Your hotel reception design is important as it’s an opportunity to make a great first impression. This first impression is formed when guests arrive and enter through the main entrance into the reception area, what greets them on the other side will influence their overall experience in your establishment.
With business travel becoming increasingly popular, providing guests with a reception area where they can work, take calls, and plug in their devices is a necessity. This can be easily achieved through room dividers, such as glass and demountable partitions, which give your reception allocated areas for those guests whose stays are more ‘business’, rather than pleasure.
With this in mind, you should create a space that caters to the multitude of clientele needs. By designing a welcoming, functional luxury hotel lobby you will be creating a great first and last impression on your guests. Below are our top 5 tips for hotel reception design.
1. CREATE PEACEFUL ZONE
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Peaceful spaces will benefit from a mix of poseur tables, bar stools and lower seating such as lounge chairs. Closer to the reception desk you could place striking accent chairs and a console table for informative literature for those waiting to be checked in. Primarily, the area should not contain lots of loose furniture as this discourages visitor movement.
2. TABLE BASES
(Credit- Mark Ko)
It’s a good idea to choose tables that have a pedestal base. A pedestal base does not obstruct chairs when they are tucked under the table, nor does it decrease leg space when tables are combined. They are also easier to manoeuvre without damaging the base or the flooring. To help prolong the life of your hotel reception tables, you can put an edging around them to protect corners from wear and tear. Our Luisa poseur table has both a pedestal base and edge banding, ideal for a hotel reception environment.
3. COMFORTABLE SEATING
(Credit- Mateo Fernandez)
Seating is important anywhere in a hotel, but in particular in the reception area. From tired travellers wanting to relax before check-in to busy families needing space to organise their belongings before going to their room.
Comfortable seating is an obvious choice. Welcoming lounge chairs and tub chairs are attractive to those wishing to find some peace and quiet with a book, or guests who have arranged a quick coffee with a visiting work colleague. However, your hotel reception is not a bar or restaurant and guests should only spend a short amount of time there before moving onto other activities.
4. FLEXIBLE AREAS
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By consciously selecting certain types of furniture you will be able to create flexible areas within your hotel lobby. Accent chairs tend to be larger and heavier than dining or armchairs for example and therefore are not a practical choice for a flexible area. Armchairs positioned around dining tables area ideal as they can be used by hotel guests having a coffee or easily grouped around tables pushed together for a meeting.
5. CHOOSE CONTRACT QUALITY FABRIC
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All fabrics of a contract standard have passed the Martindale abrasion rub test, and have no less than 40,000 rubs. This means that the fabric is suited for use on commercial furniture that will see frequent use. Hotel receptions see a large amount of traffic and this results in wear and tear of fabrics. You want to be sure your upholstery looks its best for as long as possible.
6. COMPLIMENTING YOUR DESIGN SCHEME
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Choose fabrics that do not only compliment your design scheme but are sympathetic to housekeeping. Your hotel reception furniture needs to be easy to clean for employees. Faux leathers for easy wiping and fabrics with patterns to disguise marks are the ideal fabric choices for a reception.