Thread by @somehotelguy

It’s @somehotelguy’s first New Development thread, “On Guestrooms and Guestroom Bathrooms”:

First an apology – I don’t have a library of floorplans I can post from like @bobbyfijan, so this won’t be anywhere near as informative or cool as his threads.

Second caveat – for most suburban limited or select service hotels, you’ll just build whatever plans the brand hands you, adjusted slightly for site conditions. This thread does not apply to those hotels. Third caveat – I’m all over the place here, sorry!

When you’re building an independent, or even non-prototypical, hotel, you’ll have a ton of decisions you need to make about layouts, floor-planning, furniture, materials, etc.

First & foremost, hire an architect and an interior designer (my preference: NOT the same company… you’re either an architect or an interior designer, you’re not both) who have done hotels of a similar quality to the one you’re building.

I wouldn’t hire Gene Kaufmann to do a Four Seasons, and I wouldn’t hire Robert A.M. Stern to do a Hampton Inn, but they’re both fantastic architects.

Here are a few other items in the guestroom I’ve found make a big difference in planning a hotel:

1) Clearances.

Know how big a housekeeping vacuum is, and make sure one can fit everywhere there’s space.

That means between bed and sidewall, between dresser and desk, between chair and nightstand, etc. etc. etc. Know how and how far doors open, and what the impact is of an open door (say, an open door to the bathroom) on other doors that may need to be open at the same time…

…(say, a closet or armoire). When doors open the wrong way, or bang into other open doors, you end up with both unhappy guests and ongoing maintenance issues.

Hard surfaces need to be cleaned as well – you’ll need to ensure similar clearance from cleaning tools used in the bathrooms and on plank flooring.

2) Electrical. Plugs everywhere. People need to charge multiple devices.

People want to sit at their bedside or on available soft seating with their laptop. You have an iron and ironing board in the closet – that needs to be plugged in somewhere with enough room to actually use.

3) Furniture. For things other than the bed, smaller is better.

Odds are your avg length of stay will be something between 1 and 2 days, and you’ll occasionally get stays up to a week (unless you’re extended stay or a resort market – then ignore this bit), which means you don’t need a massive, bulky dresser.

You also don’t need an area to sit a TV – those are wall mounted now. Desks are a lower priority, even post-COVID, than ever before. Get a small one (albeit with a REALLY comfy desk chair).

Soft seating (e.g., armchairs) is nice but rarely used – keep it smaller and more functional while maybe adding a cantilevered side table so it can function as a desk or a place to have a bite.

In short – don’t make the mistake of allowing a large guestroom to feel like a small one due to too much furniture! Leave extra walking space around the bed, let it feel roomy. Go minimalist on furniture and maximalist on art, and you’ll have a great room.

4) Lighting. If your headboard side lamps have an articulated arm coming out, people will hang things from them (this applies to any articulated thing in the room).

If you’re hanging a pendant light, which can look lovely, make sure you’re REALLY happy with the location and will ALWAYS have something under it – moving a pendant is expensive, and if you change your furniture layout you don’t want to have to open drywall to do electrical.

Also, make sure that whatever you put under the pendant is large enough to prevent someone from walking into it, assuming it hangs below about 7 feet off the floor.

If your lighting plan relies entirely on lamps, make them easy to turn on and off, and be very deliberate about the illumination levels when switches are flipped; coming into a room that’s too dark, and being unable to figure out the lamps, is an awful guest experience.

5) Bathrooms. When I walk into a bathroom, the first thing I see – facing directly in from the door – should NOT be a toilet. Give me a well lit and designed vanity. Give me a sumptuous shower. No commode.

Shower surrounds are fantastic for budget conscious developers, but they’re not appealing to higher end consumers. Match your finish quality to your ADR target. Your vanity needs enough room for (minimum) TWO travel toiletry kits.

Don’t make one have to sit on a shelf precariously perched over the toilet. More vanity space is better, even if it means sacrificing a 2nd sink (if you’ve got that little room in the vanity, the 2nd sink isn’t functional anyway). Bidets? Delightful, but know your guest profile.

If heavy international, yes, if not, waste of money. Standard rooms go 3-fixture (shower, sink, toilet) and suites go 4 (shower, soaking tub, sink, toilet).

Unless you expect a heavy family contingent, no more than 20% of your standard rooms should be tub / shower combos, and those should all be in your double-bedded rooms.

When you do go 4-fixture, consider layout from a cleaning perspective – shower / tub wet rooms (e.g., the suites at one of my absolute favorite hotels, the Kimpton La Peer) are gorgeous but every time the shower gets used, the tub gets wet, and so housekeeping needs to do extra…

…work. Also consider materials carefully here, again from a housekeeping perspective. Grout types, colors, and widths all matter tremendously. Don’t use actual marble anywhere that gets wet – your preventative maintenance team will forget to seal it, and it’ll yellow.

That’s all for now… ask Q’s and give the best A’s I got!