Karen Hay

Karen Hay is the Founder and Creative Director of INdulge, a Hong Kong-based boutique design studio specialising in luxury international hotel and entertainment environments throughout the Asia Pacific region. With 28 years of solid design experience covering Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, with projects as far ranging as London, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, China and Spain.

Karen leads INdulge with a cutting-edge focus on luxury Interiors for Hospitality, working with many of the world’s leading hospitality and leisure hotels and resorts, including Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, Accor; Sofitel Hotels and Fairmont Hotels, Hilton, Intercontinental, Langham, Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons and Hyatt among a few others.

Recognized for her successful, and award-winning projects Karen is regularly invited as a guest speaker at industry conferences throughout Asia, including talks to several of the hotels’ operation teams on F&B trends and design strategies. She has also been both a recipient and regular judge of the AHEAD Asia-Pacific and Global Awards.

Harnessing her Scottish heritage, international experience, entrepreneurial spark and keen sense of sustainability she possesses not only her wealth of knowledge in her profession but also her connections with all top-tier designers, suppliers, developers and hotel operators. She has been the eyes and hands of her clients, representing them and overseeing the projects, coordinating closely with countless consultants from various speciality design fields and disciplines, across the globe to achieve a common goal – successful, sustainable and award-winning design which focuses on bringing the best guest experience possible. Her early years working in a reparatory theatre designing, building and painting sets, have left an indelible mark on her approach to interior design throughout her career, and today she remains hands-on and her theatrical story-telling flair certainly shines through her projects.

Karen has also been employed as a consultant Director of Interiors on several large-scale Integrated resort developments such as ‘Inspire” in Incheon, South Korea on behalf of Mohegan Sun, “The Londoner” in Macau, on behalf of Las Vegas Sands, and more recently on “Omura Bay” in Nagasaki on behalf of Oshidori International Developments.

Karen has a unique ability to see things from a wide perspective and to also focus on small details that make up all the parts of a project. To serve the best interest of the client, she will understand the whole project to be designed; taking into account all the important issues, including functions and operations, the locations and characteristics of the site, with a holistic view of cultural reference, strong aesthetics and design themes.

As a business owner, she understands what it takes to run a profitable business, guide and drive a team, ensure the highest level of design quality, and deliver projects on time and within budget. She has proven time and time again to be an excellent project leader who delivers results that consistently exceed expectations.