NASHVILLE, Tennessee — The creative process for designing a hotel and the spaces inside draws on a wide variety of factors to balance the wants and needs of both guests and hoteliers.
During a panel titled "The Data Behind Design" at this year's Hotel Data Conference, hotel design experts shared their experiences from past projects and what hoteliers should consider as they look at new projects and renovations.
There’s historical data that helps determine aspects of hotel design, said Raj Chandnani, managing director at Cortner Group. Hotel operators bring in ratio-based rules, such as how much meeting space is needed relative to the number of guestrooms and what the market suggests. That can also apply to how big the spa should be and how many seats are necessary in a restaurant.
“My favorite is the ratio of elevators to the number of guestrooms, which a lot of hotels can’t seem to get right,” he said. “Because there might be a ratio, but if everyone’s coming down for a meeting or everyone’s checking out at a certain time, the elevators always seem to go a little slower.”
Hotel designers use the empirical data as it fits into code compliance of the local jurisdictions, Chandnani said.
“What I always do when I start a project is I’m trying to do some research into what the market is telling me, and that just starts with some anthropological research where you tour hotels and you observe guests and you see pinch points,” he said. “You see these are opportunities to enhance the design of the operation.”
Ratios can be dangerous in the spa industry, said Lynn Curry, owner of Curry Spa Consulting. It’s not enough to look at number of treatments per guestroom.
“It doesn’t work that way,” she said. “We have to study the market. We have to understand the market that the hotel is expecting.”
If it’s a new-build hotel, that means knowing if the hotel is being built for a meetings market and, if so, knowing whether that includes incentive and social business or if it’s just for corporate business, Curry said. All these factors would dictate the size of the spa and whether the hotel sales department includes the spa or the spa has its own dedicated team. The capture rate changes between weekdays and weekends as well as hotel suites and regular guestrooms, as well.
All of these factors are necessary to determine the right size to make sure the spa isn’t overbuilt, she said.
Know the guests
When Chandnani worked on the design of The Venetian in Las Vegas, he spoke with the property’s owner, Sheldon Adelson, about the trend of bachelor and bachelorette parties trying to fit six people into a four-person room. Rather than try to prevent that from happening, Adelson said to make the rooms bigger.
The guestrooms became 750-square-foot rooms with two queen beds and a pullout couch that could comfortably fit six people, Chandnani said. That would fit larger groups, including families. They also chose to have two room types, not multiple, to maintain consistency and make future renovations easier.
In a similar situation, Ron Lustig, principal and senior designer at architecture firm Earl Swensson Associates, worked on a hotel project in Nashville where the developer knew it would attract larger groups of people in the guestrooms.
“It was just simple things, like adding an extra sink to the outside of the bathroom,” he said. “So, all of a sudden, there was the ability for someone to do makeup and those types of things while someone was in the bathroom, so it looks at little things that make things flexible.”
That’s also an instance when it helps to build an enclosed water closet for the toilet to allow multiple people in the bathroom, Chandnani added.
When bachelorette parties go to the spa, they would often need the place to themselves, which meant closing the space to prevent disruption to other guests, Curry said. Instead, having a dedicated space for them keeps all the spa guests happy, and it opens new opportunities as well.
“We’re actually creating hospitality rooms for private parties,” she said. “It could be a board of directors, especially an all-women board. They sometimes want to go to a spa and get away.”
Understand the rooms
It’s important to know that different people use guestrooms differently, so there should be some flexibility, Chandnani said. There was a trend in which hotel companies took desks out of the room because they expected people to use iPads instead of laptops or they had only closets and no dressers.
“Certain people use drawers. Certain people use closets. Certain people sit at a desk. Certain people work in bed,” he said. “It's hard to impose a standard upon everyone and not recognize that people have different styles. So, how can you build that flexibility?”
A pet peeve everyone has is traveling with multiple devices but the hotel room doesn’t have enough convenient outlets, Chandnani said.
“I have a phone and an iPad and a computer. Maybe I have to charge my AirPods. I need three or four outlets, and I am one person in the room,” he said. “Multiply that by three or four, how many outlets do you have? Are they conveniently located? Are they USB-A or USB-C?”
Guests like a hotel with personality that is memorable, something they may want to post on Instagram, Chandnani said. At the same time, hotel companies want something that’s timeless, so it’s a balancing act. His advice is to start a guestroom design by taking a cue from residential design, creating something that’s timeless and neutral that can be accentuated with artwork or accessories to give flavor and local personality.
“To change the walls or the light fixtures or the carpeting is a really expensive endeavor depending on how the economy plays out,” he said.
For a period of time, many thought having bigger guestrooms would equate to more revenue, Lustig said. The bigger rooms also required more and bigger furniture.
“So now, I think with the change in dynamics and the way people are traveling, people are looking for a little more efficient, smaller guestroom, looking for a better public space that they can go to, where they can go and sit down with their computer,” he said.
Hotel companies are also questioning whether hotel restaurants need to be so big, Lustig said. They’re looking at turning their lobby spaces into areas where people can get a cup of coffee and sit with some privacy or with a small meeting.
“Those are the types of things that people are looking at that are more and more efficient,” he said.
There are two schools of thoughts when looking at hotel rooms revenue, Chandnani said. There’s average daily rate, but there’s also revenue per square foot. Hotels with a smaller room type, such as Marriott International's Moxy brand, get a certain rate while hotels about double the size don’t necessarily get double the rate.
“Your revenue per square foot is off, right?” he said. “It’s something to consider as you’re looking at things. Square footage does matter in certain markets.”
People going on a leisure trip often look up the square footage of a guestroom because they’re going to stay in the room longer and have more luggage, Chandnani said. The online travel agencies and hotel websites now include the square footage on their websites as a result.
“There is a slight psychological [effect], you're willing to pay a higher rate if you're going to be staying in a bigger room,” he said. “But again, I don't know if I'm looking at that if I'm staying one night on a business trip.”