Salted Chair Hospitality: Perfecting Guest Experiences, One Venue at a Time

Q: What are the Salted Chair principles?

The thinking rests on three dimensions: The visual, of architecture and interior, branding & identity design The sensory, of food, seating & bedding, music, scent, and light; and The emotional, the service culture and connection a guest feels from the moment they step inside to the moment they decide to return.

Q: Who are the Salted Chairs?

At the heart of Salted Chair Hospitality are the founders. Maria brings a distinguished background in architecture, interior design, and luxury hospitality. Her experience includes work with prestigious groups such as Firmdale Hotels, renowned for iconic properties including the Soho Hotel and Ham Yard Hotel in London and the Crosby Street Hotel in New York. Her expertise reaches well beyond interior design into the full creative identity of a venue, uniting graphics, interiors, and operations so that every detail connects back to an exceptional guest experience. Paola's path began in investment banking before her passion for food and service drew her into the culinary world. Following specialised training in Milan and Switzerland in luxury hospitality management and marketing, she established herself as a respected industry voice, a judge for the WIZ Top 50 Cyprus Restaurants and a food writer, blogger, and commentator. Her grasp of consumer behaviour, hospitality marketing, and guest experience strategy gives every project a powerful commercial edge. Together, Maria and Paola offer a rare combination of creative vision, commercial expertise, hospitality insight, and guest-centric thinking. They understand the industry and deliver a truly holistic approach that few hospitality consultancies can match.

Jun 17
3 min read

Updated: Jul 13

In an industry where details define success, Salted Chair Hospitality was founded on a simple yet ambitious belief: every guest experience can be extraordinary.

Behind the company are two passionate professionals who share an obsession with consistency, quality, and what the industry calls "unreasonable hospitality", the relentless pursuit of exceeding expectations. Paola Papacosta and Maria Papaleontiou each bring their own discipline and instinct to the work, and together they have set out to transform the hospitality landscape, one venue at a time.

THE OFFERING

Everything under one roof.

Salted Chair Hospitality is more than a consultancy. It is a strategic partner that helps businesses create experiences guests remember, return for, and recommend. Its expertise spans the full range of hospitality venues, covering concept creation, architecture, interior design, and ambience, alongside branding, marketing strategy, creative direction, content creation, and staff training. Clients often assemble an army of consultants to master all of this. Salted Chair was built to offer it under one roof.

Overseeing it all is their signature Performance Audit & Analysis, a comprehensive evaluation that identifies precisely where a business can improve, how to make those improvements, and the measurable impact they will deliver.

Two founders of Salted Chair Hospitality seated outdoors in a hospitality venue setting.

THE CLIENT BASE

So who are Salted Chair Hospitality's clients?

The answer is simple. Any business whose success depends on exceptional guest experiences.

Real estate developers integrating hospitality into mixed-use projects rely on them for strategic vision and creative direction. New ventures being built from the ground up, from luxury hotels to boutique properties, restaurants, bars, cafés, and food retail concepts, lean on their guidance while every decision is still open. And established businesses already trading turn to them to sharpen a concept, lift performance, or fine-tune an offering.

ONE PARTNER FOR EVERY TOUCHPOINT

Why choose Salted Chair Hospitality?

Salted Chair offers something only a handful of consultancies can deliver: a genuine one-stop shop for hospitality excellence.

"Imagine how much time and money you save, and how satisfying it is, working with one company that aligns the concept and values of your business with its aesthetics and its product," Paola says.

"One partner who handles your branding and marketing, designs your space down to the last detail, manages the installation, curates and tests your product, and trains your staff to speak your venue's language. The consistency you get from that is almost impossible to match, especially when you are building from the ground up."

THE STARTING POINT

For many, the hardest part is knowing where to begin.

"For an existing business, the first step is a performance audit," Maria explains. "We go through every single aspect of the operation and identify where it can improve. Sometimes a client only needs us for one thing. Other times we take a holistic role, with regular visits to make sure the business holds its standard over time."

THE FRAMEWORK

What are the Salted Chair principles?

The thinking rests on three dimensions:

The visual, of architecture and interior, branding & identity design

The sensory, of food, seating & bedding, music, scent, and light; and

The emotional, the service culture and connection a guest feels from the moment they step inside to the moment they decide to return.

A DIVERSE TEAM

Who are the Salted Chairs?

At the heart of Salted Chair Hospitality are the founders.

Maria brings a distinguished background in architecture, interior design, and luxury hospitality. Her experience includes work with prestigious groups such as Firmdale Hotels, renowned for iconic properties including the Soho Hotel and Ham Yard Hotel in London and the Crosby Street Hotel in New York. Her expertise reaches well beyond interior design into the full creative identity of a venue, uniting graphics, interiors, and operations so that every detail connects back to an exceptional guest experience.

Paola's path began in investment banking before her passion for food and service drew her into the culinary world. Following specialised training in Milan and Switzerland in luxury hospitality management and marketing, she established herself as a respected industry voice, a judge for the WIZ Top 50 Cyprus Restaurants and a food writer, blogger, and commentator. Her grasp of consumer behaviour, hospitality marketing, and guest experience strategy gives every project a powerful commercial edge.

Together, Maria and Paola offer a rare combination of creative vision, commercial expertise, hospitality insight, and guest-centric thinking. They understand the industry and deliver a truly holistic approach that few hospitality consultancies can match.