Sky lobbies have slowly begun to find its footing within hotel brands around the world like Marriott, Hilton, and Accor to name a few; as they all at some point, have included sky lobbies into their operations. The concept of a sky lobby itself is a great example of current paradigm shifts in how a hotel can operate their lobbies. Many hotel owners and hoteliers alike have turned towards Hotel Consultancy and Hotel Management firms to determine whether a sky lobby is worth investing in. Although at first glance, sky lobbies seem like the way forward in the eyes of hotel management, not only in providing a unique arrival experience but panoramic view as well; it’s also important to understand the caveats that come with a sky lobby. Weighing the positives and negatives is crucial for hotel management consultancy, especially in understanding new trends in hospitality.
- Maximizing space efficiency: As the price of land within city centre's skyrocket, hotels nowadays have to rethink about their GFA and how best to use it when optimizing their revenue. Thus, by shifting their lobby to an upper floor allows hotels to use their ground floor for retail spaces or additional F&B outlets to better increase their revenue streams by taking advantage of the increased foot traffic.
- Appealing to aesthetic: Traditional hotel lobbies nowadays are often seen as bland and soul-less spaces; however, sky lobbies allow for guests to enjoy beautiful vistas of city skylines.
- Congestion Nightmare: Although sky lobbies can be aesthetically pleasing, they can also be a disaster to the service-scape of the check-in process, as hotel management would need to deal with various logistical issues when handling large group arrivals. Although sending up 3-4 guests to the sky lobby is easy, once you start to factor in corporate and travel groups of 20-30+ guests all coming at the same time; it’s already a logistical nightmare trying to check-in that many guests concisely and attentively within a traditional lobby setting. Now we can only imagine how much harder it is to deal with large groups when the lobby is not only 10 floors up but also only accessible by 2-3 elevators. Often leading to mass congestion and dissatisfaction as guests not only have their check-in delayed, but they must wait in long lines just to enter the elevator.
- Costly Upgrades: Building a sky lobby doesn’t come cheap either; from specialized elevators that must only lead to the lobby and should be fast enough to minimize congestion, to building an additional “lobby area” downstairs to accommodate guests. Factoring all these processes starts to greatly increase your financial expenditure spent on just your hotel’s lobby alone. Building a sky lobby has far more strings attached than one might realize, and that’s why it's quintessential to receive proper hotel consultancy so all your bases are covered.
- Disincentivizes walk-in customers: Another oversight many often forget with sky lobbies, is the confusion and intimidation factor that walk-in guests may experience when they can’t locate the lobby themselves and may get lost before they even find the check-in desk Moreover, there are likely far fewer walk-in customers for the hotel’s F&B outlets when they not only aren’t easily accessible to local foot traffic, but also hidden away in the upper floors of the building from walking passersby. Thus, resulting in a loss of huge opportunity costs.
PCL Hospitality is an independent hotel development consultancy and hotel management company in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Our in-depth knowledge and understanding of Thailand’s hotel industry make us the preferred hotel specialist for many hotel owners and investors.?Our clients range from independent boutique hotels to international branded hotels. We guide clients through all stages, from feasibility, project management and design, to construction and hotel management, through post-opening by driving hotel performance and maximising return on investment.
At PCL Hospitality, we provide hotel consultancy, project management, hotel development, and technical services for owners to get it right from the beginning and ensure their plans are future-proof in terms of both function and design.
