Same floor area, different hotel: how to divide it

In a building with a fixed floor area, the question comes down to one thing: how do you divide it? Make the rooms larger and there are fewer of them; add rooms and each gets smaller; give area to facilities and the rooms shrink again. There is no universally right answer, and what decides it is not taste but the guest structure of the area.

Two ways to divide

Broadly there are two directions. One holds the room count and maximises value per room: larger rooms, distinctive layouts, a higher rate. It works in markets with thick weekend and family demand. The other adds rooms and attaches facilities to widen the revenue base itself. It works where steady weekday business demand carries the floor.

Same floor area, opposite conclusions. Both are correct, because the markets are different.

• Weekend and family markets: one party stays longer and accepts the rate. Revenue comes from the experience of the room rather than the number of rooms.
• Weekday business markets: repeated single and double occupancy with real price sensitivity. Steady occupancy makes the revenue, so room count works in your favour.
• Mixed markets: split the types, but do not blur each type’s standard. Adding only middling mid-size rooms leaves you the second choice for both audiences.

This is why copying another property’s layout is risky. What is worth copying is the way of judging, not the facilities.

Circulation is two problems, not one

Most plans give thought to the guest route: from parking to check-in, to the room, to the facilities, to breakfast, to checkout. Break that flow and guests ask at every step, and the front desk workload rises with it. The route usually left out is the staff route: the width a cleaning cart needs, the path linen travels, where the supply store sits, how plant is reached. An inconvenience missed in design repeats every time a guest arrives and every time a room is cleaned. Several times a day, for years.

• Room cleaning: can a cart move without blocking the corridor? Is there somewhere on each floor for linen and supplies?
• Linen flow: do collection and distribution routes avoid the guest route? Where they overlap, cleaning hours get restricted.
• Supplies and storage: are frequently used items near the floors that use them? Trips to another floor add to every clean.
• Plant access: can pipework, electrics and HVAC be inspected without emptying a room? A layout that costs you sellable rooms at every inspection keeps costing you for years.

What has to exist before construction starts

A settled floor plan is not the same as being ready to build. Several contractors enter the same building to run their own trades, and without documents that set the standard, each one interprets differently. That is why the following should exist before work starts.

• Detail drawings and a finishes schedule: fix which material goes where. Without the list, decisions happen on site, and site decisions come back as cost and delay.
• Reflected ceiling and services drawings: resolve lighting, HVAC and sprinkler positions so they do not collide. Adjust during construction and finished work has to come off.
• Joinery shop drawings and electrical layouts: dimensions and socket positions must be fixed before fabrication and wiring can run in parallel.
• Specification and cost breakdown: the basis for scope of responsibility and for the working estimate. Without them you cannot separate variations from the contracted scope.

Drawings and the site rarely match

Especially in renovation. Existing drawings may not match what was actually built, or may not exist at all. Only after demolition do the structure behind the wall and the real position of the pipework appear. So measuring is not a one-time task. You measure again after demolition and fabricate to those figures. Build joinery from drawings alone, without re-measuring, and the dimensions do not fit on site; while it is remade, every trade stacked on top of it stops too. Our partner went through exactly this, and now pins the re-measurement date to the completion of demolition.

When you build the programme, put re-measurement in as its own line immediately after demolition completes. It is a day or two of work, but leave it out and all joinery and finishes proceed on drawing dimensions, with the mismatch surfacing on installation day. The error found latest is the one that costs most.

In short

Guest structure decides how the area is divided; circulation is designed as two routes, guest and staff; and before construction begins, documents must exist that remove room for interpretation. Get those three right and the same floor area produces an entirely different hotel.