7 Creative Ways Hotels Can Use Space to Maximize Revenue • WebRezPro

Interior design has a big impact on the guest experience. From colors and furniture to layout and lighting, even the smallest design elements influence the way your guests interact with your property. Sleek bar stools and eclectic, trendy music evoke a hip and happening urban vibe while a cozy fireplace and rustic furnishings create, well, that cozy fireplace feel. 

Delving deeper into your design enables you to maximize revenue both by enhancing your unique selling proposition and ensuring that all your available square footage is used effectively. Let’s go!

Incorporate local elements into your design to create a unique, memorable experience for your guests. This is where smaller, independent hotels can press their advantage over larger chains, creating a boutique rather than bland identity. 

Commissioning works by local artists is a good start, but you can display your area’s history and culture on a wider scale. For instance, Hotel Philco offers a room themed after their town’s old amusement park, Crystal Beach. The room comes complete with a bright, cheerful color scheme and actual artifacts from the park.

If your building itself is historical, retain and celebrate that history. Antique Victorian furniture is still Instagrammable today, and those old stone/brick walls can give a room a touch of classical (and trendy) austerity to balance out any frillier decor. 

Your property’s design should be consistent with your overall brand and online channels. A fancy, chandelier-filled lobby will only confuse guests at a casual, family-friendly beach motel.

Empty guest rooms aren’t the only rooms that lose profit. All rooms in your hotel should be working for you at all times. What about turning that free space on the first floor into a meeting room, coworking space, or even a quiet lounge where guests can sit and mingle? 

If you have the opposite problem with limited space, consider setting up rooms to serve multiple functions. For example, your bar could be converted into a coworking area during the day. Some of those business travelers might stay for happy hour… 

Don’t neglect outdoor spaces such as patios, gardens, pool areas, and rooftops. Time outdoors benefits both physical and mental health, and guests will enjoy lounging there, cocktail or coffee in hand. 

Large outdoor areas, especially lawns, are perfect for event bookings, from weddings to corporate team-building activities to craft fairs. They can even be used to extend indoor spaces such as your restaurant. To make this work, however, they need to be adapted to weather and temperature conditions. Provide lawn canopies and poolside umbrellas to protect guests from the sun in summer, and heat your restaurant patio in winter so it’s comfortable to sit there. 

Branding and design matters here too. Both indoor and outdoor spaces should appear as part of a continuous whole. Achieve this by aligning your exterior design with your interior design through the likes of colors and furnishings. 

Your pool area is particularly important. According to a 2019 Boston Hospitality Review study, 21 percent of guests on a 1-2 night stay use the pool, and that number rises to 30 percent for guests on a 3-4 night stay. At the very least, your pool should have quality lounge chairs and a nice view. Put in plants to hide the parking lot if you have to!

With remote work on the rise, it makes sense to offer coworking spaces for both overnight guests and local customers. 

At minimum, a good co-working space needs strong Wi-Fi, comfortable seats, and charging stations. However, leisure amenities that make the work day more enjoyable—such as gym/pool access, beverages (both caffeinated and non-caffeinated) and snacks, and perhaps even a foosball table—are a nice bonus and will help your property stand out. 

Charging locals for day use of your coworking space, which could include access to your pool and gym, helps maximize revenue.

Wellness travel is still going strong, with 60 percent of vacationers interested in going on a “longevity retreat” aimed at increasing health and lifespan. Even if your property doesn’t have a spa or gym, you can offer guests opportunities for relaxation and fitness. What indoor and outdoor spaces do you have that could serve as a venue for yoga classes or massage treatments? 

Spaces designed to promote wellness often use biophilic elements that incorporate natural materials such as wood and stone along with water features and even vertical gardens. Soft, earthy color palettes and plenty of sunlight are important too. Fluorescents don’t cut it! 

Your beautiful spaces do you no good if your guests can’t access them, so pay attention to accessibility when designing. The practicalities are as important as the aesthetics. How will the room be used? 

For those with mobility limitations, consider the location of elevators and the layout of furniture and think twice about whether you really need that little step in your restaurant. Even a single step can make an area inaccessible for a wheelchair user. 

Think through your signage as well, both on property and on your website (neither are the place for tiny font!). Include braille signs for important instructions like how to find the fire exit. 

Accessibility also requires curating neurodivergent-friendly areas. Seventy-four percent of neurodivergent travelers would appreciate “block out noise” options. Not everyone wants the joint to be jumpin’ on their trip, so incorporate quieter areas into your design, whether that’s your little coffee nook or a garden bench in the sunshine. 

Designing sustainable spaces can both attract guests and save you money. As of 2022, 78 percent of global vacationers meant to stay in an environmentally-friendly accommodation at least once that year. 

Natural and/or reusable materials, waste reduction systems, and energy-efficient technology all contribute to sustainable design. Why not invest in IoT (internet of things) sensors that tell you when a room is occupied so that you can save energy when it isn’t? When you save energy, you also reduce your electricity bill.

Your hotel’s design and use of space shapes the guest experience and impacts the way they use your property and amenities. Consider the above ideas for optimizing your hotel’s spaces to increase revenue and create a memorable stay!