Grass carpet at the Crowne Plaza Hotel

We have heard of a lot of nutty things to further profits but here at H&H we think this one takes the biscuit. The Crowne Plaza hotel group is rolling out a new design brief for boardrooms – grass. Yes, in a bid to up the creativity factor in boardroom meetings the hotel group has swapped the round table for a grass carpet.

The logic behind the idea stems from research carried out by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) which reveals that 40 percent of professionals lose focus within the first 20 minutes of a meeting often because their surroundings are so uninspiring. With this design the grass reminds workers of childhood, freeing them of societal barriers so that they can get their creative juices flowing.

The grass-filled meeting rooms were trialled in the Dublin Northwood Crowne Plaza from Monday August 16th to Friday August 20th and are waiting for a go-ahead for all branches of the hotel group.

We will wait with baited breath to see if shoes off equals profits up.