Rewriting Consistency

DoubleTree by Hilton is a globally recognised brand, with destinations across the world. A brand at that scale faces a quiet problem: the usual way to stay consistent is to standardise, and standardisation can flatten the warmth and character that make the brand worth choosing. 

DTbHilton’s guests come for a feeling: to be cared for, to feel at home, to discover somewhere with character. As the brand grew, it needed spatial design guidelines to protect that experience at scale. WeWantMore's task was to define the essence of the DTbHilton brand within the EMEA region and create a framework that would help internal teams bring it to life consistently across destinations.

Naming the Want

Guests never ask for a design system. They ask, without saying it, to feel like a friend of the house rather than a paying stranger; somewhere familiar, yet worth exploring. That promise had always lived in the service, but never in the architecture. The challenge was to make the space itself carry that same warmth, so a DoubleTree by Hilton in Rome and one in Abu Dhabi could share a soul without sharing a floor plan.

Feeling Before Fit-Out

Working across strategy, branding and interior design, we distilled the emotional core of the brand into principles that could guide every spatial decision. Rather than prescribing general aesthetics, we defined the behaviours and choices that make a space feel comfortable, generous and full of atmosphere.

These principles translated into tangible design choices: residentially inspired furniture and layouts that encourage guests to settle in, layered lighting that shifts from welcoming daytime energy to intimate evening ambience, and materials that create spaces that feel considered, familiar and connected to their surroundings.

Designing the Experience

We translated the brand DNA into a comprehensive spatial design framework and guidelines covering materials, layouts, lighting, FF&E and art across every hotel touchpoint, from arrival to guestrooms. The guidelines define how spaces can support different modes of experience: sofas that create natural boundaries, semi-open screens and greenery that allow spaces to flow, and flexible settings where guests can choose between moments of focus, connection and relaxation.

To bring the guidelines to life, we used AI to create fully realised environments that demonstrated how the principles could adapt across different contexts. This gave teams a shared vision of how the brand could evolve, showing not just what a DTbHilton space could look like, but how it should be experienced.

The result is a system built for growth, not repetition, allowing DTbHilton to feel familiar everywhere, but identical nowhere.