Design as Strategy: Maria’s Reflections from the Cosentino City Porto Roundtable
July 2026
Bohopo’s Director of Development, Maria Georgiou, recently joined the panel discussion “Designing Hospitality: From Global to Local” at Cosentino City Porto. The session brought together voices from architecture, manufacturing, and hospitality media to explore how design decisions shape the guest experience, and, ultimately, asset performance.
The conversation surfaced themes at the core of how Bohopo approaches every project.
Global trends in hospitality design are useful signals: they show where guest expectations are heading and where investment priorities are shifting. But they only create value when translated into a specific place, a specific building, a specific community. For Bohopo, authenticity isn’t an aesthetic choice, it’s a commitment to bringing underutilised heritage buildings back to life in the cities where they belong.
The panel also addressed the relationship between design, manufacturing, and timing. The most successful projects are those where designers, suppliers, and operators align from the outset. In practice, compressed timelines make that coordination difficult, and the gap between the ideal process and the real one is exactly where value is won or lost.
On sustainability, the conversation surfaced different priorities. Bohopo’s position is consistent: durable, practical decisions that cut long-term operating costs and are felt by the guest, create real value. Sustainability on paper, in marketing copy rather than in the building , does not.
Perhaps most pointedly, the panel agreed that stakeholders define success differently on any development. For Bohopo, the measure is simple: a hotel that performs commercially. Authentic design, a strong sense of place, and a quality guest experience aren’t ends in themselves, they’re the means by which a property builds occupancy, supports pricing, and delivers returns.
Maria was joined on the panel by Marcelo Morim of Enzyme and Margarida Ferreira da Silva of AM Furniture. The session was moderated by Victor Jorge of Publituris Hotelaria.
