In a world where real estate markets continued to skyrocket and the perception of luxury in the hospitality industry is shifting, the size of a hotel room has become less relevant. Hotel operators and developers rushed to trim the size of hotel rooms in urban destinations, often while even increasing rates and guest satisfaction. I expect this trend to continue as the industry will rebound from the pandemic. The advantages are obvious, but there's more to it than just cutting those excess square meters.
In order to reduce the size of guest rooms and at the same time increase customer value, let’s quickly analyze the anatomy of a hotel room. Generally, essentials include a comfortable bed with high quality linens, natural light, seamless connectivity and bathrooms with premium amenities. Over-sized televisions, telephones, mini-bars are slowly becoming obsolete as guests carry their personal devices in their pockets and get their snacks and drinks in the communal spaces or at the local deli. Therefore the focus should be on everything the guests needs, not on on anything else.
In order to reduce the size of guest rooms and at the same time increase customer value, let’s quickly analyze the anatomy of a hotel room. Generally, essentials include a comfortable bed with high quality linens, natural light, seamless connectivity and bathrooms with premium amenities. Over-sized televisions, telephones, mini-bars are slowly becoming obsolete as guests carry their personal devices in their pockets and get their snacks and drinks in the communal spaces or at the local deli. Therefore the focus should be on everything the guests needs, not on on anything else.
In January Hotel Unplugged opened its doors in Rotterdam and The Invisible Party created the brand concept and interior design. As a team, we were met with a design challenge where the brief was to convert a 600 m2 former municipality building into a modern-day boutique hotel with 28 guest rooms. Room sizes vary between 13, 17 and 24 m2. We adopted a less is more approach without making sacrifices on aesthetics, quality and comfort in the design process and rethought the traditional usage of furniture like the bed, wardrobe and desk.
Smart solutions
For the guest rooms we created physical space savers that give a sense of roominess, even in the smallest room types. The Hotel Unplugged rooms feature multi-purpose furniture pieces like the bed, the desk and the bathroom. We designed the bed to be the main feature in the room, situated next to the window, where you not only go to sleep, but happily work on your laptop, watch a movie, store your luggage and lock away your valuables in a safe.
Smart solutions
For the guest rooms we created physical space savers that give a sense of roominess, even in the smallest room types. The Hotel Unplugged rooms feature multi-purpose furniture pieces like the bed, the desk and the bathroom. We designed the bed to be the main feature in the room, situated next to the window, where you not only go to sleep, but happily work on your laptop, watch a movie, store your luggage and lock away your valuables in a safe.
Oversized windows
The large windows allow plenty of natural light flooding the room, which really opens up the space.
Eliminate casegoods
As many travelers don’t always fully unpack, the rooms are stripped from traditional closets and replaced by retail inspired open wardrobes that use just a fraction of the space compared to traditional casegoods.
Multi-use of space
Where we were really able to make a difference was in the bathrooms. We have designed the Hotel Unplugged rooms to literally access through the bathroom. Allowing the perception of the bathroom to be grande, whilst color schemes and materials harmoniously tie the bathroom to the guest room, unlike a classic open bathroom.
The large windows allow plenty of natural light flooding the room, which really opens up the space.
Eliminate casegoods
As many travelers don’t always fully unpack, the rooms are stripped from traditional closets and replaced by retail inspired open wardrobes that use just a fraction of the space compared to traditional casegoods.
Multi-use of space
Where we were really able to make a difference was in the bathrooms. We have designed the Hotel Unplugged rooms to literally access through the bathroom. Allowing the perception of the bathroom to be grande, whilst color schemes and materials harmoniously tie the bathroom to the guest room, unlike a classic open bathroom.
While we stripped the rooms from many standard features and designed a few multi-purpose solutions, we doubled down on aesthetics, quality and comfort for all elements that made the cut.