An eclectically designed hotel has opened in Sydney’s inner-city Camperdown precinct, which allows guests to peruse available rooms on check-in and choose their room based on the style, colour, texture and design.

Opting away from standardised décor in rooms, The Collectionist commissioned seven designers from four leading design studios, and 13 artists, to create 39 individually designed rooms and lobby space.

A room designed by Amber Road

“We have purposely set about creating rooms that will challenge the ‘norms’ on hotel room design,” says Daniel Symonds, CEO and co-founder of Collectic Hotels, who headed up the development. “We are expecting divided opinions on some of the designs but we are confident that everyone will find a room that appeals to them.”

A room designed by the Pattern Studio team

The design teams include Andrew Cliffe from The World is Round; Yasmine Ghoniem and Katy Svalbe from Amber Road; Susie Willis and Matt Sheargold from Willis Sheargold; and Josh Cain and Lily Goodwin from Pattern Studio.

In recognition of the unique design of each room, they have been given imaginative names that reflect the room’s ambience. Guests can choose to stay in the ‘La Chambre Noir’; the ‘Queenie Fah Fah’; the ‘Cloud Runner’ or the ‘Kyoko’ rooms, for example, each with their own unique story to tell.

A room by The World is Round

The ‘choose your own’ experience was inspired by a car-hire experience in the US , which allows for an up-close inspection on a variety of cars at pick-up. Symonds was impressed by the flexibility, choice and control it gave him, which led him to question why hotels couldn’t operate the same way.

Willis Sheargold designed room room

“I realised that people are very particular about the car they drive, the colour they choose, the style they want. It’s a very personal choice, so why didn’t we make hotel rooms that catered to these different tastes rather than offering standardised rooms and no choice in the room type a guest prefers? By providing guests with a more tactile way of choosing their room, they are directly involved in their stay experience.”

Rooms are grouped in four categories based on their size and whether an outdoor space is included.

Photography by Terence Chin