Stroll around any Ikea showroom and you'll find a plethora of modular furniture options that can be combined into an even greater variety of room layouts. So you could, in fact, buy an entire prefabricated room straight from Ikea, which is more or less what Marriott Hotels is doing with its newly announced Moxy Hotels chain. Set to launch across Europe in 2014, Moxy is a joint venture between Inter Ikea (a fellow member of the parent Ikea Group) and Marriott, which is pitched as an economy hotel for "the rapidly emerging millennial traveler." Moxy aims to bring in a more youthful and frugal clientele by combining Ikea's budget-savvy assembly and manufacturing methods with a few modern touches.

USB ports will adorn each wall socket, check-in will be accessible via your phone — which in turn will connect to a free hotel-wide Wi-Fi network, promised be both reliable and fast — and there'll even be "state-of-the-art" computer terminals in each lobby. It bears all the hallmarks of Ikea's design philosophy for high-end appearances on a low-end budget, however The Wall Street Journal notes that none of the company's designers or furniture will be involved in Moxy's layouts. It's only the cost-effective construction and assembly skills that will transfer over to the new hotels. We'll be able to see the product of this new partnership with the opening of Milan's Moxy Hotel next year, to be followed by up to 150 others across western European and the Nordic region, with the UK and Germany considered of particular importance.