A great hotel is about far more than a beautiful lobby or a striking room. It is the considered combination of architecture, interiors, materials and details that shapes how a guest experiences a space – and bathrooms are an increasingly important part of that equation.
For House & Garden Designer of the Year 2026, Flush Bathrooms joins the awards as sponsor of the Hotel of the Year category. The partnership recognises the close relationship between thoughtful bathroom design and the wider hospitality experience, from the materials selected to the functionality and detailing that guests encounter throughout their stay.
For Flush Bathrooms, excellence in hotel design is rooted in creating spaces that feel distinctive while remaining intuitive, durable and responsive to their setting. In this Q&A, the brand shares what it will be looking for among this year's nominees, why celebrating South African design talent matters and how bathrooms can contribute to a memorable sense of place.
1. What drew Flush Bathrooms to sponsor Hotel of the Year at the House and Garden Designer of the Year Awards, and why does it feel like the right fit for your brand?
Hotels bring architecture, interiors and guest experience together with precision. Bathrooms play a defining role in that experience, making Hotel of the Year a natural fit for Flush Bathrooms. The category celebrates ambitious design, thoughtful and durable specification for memorable spaces.
2. What qualities do you believe define excellence in hotel design, and what will you be looking for in this year’s nominees?
Excellent hotel design creates a strong sense of place while making guests feel considered. We expect to see intuitive functionality, material integrity and beautifully resolved bathroom detailing.
3. What does supporting and celebrating South African design talent mean to Flush Bathrooms, particularly at a platform as established as House and Garden Designer of the Year?
South African designers bring resourcefulness, cultural awareness and sensitivity to place. Supporting their work means recognising ideas that can stand confidently on an international stage while remaining distinctly local. Flush Bathrooms is proud to celebrate the talent shaping our hospitality landscape and strengthening its global reputation.
4. Beyond recognising a winning hotel or designer, what do you hope this category brings to the wider design conversation?
Hotel of the Year expresses how design shapes hospitality, wellbeing and memory. It should highlight the importance of literally every detail, including bathrooms, in creating a cohesive guest experience. We hope it encourages brave ideas, responsible specifications and closer collaboration between designers, suppliers and operators.
5. What does House and Garden Designer of the Year mean to you, and why do you think awards like these remain important to the design industry?
House and Garden DOTY awards provide a platform for creative work. Awards celebrate excellence, make innovative thinking visible and creating and documenting valuable benchmarks for the industry. They encourage dialogue and inspire emerging talent.
6. Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of South African design, and what role do you see Flush Bathrooms playing in supporting it?
Flush Bathrooms will support that progress by connecting professionals with beautifully designed, reliable bathroom products and informed specification guidance. We aim to help designers translate ambitious hospitality concepts into enduring, exceptional guest experiences.
Flush Bathrooms' perspective on Hotel of the Year highlights an important truth about hospitality design: the smallest details can have an outsized impact on how a space is experienced. A beautifully resolved bathroom is not simply a functional requirement, but part of the architecture, atmosphere and memory of a hotel.
The brand's support of the category also reflects its belief in the strength of South African design talent. From resourceful thinking and cultural awareness to a strong sensitivity to place, local designers are creating hospitality spaces with an increasingly confident identity and international relevance.
As the industry looks ahead, Flush Bathrooms sees an opportunity to support this progress by connecting designers with reliable, beautifully designed bathroom products and informed specification guidance. In doing so, the brand hopes to help translate ambitious concepts into hospitality spaces that are not only visually compelling, but enduring and genuinely enjoyable to inhabit.
Credits
Images: Courtesy of Flush Bathrooms
