Fohlio is a comprehensive specification and procurement tool that helps users take on larger projects. Empower teams to open stores faster and improve their operational workflow with specification, prototyping, estimating, and procuring tools.
It starts with good intentions.
Your flagship property is finally getting that much-needed refresh. The new mood boards are stunning. The procurement team is ready to go. Operations has a plan to minimize guest disruption.
Fast forward a few months. You walk into the “new” lobby and… something feels different. Not bad. Just… not you.
The warm brass sconces have been replaced with a brushed nickel “upgrade.” The velvety armchairs are now a microfiber “that’s basically the same.” The marble flooring? Technically still marble — just a slightly different veining pattern than you remember approving.
Guests won’t say “This is off-brand.” They’ll just feel it. And that’s the danger.
Welcome to brand drift: the slow, almost invisible slide away from the identity you’ve worked so hard to build.
Brand drift isn’t always obvious. It’s rarely a full design overhaul that breaks consistency. More often, it’s death by a thousand substitutions:
Lighting temperature swap: 2700K bulbs replaced with 3000K. The space feels sharper, less cozy.
Fabric texture change: That high-end boucle sofa becomes a smooth weave. The tactile richness disappears.
Finish mismatch: One bathroom renovation swaps brushed brass fixtures for polished chrome because they were “easier to source.”
Each change is small enough to justify — until you step back and realize the soul of the space has shifted.
Image reference:
Think about the difference between walking into a Hilton Bankside Lobby with its signature, cohesive palette versus a property where every renovation was handled “locally” without a central standard. The first feels intentional. The second feels… patched together.
Renovations are messy. Not just physically, but operationally:
Without a way to keep everyone aligned, each department is making decisions based on their own priorities. That’s how the “design intent” that wowed in the planning phase gets watered down by install day.
Here’s the truth:
Most brand drift isn’t caused by bad choices. It’s caused by good choices made in isolation.
Design is thinking about the mood. Procurement is thinking about lead times. Finance is thinking about cost. Operations is thinking about durability. All valid concerns — but without a central, shared system, they’re not part of the same conversation.
When your teams aren’t connected:
When your teams are connected in Fohlio
It’s like putting the entire renovation project in one war room — except no one’s shouting, and everyone actually likes each other at the end.
A PDF brand guide is great for training. It’s useless for active projects if it’s hidden in someone’s inbox.
Your approved finishes, fixtures, and furniture need to live in the same system your teams use to work — accessible in real time to everyone involved.
How Fohlio does it:
Image reference:
Picture a luxury hotel lobby where every element — from the flooring pattern to the upholstery texture — feels like it was chosen by the same hand. That’s not luck. That’s a locked-down materials library.
Read: The Backbone of Better Design: Fohlio’s Product and Materials Library
Hospitality design is all about relationships — not people, but materials. A fabric swatch looks one way in your hand and another way under the actual lobby lighting.
In Fohlio, you can:
That means when procurement needs to pivot, they’re pulling from an alternate you’ve already vetted for brand fit — not guessing from a thumbnail in an online catalog.
Image reference:
Sofitel Al Hamra by Kristina Zanic Consultants where every texture, tone, and shape feels intentional. That’s context preserved.
Approvals scattered across email threads are where brand intent goes to die.
In Fohlio:
This isn’t about micromanaging — it’s about creating a transparent chain of custody for every design choice.
Reference: Track approvals in Fohlio. See time stamps of history of edits and easily leave comments.
Here’s where most drift sneaks in: Procurement works from a separate spreadsheet, outside of design oversight. That’s when a “similar” barstool makes it onto the loading dock.
With Fohlio:
Reference Image: Set up a dashboard view per team inside Fohlio. Easily work on the same, real-time data.
Read: Smarter Purchasing Made Simple: Fohlio’s Procurement Tools
The renovation doesn’t end when the last piece of furniture is placed. In hospitality, you’re constantly replacing, repairing, and upgrading — and if you don’t know exactly what’s in place, consistency is gone.
Fohlio’s asset tracking:
That means if a sconce in your Miami property breaks, you can reorder the exact same one that’s in your LA property — no guesswork, no drift.
Read: Fohlio FF&E Revit Integration: Cut Errors, Save Time, and Simplify Specification
One of the fastest ways to stop brand drift in its tracks is to see the renovation before it happens — and I don’t mean squinting at a flat floor plan or flipping through fabric swatches under office lighting.
Prototyping isn’t just for product design. In hospitality, it’s your insurance policy against “We didn’t realize it would look like that.”
Here’s why it matters:
Image reference blurb:
A snapshot of Fohlio’s Product Blocks library, showing how every room type from Queen Suite to Lobby is pre-assembled with approved products, finishes, and styles, complete with vendor data and costs. By storing prototypes like this in one central library, design, procurement, and operations can all pull from the same brand-approved template, ensuring what you prototype is exactly what gets rolled out across every property.
How to prototype in a way that actually prevents drift:
Read: Pre-Bundled Templates & Seamless Estimating for Faster Projects
Here’s how this plays out in real life:
Pre-Renovation
During Renovation
Post-Renovation
When all your teams share the same platform, you’re not just protecting aesthetics — you’re protecting the bottom line.
And perhaps most importantly? You stop having that sinking feeling when you walk into a renovated space and realize something’s off.
Brand drift is sneaky. It doesn’t announce itself — it just quietly chips away at the identity you’ve spent years building. But when design, procurement, operations, finance, and vendors are all working in the same place, with the same information, you make it almost impossible for drift to sneak in.
Fohlio doesn’t just keep your specs organized. It keeps your brand safe — one renovation, one property, one asset at a time.
Fohlio is a comprehensive specification and procurement tool that helps users take on larger projects. Empower teams to open stores faster and improve their operational workflow with specification, prototyping, estimating, and procuring tools.