The Design Starter Kit - Ashley Squires - Defining Hospitality

What if the biggest advantage in hospitality design isn't having more options, but fewer, better ones?

Oct 07, 2026

Audio Links:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id157359638

Ashley Squires is an interior designer, hospitality design expert, and creative strategist with more than 25 years of experience across hospitality, multifamily, and private aviation spaces. She's led design work for major hotel brands, multifamily developments, and cruise lines, giving her firsthand insight into where the sourcing process breaks down for design teams. Alongside her partner Andrea, she co-founded The Stylist Group to turn that experience into a free resource other designers could lean on.

Takeaways:

Trust the process, not just the product. When you bring in a resource like The Stylist Group, you’re not handing off your design vision, you’re getting the bandwidth to execute it faster.
Fewer, better options beat an overwhelming library. Curated choices help you move with confidence instead of getting stuck sorting through everything a manufacturer has ever made.
Give your narrative early and often. The more context you provide about budget, brand, and location up front, the more tailored (and useful) your first round of options will be.
Time saved is money saved. Every hour you don’t spend sourcing materials is an hour (and a few thousand dollars) you get back for the work only you can do.
Don’t be afraid to lean on free resources. If a service exists to shoulder part of your workload at no cost, you owe it to your project timeline to at least try it.
Reach out to Dan on LinkedIn or hit reply on the Substack to share what you’re working on.