Using Lighting to Improve Your Hotel Ratings

In today's world, businesses need to be concerned than ever with their online presence. A big part of that presence is online reviews and customer ratings. As a hotel, a bad rating online can greatly impact the bottom line and damage an otherwise solid reputation. There are a few smart ways to go about using lighting to improve your hotel ratings. Let's take a look at top tips to help your hotel give off the right appearance!

1. Understand how lighting impacts perception

   One of the main reasons people leave bad reviews is because they felt the location was unsafe or unsavory. When using lighting to improve your hotel ratings, you can directly change this impression by understanding the connection between lighting and the sense of personal safety guests seek.

   The first thing guests notice when they pull onto the lot of your hotel after dark is how well lit the parking lot is or the lack of proper lighting. Staying at a hotel should feel safe and without proper lighting at night, guests may feel unsafe even getting out of their car. Poorly lit parking lots are not only a hotbed for criminals to strike under the cover of darkness, but it can also be a concern for visibility in regard to falls or accidents. A poorly lit exterior of the building is also a big tip-off to guests that the hotel isn't up to their standards. It makes it look like the hotel has something to hide such as peeling paint or other signs of poor upkeep and increases the unsafe feeling.

2. Add more

   The easiest way to use lighting to improve your hotel's reputation online is to add more lighting. This can mean adding an additional light pole in the parking area, adding walkway lighting for all sidewalks, overhead wall mounted lights above any doors, or just adding more accent lighting in the lobby or halls. While you don't want to overpower the space with too much lighting because that would be harsh, most hotels could stand to add a few more fixtures in common areas.

3. Change the color temperature in existing fixtures

   When it comes to using lighting to improve your hotel ratings, the issue may not be a matter of not having enough light, but rather having the wrong color temperature for the area. Color temperature is how yellow or white a light is to the eyes. When looking at outside lighting, you want to opt for a cooler or whiter light rather than an option that is too yellow since yellow can look dingy or run down. For the interior, warmer or more yellow is better for creating a cozy vibe.

4. Add or retrofit to LED fixtures

   LED is great for a hotel since it helps to reduce shadows which could detract from the appeal of your hotel. It's also efficient in terms of using the energy consumed to create illumination without any heat loss. This will help you avoid overheating a smaller space in the hotel. LED also offers a better color temperature scale so you can get the right color temperature for the different areas of the hotel.