rooms. 

When good art is noticeable, it reinforces the guest’s decision to stay at the hotel. The Blackstone Hotel in Chicago even offers a walking tour of its art collections, and guests and tourists will stay to have a meal or a drink in the hotel bar afterward. Why? The property has created an experience that not only is memorable but also motivates people to stay in the space longer, potentially spending more money on site. And for hotels buying art to reinforce brand identity—and ultimately their bottom lines—the Blackstone shows how to create a win-win result.

 

 

Show not tell

Creative art curation appeals to a distinct audience and creates a memorable experience for visitors, which helps hotel brands show—not tell—how they are unique from other choices in the industry. Art curation can work for a brand new hotel in an up-and-coming part of town that wants to create its own footprint in the community just as much as it can work for a historic hotel that wants to tell a story of the building’s past. 

Hotels may need a full art plan, or they may require individualized consulting in the form of advice or research. NINE dot ARTS art consultants identify the goals and criteria that lead to the overall vision for a client’s project. This relationship is different than buying art through a gallery, art catalog, or broker. In hotel art curation, a true consultant creates a vision for the art collection and carefully selects each piece of art based on that vision—and each and every piece bolsters the space in which it lives, while adding to the overall brand story.