Hilton's List of Preferred Design Consultants: What Does It Mean?

When thinking about hotel chains, Hilton is the first brand that crosses our minds. A corporation that, over the course of more than a century of existence, was able to build 584 hotels across 122 countries, including Georgia.

United under the Hilton umbrella, there are 18 leading brands in the hotel industry, including Hilton Worldwide, Hampton by Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn, Signia by Hilton, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, Tempo by Hilton, Tru by Hilton, and Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts. 

Hilton's "golden" standards are not only applied within the brand. When building hotels in new countries, Hilton's Global Design Service carefully selects partners - developers, hotel architects, interior designers, engineers, constructors, etc. - who meet Hilton's standards, based on attention to detail and assessment of future potential, because this cooperation must guarantee compliance with the standards set by Hilton. This is why being on Hilton's database of preferred design consultants that include hotel architects and interior designers is important: it shows the fact that architectural studios, such as MUA, are qualified to design large-scale hotel architecture and create high-standard interior design. 

There are several Hilton hotels in Georgia, two of which - Hilton Batumi Hotel & Residences and the Tbilisi Hampton Hotel & Residences (Blox Avlabari)- were designed by the MUA team as the hotel architects together with partners. Founder of MUA, Devi Kituashvili, shares the experience of working on Hilton projects:

- When we started working on the project of Hilton Batumi, we faced an important challenge - there was no prominent experience in designing and building a similar large-scale hotel locally while communicating with the global operator. Hotels built in Georgia so far were created by foreign professionals, including builders. Therefore, Georgian construction companies were less experienced in working on the construction of a 5-star hotel, and on top of that, the construction had to be made with Hilton standards.

To help build a hotel in Batumi, Hilton invited the British company Mace, with which the MUA team gained substantial experience and knowledge of working according to British construction standards and Eurocodes. During the five years spent on the Hilton Batumi project, we compiled complete construction documentation, including construction drawings and written specifications. The teams of Hilton and Mace are intimately familiar with each and every need of large-scale hotels, so every little detail was taken into consideration while working on the drawings.

During the construction phase, we as the hotel architects monitored the construction on site for two years and worked out the best solutions for the problems that arose during the construction process. Along with this, our team members observed the construction process. Within the framework of the Hilton Batumi project, we collaborated with the British structural engineering company Engenuiti and the architectural studio CallisonRTKL.  Georgian companies were also involved in making Hilton Batumi - including LTD Progresi and Anagi LLC.

Overall, collaborating with Hilton has provided MUA with invaluable experience in hotel architecture, which is a necessary component while working on similar, high-class hotel projects.

- The project of Tbilisi Hampton is developed by one of the leading Georgian development companies -  Blox. First and foremost, we were very confident when working on the Hampton project. Based on our previous experience as hotel architects, we already knew each and every small detail of Hilton's strict standards and large-scale construction management, so it was relatively easy for us to communicate with the operators and create a project according to their requirements. 

Our project for the Hampton Hotel was accepted by the Hilton group on the first attempt, which once again convinced us that our previous cooperation provided us with very important technical knowledge of hotel architecture and standards. 

Based on our collaboration with Hilton, MUA received the status of preferred design consultant on Hilton's international partner platform.

Being on Hilton's list of preferred design consultants means that the architectural firm is fully familiar with Hilton's standards and has experience working according to them. The architecture firms on this list, including MUA, are qualified to provide a full architectural service to Hilton’s portfolio of brands in the designing and execution phases (including master planning and interior and architectural design) in Europe and the UK.