Unique hotel design uncovered: working with boutique hotel Brama
The newly-opened Brama Hotel, positioned in the heart of Bromley, is our latest boutique hotel client. It’s located within the Bromley Old Town Hall, a landmark Grade II Listed building, which was originally built in 1907. This heritage asset has been completely transformed as part of an ambitious £20m renovation project. In addition to the Brama Hotel, the venue now incorporates a range of different commercial and hospitality spaces, including serviced offices, a members’ lounge, and an all-day dining restaurant and bar. The Brama itself now features 23 beautifully designed rooms that combine absolute comfort and convenience. In fact, the hotel design showcases a selection of brands, which mirror its values and high standards. So we are proud Brama chose us to supply their bedding, towels and other hospitality essentials, including dressing gowns, slippers and luggage mats too.
The Brama Hotel, located in the Bromley Old Town Hall, officially opened its doors to guests in May (pic credit: Brama Hotels)
A new partnershipOur collaboration with the Brama Hotel started began back in 2021. This was when our director Jane Robson met the Brama buyer at the Independent Hotel Show. We then sent the hotel team a selection of wash test samples from our Brooklyn hotel bed linen collection and Como and Venice hand towels. Following this, in February 2022, we presented a range of different bedding and hospitality options to the hotel directors. Then they delivered their final choices in February 2023, in time for the official opening.
“We work closely with our hotels, laundries and factories to develop and provide the best, most suitable products for each boutique hotel,” Jane explains. “Over the years, we have honed our offer to ensure our boutique hotel clients have everything they need for their rooms...It was a pleasure to work with the team from Brama.”
The bed linen we supplied perfectly complements the hotel’s signature green/orange colour scheme (pic credit: Brama Hotels)
Bedding benefits
The right bed – which really means the right hotel bedding – can make or break a hotel stay. It also plays an important role within the overall hotel design. Our exclusive bed linen fabric is woven and finished especially for us in Portugal, to our exacting specifications. The yarn we use is also specifically selected. So, our fabric is durable and robust enough to withstand commercial laundering, yet smooth with a silky feel.
The Brama Hotel chose our Brooklyn 300TC Egyptian Cotton duvet covers and bed sheets, partnered with our Roma 300TC pillowcases. These are white with a green line, to complement the colours of the hotel’s room scheme.
“When choosing bed linen, hoteliers should consider durability and feel,” Jane explains. “Many hotels we speak to have bought bed linen from retail outlets who claim they sell ‘hotel quality’. However, quite often it has simply not been woven and finished to withstand the rigours of hotel life.”
Hotel design: comfort is key
Luxury hotels like the Brama invest a lot in their mattresses. They aren’t an obvious part of any hotel design – but they are key to a guest’s good night’s sleep. The Brama team chose our Pro Max Mattress Encasement Collection to protect and extend the life of their mattresses, alongside our Tencel Jersey Envelope Finish Waterproof Pillow Protector Collection. Our Tuscany Luxury Deeper Filled Quilted Washable Mattress Topper Collection provides an added layer of comfort.
The hotel chose vegan duvets and pillows, made from recycled bottles, for its 23 rooms, in line with its stated sustainability focus (pic credit: Brama Hotels)
“Pillow protectors are essential to keep pillows clean and fresh, and you should wash these after each guest stay,” notes Jane. “Mattress protectors are so important too, as mattresses are costly and often the main investment in the room.
“People spill things on mattresses – and once you stain them, you can ruin them,” she underlines. “They can also be easily infested with dust mites and bed bugs, which can jump off luggage. However, we make our encasements to be waterproof, bed bug-proof and COVID-proof.”
In a similar vein, we supplied with Brama with personalised luggage mats, to protect their bedding from suitcase dirt and damage.
Made with fibre from recycled bottles, our hypoallergenic Vegan Down Duvet Collection completes the Brama’s bedding choices.
We have seen an increased demand for luggage mats, as more hotels become more aware of their protective and hygienic properties
Quality & durability in hotel design
Towels are yet another small item that can make a big difference to hotel guests, and can be customised to accommodate any hotel design. We supplied the Brama with our luxury Como 700gsm Organic Cotton Towel Collection.
“Our towels are woven for us, and have double-stitched side seams to ensure durability,” notes Jane. With a GSM of 700, this upscale range embodies a true high-end hotel-style look and feel.
We supplied the Brama with a selection of our luxury Como towels. These feature double-stitched seams and an opulent 700GSM (pic credit: Brama Hotels)
Essential extras
For luxury boutique hotels, finishing touches are very important, as they ensure a room ‘ties together’. In addition to bedding and towels, we provided the Brama with our Palermo Cotton Waffle dressing gowns and Lyndhurst Eco-Friendly slippers. Both of these feature a fetching forest green shade to complement the colours of the hotel design.
“Importantly, our slippers are 100% biodegradable,” Jane explains. “This is part of our objective to move away from single-use plastic; we make these slippers solely from natural cotton and plant fibres, and you can recycle them.”
The personal touch in hotel design
Customised elements deliver a sophisticated finishing touch and can really elevate a hotel design. “We can easily customise bed linen and bathrooms. All we need is a little time to do this for you,” confirms Jane. “We don’t recommend coloured bed linen for hotels due to the laundering process. But we can customise with coloured embroidery, logo embroidery or different style details; all of which can make a room ‘pop’ with colour.”
We customised a number of items for the Brama Hotel. These include our waffle dressing gowns, to emphasise their branding and add that all-important personal touch (pic credit: Brama Hotels)
We supplied the Brama with a selection of our personalised hairdryer and laundry and steamer bags. We have also produced distinctive embroidery to feature the hotel's logo for a personal touch with luxury appeal. Unlike single-use plastic laundry bags, you can simply wash and reuse this type of fabric bag. And, from a hotel design perspective, the personalisation ensures the hotel brand is front of mind for guests. And should guests take the bags home, they will have an enduring reminder of their stay.
“Because we have a UK factory, an in-house embroidery designer and our own industrial embroidery machine, we can turn things around very quickly prior to production,” Jane confirms.
Simple yet practical, you can customise our hairdryer bags. We offer a stylish range of embroidery options at speed, thanks to our in-house embroidery service (pic credit: Brama Hotels)
The Brama Hotel viewpoint
“Our experience of working with The Fine Cotton Company has been wonderful from the very start,” notes Brama Hotel House Manager Alasdair Wilson. “Jane has been wonderful to work with, and the company culture is fantastic.”
He continues: “The quality of the products was the first attraction. Following on from this, [we have been thrilled with] the attention to detail – and the customer service which has gone above and beyond.”
The Brama’s key objective was to find a single company that could deliver on the hotel design vision, requirements and volumes. Sustainability was another important criterion.
“The hotel is aiming to be certified ISO 14001 within the coming years,” Alasdair confirms. “The sustainability focus of the products supplied by The Fine Cotton Company perfectly matches our ethos and strategy, with the slight extra cost being accepted as the correct thing to do.”
He concludes: “Every guest that has stayed has commented on the premium quality, comfort and design of all of the items provided by The Fine Cotton Company. They truly enhance the guest experience and add to the luxury that is Brama.”
