In the competitive hospitality industry, the success of a hotel isn’t just about luxury amenities or prime location; it’s also intricately tied to the psychology behind its design. Effective space planning in venues like restaurants and hotels goes beyond aesthetics. It also considers human behaviour and emotional responses. Understanding how guests interact with their environment can transform a simple stay into an unforgettable experience. In this post, we explore the fascinating psychology behind hotel space planning and how thoughtful design can enhance guest satisfaction and boost a hotel’s reputation.
The Basics of Hotel Space Planning
Space planning does what it says on the tin. It invites hotel owners, managers, and design professionals to come together and work out how to use decoration, furnishing, and interior features to bring the hotel setting to life.
As well as wanting to deliver an impressive and aesthetically pleasing space, space planning also considers how guests behave in certain areas of the hotel and how the use of space and integration of furnishings facilitate extra comfort.
In the simplest way possible, space planning considers the placement of everything in your hotel, in a way which prioritises function and comfort – and supports the overall aim of your hotel.
Guest Experience and Psychological Comfort
When a guest’s room is light and bright with minimal furnishings, no clutter, and lots of empty space, they tend to feel lighter and instantly more relaxed.
When you place a guest in a busy bar area packed with tables, juxtaposing textures, and bright lights, then they feel awake and sociable.
When you surround guests with soft textures and opulent finishes, with lots of detail and mood lighting, guests instantly feel that they are in a luxurious setting. Meanwhile, the same soft textures but with bright colours and bold finishes feel more playful and akin to a family friendly setting.
See how important the surrounding space is in framing the guest experience and how they feel?
When it comes to curating the perfect guest experience, it’s a good idea to start by considering how you want guests to feel in each space and then work backwards.
When guests are presented with soft furnishings, they have access to comfort. But as a hotel designer and manager, you must think beyond that, by considering the surrounding environment and how that impacts on the way they experience that comfort.
Maximising Functionality Through Psychology
Moving away from comfort, it’s also important to consider the way that space planning allows you to put functionality and operational efficiency at the heart of each room and area across the hotel.
Balancing aesthetic appeal with practicality is crucial and is what ensures that areas like the dining room and bar remain enjoyable and comfortable settings which also deliver a great customer service.
Remember, creating the perfect setting is only half of the job. From there, experience is built solely on service and on the way that the guest interacts with the environment.
As a starting point, here are some of the areas and guest journeys to pay attention to when space planning:
- How the guests move from reception to their hotel room
- How staff members move food from the kitchen to the dining area
Creating Flow and Movement
Moving on now to the flow and movement of your hotel, this is where it becomes important to marry navigation with intuition, giving your guests enough guidance to ease their journey without confusing them.
As guests move between different areas of the hotel, you want to create continuity and consistency but in a way that highlights the functional use of each area. A common theme needs to be interspersed with unique features that make each area easy to identify, with signage and details all helping to enhance the flow between different settings.
Psychological Strategies in Room Layout and Design
Have you ever thought about the impact of hotel room orientation and design on the guest experience?
While colours are a common theme when creating and designing a space to deliver a particular experience, texture and material choices are equally important. What’s more, placement and the way the room is spaced out can impact the feeling of luxury – for example, facing the bed towards a large window to overlook the view creates a feeling of openness.
Open plan spaces support a feeling of calm, while soft furnishings and textures contribute towards a space feeling luxurious and welcoming.
All of this bolsters the guest experience and is a design feature that connects the layout of a room with how it makes guests feel.
And it doesn’t end with furnishings and finishes…
Incorporating Flexibility in Space Use
A conversation about hotel space planning wouldn’t be complete without an in-depth look at adaptable spaces, the need for diversity, and the ever-growing list of accessibility needs that are transforming the way that guests approach and use hotel spaces.
From versatile hotel spaces that facilitate events and special requests, to hotel rooms which are adaptable and can be rearranged according to the guest’s specific needs, many guests instantly feel at ease in a hotel that they know is amenable to accessibility needs.
This could be as simple as offering space to event guests with flexible check-in and check-out times, or as complex as changing the layout of a room to fit specific guest needs.
Innovative Practices in Hotel Space Planning
If space planning is the next task on your to-do list in bringing a new hotel to the market, then our advice is to build a picture of your ideal guest and work backwards from there.
The rise of innovative design has made it easier than ever to open a hotel to a plethora of uses, with many managing expectations from different guest groups across different seasons and even days of the week. Having a city centre hotel might attract business travellers from Monday to Friday, but the weekend is likely to be filled with tourists – creating the need for flexible space planning that facilitates and caters to both groups.
How you achieve this will depend on the space you have available and how you hope to target and entice your core customer group in.