There has been a significant shift from soft surface to hard surface flooring in the hotel sector. This is happening throughout the market. A great example is Motel 6 — a property acquired by Blackstone Real Estate Investment in mid-2012, which owns many hospitality brands including the Hilton Hotels Corp., La Quinta Inns & Suites and Extended Stay America. Blackstone decided to dress up Motel 6’s image, transitioning from carpet and laminate to LVT in guest rooms. With its ever-improving aesthetics, ease of installation and performance record — even in the presence of moisture — LVT is penetrating the low-end and mid-range hospitality market rapidly.
Hotel flooring has to be many things. It needs to be attractive, durable, easy to maintain and cost-effective. You want the high-volume traffic areas to withstand the daily pounding and the flooring to still look as good as it did the day it was installed.
Owners are looking to get more for less. This often translates into designers having to find new kinds of materials. On the maintenance side, management is looking at creating highly engineered natural materials. In the past there was not much hotel flooring design options to choose from. Most hotels installed marble and tile. Today, there is a wide variety of hotel flooring design options that are durable, look good, and are trendy and cost-effective for the bottom line. But before you choose a particular flooring material, you need to factor in the location of the hotel, weather conditions and the flow of guests.
In many hotels more hard surface flooring can be found in the lobby and guest rooms, including large-scale rectangular tiles and laminate floors that look like wood. Stone, bamboo and cork tile flooring offer the natural beauty and tough-wearing surfaces; laminate and resilient vinyl flooring are easy to maintain and budget friendly. These innovative hotel flooring design materials provide durability and sustainability while cohesively tying into a design statement.
Even as hotels continue to incorporate more hard surface flooring, carpet will continue to be a popular hotel flooring design option. Broadloom and Axminsters with bold patterns continue to dominate in corridors, ballrooms and meeting rooms. These popular carpet installations absorb sound, provide heat insulation and create a safe environment, providing a non-slip surface and the ability to soften any impact. In addition, these carpets absorb airborne pollutants, allowing for better air quality indoors. Plus, they are easy to clean.
No matter what hotel flooring design options you choose, it’s all about durability, timeless design and ease of maintenance.