"We had made up our mind from the beginning that we wanted to use stone," said project architect and owner Bipin Patel of Hotel Squared Corp. in Winchester, VA. Patel explained that he wanted to use a durable material such as natural stone for the Comfort Suites, because he had witnessed problems with other materials in high-traffic areas of previous hotels he designed. "We were noticing that every five years we had to replace the wallpaper because of wear and tear," he said. "We wanted something solid [for the Comfort Suites]. That's why we chose granite."

According to the architect, the types of stones were chosen from among the collection on display in the showroom of American Slate Group in Decatur, AL. In total, the hotel features 4,000 square feet of 12- x 12-inch Raw Silk granite tiles, which were employed for the bathroom floors and side walls; 3,000 square feet of Kashmere White granite for the lobby floors - accented by borders and designs of Absolute Black granite; and 84 vanity tops made of Raw Silk granite.