Introducing Interior Design’s 2023 Hospitality Giants

Ever since the pandemic devastated the hospitality industry, we’ve been waiting for the comeback—and 2022 might be it. Interior Design’s Hospitality Giants brought in $576 million total fees, up 36 percent from the previous year. It’s a welcome surge: When 2020 went viral, so to speak, fees dropped by more than half, to $423 million in 2021, after having enjoyed a decade-long ascent from $600 million to a record $1.1 billion in 2019.

Hotels still make up the lion’s share of hospitality fees—about 49 percent—but that figure has been in gradual decline since peaking in 2013 at 59 percent. Everyone likes nice things, which helps explain why luxury properties account for two-thirds of hotel income overall ($212 million) with boutique and mid-economy income declining—though the $93 million they brought in is nothing to scoff at.

Restaurants ($80 million, 13 percent) and resorts ($67 million, 11 percent) are the next biggest seg­ments, with gaming and country clubs providing steady fees ($51 million combined). Multiuse remains a wildcard. That sector’s mix of hospitality, residential, and retail accounted for 5 percent of all fees ($34 million) last year but has spiked as high as 18 percent in 2019, and 14 percent in 2021. Who wants to bet big on 2023? Inside info: These Giants predict growth in the number of projects they’ll do—if not necessarily fees—in the boutique hotel, resort/spa/country club, restaurant/bar, and yes, multiuse categories.

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Another plus is that Hospitality Giants logged a record 5,700 projects overall, 350 more than the previous high in 2018—and they forecast that an additional 2,000 (!) will be delivered in 2023. Furniture, fixtures, and construction products also staged a rebound, after having plummeted from a cool $19 billion in 2019 to $6.2 billion in 2021 (that tremor you felt was the sector hitting rock bottom). Climbing back to $14.7 billion in 2022, we’re firmly on the road to recovery—although this uptick might be attributed to post-COVID right-sizing rather than a sign of exponential growth.

That’s the story: a general trend upward from pandemic lows. How much and how quickly? Well, the group projects $602 million in fees in 2023, a return to where we started in 2013, beginning that long climb back to the billion-dollar mark. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take as long this time.

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Editor’s Note: Take a look at recent coverage of our Hospitality Giants most admired firms of 2023 below. AvroKO tops the list followed by Yabu Pushelberg, and Rockwell Group.

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Growth Potential Over Next 2 Years

Asia

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Methodology

The Interior Design Giants annual business survey comprises the largest firms ranked by interior design fees for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2022. The listings are generated from only those surveyed. To be recognized as a top 100, Rising, Healthcare, or Hospitality Giant, you must meet the following criteria: Have at least one office location in North America, and generate at least 25% of your interior design fee income in North America. Firms that do not meet the criteria are ranked on our International Giants list. Interior design fees include those attributed to:

1. All aspects of a firm’s in­terior design practice, from strategic planning and programming to design and project management.

2. Fees paid to a firm for work performed by employees and independent contractors who are “full-time staff equivalent.”

Interior design fees do not include revenues paid to a firm and remitted to subcontractors who are not con­sid­ered full-time staff equivalent. For example, certain firms attract work that is subcontracted to a local firm. The originating firm may collect all the fees and re­tain a management or generation fee, paying the remainder to the performing firm. The amounts paid to the latter are not included in fees of the collecting firm when determining its ranking. Ties are broken by rank from last year. Where applicable, all per­cent­ages are based on responding Giants, not their total number. 

All research conducted by ThinkLab, the research division of SANDOW Design Group.