News Hub

In the latest in our Designer Edit series, the Independent Hotel Show meets with citizenM Chief Design Officer Claudia Abt to chat about creating spaces with personality, balancing consistency with local context, and the brand’s smart approach to tech and personalisation.  

Fresh from a hard hat tour of the soon-to-open citizenM Olympia, Claudia reflects on the challenges of working within a listed building, the role of storytelling in design, and what affordable luxury means today. 

Tell us about your role at citizenM 

I’m Chief Design Officer at citizenM and have been with the company for more than seven years. I'm an architect by training, so I’ve been interested in interiors and architecture all my life, and I came from a retail design background before joining citizenM.  

Our founder also comes from a retail background, so moving into hospitality was a very natural transition for me. At the end of the day, whether it's architecture, retail or hospitality, it's always about creating meaningful guest or customer experiences through space and design. 

What were the biggest learning curves in moving into hospitality design? 

In hospitality, you're designing a longer journey and for different settings. There's an arrival experience, time spent in the room, a breakfast experience. There's much more diversity in the guest journey, which makes it really interesting. 

If someone had never heard of citizenM before, how would you describe the brand? 

citizenM is built on a number of brand pillars: human service, distinct design empowered by technology. In design we want to deliver a positive experience for our guests. It's a happy place! There’s a lot of colour, layered curiosities, and always something to make you smile, whether it’s the art or something unexpected. 

Image: Independent Hotel Show team joined Claudia on a hard hat tour of the new citizenM Olympia. 

What kind of art stands out as something that might work for citizenM? 

That’s a great question, and it’s never answered by just one person. We don’t send out a curator who picks something and brings it back. 

Our curator collects options and identifies artists she’s interested in, then presents them to what we call the Creative Board. That includes myself, our founder, our operations lead, our brand lead, and others involved in citizenM’s creative direction. 

We look for art with a strong point of view, something colourful and not too serious. We like work that’s light-hearted but still bold in its attitude. 

Technology is clearly a key part of the brand. Why is tech so important, and where does it intersect with design? 

It’s important, but it’s not technology for its own sake. We think about tech in terms of freeing up our staff, who we call ambassadors, so they can focus on people. 

Their job is to deliver an exceptional experience, be authentic, and engage with guests. We don’t want them spending time typing in forms or re-entering information the guest has already provided. 

That’s where tech helps. We don’t have kiosks because we like the look of them. We have them so the ambassador can say, “Hey, how are you doing? How was your journey?” They can check if a guest needs anything and build a personal connection. 

In the rooms, technology makes everything more functional and efficient. Everyone’s had that experience of not being able to find a light switch in a hotel room. At citizenM, it’s all on the app or the in-room iPad. Everything is easy to control and designed to make things better for the guest. 

Personally, my favourite feature is the one-tap light control. Everything switches off at once. It’s simple but feels like real luxury. 

Personalisation is a big trend in hospitality. It sounds like citizenM is enabling that through tech? 

Yes, and we’re thinking about how to take it further. We’re working on giving guests the ability to create their own profiles so that when they return, the room is already at their preferred temperature, the blinds close at a certain time, or the shower light is green. That’s the kind of personalisation we’re aiming for. 

How many of your guests are return visitors? 

Around 25 percent of our guests are returning. 

They connect with our mindset. We’re not building a product for a specific demographic. It’s more about a mindset. We’re designing for open-minded travellers who have stayed in many hotels and enjoy being in a place that’s both considered and fun. They want what they need, without excess. 

In terms of the new citizenM at Olympia, what were some of the design challenges? 

The big challenge was dealing with an existing, listed building, which came with many restrictions. 

But we treat challenges as opportunities. While we maintain consistency across our concept, we also look for ways to bring the context into the brand. Every hotel includes bespoke elements. 

Image: A render of the new hotel's ground floor entrance

It’s about creating a citizenM room and public space that fits its location. London is now home to our sixth hotel, and we don’t want them to all be the same. Each tells a story. The art, styling, and materials all vary depending on where the hotel is. 

At Olympia, we found a rich heritage. We’ve never done a front-of-house in a listed interior before, so it was completely new. The goal was to understand the space and work with it, not overpower it. We’re not fighting what’s already there. We’re inviting and integrating it. 

Are the rooms in new hotels a template of citizenM rooms, or do they evolve? 

From a distance, they may look the same, but up close you’ll see they evolve. The concept works, so we don’t need to revolutionise it. 

But we’ve built over 30 hotels and have learned a lot. The changes are in the details. It’s about building rooms more efficiently and improving things like bathroom installation. Our bathrooms can be built in a day, whereas a traditional hotel bathroom might take a week. We have a dedicated team working on product development to optimise these efficiencies. 

What role does sustainability play when opening a new hotel? 

We have clearly defined standards for sustainability, including requirements for LEED or BREEAM certification. 

These standards are part of the brief we give our architects. Much of the sustainability focus is in the architecture, covering water use, energy efficiency, and incorporating renewables. We’re working to move buildings off gas and achieve net zero. This is something we manage closely from the design and construction side. 

What will the living room space feel like once it’s open? 

As with all our hotels, we want the space to feel energetic throughout the day. We avoid creating areas that sit unused for hours. We overlap functions in the same space to keep the hotel active all the time. 

Image: A render of the hotel's 'living space' area, where Claudia and her team had to incorporate the listed period features of the venue. 

Our meeting rooms, for example, are near the front of house. When people take breaks, they spend time in the shared space. There’s always a mix of new guests arriving, others leaving, and locals dropping in. 

We prefer front-of-house areas on the ground floor. At Bankside and Shoreditch, people from the neighbourhood come in to work or meet friends. That’s harder if the front-of-house is upstairs, but even then, people tend to find us. 

Where’s next for citizenM? 

We’ve just opened in Dublin, which is exciting. Next is Olympia, opening later this year. After that, in the first quarter of next year, we’ll open our third hotel in Washington DC, in Georgetown. 

How do you choose locations? 

We always ask, where are our mobile citizens? Where do they live, work, and travel? 

Our theme for the Independent Hotel Show this year is ‘Redefining Luxury’. Do you see citizenM as offering a kind of luxury? 

We describe it as affordable luxury or smart luxury. It’s not traditional luxury like a Rolls Royce or a high-end watch, though those are nice too. 

For us, luxury is having everything you need at your fingertips. A well-designed room, smart service, convenience at every touchpoint. My phone, for example, is my luxury. It’s where personalisation happens. That’s how we think about it: what can we do to make your journey better at any given moment? All citizenM hotels deliver convenience through design, product quality, and tech enablement in accessible, central locations.  

Click here to join hotel industry leaders at Independent Hotel Show London 2025.