You’ve probably heard the phrase, “We’ll leave the light on for you”. You might not be running a Motel 6, but more than 30 years after that phrase started, guests at every hotel still expect for the lights to be on when they arrive.

But that’s the very minimum of what they expect. You have to make your lobby look appealing, your rooms feel relaxing, and your convention spaces shine. Proper lighting can help you accomplish all of that.

In this guide, we’re answering some of your top questions about hotel lighting, from which light bulbs you should purchase – to energy costs – and improving safety. We hope you find the answers you need.

Group relamping: This is a “work smarter, not harder” approach that prioritizes efficiency over speed. Rather than climbing ladders multiple times a month to swap out burnt-out lamps, take care of certain areas in one fell swoop. This is especially effective if you’re dealing with high, hard-to-reach fixtures or busy areas, like lobbies or stairwells.

Schedule maintenance: Work with a provider or schedule out your maintenance on a calendar. The idea here is to maintain your lighting like you would your car. If you don’t maintain good air pressure in your tires or change your oil regularly, you will experience a blowout or break down at the worst possible time. And if you don’t schedule out your lighting maintenance, you may experience an outage on the busiest day of the week or just ahead of a visit from your out-of-town boss.

Keep product stocked: The best way to improve the chances of a quickly resolved maintenance request is to stock common products.

Are there particular commercial lighting challenges you’re trying to overcome?
Our team of lighting specialists is here to help.

Let’s talk a little more about these hard to maintain areas in hotels. They are most likely a safety priority, too. These are areas like your parking garage, elevators, and stairwells. Make sure burn out in these areas is low, so you aren’t constantly stuck on a ladder in front of guests.

In addition to light bulbs, ballasts, and power supplies also need rapid replacement when they begin to fail.

Your hotel may have areas with high ceilings that require special equipment to change lighting. Think of the lobby or convention space.

The last thing you want is for lights to go out during important events or as guests enter your building (talk about a bad first impression). We worked with the Grand Hyatt in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood to ease some of their maintenance headaches.

When a group rents out a pricy meeting room, it’s not ideal for lights to flicker and burn out right before or during their event.

A lot of the Grand Hyatt’s maintenance headaches were solved by upgrading to LED. If your property has not already retrofitted to LED, lighting updates in these hard to maintain areas are a great way to save you headaches and money. We’re digging into that here.

Energy Star estimates that hotels spend $2,196 per room on energy every year. That’s a lot of money, and about six percent of an average operating cost.

While electricity is a big cost in lighting, that isn’t the only factor. We can break that cost down even further for you:

There are two easy ways to save money on lighting and increase energy efficiency:

1. Retrofit to energy savings lighting (see below)

2. Invest in long-life products from reputable manufacturers

Let’s talk about number two a little further. New companies continue to come onto the scene with LED lighting innovations and low prices. These might save energy upfront, but the wrong product could end up costing you in the long run.

Another tool to consider when you’re trying to save energy: lighting controls. This is especially important in hotels when certain lights need to be on all the time, both inside and outside of the building, but other rooms could be unoccupied for hours. Leaving lights on in empty rooms is a huge waste of energy (and money!). Using controls to automate when lights turn on and off can save on energy costs.

Lighting control systems can be as simple or as complicated as you would like. Hotels have started to look into the best options to integrate lighting into other systems, like temperature control. Here are a few basic options for lighting controls:

• • Dimmers: Dimming light bulbs reduces wattage and output, resulting in energy savings. This can also help set different tones throughout your building.
  • Sensors: No one wants to light an empty room – so installing occupancy sensors in a conference room that’s rarely used is an easy place to start. Or it could be tedious to turn on parking lot lights every night, so photosensor controls could be a huge advantage. Motion sensors are very useful for security lighting. They turn on when motion is detected, then turn off a short while later.
  • Timers: Is there an empty conference room in the hotel? Or do you only need accent lights on for certain hours of the day? Timers may be another option to consider.

If you’re considering a lighting controls system, you may want to check out wireless lighting controls. You don’t have to worry about running wires behind walls and ceilings, installation is easy, and you can re-arrange the room at any time without worry.

Safety is top-of-mind as your guests enter, navigate, and leave your hotel.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association listed public safety and security at the top of its list of concerns – so it’s likely on your priority list, too. Whether it’s an accident like falling on the property, or a criminal matter, lawsuits that cite poor lighting can cost millions.

As a basic safety practice, make sure sidewalks, floors, and ramps all around the property are properly lit. It should also be easy to see other people and signs at night when it’s dark outside the building.

Lighting safety can also expand to areas that might not be top of mind.

Does your hotel have a pool? Regency Lighting worked with a developer in San Diego to make sure the pool area had proper lighting at night and met strict building code.

This particular project was at a high-rise residential project, but the developer wanted a resort feel. The before-and-after renderings speak for themselves. Not only is the pool more attractive, it’s also much safer. That’s critical in a setting with wet surfaces.

Helpful resources:

By 2020, about 80% of hospitality businesses will have adopted LED lighting, according to a report by global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

So if you haven’t already, now is the time to retrofit to LED. We aren’t talking about just hotel rooms. While that’s a nice consideration for your guests, the savings could stack up faster in other places.

Where you start with LED retrofits is similar to maintenance – you want to target the hardest to maintain areas first. Think about your parking garage, your stairwells, high-ceiling areas in the lobby, and any exterior lighting.

1. Parking garage

   • Safety and quality lighting should go hand-in-hand for your parking garage. Because the lights must always be on, you run into a high burn time. And because replacing a bulb in a parking garage can be tedious, unsafe, and obstructive, it’s a great place to consider switching to LEDs.

2. Stairwells

   • If your stairs aren’t well-lit, you could be facing building code issues and hazards to guests and employees. The lights there need to be on 24/7, so you’re looking at using significant energy and dealing with frequent replacement. Retrofitting to LED equals instant labor and energy savings.

3. Lobby

   • You want your lobby to be aesthetically pleasing – and it’s another area where the lights are probably on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you have high ceilings, it’s a labor-intensive job for the maintenance crew to replace lights. That tall ladder is not too visually pleasing in a high-traffic area, either.

4. Exterior

   • From wall packs to floodlights to shoebox fixtures – there are a variety of lights that require a lot of energy outside of your hotel.

     Think about your sign that glows for at least 10 hours overnight. It might be tall and require a bucket truck to make repairs. Using LED there would also cut out maintenance hours.

     Switching to LEDs in your parking lot can cover spaces more easily. That means you also get a safety upgrade with your LED upgrade. Plus, it’s another place to think about using that bucket truck a little less often.

Just upgrading these areas could save you thousands every year.

Another decision to consider before you dive into the land of LEDs: should you retrofit with LED bulbs, or do all fixtures need to be replaced? Here’s a look at pros and cons.

LED fixture replacement retrofit pros:

• Maximum control over light output and placement (great for situations where lighting design is paramount)
• Longer life rating and efficacy than LED replacement lamps
• Lower maximum fixture wattage than traditional fixtures, which is advantageous for meeting strict building codes or Title 24 standards
• Excellent performance for controls and dimming

LED fixture replacement retrofit cons:

• Longer, more expensive installation
• Higher up-front cost than LED replacement lamps
• Potential for difficulty in upgrading to future emerging technologies

Bottom line: there is never a one-size-fits-all approach to lighting. We hope you found the answers you were looking for on hotel lighting.

But if you have still have more questions – we’re happy to help you walk through the process.