What Shapes Hospitality Decisions Behind the Scenes: Behind Thinklab’s Private Research

0:00Amanda Schneider:This episode wouldn't be possible without Mohawk Group and their commitment to believe in better, to push every boundary and always move forward in design, innovation, and sustainability. Now, what stands out to me is Mohawk's culture of care. That's care for the workforce, care for the environments their products serve, and care for the future they're helping to build. Believe in Better is long-term thinking put into practice, not only in their product, but in how they partner with clients like you. You can learn more at mohawkgroup.com.

0:42Amanda Schneider:Welcome to Design Nerds Anonymous, the podcast that sparks curiosity at the intersection of business and design. I'm your host, Amanda Schneider, founder and president at ThinkLab. And speaker, now featured on TED.com.

0:59Erica Waayenberg:And I'm Erica Weyenberg, head of custom research here at ThinkLab. I was Amanda's partner throughout this research process. As you listen in, remember, you can earn half CU credit just by listening and taking a quick quiz for the episode. You'll find a link to that quiz in the show notes.

1:26Erica Waayenberg:Now, here are the four learning objectives for this episode. First, why decision-making on hospitality projects feels more cautious and harder to move forward today. Second, what hospitality end-users say they need most from their partners to keep projects on track. Third, how rising expectations around business knowledge are reshaping the role of designers and project teams. And fourth, where AI is beginning to show up in hospitality workflows and why many teams are exploring it today.

2:10Erica Waayenberg:All right, let's dive in and start learning.

2:14Amanda Schneider:Okay, if you have listened to other episodes in this series, you'll know that corporate healthcare and education each had their own live experiential research events. Big rooms, real-time reactions, dozens of people unpacking the data together, and we've given you an audio window to listen in. So you can hear those episodes earlier in your feed, and education will drop next week.

2:43Erica Waayenberg:Hospitality worked a little bit differently. Same rigorous research, this time brands like Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, Sinesta, and more. Just no big event. No stage, no room full of 70 people reacting together.

2:57Amanda Schneider:So that means this episode is our live event. Today, you're not just listening in. We're going to invite you to participate. You're about to hear a distilled version of the keynote that we would have delivered on a stage. But this time, everything is tailored specifically to the hospitality sector.

3:17Erica Waayenberg:And then we'll invite you to do what the other sectors did live. Process it, question it, debrief it with your team, and even gather clients and use it as a conversation spark. And yes, we've added DIY discussion prompts to the show notes so you can run your own mini hackathon with your colleagues or project team after you listen. So settle in because for hospitality, this is the room and you are the participant.

3:48Amanda Schneider:Let's open this episode the way that we've opened the previous two this season with a short series of would you rather games. So here's the first one. When thinking about projects for the built environment, Would you rather A, pay 20 % more for the ability to pause, pivot, and restart? Or B, save 20 % but be locked into a rigid timeline and process? So we're going to invite you to put yourself in the mind of the decision maker. Take a second and pick one.

4:27Erica Waayenberg:well whatever you picked across the sectors that we studied this one question was remarkably consistent for corporate and education nearly 90 chose flexibility over savings health care wasn't far behind at just over 70 if teams have to choose today most would rather pay for the option to adapt.

4:53Amanda Schneider:All right, let's jump into our second one. Again, put yourself in the mindset of the decision maker. Would you rather A, have a partner who spots problems before they happen, or B, have a partner who crushes crises in the moment? Truly take a moment and choose one.

5:16Erica Waayenberg:Now, this question had the strongest emotional reaction of all. Corporate leaned proactive at around 60 percent. Education jumped to 80 percent. But health care, an overwhelming 95 percent, chose being proactive as being one of the fastest ways to build trust.

5:39Amanda Schneider:All right, here's our last round in this game. Would you rather A, collaborate with a brand new team at a company that you already trust? Or B, collaborate with a trusted team that is now working for a company that you have never heard of?

6:02Erica Waayenberg:This is where things got interesting. Corporate and healthcare leaders overwhelmingly said they would stay with the company that you trust, even with a brand new team. But education flipped that. 60 % said they'd follow their trusted team into unfamiliar territory. It was the only sector where people outranked the brand. Now hold on to the choices that you just made. They're going to matter as we break down what's happening in hospitality today.

6:37Amanda Schneider:I want to start with why we did this work. Why do we research this topic? Across every sector, our goal was simple. Help everyone involved in projects for physical spaces understand how decisions are made today. Of course, we wanted to spark ideas for how you and your teams can respond and, yes, offer a little group therapy along the way. Because if If you touch any part of the project ecosystem around the built environment, be it design, construction, manufacturing, sales, product, procurement, you've already felt this change. So what we're doing here is naming it, clarifying it, and hopefully giving you the language that can help you take it back to your project teams to make change for the better.

7:25Erica Waayenberg:If you're wondering where these insights came from, they're drawn from a mix of qualitative and quantitative work across all four sectors we studied. We held virtual end-user forums, captured dozens of confessional booth interviews, and gathered more than 3 ,000 survey data points comparing our industry to broader B2B buying behaviors.

7:48Amanda Schneider:So while every episode in this series sounds a little different, the backbone is the same. Rigorous research and conversations with the people making and influencing real project decisions.

8:02Erica Waayenberg:Before we go any further, let's align on language because these terms matter.

8:09Amanda Schneider:And this is something that was so funny about our live events. Erica, you can attest to this is this was probably our most photographed slide when we did this presentation live. So let's run through the terms. First off, when we say end user, we mean the person working at the client organization, like Hyatt, Sonesta, Hilton, those that we shared earlier. These are the folks that are deciding how to invest in the space, the brand, maybe an ownership group, franchisee, operator, or development partner. Often these folks have a design background that participated in this research. Then when we say service provider, we mean the teams bringing the project to life.

8:48Amanda Schneider:Think of design firms, GCs, construction partners, reps, and consultants. You've heard from many of them that participated as part of our other live podcast episodes. Then when we say product partner, we mean manufacturers, dealers, and distributors who are supplying the furniture, materials, lighting, flooring, technology, or other product.

9:08Erica Waayenberg:Together, these groups form the project ecosystem. And our research looks at how decisions move through that ecosystem and what's shifting that flow today.

9:20Amanda Schneider:So why this topic? Put simply, we started this research because our product side clients kept telling us project decisions are just taking longer. And we wanted to know why. And per usual, at ThinkLab, we love to use data to help tell the story. 86 % of the end users that we surveyed said that their decision-making process has changed significantly in the past three years. And here's another favorite insight. The average decision-making team for projects for the built environment has effectively doubled in the past five years. So it's no wonder that everything feels slower and more complex. We'll link to the full breakdown, the how, why, who, and what in the show notes.

10:05Amanda Schneider:So if you want more information, you can certainly find it there.

10:09Erica Waayenberg:And those numbers set up what we're about to share next. Across sectors, we mapped where end users feel the most pain, frustration throughout the project process. From early planning all the way through installation. And here's what shocked us. The heaviest pain wasn't at the end. It wasn't during construction. It was right at the beginning. And when we zoom in on hospitality, the year-over-year shift has been dramatic. Just one year ago, leaders described that early-stage pain with words like iterative, chaotic, hurried, agile, adaptable. This year, not even close. This year we heard words like heavy lift, tight, strained, and two themes that dominated the conversation were value and AI.

11:06Amanda Schneider:And that shift wasn't just in words. Our data reinforced it. Across sectors, rising costs rank the highest in terms of pain points at 47%. But the second biggest challenge you may have heard in a couple episodes this season, at 22 % was burnout. That means 22 % of our survey takers said that that was their biggest challenge in projects. And I want to pause here for a minute just because I'm writing a book. So you all are the first to hear that important announcement that will be out in May of 2026. And in that book, I cite a really staggering statistic from Gallup that really supports this as well.

11:48Amanda Schneider:Their 2025 workplace report opens with this question. Is the global workplace at a breaking point? And the data suggests that we may be approaching one. It's really interesting that over the last year, global employee engagement, including all of these folks making decisions at these hospitality spaces, fell sharply compared to the previous year. And it's the only measured decline in the past 12 years with one exception, which was a similar drop in 2020 around the COVID lockdowns. So I think that that is really stark and probably an important thing for us just to pause and acknowledge here for just a moment that, you know what, everything feels like it's moving faster.

12:30Amanda Schneider:But all of these teams are trying to do more with less. And it really, truly is leading to burnout. And I feel like nowhere did this topic show up in our private, virtual, behind-the-scenes sessions than with this hospitality group. For many, this emotional strain was palpable. And I have to say, I've been running this business for a long time. It was one of the few times in ThinkLab's history when a research conversation nearly moved our participants to tears. So we promised you group therapy. We're giving you a little taste of what that was like. So, Erica, I don't know if you have anything to add from your observations specifically of this session, but it was loud.

13:09Erica Waayenberg:It was loud. And I think the conversation around burnout is loud. You hear it in podcasts. You see it on headlines. You read books about it. The conversation is very loud. But you're right, Amanda. This was a room of what could be considered relative competitors. and to have them connect in a way that was so emotional and visceral around the struggle that they're having with their teams and trying to retain talent, empower talent, and mentor their talent. It's creating tremendous burnout throughout the entire organization, but especially at that leadership level.

13:51Erica Waayenberg:So now that we've set that context, let's get to the heart of it. Next, we're going to explore the five core challenges and opportunities shaping hospitality projects today. And our goal is simple. If we can name what's really happening for our end users, the entire project ecosystem can work smarter, faster, and with a lot more empathy.

14:15Amanda Schneider:So let's start with theme one, which was risk aversion and lack of autonomy. Because underneath all of that burnout that we mentioned earlier, there's something deeper happening. People are pulling back from making decisions on their own. Not because they don't care, but because the stakes feel higher. The scrutiny feels sharper. And the margin for error feels non-existent. Exactly.

14:41Erica Waayenberg:Last year's Would You Rather game showed us that 90 % of participants actually chose that they would rather double the size of their committee than make the decision on their own. One person put it bluntly, no one feels like they have autonomy today. Another added, there's a massive fear post-pandemic of owning decisions. The larger brands are restructuring to try to streamline that, but it's tough. there needs to be a clear line between who decides what and when. Otherwise, everyone comments on planter colors.

15:20Amanda Schneider:So the story here isn't that people are resistant to making decisions. It's that the conditions around them have shifted. Tighter budgets, higher scrutiny, less clarity from leadership. And when autonomy shrinks, committees grow, and timelines inevitably stretch. So with that, let's move on to theme two, which I think is incredibly related. Theme two is overwhelming pace, burnout, and speed. So if theme one was about how decisions are being made, theme two is about the pace which people are being asked to make them. And as you've already heard in this episode, this one came through loud and clear.

15:59Amanda Schneider:The speed of hospitality today isn't just fast, it's unsustainable. We heard story after story from those participating in this research who feel like they're running full tilt while the ground keeps shifting underneath them.

16:14Erica Waayenberg:Yes, and what stood out wasn't just the workload. It was a combination of tighter timelines, tighter budgets, tighter staffing, and the same expectations as before. One participant told us, The train doesn't stop moving, but you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm trying to make that change. So people aren't just busy. They're being asked to deliver future-ready, future-proof solutions while barely keeping up with the present. One participant summed it up perfectly for us. They said, nobody's pressing pause to let us fix the process. Efficiency does not equal effectiveness. And another added, if your projects are already train wrecked, reviewing in CDs won't help.

17:04Amanda Schneider:And that is the paradox. Everyone knows the process needs to evolve. Earlier alignment, earlier clarity, earlier triage. But no one feels like they have the time or breathing room or even autonomy to fix the process while they're stuck inside it. All right, let's move on to theme three, Rising expectations for business acumen. And this one was a fascinating part of the discussion. It zooms in on kind of a different kind of pressure. The expectations that are placed on design teams themselves. Because today, it's not enough to design a beautiful space. Designers are now expected to speak the language of business.

17:45Amanda Schneider:ROI, market performance, operational constraints, REVPAR, revenue pressures, the whole system.

17:53Erica Waayenberg:That's exactly right. And what we learned a few years ago was that designers now had to be human psychologists and now designers also have to have a business degree. I'm very glad that I'm not designing today. Yes. But that shift did come through loud and clear. One participant actually put it really simply. They said, we cannot just be designers in there. You need to look at the whole thing, the whole project. Another shared, most designers today just aren't prepared to look at projects through the lens of business, not just design. It's a reminder that design decisions don't live in a vacuum.

18:34Erica Waayenberg:They're tied to financial performance, guest expectations, operations, and brand strategy overall.

18:41Amanda Schneider:And here's the hard part. The industry has raised the bar on business fluency. but we haven't necessarily equipped teams to meet it. Designers are being asked to do different work, sometimes more work. They're being asked to understand more of the work that surrounds their expertise, their piece of that puzzle. And the better we are at connecting those dots together, the faster and more confidently decisions can move. With that, let's move on to theme four of We're almost there, folks. Theme four was AI as relief, not replacement. So this theme shifts us into one of the most practical, and I would say, ironically, most hopeful conversations we heard.