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Majo Mathew‘s path into the interiors industry is not the one most people in this space would expect. After completing his post-graduation in development management, a discipline rooted in social impact and community development, he spent five years working with an NGO. It was purposeful, grounding work that taught him how to listen to people, understand what they actually need and find solutions within real constraints. Those skills, as it turned out, translated directly into a commercial environment in ways he could not have anticipated at the time.
The move into the furnishings and flooring industry came later, and when it did, it became a career that has been defined not by a single product category but by a genuine depth of expertise in one of the built environment’s most technically demanding and visually significant disciplines: flooring, and in particular bespoke and custom-made carpets. At Surfaces Furnishing LLC, where he now serves as Deputy General Manager, Majo has built a reputation across the UAE’s hotel industry that speaks for itself.
The floor beneath everything
Majo’s approach to his work is shaped by a belief that flooring is one of the most consequential and most underestimated decisions in any interior specification. It is the surface that every person who enters a space touches first, literally and physically, before they look at a wall or a ceiling or a piece of furniture. In a hotel environment, where the guest experience is shaped by thousands of micro-impressions from the moment they step off the lift, the quality, texture, colour and acoustic performance of the floor covering can make or break the atmosphere an operator has invested millions to create.
His background in development management gave him something that a purely commercial education might not: the discipline of understanding the person before the product. He does not approach a client brief by leading with a catalogue. He leads with questions. What is the hotel trying to achieve? Who is the guest? What is the brand promise? What does the existing floor plan demand in terms of traffic flow, acoustic management and maintenance? The specification comes last, not first.
That approach is what has made him the go-to carpet and flooring consultant for some of the most recognisable hotel brands operating in the UAE.
The names that trust him
Over his career at Surfaces Furnishing, Majo has worked closely with the procurement and design teams of some of the region’s most demanding hospitality operators. Address Hotels, Hyatt, Hilton, Accor, Millennium and Marriott are among the chains he has supported through carpet refurbishments, advising on product selection, specification, quality control and the practical realities of replacing floor coverings in operational hotels where downtime is limited and standards are uncompromising.
That kind of work is not simply about sourcing a product. It requires an understanding of how different carpet constructions perform under high footfall, how pile density and yarn type affect long-term durability, how colour and pattern choices interact with lighting conditions at different times of day and how the acoustic properties of a floor covering contribute to the overall sound environment of a guest floor or public area. It requires someone who has done this enough times to know what the drawings do not show and what the specification sheet does not tell you.
Majo is that person for a significant number of the UAE’s leading hotel brands. That reputation has been built not through marketing but through consistent, technically informed advice that has proven right long after the handover.
When the industry asks more of you
The shift Majo thinks about most right now is one that aligns closely with the direction the UAE itself is moving: sustainability. For the past two years, sustainability has been at the centre of how he approaches product recommendations and supplier relationships, and it has moved well beyond a general commitment to doing better.
Practically, this has meant sourcing and supplying carpets manufactured from recycled plastic bottles, a product category that has matured considerably in quality and has been specified and installed across multiple hotels in the UAE under his recommendation. In a country where the leadership has made sustainability a national priority and where major hotel operators are under increasing pressure from international parent companies to demonstrate environmental credentials, the ability to offer a product that performs to the highest commercial standards while carrying genuine sustainability credentials is no longer a differentiator. It is becoming a baseline expectation.
Majo has been ahead of that shift rather than catching up to it, and the hotels he works with are better positioned because of it.
The lesson that took longer than it should have
Looking back, Majo is candid about the thing he wishes someone had told him earlier. In a client-facing role, especially one that sits at the intersection of design and commerce, the ability to listen is worth more than the ability to present. He spent years developing his product knowledge, his understanding of specifications and his ability to articulate why one solution was better than another. What took longer to learn was the discipline of understanding the client’s world first, fully and without rushing to the solution.
The best outcomes he has been part of have almost always come from conversations where he asked more than he said. Where he understood the business behind the brief, the brand behind the hotel and the operational reality behind the specification before anything was sourced or recommended. That patience, he says, is the thing nobody teaches you and everyone eventually learns the hard way.
What success looks like from here
Majo’s definition of success has shifted considerably since he first made the move from the NGO sector into commercial interiors. Early on it was tied to projects, to the visible evidence of work completed and relationships established. Today it is considerably more specific. Success for him means being the person a hotel’s procurement or design team calls when a carpet refurbishment is on the horizon, not because he is the cheapest option but because they trust that his recommendation will be the right one.
He is also honest about the fact that success, for him, is inseparable from continued learning. The flooring and carpet industry is more technically complex and more rapidly evolving than most people outside it realise. New manufacturing processes, new sustainability standards, new acoustic and fire performance requirements and new aesthetic directions emerge regularly. Staying genuinely current, not just commercially current, is a commitment he takes seriously.
The people who shaped the path
Majo closes with gratitude that is specific and genuine. He credits the mentors who pushed him to think beyond the surface of a product specification, the colleagues who challenged his thinking and the hotel clients who trusted him with spaces that carry their brand reputation to every guest who walks through the door. He also acknowledges the years in the NGO sector that gave him a way of engaging with people and understanding their real needs that has served him every day since, even in a world that looks completely different from the one he started in.
The space between a floor plan and a finished hotel corridor is where Majo Mathew does his best work. He has always known that. And the names on his client list are proof that the industry knows it too.
Majo Mathew is Deputy General Manager at Surfaces Furnishing LLC, Dubai. This piece is part of The Minds Behind the Build, PAGES’ ongoing series celebrating the founders and leaders shaping the built environment.
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