BASIC THEORIES OF HOTEL PLANNINGBefore an architectural office begins planning and designing a hotel, it should know exactly how a hotel operates . Every type of building must function smoothly to achieve the end result that the client is seeking . The primary function of a hotel has not changed from the earliest recorded hostelry to tire present-day hotel, whether that be a hotel of 100 rooms or 3,000 rooms, whether it be an in-city hotel or a resort hotel, whether it be a convention hotel or a farnily-type hotel . The earliest hostelry offered ' bed and board' as well as pleasant surroundings in which to enjoy both commodities. The earliest hostelries and caravansaries worked on the same principle . The guest arrived at the front door, where he was greeted and arrangements were made for his lodging and food . A stable for horses and carriages, or a compound for cartels and cargo, were provided at the rear of the establishment . A rear yard was used by the innkeeper's wife and her assistants to prepare food which was then cooked in a kitchen . We therefore had a house divided in two . The front half of the house included the reception area arid the public rooms, or the covered arcades in the caravansaries, where the guests gathered to dine and to socialize . The other half of the house, or to use a terns which is still applicable, the back of the house, was where food was prepared arid where the guests' service amenities were taken care of, such as laundering, the shoeing of horses, or the repair of harness and traveling gear . This duality of a hotel must be thoroughly understood by an architect before pencil is put to paper to start the design . For convenience's sake and for ease in preparing a preliminary study, we will assume that all these services take place on one level . Figure 1 indicates the flow of services and hotel personnel . For the time being, we will ignore tire actual rooms arid concern ourselves only with the level where the "greeting" takes place and where the services are rendered . The 'greeting area," for future reference, will be known as the front of the house, and the place where services occur will be known as the back of the house . It must be borne in mind that, as far as plannedcirculation is concerned, there must never be a mingling of the front-of-the-house services with those of the back of the house . At no time should the guest be aware of everything that is taking place at the back of the house, but, at the same time, the smooth operation of the front of the house is completely dependent upon what is taking place at the back of the house . The two functions must be kept separate and yet so interrelated that both function smoothly and efficiently . Hotels are designed and built so that theclient, owner, or operator of the hotel will get a satisfactory financial return on his investment . In order to achieve the greatest return for each dollar invested, we again face a dual problem . In the first instance . the guest must feel completely comfortable and at ease fromthe moment lie steps through the entrance doorway, checks in, goes to his room, avails himself of the food and beverages available,870 spends a comfortable night in a well-appointed, scrupulously clean room, and returns the next day to a room which is as fresh and inviting as it was the moment he first entered it after checking in . Everything for the guests creature comforts should be carefully considered, whether it be the ease of finding the registration desk, the cashier, the bars and dining rooms, the elevators that will take hint up to his room, and finally the room itself . The service at the registration desk, in the bars and dining rooms, arid in the guest room itself as well as in the corridors must be such that the guest finds his every want courteously and efficiently taken care of . The physical environment becomes an important part of the guest's creature comfort . These factors include color and decor, lighting, proper air temperature, comfortable furnishings and, above all, a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere . Everything that the guest expects and shouldget will be a result of what takes place at the back of the house . It is only in this area that everything that will keep a guest contented during his stay is arranged for and so ordered that everything the guest is seeking is accomplished unobtrusively and, what is most important, economically .Economic operation of a hotel depends entirely upon the back-of-the-house services . Since these services are primarily concerned with hotel personnel, the plan must be so arranged that maximum efficiency from each hotel employee can be achieved without taxing the employee and without allowing the guest to feel the drive for efficiency that dictates every phase of hotel planning .HOTEL ECONOMICSThe economics of a profitable hotel venture brings us to the third duality of which the architect should be extremely conscious or awareduring every phase of the planning stage . This involves the economics of a new hotel, which will center upon the cost of construction and furnishing . These costs represent, together with the cost of the land, the amount of money that is to be invested . They are the base upon which the hotelier will figure his financial return . A rule of thumb devised many years ago by a prominent hotel architect still seems to be a sound rule to follow . At that time, it was stated that for every dollar of income per room, $1,000 should be spent in the construction of that room . We must bear in mind, of course, that when we speak of a room we are speaking figuratively, with the knowledge that the cost of a room would also carry its proportionate share of every other part of the structure, such as the hotel lobby, the dining rooms, the bars, the corridors, the offices, the laundry, the kitchens, and all the other facilities that will be found in a hotel . Using that rule of thumb (that is, $1 income per $1,000 invested), a room that costs $10,000 to build should bring in $10 for a night's lodging . Unfortunately, with rising costs of operation, this balance of $1 per $1,000 will not always hold, but it is still a good rule of thumb . With hotel rooms now going at from $10,000 to $40,000, we find that a $10- per-night room is a rarity and an average of$20 and $30 is more common, while luxury hotels run as high as $40 arid even $50 per night's lodging . From the above, it becomesobvious that the architect should know approximately what type of hotel his client wants, as expressed in terms of cost per room per night, in order to establish some sort of rough budget for the cost of the hotel . At this point, it should be pointed out that we are talking of cost of construction, which does not include furnishing and equipping the hotel . Another fact which does not really affect the planning of the hotel but which the architect should be keenly aware of is that preopening expenses are sizable . They are, in fact, a part of the original investment and should be charged to cost per room . More will be said of this at an appropriate place . The second part of the financial considerstion in the design of a hotel is the cost of operation . We now know what it will cost to build the hotel, and so some sort of preliminary budget becomes feasible . The architect may not know what it will cost to operate the hotel, but he should understand every facet of hotel operation and develop his plans to achieve maximum economies in the operation of the hotel . This includes the hours spent by such personnel as maids, porters, housekeepers, chefs, cooks, dishwashers, laundry workers, bellrnen, receptionists, bookkeepers, reservations clerks, banquet managers, and executive staff . If we would, for a moment, think of ahotel as a plant which turns out a finished product, we would think of the finished product as the creature comforts of the guests (bedand board) and of the kitchens, laundries, and service areas as the machines . The hotel personnel would be the workers who operate the machines in order to achieve a fine product at the lowest possible cost . With these thoughts in mind, we can now take up each facet of hotel operation-front of the house and back of the house-which will be discussed in detail and illustrated with diagrams and drawings so that each part of the jigsaw puzzle which forms a hotel can be fitted into place to achieve a smoothly functioning, pleasingly desirable, and financially profitable operation . First let us clear up the question of preopening expenses, which should be considered asa part of the total cost of the hotel . Before a hotel is put into operation--in fact, months before the first guest arrives-- certain hotel

personnel are employed who will eventually be charged with the operation of the hotel .Such employees would include a manager,a chief chef, a controller, an advertising and/or a public relations firm, and an engineer who will be operating the mechanical equipment of the hotel . These people will usually be found on the site of the hotel under construction anywhere from six months to one year beforethe hotel is completed . Their salaries are part of preopening expenses . Another factor in preopening expenses would include stationery and other supplies that various key personnel will need before the opening of the hotel as well as, ultimately, the cost of hotel stationery, typewriters, bookkeeping machinery, and Commercial HOTELS office supplies . Another preopening expensewill be a cost allocated for opening ceremonies, which often include cocktail parties and banquets for people from the news media andcivic organizations as well as for civic authorities . All these costs are considered preopening expenses . One other item that must be considered in preopening expenses is the training of the personnel that will service the hotel . This will include maids, housekeepers, chefs and cooks, waiters and waitresses, and front-office and clerical personnel . There also will be others, such as maintenance men. bellmen, and porters . These can add at least 30 percent to the construction cost .Another facet of costs, which the architect may or may not be involved in, involves furnishings for the hotel . In this category will be found not only the actual beds, dressers, chairs, tables, and floor coverings in the guest rooms but also the furnishings, floor coverings, special lighting fixtures, and decor items neededfor all public, spaces . These fall into the categories of lobbies, dining rooms, bars, cocktail lounges, coffee shops, meeting rooms, banquet rooms, and a host of other facilities which will be found in hotels . Another large portion of the costs which normally would not be a cost of construction would be the equipment for all kitchens and bars as well as the equipment, if such a facility is to be included, of laundries and valet service . Going further, we will need lockers for employees and other amenities for the service personnel. Finally, we come to a group of items which will include glassware, china, silver, pots and pans, linens, pillows, and uniforms for outids, bellmen, waiters, etc . When we lump preopening expenses together with all the items enumerated above, we will find ourselves adding anywhere from 50 to 75 percent more to the actual construction costs . All these figures will not influence the budget for construction, but it would be wise for an architect designing a hotel to be conscious of these additional expenditures .BACK OF THE HOUSEThough rarely seen by a guest, the back of the house is the most crucial part of the plan . It must be laid out with two paramount objectives : control and efficiency . Foodstuffs, housekeeping supplies, and a great many other items must be received out of sight of the hotel guests . Such receiving is usually done at a loading dock, which should be covered so that deliveries can be made regardless of the weather . An operating hotel, even a small one, will have deliveries going on throughout the day . The receiving of shipments as well as the checking of whatever comes into the hotel and,finally, sending the various items received to their proper destination must be under tight control . This is usually the function of a receiving department that should be located directly on or adjacent to the loading dock . Tight control must be exercised in two directions . In one direction, it is not uncommon for material to be delivered and, within a short time of its having been left on the dock unchecked, for the management to find that this material has disappeared or that some parts of the shipment have gone astray . The second part of the control is to make sure that, once these shipments have arrived, they go directly to their destination without a chance- of becoming lost on the way . As an example, lot us say that a shipment of liquor is delivered to the hotel . It is a very simple thing to pick up a case and remove it from the loading dock before the receiving clerk has checked the shipment through his control point . It is also a very simple thing to have a case of liquor disappear on its route,once it has been checked in and before it gets to the liquor storage room . This type of pilferage will apply not only to liquor but toalmost every item, including linens, foodstuffs, and even iterns of furnishings . A good back-ofthe- house plan will be worked out in such a way that the flow of supplies is tightly controlled by the security that the architect works into his plan . Another example will suffice :It would be poor planning to have a valuable item such as liquor carted through a passageway and past an employees' locker room on its way to the liquor storage room . It would take but a rooment for a case to disappear from the cart into the locker room . A tight, well-planned back of the house will have circulation patterns that will provide the utmost in control . It is this type of planning that is definitely the province of the architect . There is one further item in the control area which, at first glance, might seem highly unimportant : namely, the movement of garbage out of the hotel to a point where it will be picked up by garbage trucks . Experience has indicated that a good deal of pilferage in hotels is accomplished through

the medium of garbage removal. Well-wrappedsteaks and cans of food can be concealed ingarbage and removed by an accomplice beforethe garbage haulers pick up the refuse . In thelarger hotels, garbage destructors or compressorsmay be used, in which case tightsurveillance is necessary only in the garbagereceiving area . Where garbage is shipped out,it is wise to have the garbage rooms so placed(and, incidentally, refrigerated) that the receivingoffice has this space in full view to discouragean outside accomplice or an employee whois leaving the hotel from entering the garbageroom to filch what was placed there previouslyby someone in the kitchen or the supply areas.Another form of control which must be exercisedand which becomes a part of the architect'splanning is the flow of personnel into andout of the hotel . Hotel personnel usually comethrough at a point close or adjacent to thereceiving area . This is not necessarily a must,but it is advisable because the same controloffice can observe the coming and going of thehelp . Usually time control is through the mediumof a time clock, which is punched by theemployees. It is not uncommon for thievesto attempt entry through the service area and towork their way up through service elevatorsto accomplish what they came for. A tight controlat the point of entry and egress of allemployees is highly desirable and can easilybe accomplished if it is the same point as thatat which food and other hotel supplies arebrought in . Once again, the architect's carefulplanning will make it possible for employees toreach their various dressing and locker areaswith a minimum of travel time lost . It must beborne in mind that there is class distinction inhotels and, as an example, that dishwashersand porters are not placed in the same lockerrooms as head waiters and reception clerks .The distinction here is for from a fine line .The mix of hotel employees will be dictatedby the hotel operator, and he may determinewhether waiters and bellmen are to be placedtogether or separated. Maids and waitressesmay or may not be in the same locker room,depending on the hotel operation . Lockerrooms should be provided with ample toiletfacilities and showers. Once the personnelhave changed into their uniforms, the plan ofthe back of the house will make it possible forthe people to get to their work stations withlittle time lost . Maids and porters will want toget to service elevators along the shortest possibleroute. Chefs, cooks, and dishwashersshould get to their work areas without goingthrough long, tortuous passages . It is usualto issue uniforms in an area as close to thelocker rooms or the point of entry as possible .In this phase of planning, it should be bornein mind that uniforms are usually under thecontrol of the housekeeper, so that the proximityof the uniform issuing room to the housekeepingdepartment becomes a most importantconsideration . It should also be borne in mindthat the housekeeper controls soiled and cleanlaundry as well as clean uniforms ready forreissue. The interplay of all of these activitieswill dictate a finesse in planning to bring allthese activities together and to achieve as littleloss in time and motion as possible . At thispoint, let us sum up this portion of the back ofthe house.A flow diagram (Fig . 1) for a typical back ofthe house will indicate that the service entranceis located out of view of the main entrance tothe hotel but has direct access to a street orroad capable of handling truck traffic. The loadingdock should be protected from weather sothat food, laundry, and supplies will be offloadedand stored and not get rain-soakedwhile waiting to be checked in . All personnelwill enter the hotel at this point. At least twosmall offices will probably be located here,one for the steward (or receiving clerk) andanother for the timekeeper . Outside the steward'soffice there should be a floor scale tocheck the weight of produce as it enters . If the

food storage and preparation kitchens arelocated on a different level, a sidewalk lift orconveyor belts should be provided . The timekeeperwill check the employees in and out andhelp to discourage those who may be temptedto steal. Immediately past the timekeeper, theemployees should be separated into two differenttraffic flows, one for the food servicepersonnel, the other for everyone also. Oncefood service personnel enter their traffic flow,they should have no contact with either guestsor other house personnel with the obviousexception of waiters. All this is simply a matterof security . If there is any deep dark secret ofsuccessful hotel service design, it is a built-insecurity system, which is a direct outgrowthof the architect's plans.Uniform issue is related to the housekeeper,the housekeeper to the laundry room, and thelaundry room to the soiled linen room . Thesoiled linen room connects by vertical linenchute to the service room on every typicalfloor, and every typical floor is connected by aservice elevator that opens to the lower-floorservice area convenient to the scrutinizinggaze of the steward and the timekeeper . Forconvenience, a trash chute (Fig . 2), going fromevery typical floor service area, should be locatednext to the linen chute. This will force anarrangement where the trash room is close oradjacent to the soiled linen room and both ofthese are near the service entrance for easein pickup .Laundry FacilitiesA laundry is a usual adjunct of most goodsizedhotels . Many hotels avail themselves ofcity laundry service, in which case there is nolaundry room at all or only a small laundrywhich handles towels only . A hotel laundrythat does its own uniforms and flatwork(sheets, pillowcases, linens, etc.) requires agood-sized space for washers, dryers, drumironers, and various pressing machines-eachsuitable for its own type of flatwork, uniformsand guests' laundry, and men's and women'swearing apparel. If the laundry is done by alaundry service out of the hotel, then itemslike towels require a comparatively small spacefor washing and drying, since only washersand fluff dryers are necessary, together withan area for folding and stacking the clean towels.Larger hotels will maintain their own cleaningdepartment for dry cleaning and pressingof woolens and similar garments . Such a cleaningand valet service is usually a part of or closeto the laundry area, and it is definitely underthe supervision of the laundry manager. It maybe that, in the not-too-distant future, experimentswith disposable sheets, pillowcases, anduniforms will do away with laundry services inhotels . Presently, the disposable types thathave been produced are still not of sufficientstrength and durability for hotel use, althoughthe future may produce exactly that . At presentsome "no iron" linens are in use, thus eliminatingsome of the large ironers.Housekeeping DepartmentThe housekeeping department, having severalfunctions, is the province of the chief housekeeper,who will usually have assistant floorhousekeepers . Under the housekeeper's strictcontrol and supervision will be all the maidsand porters . These people, after donning theiruniforms, will come to the housekeeper forinstructions and vary often for supplies to takewith them to the various guest-room floors.The porters will deliver to the service areas onthe guest-room floors all linen and soap as wellas facial tissue, toilet paper, matches, roomservice menus, and ashtrays . (Most hotels useinexpensive ashtrays that carry the hotel nameand that the guests may take along as souvenirs.)The housekeeper's area is also a storagearea, for here are kept all the supplies thatbecome a part of housekeeping . Aside fromsuch obvious things as a stock of linen, papergoods, soaps, etc., the housekeeper will carryin her warehouse storage area additional lamps

(which are easily broken by guests) and smallitems of furnishings which are easily removedor destroyed. In the housekeeper's departmentthere will usually be s place for a seamstress tomend those sheets, pillowcases, and drapesthat need repair . It might be useful for thearchitect to know how many rooms a maid canmake up during her daily tour of duty . In someareas unions control the number of rooms, andit may be as little as 12 per maid . It rarely goesbeyond 15. One porter is usually assigned toeach maid . In addition to the regular daytimemaid, there will be, in most hotels, a nightmaid who will make up beds for guests readyto go to sleep. This entails the removal of thebedspreads, straightening of the room, thesupplying of additional soap, toilet paper, etc.,all for the guests' convenience. One night maidusually can handle twice as many rooms as aday maid handlesFood and Bevef ige ServiceWe have now taken care of the bed portion ofthe "bed and board." Now let us examine the"board" part of a hotel service. The board, ofcourse, refers to the old English trestle tablewhere guests took their meals. In the earliesthostelries, the innkeeper's wife took care of thecooking, maids took care of the serving, and alarge board or table sufficed for the guests .Today's food operation is a highly complicatedone, and an architect should be familiar withthe entire operation. Most hotel kitchens andfood preparation areas are planned by expertsknown as kitchen engineers. It is not the architect's province to plan a kitchen, but it is certainlyhelpful for the architect to have a goodworking knowledge of what takes place in thefood preparation area and in the kitchens . Itwill make for better communication betweenthe architect and the kitchen engineer whenthey are discussing the planning of thesespaces . Just one word of caution-each expertwill want more space than the plan can possiblyallow. They don't really need that much space.The kitchen engineer will conjure up visionsof irate chefs stalking off the premises, butexperience has indicated that the architect'sknowledge of what the requirements are willtemper the demands of the kitchen engineer .Let us follow the flow of the raw food fromthe time it is delivered to the steward untilit is finally cooked and ready to be picked upby the waiters or the waitresses.After the comestibles have been weighed in,checked, and signed for, they are sent to eitherdry storage or liquor storage (a room with a biglock on it) or to one of the various cold holdingrooms or boxes. Canned food and other bottledor packaged food which does not need refrigeration will be sent to dry-storage rooms. In this storage space will also be kept the variouscondiments that the chef will need in the preparation of his food . Vegetables will be sent toan area where they will be stored ready forpreparation. A refrigerator box of the propertemperature will be needed, as well as workspace, sinks, and cutting boards wherevegetables will be prepared for the chefs asneeded . The peeling of potatoes, cleaning ofcarrots, trimming of lettuce, etc,, are done inthe vegetable preparation area and not in thekitchen area . Dairy products will go to theirown cold-storage boxes. Fish, fowl, and meatwill go to a separate area where boxes must bearranged with proper temperatures for theirstorage. Some of these items will be kept frozen,others in aging boxes, and others in simplecold storage. Fish preparation needs its ownspace. The hotel, in its purveying department,may buy cut and trimmed meat or portionedmeat and fowl . In the latter case, only a storagearea is necessary, since no preparation takesplace. Where a hotel does its own butchering,it is necessary to know what size cuts the hotelintends to buy (halves, quarters, etc .), and itmay be necessary to provide ceiling rails totransport them . Once again, it must be bornein mind that all these In cilities are under tightcontrol . Once the food ties safely reached its

destination in the rooms just described, there must be no place for it to go except into thekitchen where it will be used by cooks andchefs. Freezer, refrigerator, and cold storageboxes require heavy insulation . Slab sinkagesin these areas should be provided for. If this isnot done in advance, then boxes will be set ontop of the slab, therefore requiring a ramp fromthe work area to the box . This is something thatis far from desirable in a smoothly functioningkitchen . If the architect is not fed this informationbefore construction starts, it may benecessary to depress the entire slab in this areaand then, after the boxes have been placed,use fill to bring the working area up to the levelof the boxes. At this point, a word or twoshould be said about the bakery facilities . Thebakery shop should be a separate entity, havingits own refrigerator boxes as well as all thepertinent equipment that a baker will use inhis art---and an art it is, indeed . The baker willbe called upon to bake not only the everydaybread and rolls and the run-of-the-mill cakesand pastries but also unusual designs in birthdayrakes, wedding cakes, etc ., and he mayoften be. asked to carve ice figures for elaboratefood displays or buffets . Here again, oneshould be reminded that the bakery should beclose to the actual food service area so thatnot too many of these goodies find their way intothe locker rooms or out of the hotel entirely .We now have everything delivered, prepared,and ready for expert transformation by cooks,chefs, and garde mangers who will be preparingsoups, ragouts, roasts, epicureansauces, and hors d'oeuvres.Let us take a walk through what would bean ideal kitchen, assuming that everything ishappening at one level. (See Fig. 3.) The foodbrought in from the various prep areas consistsof fish, meat, fowl, vegetables, and condiments .The food from the prep area is brought to thevarious points where it is to be used. One ofthe first areas to which a good part of theprepared food will go is the rough cookingarea . Here we find the big soup kettles, thevegetable steamers, the ovens, and the hot topswhere most of the bulk foods will be prepared .Since many large pots are used in this area,there is usually a pot washing area close to therough or preliminary food cooking area . Roughcooking is usually backed up to the finishedcooking area . In this finished cooking area, thechefs will be preparing sauces and gravies aswell as broiling and trying and applying finalflame to various types of meats, fish, and fowl .Between the chefs' ovens, broilers, and fry-Fig . 2 Trash or amen chats .ers, which are aligned in a straight line, therewill be an aisle for the chefs. On the other sideof this aisle will be the serving tables fromwhich the waiters will pick up the finishedfood . At the bottom of these tables will be plate.warmers which the waiter picks up and setson the table so the chef can place the order ofthe specific dish that is required . Also on thistable will be bains-marie, which are pans immersedin circulating warn or hot water intowhich are put already prepared vegetables,gravies and soups, all kept at the proper temperature,so that the chef can ladle the requiredportion of food onto the dish where he hasalready placed his steak, broiled fish, friedfond, or other entrée . Above this long servingtable will be small pots and pans which thechef will take down and use to prepare theSmall portions of whatever food is called foron the waiters order. This food preparationarea will have reach-in boxes for cuts of meatand fish which have been prepared and areready for the final stage of cooking. The chefreaches in and takes out what he needs toprepare the required dish . Off to one side,somewhere in the waiter's line of traffic., willbe the garde manger section . Here have beendelivered all the prepared vegetables and fruitsso that the garde orange( can arrange salads,prepare cold desserts, and work up tire varioustypes of hors d'oeuvre as well as seafoodcocktails and other cold items for the start

of a meal car salads that accompany the maindish . The garde manger, on special occasions,will prepare special trays of cold, exotic dishesused for buffets or banquets . He will have hisown reach-in boxes for all the types of fruits,vegetables, seafoods, garnishes, etc., that areused . Farther along the waiter's course will bea section, close to tire exit, where such items asbread and rolls, butter, coffee, tea, ice, andother items are stored . Bread and rolls may bein a roll warmer . Here also will be found thecoffee urns, toasters, and egg boilers. Thisentire area is for self-service by the waiters,who will pick up the items they need on theirway to the guest waiting for the delivery of hisfood . Now let us, for a rnmnent, leave the kitchenand go into the dining room . A bus boy haspicked up the soiled dishes after a guest hascompleted his meal . He brings the soiled dishesinto that kitchen area which is allocated fordishwashing. In some cases the waiter willpick up his own soiled dishes and deposit themin the dishwashing area . This is a very noisyoperation in which sound should be carefullybaffled; but because of the need to get thedishes from the dining room to the dishwasher,the dishwasher is usually placed close to thedining room area so that the dishes can be disposedof as soon as the waiter or busboy entersthe kitchen . The dishwashing area is, of notessity, not only noisy but also a rather untidyoperation, SO it must be kept fairly isolatedfrom the actual cooking and serving area . Thereason for keeping it within the kitchen isobvious since the dishes, as soon its they havebeen properly cleaned, will be brought backinto the kitchen area for the service of freshlyprepared food . The waiter, coming into thekitchen, places his orders and follows a definitepath along the cooks and chefs' servingtables, the garde manger's serving tables . andthe pick-up area . Then, before entering tire.dining room, Ire will usually go by a checker'sdesk where he presents a check indicating theitems that he is taking out of the kitchen to thediner. A checker controls all foods and beveragesleaving the kitchen area to make sure thatthe items are correct and the prices properlyindicated. One other space will usually occurin our ideal kitchen--a service bar with a bartenderwho will prepare tire drinks that thewaiter has ordered. Here again, it roust be onthe direct path of travel, so that after the prepareddrinks have been picked up by the waiter,he will pass the checker, who will check offthe drink items as to quantity and price.Before leaving the kitchen, we must lookat some other areas that we will usually findin our ideal kitchen. There will be a chef'soffice, which is set where the chef can observeall the activities in tire kitchen. His office isusually enclosed with glass to give him auralprivacy but complete visual control. Here thechef will prepare and plan menus. He will beplacing orders for food and will generally beoperating a rather complicated and meticulouspart of the hotel service. In addition to thechef's office, there may be two other areas(once again, assuming that everything is happeningon this one level) . The first of these isthe room-service area . Here there must be sufficientspace for a fairly large number of roomservicerolling tables, which are set and readyto carry the dishes that have been ordered bythe guest via telephone. These tables are usuallyset up with their linen, glassware, and silver.In the warming compartment below thetablecloth, the room-service waiter will placethe hot dishes, and on top of the rolling servicetable he will place the cold dishes . Theroom-service area is always close to tire cookingand garde manger area . Much of the roomservice will consist of breakfasts or sandwichesand salads . Wherever a hot dish iscalled for, the room-service waiter will pickit up at the chef's cooking area . The roomservicearea should, of necessity, be as close

to the service elevators as possible . These,of course, must come (town to the kitchenfrom the service areas on each of the guestfloors . Normally, we will find a room-serviceoperator, who sits at a telephone taking callsfrom the guests . These calls are especiallynumerous in the morning, when many guestsare calling in for their breakfasts rather thancoming down to the dining room . The cookingarea, consisting mainly of griddles, will bemanned by short-order chefs who are ready toprepare various hot breakfast dishes, and thegarde manger section will be manned by acrew who are expert in the preparation ofbreakfast menus. For the rest of the day, sandwichesand salads coming from the gardo mangerwill be most in demand. Another part ofthe kitchen will be devoted to tire banquet area .We are assuming that this hotel is not toolarge and does not require a separate banquetkitchen but rather a banquet serving area . Wewill see again that the chefs will prepare thebanquet food, managing their schedule so thatit does not interfere with lunch or dinner . Inthe banquet area there will be mobile cabinetsthat take trays. These are electrified cabinetsarranged to keep dishes either hot or cold .Those banquet cabinets can be stocked beforea banquet for certain types of manes. In otherinstances, where steak and roast beef are oilthe banquet menu, there must be areas in whichthe chef can broil the steaks or large ovenswhere a number of roasts can be prepared atthe same time . A large banquet area in a hotelwill require a separate banquet kitchen withits own cooking facilities as well as its owndishwashing area . Here the architect mustreview the food service requirements and,working with the kitchen engineer, determinethe location of the banquet cooking and servicearea . Very often the banquet facilitiesare not on the same floor as the dining rooms,in which case there would have to be an elevatorconnecting the main kitchen with the banquetarea .Let us have one last look around . To beginwith, because of what is taking place lie tirekitchen, the floor should be of some materialwhich can be easily cleaned. In the past, thebetter kitchens used ceramic tile . There aremany new types of floor preparations whichcan be applied directly over the concrete slaband which lend themselves to easy cleaningas well as offering a firm foothold to preventslipping on wet spots . The walls, in most kitchens,were usually ceramic tile . Here again, thenew plastic materials are by some standardseven better than tile, with its cement joints andthe possibility of spalling tile . By all means,every effort should be made to hold down thenoise level in the kitchen, and this is best ac-complished by using a perforated metal ceilingwith acoustic botts above or a ceramic-treatedacoustical material . Hoods over all cookingareas are a must, and the architect shouldcheck with the building code to see that thehoods conform with the standards not onlyof the code but also of the National Fire Underwritersto prevent the spread of fires whichoften occur when a dish flames up while cooking.One last observation: it is an excellentidea to have toilets and washrooms for kitchenhelp, so that it isn't necessary for them to returnto their locker rooms, which may be atsome distance . It is always advisable to keepthe kitchen help within the kitchen duringtheir stint of duty . Doors to dining rooms, and

there may be several dining rooms servicedby the one kitchen, should be strategicallyplaced and baffled so that the diners do nothove a view of what goes on in the kitchen,and, what is more important, do not hear whatis going on .Most hotels have coffee shops, although thetrend in many hotels today is to work out anarrangement in which a coffee shop and a restaurantare combined . This is especially true ofthe smaller hotels and of some of the chain

hotels . For purposes of discussion, let us considerthat the coffee shop is a separate entity .The ideal plan would be to place the coffeeshop backed up to the kitchen, so that certainfinished dishes and prepared foods can bedelivered to the coffee shop work area directlyfrom the main kitchen under complete controlan it posses from prep areas to kitchen tocoffee shop . In the coffee shop much of thefood preparation will be done at the counters .In this area there usually will be found sandwichand salad areas as well as fryers andbroilers and griddles . Also in the coffee shopwill be the cold area for ice creams, desserts,etc. In the larger coffee shops, most of thecooking may be done in the kitchen and passedthrough to the counter for pickup by waitersand waitresses . In a coffee shop there will, ofcourse, be counters and stools, but there willalso be tables and chairs . At the counter wewill usually find a pickup area where the wait .ers can pick up the food prepared for themwithout disturbing the diners who are sittingat counters . Dirty dishes will be sent back tothe dishwashing area through a pass-through,or they will be carried to the dishwashing areain the main kitchen . Coffee shop diners expectquick service and, toward this end, the menusare carefully prepared for easy handling byshort-order chefs and sandwich and salad menwho work within the coffee shop and not in themain kitchen . Wherever specialty dishes of theday are offered, such as ragouts or soups, theyare prepared in the main kitchen and placed inhot bains-moris, ready to be picked up forquick service.There is another phase in the food area whichmay or may not be considered in a hotel, namely: food service or dining for the hotel help .Larger hotels will provide an employees' cafeteria.This space is usually planned to be closeto the help's locker rooms and yet contiguousto the main kitchen. If such a plan can beworked out, the food prepared for the employees'cafeteria comes from the main kitchen,end it is served as It would be in any normalcafeteria. Employees go through a self-serviceline, picking up hot and cold foods as well asdrinks as they go along . They are checked bythe checker or cashier and carry their trays tothe tables . Attention should also be paid to thefact that the dirty dishes which come out of theemployees' cafeteria must be returned tothe dishwashing area and here again, if al allpossible, a pass-through should be arrangedwhereby the dirty dishes can be passed directlyto the main dishwashing area in the kitchen.While still in the food department, let us lookin on the beverage service area . This may be abar room or a cocktail lounge . In any case,there will be a bar with stools (if local codespermit) and an area for cocktail tables andchairs . A cocktail lounge must be serviced justas the kitchen is serviced . To the bar must bebrought not only liquor and bottled goods butalso the usual crunchies that one finds in a bar,such as potato chips, peanuts, pretzels, etc.The bartender will also need from the commissaryarea oranges, lemons, limes, tomatojuice, etc. Cocktail lounges will also servecocktail canapes and, very often, sandwiches .Arrangements must be made in the plan for thedelivery of all of these items to the bar withouttoo much possibility of losing something on theway. Ideally, the delivery should be made directlyto the back bar through pass-throughsfrom the kitchen, so that we find once againanother unit backed up to the ideal kitchen.This will not always be possible .There is a great deal more to be known aboutfull food and beverage service in a hotel, but ageneral knowledge on the part of the architectwill suffice. He must depend upon the kitchenengineer for advice, plans, and details, just ashe must depend upon his electrical engineer,

his mechanical engineer, and structural engineersto feed him the information that he willneed to complete his plans for a hotel. It mustbe borne in mind that most hotels considerfood service as a necessary evil . The percent.age of profit on a food operation is always verysmall. Profit on beverages is much higher, andso beverage service is quite desirable as anadjunct to a food operation. A well-plannedfood and beverage setup, where control andefficiency are the guiding principles, will increasethe rather meager profits on this hotelfunction . It is in this area that the architect,working with the hotel operator and his staff ofexperts-which includes chefs, managers, etc.,as well as the kitchen engineer-can bring tobear his talents in creating an entity which willfunction at top efficiency .Mechanical SpacesAnother area that should be considered indesigning the back-of-the-house spaces will bethe boiler or mechanical room . In this area willbe found the various pieces of equipment forheating and cooling as well as all the tanks andpumps to keep all the mechanical systems inoperation. Each mechanical room will be of asize and shape that will satisfy the requirementsfor all the creature comforts that a modernhotel has to offer. In this area will also befound all central switch gear that controlselectric current for every purpose in the hotelcomplex. This domain belongs to the houseengineer and, naturally, there should be provisionfor an engineer's office, with a mechanicalrepair shop close by . There are a number ofother shops that probably will be located inthis area of the hotel. These would include acarpentry shop, an upholstery shop, and definitelyan area for a locksmith. Somewhere inthe area, where they are easily accessible, willbe storage rooms in which will be kept a multitudeof spare parts to service the hotel. Some ofthis storage space will be used for mechanicalequipment replacements, and other storageareas will contain spare parts for the furniture,carpet replacements, wallpaper replacements,cleaning materials, and cleaning equipmentthat will be used by the house porters.There will be another area which, technically,belongs to the back of the house . This area will875be occupied by personnel that very often comein contact with the guests, and the strategiclocation of these back-of-the-house facilitieswill be controlled entirely by what happens inthe front of the house. Included in these areasyou will find accounting and bookkeepingoffices (which back up the front cashiers);reservations offices (which back up to thefront registration desk) ; and offices for management,which will include a reception area, amanager's office, and an assistant manager'soffice . In this part of the hotel complex onewould usually find the head of the food andbeverage department, who may double as thebanquet manager. There will be a mail sortingroom, which might well be placed behind theregistration desk, since guests' mail is deliveredat this point. More will be said about allthese spaces when front-of-the-house operationis discussed further. Before leaving this area,we should note the fact that there will probablybe a secretarial pool to handle all the spacesthat have been enumerated above. We will bereferring to all the above spaces as the administrativearea .FRONT OF THE HOUSEWe have now established the activity whichcontrols the plan of a hotel as far as the backof the house is concerned. We will now examinewhat happens in the so-called "front of thehouse"-that area which concerns itself withthe guest as distinct from that area whichconcerns itself with the smooth functioning of

the hotel. It must be borne in mind that a hotel,like Janus, wears two faces. The guest or thepaying customer sees only the front of thehouse, and this must be all that he desires-awish fulfillment, an ego builder, a status symbol,and above all else a pleasant and satisfyingplace in which he will spend a night, aweek, or a month. The back of the house, whichhas already been discussed, is where all thatmakes this happen takes place. These are theareas of burnishing, butchering, baking ; ofboilers, motors, compressors, and ovens. Theguest never sees all this, but these unseenspaces will precisely determine his degree ofcontentment. These are the areas that willultimately dictate whether the hotel will run ata profit or a loss . The front of the house comprisesevery area that the guest will see;lobbies, dining spaces, rest rooms, passengerelevators, corridors, hotel rooms, etc. Thesespaces must be handled and planned with onethought in mind : the convenience and continuedapprobation of the guests .Let us now accompany our arriving guestfrom the time his car or taxi pulls up to themain entrance . As the guest enters the mainentrance (and there should be only one mainentrance), he should be overcome with a feelingof serenity, welcome, end definitely a completeabsence of confusion . The registrationdesk and the elevators should and must beimmediately apparent . The registration areaconsists of a front desk, behind which is aregistration clerk, behind whom is the key andmail rack, and behind that the various administrationspaces . At this point let us considerthe registration process itself . (See Fig. 4.)Guest RegistrationA hotel registration desk must be located sothat it is immediately visible as one enters thehotel lobby. The size of the desk will be determinedby the size of the hotel. There is nospecial rule to be followed except that a hotelof let us say, 2,000 rooms might have anywhere

from four to six registration clerks, while ahotel of 100 to 200 rooms will have one or atroost two spaces at which guests may register .There are certain requirements for the clerkbehind the desk as far as equipment is concerned. The simplest arrangement will call fora suitable file containing advance reservationcards requesting space, so that the clerk canquickly check what room has been reserved forwhat particular guest. Another mandatorypiece of equipment is a slip or card file which,at a glance, indicates which rooms are occupiedand which rooms are open . Occupied roomspaces will have a card with the name of theguest and probably the date when the guestintends to leave . As soon as the guest checksin, a card is slipped into the space for the room,indicating that the room is now occupied . This,the simplest form of registration, is applicableto the smaller hotels . Larger hotels have farmore sophisticated equipment, much of itelectronically controlled, which serves to indicate

time of arrival of guests who have madereservations, time of departure of guests whoare already checked into the hotel, and systemswhereby the registration clerk can also beinformed whether the room has been vacatedand whether the room has already been madeup by the maid on the floor and is ready to receivea new guest . The architect should acquainthimself with the requirements of thefront desk and also be aware of certain companieswho manufacture the filing systems andthe electronic equipment which is used for reservationand guest control .Advance ReservationsThe hotel industry depends primarily onadvance reservations to keep its rooms filled .The traveling public is aware of this fact, andmost travelers will book their reservations inadvance. Chain hotels and chain motels havedeveloped complicated and efficient electronicsystems for advance reservation bookingswhich are made from any point within the

chain. The systems employed are very muchlike the systems now being used by airlines forbookings and reservations . Terminal points inthe larger hotels have automatic electric equipmentwhich types out the name, date of arrival,anticipated length of stay, and type of accom-876modations requested. Whether the system bethe involved electronic system or whether itbe a reservation made by telephone or wire, areservation clerk within a reservation office inthe hotel will take care of all these requests forrooms . Since questions do arise at the timewhen the guest is checking in, the location ofthe reservation office must obviously be asclose to the front desk as the plan will permit .This will enable a reservation clerk to go backto the reservation department to check on aquestionable reservation or to adjust anyproblems which may arise at the time that thenew guests are checking in .Mail and KeysThere are two other services that the front or

registration desk must perform. The first andobvious one is to serve as the place where theroom keys are kept . Some of the larger hotelshave room-key clerks whose functions consistonly of receiving keys from guests as theyleave the hotel and giving the incoming guests,either upon registration or during their stay,the keys to their rooms. If the registrationclerk handles the keys . then obviously the keyrack is directly behind the desk, easily accessibleto the registration clerk. If the hotel is largeenough to require a separate area and separatepersonnel for handling of keys, this functionwill usually be alongside the actual registrationdesk . Since it is comparatively simple for someoneto ask for a key who is not entitled to itand who may be using that key to enter androb an absent guest, it behooves the architectto realize that some control is necessary in thehanding out of keys to make sure that keys aregiven only to the registered guests for thatparticular room . Mail is also handled in mosthotels at the registration desk . which dictatesthat keys and mail slots are designed as oneunit and placed directly behind the registrationdesk . Where a hotel is large enough to requirespecial key clerks, the same clerks will probablyhandle all incoming mail for the guests . Ifat all possible, mail sorting and handlingshould be done in an area where tire guest doesnot see this operation take place. Ideally itwould be behind the mail and key rack . A welldesignedunit will be worked out so that a mailclerk can place the mail into the individualmail slots from behind, rather than working inthe front and interfering with the activity ofthe registration clerk.CashierThe average hotel usually has the cashier'scounter located adjacent to the registrationdesk . There is no hard and fast rule concerningthis close interrelationship . The larger hotelsmay place cashiers in the so-called "front desk"area but somewhat remote from the actualregistration desk . There are times in largehotels, especially those catering to conventions,where one convention is checking outwhile another is checking in . This will make fortraffic congestion and some confusion . Such asituation can be avoided by planning the registrationand cashier facilities so that linesforming in front of the registration desk do notconflict with lines forming at the cashier'scounter.The cashier in the smaller hotels will handlemost of the bookkeeping. This is done bymeans of today's quick and efficient electricbookkeeping machines . Very often the nightcashier will handle a good deal of the bookkeeping,relieving the daytime staff of thischore. Larger hotels will have a complete bookkeepingdepartment . This will require morethan just the actual cashiers, who remain attheir stations, while the bookkeeping departmenthandles all entries and bookkeeping forthe guests . It is obvious that this bookkeepingdepartment should be close to if not backed upto tire front desk cashiers, so that any questionsof charges can be quickly checked andadjusted by the cashier, who will contact thebookkeeping department for clarification orcorrections in the guests' bills.Conveniences will usually be found in thecashier's area for guests who bring valuableswith them, whether it be cash, jewelry, orimportant papers . Guests are requested byhotel management to leave such valuables inthe hotel's safe deposit boxes or vault . It isdesirable to have the guest transfer hisvaluables to a cashier out of sight of the publicoccupying the main lobby. Therefore, a smallclosed room is normally provided . The guestenters this room and gives the valuables to thecashier through a pass-through window. Thispass-through window should have a view of thevault or the safe so that the guest can watch

his valuables being deposited properly . Wheresafe deposit boxes are furnished by the hotel,the cashier will hand ar key to the guest. Thesame procedure will be followed when theguest wishes to withdraw his valuables fromthe safekeeping of the hotel . This convenienceis especially useful in large resort or converttionhotels where women guests will be wearingjewelry on special occasions . A closedroom makes it possible for the guest to deliverand receive the jewelry without being observed,a precaution that is most necessary in today'stheft-prone society .A hotel cashier must also handle the cashfrom restaurants and coffee shop . The cashiersin these facilities will be bringing theircash receipts to the central cashier. In asmall hotel, this can be done directly withoutany concern about the transfer of thefunds from the restaurant and coffee shopto the cashier. In large hotels, where thereare a number of restaurants and other facilitieswhich entail cash payment, specialarrangements should be made for the handlingof this cash and, in some instances, safetydeposit boxes or vaults are provided so thatthe money can be stored when it is brought tothe cashier space at off hours and held untilnormal cashier operations begin in the morning,at which time receipts from the night beforeare taken out and properly credited . Thissystem is very much like a night depository ina bank . More and more hotels are installingpneumatic tube systems for the transfer ofguests' checks directly to the cashier. Thesechecks will be coming from various diningrooms and cocktail lounges as well as fromthe coffee shop and from the room-service area .These checks for food, beverages, etc., whichhave been signed by the guests, should betransferred as quickly as possible to the cash .ier. This is especially important when a guestis checking out a short time after having signeda check for food or beverages or such itemsas laundry and valet. Charges for telephonecells will have to be forwarded to the cashieralso . Many hotels are using an electric countingdevice visible to the cashier which indicatesthe number of calls made by the guest whileoccupying his room . These indicators functionautomatically but must be supplemented wheneverlong-distance cells are made by guests .Such supplemental information is fed to thecashier by the telephone department .

Administrative AreaThe administration of a hotel operation dependsentirely upon its size . A small hotel willmost likely have an office for a manager, whomay have his secretary working in the sameroom with him. The door to his office facesthe public lobby, and an additional door is providedso that he can go from his office to thefront desk . This is the simplest operation andis found only in the smaller hotels . A larger,medium-sized hotel will have a manager and anassistant manager and, as a rule, there willbe e reception office where one or two typistreceptionistswill be acting as a buffer betweenthe public and the manager. As a hotel projectgrows larger, the administrative area growsmore complex. Aside from the manager and theassistant manager, there may be an office fora food and beverage manager and a banquetmanager. A larger hotel, with sizable conventionfacilities, will also have an office for theconvention manager and his assistants . Obviously,es the complexity of thi office andadministrative area grows, a more careful anddetailed study is, perforce, made to arrangee smoothly functioning suite of administrativeoffices together with secretarial pools, bookkeepers,teletype machines, a mailroom forincoming mail and for voluminous outgoingmail, etc. The accompanying illustrations showhow these areas have been handled in various

hotels . It must be borne in mind that this frontof the house works closely with the back of thehouse. Many of the people in the administrativearea will deal with guests as well as hotel customersseeking to arrange for luncheons,banquets, and conventions . Accessibility to thepublic, therefore, is of the utmost importance .

Restaurant FacilitiesEvery hotel, whether it has 50 rooms or 2,000,must consider the feeding of guests . Smallhotels may get by with a pleasant coffee shoprestaurant . This type of unit is becoming morepopular in the smaller hotel where feedingfacilities are kept to a minimum. Such a facilitywould be the type where quick coffee shopservice could be offered a guest, either at acounter or at a table, and where, within thesame apace, more leisurely dining could beprovided . The difference between the twois achieved primarily through decor endatmosphere rather than any physical or struc-tural arrangement. In such a facility, it is possi.ble to take care of e large breakfast businessusing the entire facility . There are occasionswhen a visual separation between coffee shopand restaurant is made movable, so it can betaken away during the breakfast-hour rush .For luncheon, the division is reestablished,making it possible to serve quick meals forthose in a hurry in the coffee shop area andmore leisurely luncheons in the restaurantportion. In the evening, it is possible to geta more permanent type of separation betweencoffee shop end restaurant by pushing the coffeeshop separator around the counter area,thus allowing for maximum table and seatingarrangements in the so-called restaurant areawhen the coffee shop is doing a minimum business.Under normal situations there will be acocktail lounge or beverage bar even in thesmallest dining facility . The larger hotel willhave a pleasant coffee shop for quick serviceand for simpler meals, whereas a restaurant,with its appropriate decor for more leisurelydining, will offer a more varied menu withprobably higher cost per meal than in thecoffee shop . The cocktail lounge will usuallybe found close to the dining room so that hotelguests can pause for a cocktail before lunch ordinner, or while waiting, before going to thedining root", to meet friends or other guests .Where convention facilities are offered withina hotel, it is wise to have a bar placed close tothe convention facilities . Conventioneers seemto have a propensity for a cocktail before orafter meetings . This impulse-type of beveragebuying is boosted tremendously if beveragefacilities are placed in the normal path of traffic.Large convention and banquet facilitiesusually provide a fixed or portable bar arrangementin the preassembly or foyer areas to takecare of pauses between meetings and semi .nars and to fill those pauses with a facilitythat will provide a "pause that refreshes."There is no special requirement for the designof hotel restaurants, bars, cocktail lounges,and coffee shops which are in any way differentfrom the standard requirements forany such facility . Attention is called to thefact that people staying at hotels have a tendencyto seek out highly touted specialtyrestaurants within an area rather than eatingtheir meals in the hotel. This is especially truefor evening dining . Toward that end, hotelsmore and more are turning to specialty res.taurants whose specialty is not only food butalso decor, so that they can compete favorablywith individual restaurants in the general areaof the hotel. The same hotel kitchen can preparealmost any type of special food includingChinese, Polynesian, seafood, or gourmetdishes . The important thing to remember in layingout these spaces is that the decor must bedeveloped to entice the hotel guests to eat inthe hotel rather than outside in other specialtyrestaurants. Continuing in this vein of specializedfeeding, some hotels are installing rooftoprestaurants where a view of the city or the

general area is available and in which fairlylimited menus are offered-mostly open-hearthkitchen service which includes steaks, chops,and cuts of roast beef . Such a menu requirese very small kitchen and obviates the need forcreating large, expensive facilities on a rooffor specialty cooking . Wherever a rooftoprestaurant is created, the architect must beerin mind that there will be increased traffic inthe elevators taking diners from both in andoutside the hotel to this specialized rooftopfacility . And don't forget that, because of publicassembly requirements, the stairs must besized larger . Supper clubs or nightclubs willalso be found in the larger hotels . When facedwith this type of dining and entertainmentfeature, the plans must include not only a stageof sorts, together with the attendant stagelighting, but also dressing rooms for performersand a room for the orchestra . It is highlydesirable to keep such an adjunct es close tothe main kitchen as possible . In the planningof large hotels that encompass all the diningfacilities already mentioned, it may not bepossible to operate out of one central kitchen.In this case there may be several kitchens,preferably on a horizontal core, so that thereis the possibility of vertical distribution of foodfrom the preparation areas which would probablybe on the lower level.

LobbiesEvery hotel, regardless of its size, must havea public lobby. The size of the lobby is largelydetermined by the number of guest rooms aswell as by the type of hotel that is on the architect'sdrawing boards . It goes without sayingthat the larger the hotel, the larger the lobby .The lobby will also have to be larger in a resortor convention hotel. A resort hotel will requirea large lobby because guests will congregatethere in the evening . A hotel catering to conventionsneeds a large lobby because hereagain there is a constant gathering of conventioneersbefore they go off to lectures, seminars,meetings, luncheons, and dinners. Thereis no rule of thumb to determine the size of alobby. One must proceed by making a carefulstudy of similar types of hotels and arrive atdecisions after discussions with hotel operatorsand managers . A hotel lobby sets the moodfor a hotel. This apace, more than any other,will create the first and usually the most lastingimpression . Furnishings, color, finishing materials,lighting, and decor must create the properambience regardless of whether the hotel islarge or small, in a city or a resort, moderatelypriced or expensive. The interior designerplays a most vital part in planning and designinghotel lobbies .

ElevatorsExcept for one- and two-story motels, everyhotel and motel will use elevators to takeguests from the point at which they havechecked in up to the floor where the guest'sroom is located . Elevators should be locatedso that they are immediately visible, eitherfrom the entrance of the hotel or from thecheck-in or registration area . Another considerationin the planning of elevators is that oftheir location on the guest-room floors . It isadvisable to place them centrally so that thedistance walked by a guest in any directionis reduced to a minimum. It would obviouslybe wrong to place the elevators at the end ofa long corridor. It would be far better to havethese elevators placed so that they are aboutmidway between the two ends of the guestroomcorridor . The number, size, and speedof the required elevators is best determined bythe elevator companies themselves . It wouldnot be wise for the architect to make a determinationas to these factors. Elevator companiescan givethe answers when facts and figuresare given to them, and it is they who will informthe architect what the number and size as well

as the speed of the elevators should be . Mostelevator companies are computerizing thisinformation and can furnish it to the architectwithin a matter of hours. The designer shouldbear in mind that the elevator is part of thehotel atmosphere and, just es it is importantto create the proper ambience in the lobbies,it is important to create and to carry out this

CommercialHOTELSpleasant feeling in the elevators, since theyare the transitional points from lobby to guestroomfloor .Under no circumstances should guest elevatorsbe used for service . Service elevatorsare separate and apart . Many hotel designsindicate the service elevators within the samegeneral area as the passenger elevators, butthis need not necessarily be so . Each bankof elevators should be strategically locatedto best service the front of the house (guests)or the back of the house .Before leaving the subject of lobby design,attention is called to the location of the bellcaptain's station . The bell captain's stationshould be located so there is a commandingview of the hotel entrance, the registrationdesk, the cashier, and the elevators . If the hotelis to render the proper kind of service, it is upto the bell captain to see that the arriving ordeparting guest is properly taken care of . Hemust see to it that there is a bellman or a bellboyavailable for the luggage going into thehotel and the luggage going out of the hotel .Incidentally, this is also a form of safeguardto see that guests departing the hotel stop atthe cashier and take care of their bills beforeleaving . The bell captain should have at hisdisposal e storage space for small parcelswhich may be left for absent guests and whichhe will eventually deliver when the guestsreturn to the hotel . Somewhere in the lobbythere should be a rather large storage sparefor luggage which may be left by guests afterchecking out but prior to departing . In veryactive hotels with a high occupancy, there isa mandatory check-out time . Very often theguest is not going to leave the hotel until severalhours after the check-out time . Underthose circumstances, the guest will leave hisluggage with the bell captain after checkingout, but he will remain in the hotel until it istime for him to depart via his car or to the railroadterminal or airport .

Guest-Floor CorridorsWe will now accompany our guest from theelevator to the guest's room . As the elevatordoors open, the guest should find himself inan eras which can be designated as an elevatorfoyer . This may be a large open spaceor a space slightly wider then the corridoritself . Whatever its size, it should, by its width,denote the fact that it is the elevator foyer.It is wise to remember that no guest-roomdoors should be placed opposite the elevators .Guests coming or going late at night, comingout or getting into the elevators, may talkloudly or may be too noisy, in which case theywould be disturbing guests whose doors openoff this area . The foyer should be furtherdemarked from the guest-room corridor by itsdecor and lighting . It is always a thoughtfultouch to have certain appurtenances whichindicate consideration for the guest in the totaloverall planning . One of these appurtenanceswould be a small bench or some type of seatfor guests who may want to wait in the foyerfor the elevator or who may be waiting to meetsomeone else on the floor . It is also a thoughtfulgesture to have a full-length mirror in thisarea ; men as well as women guests appreciatethe chance to have a look at themselves beforedescending to the main lobby floor . Thereshould obviously be a good-sized ash receiverfor cigarettes, cigars, and other trash nuisancesthat the guest may want to get rid ofbefore getting into the elevator .The guest-floor corridors are transitionalspaces between the public space, which hasalready been discussed, and the guest room,which will be discussed further below . Thefirst problem the architect faces is a questionof dimension--width and length . Let us considerthe advisable length of a corridor first .Good practice indicates that a corridor should,if at all possible, not be over 100 ft in length .It sometimes occurs that, because of the sizeof the hotel or its configuration, corridors maybe longer . There are a number of hotels wherecorridors stretch out for over 200 ft . The architectwould be well advised to introduce aninterruption of some sort in his corridor planningto keep the guest from feeling as if his

approach to his room were an endless path .The interruption may be by means of a changein dimension or, if the plan permits, a change indirection . The long look of a corridor may berelieved by means of appropriate lighting anddecor . Where a corridor turns at right anglesor at any angle, it would be well to arrangefor a secondary foyer effect to give the guesta second breath, so to speak, before continuingalong the corridor to his room . There is verylittle choice in the width of a corridor . Normally,6 ft is considered an adequate width, althoughsome hotels have made do with only 5ft . This could well suffice if the corridor wasa rather short one . Another expedient, whichmay be used either in a narrow corridor (under6 ft) or a standard-width corridor, would be thedevice of recessing the bedroom or guest-roomdoors . Setting doors back from the corridorwall 1 ft or even as much as 2 ft gives an apparentwidth to the corridor and, what is moreimportant, it gives each room entrance its ownsense of privacy and individuality . It is normalto pair guest-room doors and therefore therecess or door alcove would normally be thewidth of two doors or a minimum of 6 ft and adepth ranging anywhere from 6 in . to 2 ft . Anexpedient that always helps acorridorto appearshorter is that of creating a change in thecolors of the recesses, which under ideal conditionswould be opposite each other on eitherside of the corridor . If this is possible in theplan, and it usually works out that way, a breakin the carpet color or design in this area as wellas a change in the color scheme for eachentrance-door alcove creates a pleasant feelingof pause or interlude along a long corridor .Lighting will also play an important part inmaking corridors seem more interesting andless stretched out . Illuminating the alcoveareas is always a pleasant device . In the firstplace, it makes the numbers of the doorsimmediately visible, and in the second place,it gives the guest a sense of comfort to knowthat no one could be lurking in the door alcovewhere deep shadows might hide him . Lightingalways creates an ambiance of hospitality,and lights would be best placed in these dooralcoves . This is not a hard and fast rule . Inmany instances, the interior designer or thearchitect may decide that lighting along theblank wall between the guest-room doorswould serve his purpose better . All this, ofcourse, is a matter of individual taste as wellas of the wishes of the hotel operator . Anothersmall but important factor is the design of theguest-room door itself . A flush panel door isthe least expensive but also the least desirabletype of door for a guest room . If only a flushdoor is used, strong color might be helpful,or the use of natural wood finishes would bepleasant . If at all possible, some form of decoron the door will create a sense of invitinghospitality for the arriving guest . Anotherthing to be borne in mind is that the guestmust be able to recognize his room number,and such a room number might well be anattractive decorative adjunct in this area . Somehotels have used room numbers placed to theside of the door rather than on the door itself. Here again, the ingenuity of the designercomes into play . It is not the intention of thisdissertation to discuss color, but wall coveringand wall colors in corridors are most important .It must be borne in mind that along these corridorspass endless numbers of pieces of luggagecarried by the guest or the bellboy .Luggage may also be transported by means oftrolleys . In any case, the lower portion of thewell will be subjected to brutal abuse by beingbanged with luggage or trolleys . The lower portionof the wall, therefore, might well bedesigned as a dado made of a bruise- andshock-resistant material or merely marked offwith a contrasting color or wall covering . Thusthe lower walls in the corridor can be repaintedor repapered when they have been sufficientlyscuffed while the upper walls may remain asthey are . This can result in considerablesavings to the hotel operator .Guest RoomsEverything that has been said about hotelsthus far may be considered peripheral to theprime product that a hotel has to offer, namely,the guest rooms. This is the final product thatis to be sold . In connection with this thought,it is well to remember (although this may nothave any influence on the planning or the architectureof a hotel) that, unlike an item on amerchant's shelf, a guest room that is not soldone night means a complete loss . It would beas if a grocer were forced to throw out eachday's unsold supply of boxed cereal and to layin a fresh supply every morning . That is a preciseanalogy to the situation of the hotel manand his guest rooms . The room that is not sold

and the revenue that is lost can never be recovered(Fig . 5) .Now let us have a look at the guest roomitself . The first consideration is that of size .The accompanying illustrations of guest roomsin hotels designed by the authors show as widea variety of dimensions as an architect mayencounter . For the moment, let us eliminatethe space taken by a bathroom and a closetand consider the actual room itself . The lengthand width are determined by the amount offurniture that is to go into the room and bythe degree of luxury that the hotel operatorwishes to achieve . Let us consider the latterfirst . It is an obvious truism that the luxuryof space is an expensive one when consideredin the light of construction costs . Space, however,does convey a feeling of luxury and,where an operator is aiming for the high-pricedmarket, it would be well to create rooms thatare sized not for the actual furniture requirementsbut for the sheer luxury of spaciousness .And now to the first premise-namely, whatfurniture should go in and what size roomshould accommodate the furnishings . In orderto understand furniture requirements, it isimportant to have a knowledge of the varioustypes of rooms that a hotel or motel offersguests . The most common room in the hotelfield today is the twin-bedded room . Thenwe have the possibility of a single occupancyroom, and, lastly, studio rooms or suites . Thetwin-bedded room, the most common in hotelsgenerally, will vary in length depending onthe type of bed that the operator wishes toinstall . The smallest unit will have a pair oftwin beds . The first question that arises in consideringtwin beds is whether there will be anight table between the beds or whether thetwo beds will be placed side by side . Roomscontaining twin beds, with a night table betweenthem, are preferred by most hotel operatorsbecause there are many double occupan-881

CommercialHOTELSties that do not necessarily involve marriedcouples. For instance, the occupants mightbe two women, two men, or one adult and onechild, and in these instances it is always desirableto provide separate beds . As an example,two men traveling together would much preferto have their beds separated than to sleep sideby side . Economy in space and length of roomcan be achieved by placing beds side by side,but although such an arrangement is oftenused, it is not the best one.The next consideration is the size of the bedsthemselves . There are single beds which are3 ft 6 in . wide, a full-sized bed which is 4 ft6 in ., a queen-sized bed which is 5 ft wide,end a king-sized bed which is 6 ft wide . Presently,all beds are still being made in a 6-ft6-in . length dimension. Since the averageAmerican is growing taller and taller, it wouldbe wise to consider 7-ft beds as a standard,since it will not be long before such beds willbe introduced into most hotels . One reasonfor the queen-sized bed is the comfort of theguests . Many guests would appreciate theextra width of a queen-sized bed, and it is possiblefor families traveling together to have anadult and a child sleep in the same bed. Whereking-sized beds are employed (and this will befound most often in motels), two adults mayoccupy one bed, so that a two-bed room maytake a family of four people .In connection with beds, it is wise to rememberthat the headboard, which seems like ananachronism in home furnishing, is a mostimportant feature in hotels . Guests like to readin bed, and because of the widespread use ofhair preparations, the headboard portion of thebed is subjected to heavy wear and soiling.Whether s headboard is provided or whethersome other device such as a flat cushionagainst the wall or any other ingenious arrangementthat the interior designer may come upwith is used, headboards are definitely a part ofhotel equipment. Beds, as a rule, come onglides or coasters in one form or another sothat they can be moved when the maid comesin to make up the beds . Movement of beds ismost important, so that maids and porters

can clean under them . Nothing is more disturbingto a guest than to look under a bed and seean accumulation of carpet fluff and discardedcigarette butts.Nowthat we have discussed beds, we knowthat we must have at least 7 ft 6 in . from thewall to the front edge of our newer anticipated7-ft beds . If at all possible, there should be a3-ft aisle and, if no furniture is placed oppositethe bed (a very unlikely arrangement),then the width of the room would be a minimumof10 fl 6 in . Where furniture will be placedon the wall opposite the bed, such furniturewill most likely consist of a dresser or cupboardwith drawers . Such a piece of furniturerequires a minimum of 18 in . in width and mostlikely an optimum width of 24 in . It must beremembered that drawers have to be opened,and the guest will need room to stand in frontof the dresser to open the drawer withoutbeing forced to sit down on the bed while doingso . Therefore, a 3-ft aisle again comes into play .If we consider the 7 ft 6 in . required for the bed,3 ft for the aisle, and 2 ft for the dresser, wehave an optimum room dimension of 12 ft 6 in .between walls. This is a minimum dimension,and if the plan and the budget permit, another6 in . would be a most welcome spatial device .Let us now consider the length of the room .This dimension will vary depending upon thetypes of beds used-queen, king, or standardtwin-but this is only part of our consideration.It is necessary in each room to provide not onlysleeping facilities but also sitting facilities .88 2The most common arrangement found in mosthotels consists of two comfortable armchairswith a cocktail table between them . A comfortablechair will require a depth of least 30in . and another 30 in . of leg space in front ofit, which means that we need at least 5 ft fromthe wall before we encounter the first pieceof furniture, which will probably be a bed. Thefurniture placement will usually call for thechairs to be placed against the window wall .The reason is obvious. A view out of the windowis e pleasant experience for someone usingthe guest room as a sitting room . In connectionwith the so-called cocktail table, this maygive way to a low table which may be used fordining, card playing, or writing . Many so-called"cocktail tables' are, in effect, pedestal standinglamps which combine two pieces of furniturein one: the cocktail table and the standinglamp . Such an expedient is a space saver, sincethe light is exactly where it is wanted and thereis no need for another movable lamp . In talkingof lighting, we must bear in mind that we wantnot only a lamp or a ceiling fixture over thesitting area but also adequate reading lightsfor the beds . The most often used arrangementis a twin-headed lamp sitting on the night tablebetween the two beds . Far from enough studyhas been done in this type of lighting, whichwould make it possible to give adequate anddirect light for one guest who is reading inbed while the other guest can sleep withoutbeing disturbed by the light of his roommate .Lights may be placed over the headboards, butthis means that two outlets may be requiredand certainly two luminaires instead of one.Another area that will need good lightingis the area which we will call the writing and

makeup area . This is usually some sort of tablearrangement where a guest may sit and writeor where a female guest can sit down and applyher makeup It has become rather standard tocombine the dresser with its drawers with anotherpiece of furniture which is called thedressing-writing table. This type of case goodsis most often used, but it is by far the leastdesirable for a well-appointed room . Anotherpiece of fixed furniture that is desirable is aluggage stand. Many hotels overlook this usefulpiece of furniture and supply folding luggagestands . These will serve adequately but,since the guest will usually leave his piece ofof luggage in the room, it is far more desirableto have a pleasant piece of furniture than a foldingluggage rack . Before leaving the furnishingof the standard room, it should be noted thatthere should be at least one more chair in theroom . This could be a straight-backed chair ora stool placed in front of the writing-makeuptable. This will provide for three sitting pieces .If at all possible, a fourth chair should be considered.It is far pleasanter to have four peoplesitting on chairs than to have three peoplesupplied with chairs while the fourth visitoror guest has to sit on one of the beds . Betweena pair of twin beds, the ubiquitous nightstandwith its small storage space below is standard .A clever interior designer can improvise andcreate far better furnishing arrangementsthan the standard nightstands- arrangementswhich will give the room additional storagespace. The cocktail table which has been previously

mentioned may well give way to adining table, which will serve the purpose farbetter because it can be used for setting downa drink or a book or a package and also forserving a meal (rather than depending upon theroom-service trolley) . In connection with theroom-service trolley, the designer should bearin mind that if a dining table is not provided,there must be sufficient space in the room toset up a room-service table. This is wheeled inby the waiter, and it must then be possible toarrange at least two and sometimes morechairs around it for the guests who wish todine in their rooms .The luggage stand has already been mentioned,but at hotels where the guests may bestaying for as long as a week or more (thisobviously will be the case in resort hotels),the designer should bear in mind that theywill come with more than one piece of luggage.Some travelers carry four and six pieces, andwhere to put them in the standard room becomesa serious problem.Lighting in the room, which has been partial.ly covered, will depend upon the interior designer. The necessary luminaires have alreadybeen discussed, but these may be supplementedwith additional light to create a pleasanterambience in the room . The control of theselights must be carefully considered . The simplesttype of control will call for a switch atthe door which will turn on one or two or evenall the lights in the room . Most hotels and theirdesigners give entirely too little thought to theswitching arrangement for the control of lights .This leads to confusion on the part of the guest,who has to explore the room and decide whichlights are controlled at their source . A greatsource of annoyance is the arrangement inwhich all the lights are controlled by one switchat the door and then each luminaire has itsown ON and OFF switch . It presents an annoyingand puzzling problem to the guest cominginto the room or the guest who wants to turnout the lights when going to sleep. This problemhas been solved in many hotels by placingone light switch at the door to turn on one ofthe lights and then providing a battery of lightswitches at the bed which control the otherlighting in the room . If this is not carefullythought out, a fuming guest will often commentthat one has to be a lighting engineerin order to understand how to work the intricateswitching arrangement. This is especiallytrue if two-way switches are used, one at thedoor and one at the bed ; then you may be surethat the guests will become quite thoroughlyconfused . Such switching arrangements areprevalent in European hotels, but there theproblem is overcome by using graphic symbolson each switch to make it possible for thetraveler to figure out the intricacies of thelight controls . Mere we can give no advice otherthan to consider the problem carefully as ifit were a problem in logistics.Thus far we have been speaking only of guestrooms with normal twin- or single-bed arrangements.Another popular arrangement in hotelsis that of the so-called "studio room ." Dualsleep pieces have been developed which arecomfortable sofas during the day and perfectlycomfortable beds at night. In this context weare not speaking of the folding sofa beds .These should be used only as a last resort inhotel furnishings . They can never achieve thecomfort of the standard bed. The dual sleeppieces we are talking about come in variousingenious arrangements, but they are primarilybeds which have some back-up arrangementso that they become normal sofas when usedfor sitting. When they are moved out, rolled to aside, or adjusted in some other way to clearthe backrest, they become full-width, fulllengthbeds . The accompanying illustrationsshow some of the ways in which these dualsleep pieces may be used . The purpose of astudio arrangement is to enable the guestto use his room as a true sitting room . Manytravelers use their rooms during the day toconduct business or to visit with friends.

Obviously it is much pleasanter to sit in s roomwhich looks like a living room than to ignore

CommercialHOTELSthe beds, which may or may not have beenmade up when the guest receives company.Another reason for having these studio roomsis that they may double as sitting rooms forsuites by having one room, which is a normalbedroom or guest room, adjoin another roomwhich is furnished as a studio room . Thus thehotel can provide a two-room suite (obviously,connecting doors must be provided betweenthese two accommodations) . Before leavingthe question of adjoining rooms, the architectshould determine with the hotel operator howmany rooms will have adjoining doors. Toooften the planner decides that all rooms shouldhave interconnecting doors. These doors area source of annoyance because, unless thefinest type of sound barriers are used on them,these doors become a nuisance in that soundwill travel more easily through doors thanthrough walls. This is true in spite of the factthat a good installation will call for one doorin each room, so that actually every connectingopening has two doors. Wherever the budgetpermits, a high-rated door is desirable, and ifat all possible, a gasketing device should beemployed to cut the sound transference fromone room to another. With regard to soundtransference, the mechanical plans must indicatethat base outlets and telephone outletsmay not back up to each other. This is one ofthe most troublesome ways of transmittingsound from one room to the other. It is economicalto back up electrical and telephone outlets,but it is a bad policy in hotels . Outlets shouldbe staggered to avoid sound transmission .The architect should definitely consider thedecibel rating of his wall construction to tryand cut sound transmission from one room toanother. This usually adds to the cost of thehotel, but it is highly desirable. As one guestonce said, he is tired of answering his phonewhen it is his neighbor's that is ringing ; and asanother guest once complained, every time hisneighbor flushes the toilet, he runs for the hills.Sound transmission is a nuisance in hotelsand it should be carefully considered by thearchitect.Every hotel should have arrangements forsuites of a permanent nature as opposed to acombination of a studio room with a typicalguest room . Suites will be furnished like finesitting rooms. They are used not only by theaffluent traveler because he can afford it butalso by travelers who do a good deal of entertaining,especially business travelers whoentertain clients and customers on their arrivalin any given city . If a hotel offers conventionfacilities, it will require an inordinate numberof suites . Conventions will mean that therewill be a good deal of entertaining going on,and companies whose representatives areguests in the hotel will want good-sized suitesfor fairly large cocktail parties and other formsof entertainment. These large suites, incidentally,may double at times as seminar or conferencerooms. In this context the hotel may beasked to move most of the furniture out of thesuite living room and bring in seminar chairsfor meetings . If such will be the case, the plannershould provide for a storage room on eachfloor capable of holding alternate types offurniture to suit the requirements of guestsusing large suite-sitting rooms. These suitesare also often used by two couples or by a largefamily, in which case the sitting room of thesuite may be used for sleeping at night. In thiscase, dual sleep pieces will be required, butthey will usually be the type that is referred toas a "davenport," or the type of sofa whichopens out to become a comfortable double bed(never as comfortable as a true bed) . Thesesuites should have a good-sized dining tablewith a sufficient number of chairs, provisionfor an adequate desk (since some business maybe carried on in that room), a sufficient number

of comfortable lounge chairs, and an accessorytable. The decor of the room will dependupon the interior designer and the hotel operator,who usually knows what he would like inthese suites . It is a good practice to arrange thesitting room of a suite so that it connects withat least two bedrooms and, if at all possible,three and sometimes even four bedrooms . Thiswill require some intricate planning . Suiteswill usually be found in the corner of a building,which makes it possible for the plannerto join up several bedrooms .There are times when suites are not used,and the hotel should be able to rent each of therooms in the suite separately . This meansthat each room will have its own separate key.A foyer which connects the bedrooms and thesitting area makes this separate keying ofrooms possible . A single door or a pair ofdoors leading to the foyer of the suite will beon one key, but by opening these doors temporarily(the plans should be devised so thatthe doors can be swung back and out of theway), the foyer becomes part of the corridorsand each room, including the sitting room,would have its own key. This makes for maximumflexibility, so that the sitting room can berented on an individual basis. A complete bathroomshould be planned for each of the sittingrooms of a suite to make it possible to rentthe rooms out singly . Even if the room is notrented singly, a bathroom or lavatory facilitycertainly is needed in each living room orsitting room of a suite. Plumbing connectionsmight well be arranged so that a bar can alsobe introduced in the sitting room . Since thisroom will be used for entertaining (either businessor private), a bar with water connectionbecomes a pleasant adjunct.There is a growing tendency in hotels andmotels to create greater flexibility in meetingand seminar rooms that would be available toconventions. These rooms are so designedthat they can be used as bedrooms when notrequired for meetings or other purposes whena convention is in the hotel. Under this conceptusually two rooms are divided by a foldawaypartition, so that the two rooms can be throwninto one if a larger room is required. On otheroccasions, the one guest room may be usedfor very small met tings without being openedup to the adjoining guest room . In view ofthe fact that these rooms are designated formeetings, whether singly or in pairs, theirfurnishings are different from those of the standardguest room . At the outset it must bedetermined that this will probably be used asa single room rather than a double room . Thebed itself is placed in the wall . It is the typethat swings up and is hidden in the wall . Thereare a number of manufacturers today who aremaking these hideaway beds, which are quitesatisfactory for hotel use. It is possible, if sodesired, to have two hideaway beds, in whichcase the room becomes a double room . Therest of the furniture is carefully consideredso that it can be moved out of the way to openup the room for meetings or, at best, is sizedso that it will not interfere with meetings inthese rooms . Obviously, these rooms willbe placed on the lowest floors so they can beclose to the public spaces for the convenienceof those who are going to use them for meetingsor seminars in connection with a largerconvention or meeting taking place in the hotel.

Guest BathroomsWe are now ready to review the bathroomrequirements in a hotel. The minimum bathroomwill have a combination tub-shower,a lavatory, and a water closet . Since the travelingpublic is very conscious of bathroomaccommodations, the architect should give agood deal of thought to this feature in the hotel.The accompanying plans of the writer's projectsshow various arrangements of bathroomaccommodations . An innovation devised bythe writer's firm was the introduction of twolavatories in the bathroom facilities . These

two lavatories may be right in the bathroomitself, they may be pulled out into a dressingarea, or one lavatory may be placed in the bathroomand another outside the bathroom . Thislast arrangement is most desirable, so that iftwo people occupy a room, regardless ofwhether it is a husband and wife, two men, ortwo women traveling together, they have theuse of the bathroom facilities without interferingwith each other. It immediately becomesobvious that if, for instance, the husband isshaving, the wife can be taking a bath orshower-and other possibilities are immediatelyself-evident .European hotels invariably have not onlythe tub, water closet, and lavatory but also abidet. This is a particularly European custom,and we are finding that in many hotels in Americathe bidet is being introduced . Obviously,this additional feature is found only in the mostluxurious hotels . Taking the water closet asthe first of the fixtures in the bathroom, thereis one word of caution. A noisy flushing toiletis a disturbing noise element not only to theoccupants of the room but also to the occupantsof the adjoining rooms. Flushometersare not desirable because they are noisy. Thereare noiseless flushometers, but they are quiteexpensive. The average hotel uses a silenttank-type of toilet as the most expedient type ofwater closet for hotels . A wall-hung unit makescleaning of hotel bathrooms easier for themaid, but again, its economics will determinewhether this fairly expensive type of installationis warranted. The tub in a guest room isnormally a 5-ft tub. A good hotel installationwill go for the additional expense and theadditional dimension by installing 5-ft 6-in .tuba . The European hotels invariably have atleast a 5-ft 6-in . tub, and there are many luxuryhotels with 6-ft tubs . The normal shower headbecomes standard in all hotels, although thereis a growing tendency to using the so-called"telephone shower head ." This is a handoperatedshower head which is more commonin Europe than it is in America . Manufacturersof bathroom equipment have devised a handheldshower head which operates as well as thenormal wall shower head, and by using twomovable shower-head supports, one at the normalhand level and one at the higher level wherea fixed shower head normally would occur,the guest has the option of allowing the handtypeshower head to remain in a standardposition or to remove it and use it as hepleases. This type of shower head, incidentally,is also convenient for women guests washingtheir hair .Recently, most bathroom fixture companieshave been turning their attention to some formof fiber glass or plastic tub and shower arrangementsthat can be delivered either in onepiece or in several sections . This eliminatesthe necessity for the use of tile or other imperviouswall material in this area . These onepieceinstallations are still in the early stagesof development, but eventually hotels will beturning to them for economy in constructionand for simplicity in installation . The standardone-piece lavatory is fast disappearing fromhotels . Instead, a lavatory is becoming a shelfarrangement into which the bowl is sunk .Usually, a marble slab with a cutout to receivethe lavatory bowl is used . There are many

883CommercialHOTELScompanies manufacturing synthetic marblethat make the bowl and the ledge in one piece.This is highly desirable in hotels, but careshould be exercised to make sure that thesynthetic material can withstand cigaretteburns, alcohol stains, and the general abusethat these areas get . Older hotels used to haveice-water connections in the lavatory . This isnow a thing of the past because most hotelsprovide ice makers in corridors as a nice touch

for the guests, who can fetch their own icecubes for cold water or for cold drinks .Another consideration in a bathroom is theso-called "medicine cabinet." Since guestsreally do not carry medicines any more, it isadvisable to eliminate this facility entirely .If a medicine cabinet is used, very often a guestwill place shaving materials, lotions, etc., inthe cabinet and upon leaving the hotel forgetto look in it, therefore leaving behind his orher toiletries . It is preferable to have a ledgeon which toiletries may be placed, where theyare conveniently reached, and where, obviously,they will not be left when the guest checksout. There are a number of appurtenances thatwill be placed in the washing area, such as atumbler holder or toothbrush holder, but hereagain the tendency is to leave out these piecesof hardware, although a receptacle for toilettissues is desirable and should be included .If a ledge is used, the toilet tissue holder can beplaced within the recess of the ledge, es can bethe tumbler holders and the toothbrush holders.Obviously, an electrical convenience outletmust be placed in this area for electricshavers, electric toothbrushes, and other electricalgadgets that today's traveler takes withhim. A slot receptacle for used razor bladesshould not be forgotten.Towel bars must be strategically placed sothat the guest can reach for a towel regardlessof whether he is stepping out of the tub orwhether he is washing or shaving et the lavatory. A well-run hotel should keep an amplesupply of bath towels and face towels in eachguest room, and sufficient space for theseshould be allowed together with the necessaryhardware arrangements . Hooks are oftenomitted, but these are necessary for e guest'spajamas or bathrobe . Of course, the ubiquitousbottle opener should not be forgotten.We still have bottles with bottle caps, althoughin the near future this will probably be an interestinganachronism. Another nicety whichmight be provided is some form of clothesline.With today's wash-and-wear apparel, manyguests, especially women, like to do theirwashing at night and hang their garmentsin the bathroom . Since this has become a wayof life for the traveler, an architect will be welladvised to seek out one of the many trickyself-concealing wash lines on the market today.Finally, the treatment of the walls and floorsof a bathroom becomes the province of theinterior designer . The use of tile, for one reasonor another, is being reduced to a minimum. Itwill be found around the bath enclosure (wherethe new one-piece units are not used) andusually on the floors because they are sorequired by sanitary building codes. There aremany new materials on the market, and suchold materials as thin-slab marble may be used .Where code permits, some hotels are actuallyusing washable synthetic carpets in bathroomsfor floors . The walls are definitely no longertiled, but some form of scrubbable wall coveringmaterial is prevalent in most hotels today.It need hardly be said but it should be notedthat good lighting is an essential in a bathroomwhere men will be shaving and where womenwill be applying makeup . This, together withample mirror services, is an indisputable must,A number of hotels are installing a wall-hung884mirror which is an enlarging mirror on one sideand a normal mirror on the other, a very nicetouch for both men and women guests . Muchhas been said about the bathroom, but Americansare a bathroom-conscious people . A hoteldesigner should realize that pleasing the guestis his prune purpose and that the bathroomcan be a great guest pleaser.Guest Room ClosetsWe now come to the final requirement in theguest room, namely, the closet . The size of acloset will be determined by the type of hotel.Obviously, such an accommodation in a motelis of little use . Most motels expect guests tostay only overnight, and therefore they needvery little accommodation for hanging clothes.

Many motels, in fact, have no closets at all butprovide a neat hanging space to make surethat the motel guest who likes to check outearly in the morning does not forget anyclothes in the closet, which might be closedwhen he is leaving . Having the open hangingarrangements obviates this possibility . Thelonger the guest-room stay that is anticipated,then the larger the closet . The larger walk-incloset should certainly be considered whereguests will be staying for any length of time .This is especially true in resort hotels, wherethe guest will be arriving with many pieces ofluggage and the closet should be large enoughto accommodate the emptied luggage duringthe guest's stay . It should be possible to storethe luggage out of sight in the closet withoutdiminishing the available hanging space, theshoe-rack space, or shelf space for hats andother apparel and paraphernalia . Whether thecloset is a flat reach-in type or a walk-in type,the door should be such that, when thecloset isopened, there are no hidden recesses whereclothing may be forgotten because it cannot bereadily seen by the departing guest. Anotherthought to be borne in mind is that closet doorscan become e nuisance when opened, end theirstrategic location to avoid banging into opendoors is definitely the province of a hotel planner.A good closet will have a hang rod withsufficient space to comfortably hold men's andwomen's clothes, a shelf for packages, hats,etc., and a shoe ledge or rack for placing shoes.A walk-in closet must, of course, have a goodsource of light. A reach-in closet should alsohave light outside the closet so that the guestcan see what is inside .Guest-Floor Service SpaceEvery guest-room floor will have a service area .A service area serves several functions. Primarily,it is a place where linen is stored andwhere the maids' carts are kept . We must bearin mind that each maid will handle anywherefrom 12 to 15 rooms and that each maid willneed a cart. The number of rooms on the floorwill, therefore, determine the number of maidsand, in turn, the number of carts. Aside fromthe space for the maids' carts, there must be aporter's closet for cleaning supplies, vacuumcleaners, pails, etc . A closed storage areashould be provided for the storage of linens .In addition to the maids', porters', and linensupplies, sufficient space should be left for thestorage of room-service carts. These carts willbe brought to this area by the waiters after theguests have finished their meals. They mayhave to remain on the floor for some time waitingfor the service elevator or elevators. Obviously,the service elevators will open out to thisservice area, so that all this activity takes placeout of the sight and hearing of the hotel guests .Some hotel operators still insist on providingtoilet facilities for the help in this area . Mosthotels, however, go on the assumption that themaids end porters will, in the absence of theguest, be using the toilet facilities of the guestrooms while they are working in them .Banqueting FacilitiesMost hotels and motels include meeting andbanquet facilities . The smaller hotels mayprovide only a number of meeting rooms whichmay also be used for luncheons and dinners.Larger hotels will have a more diversifiedarrangement for meetings, luncheons, dinners,and banquets . The largest hotels are usuallydesigned with a full banqueting and conventionfacility . The extent of these facilities will bedetermined by the hotel operator who, in turn,will convey his requirements to the architect.It is wise for the architect to have a thoroughknowledge of what the feeding and spacerequirements for these facilities are.The normal meeting room requirements arerather simple . The rooms will vary in size toaccommodate anywhere from 10 to as manyas 100 people . In most instances, whereverit is feasible, the meeting rooms will be arrangedin a straight line, so that the wallsseparating one room from the other can bemade movable. Movable, separating wallsmake it possible to achieve a greet flexibility

in the size of the rooms to accommodate meetingsof various sizes. Thus, if two meetingrooms which normally might seat 25 peopleare thrown open to one, we would have a meetingroom to take 50 people ; and if anotherwall is opened, we would be able to seat 75people, and so on . The numbers used are notnecessarily those that will be found in hotels,they are merely used for convenience, es anexample. In larger rooms, which normallyqualify for conventions or large banquets, itis also possible to subdivide the space by theuse of movable walls to create smaller roomswhen a large room is not required . A largespace which might seat 1,000 people when allfolding wells have been moved back can be cutup into anywhere from four to six spaces,allowing for meeting rooms that can accommodate150 to 250 people . In many instancesboth arrangements will be found in a hotel,so that there are lines of meeting rooms of asmaller nature, all subdivisible, and a reallylarge space that is also subdivisible .Thus far we have spoken of these spaces asmeeting rooms . Most of these spaces will alsobe used to serve meals. These meals may consistof small luncheons or dinners for 10 or12 people and go on up to accommodate asmany as 1,000 people seated at tables fordining . Of course, in the really large conventionhalls, it will not be unusual to seat 3,000 ormore people in one large convention banquethell . Realizing that food must be brought to allthese rooms, their juxtaposition to servingkitchens is highly important in arranging theplan . For the most part, food should be broughtdirectly from banquet kitchens to the banquetspaces . In subdividing these spaces, the subdivisionmust be so planned that each spaceis contiguous to the kitchen and has its owndoors to enable waiters to come and gobetween the banquet spaces and the banquetkitchen . In some instances, this is not completelypossible, and it is an accepted practice,where smell meeting rooms cannot be placedcontiguous to the actual banquet kitchen, toarrange to serve through the same corridorsthat will be used by people coming and goingas diners in these smaller spaces.If the architect, working with his client, thehotel operator, has come to the conclusionthat the subdivision of these spaces by meansof movable walls is what will be included inthe plans, it behooves the architect to makea careful study of the various types of movablewalls available for use in such hotel facilities .There are many manufacturers who make thesewalls. The architect should be careful in arrangingthese walls so as not to interfere with theoverall concept of opening up clear spaces bymoving walls.The acoustical value of the walls must becarefully studied. Nothing is more disturbingthan to have two meetings in adjacent roomswhere the sound transmission is of such a highlevel that what happens in one space can beclearly heard in the other. Sound isolation is ofthe greatest importance, and this applies notonly to the decibel rating of the panels themselvesbut also the arrangement of the jointsbetween the sections or panels of the movablewall . The architect must also be aware of whathappens above the panel as it comes up to theceiling track and what happens to the panel asit glides along the floor. Sound isolation shouldbe carefully studied in all these spaces, whichwill allow, if not properly controlled, sound tobe transmitted. There are practically no wallswhich can guarantee absolute sound isolationwhen the sound reaches a high enough decibelrating . In such instances, it has been foundexpedient to use two sets of walls with an airspace between them, which will ensure almosttotal sound isolation. These movable walls orpanels can be operated by hand or by motor.Sweet's catalog carries all the pertinent informationfrom every manufacturer, and an architect

is well advised to carefully study not onlythe operation and construction of these mov-able wall panels but also the sound isolatingdevices that the manufacturer specifies .In fairly large meeting, banquet, and conventionfacilities, space must be provided whichis normally called "preconvention assemblyspace .' Actually, this is a sort of foyer orgathering place for people before they go tothe various meeting rooms or where they maycongregate before going in to a banquet . Sincemost of the people who are standing are thosewho will eventually be seated, the proportionsof the preconvention foyer space will be determinedby the number of people who will beeventually seated . As a rule of thumb, a personstanding in fairly close quarters will take upapproximately 5 sq ft . A person seated at atable will take up anywhere from 10 to 15 sqft . A person seated for a seminar or a meetingwill require 8 or 9 sq ft . It thus becomes apparentthat the ideal preconvention, prebanquet,or assembly space should be at least onethirdof the area of tire actual dining andmeeting spaces . This one-third is arrived atempirically by comparing the amount of spacerequired sitting or standing and by allowingfor a diversity factor, knowing that not all thepeople who will eventually be seated will bestanding, since some of them will be. latecomersand will arrive after many of the peoplehave already gone in to be seated for theirmeetings or their meals . Even tire one-thirdproportion may not be possible, and it has beenfound proper to use as little as 25 percentof the spare for this preassembly foyer . It

has been previously noted in this discussionof hotel and motel design that it is good policyto have a bar within this preconvention, premeetingspace . Such bars do an excellent business. A fixed bar would be a very nice feature,but in many very large hotels it is normal practiceto have movable bars set up . Very oftenthere may be two or three bars to accommodatelarge groups of people .

MOTELSMuch of what has already been discussed willapply to motels . The term motel is ratherloosely used . There are many so-called motelswithin cities which are, in fact, multilevelhotels providing more than the average parkingfound in a hotel . Where such a project occurs,it would normally be called a motor hotel .Parking may be provided in an adjacent garage,in several levels below grade, or in severallevels above grade with guests rooms startingon an upper floor above the garage levels . If

property values permit, there may be an openparking area or a two- or three-story open parkinggarage . Whatever arrangement is eventuallyused, these structures should properly becalled motor hotels rather than motels . Asidefrom the parking, everything that will be foundin these motor hotels will be the same. a s whathas been discussed under hotels .A true motel is one which is normally foundon a main highway, at an important intersectionof several highways, or, finally, at a highwaywhich enters a city and therefore is closeto the city and yet not a part of it . The obviousreason is that land values within cities are toohigh to permit the spread that a true motel willrequire . Motels usually provide open parkingand as a rule are only one, two, three, or atmost four stories high . Usually most of therooms will be entered from an open corridor,although this is not a hard and fast rule . Theremay be a combination of open corridors andclosed corridors . The parking, by preference,should be placed as close as possible to theactual room that the guest will be occupying .The great advantage that motels have is theability of guests to park close to their roomsand to carry their luggage back and forth withoutthe, assistance of a bellboy . Bellboy serviceis available when required, but many guestsarriving by car prefer to handle their own luggage. The option should be with the guestrather than with the management of the hotel .In the highway motel the lounge and registrationarea as well as administration offices maybe within the. buildings housing the guestrooms, or they may be completely separate asan entity which is reached from the motelrooms by means of covered or enclosed passages. Housekeeping and maintenance spacesmay be placed within the management andregistration area, attached to the motel wings,or housed in a separate small building to handlelaundry, housekeeping supplies, locker roomsfor help, and maintenance shops and storagefor taking care of the grounds, the swirruningpool, etc .The restaurant which will be a part of the

normal motel complex may be attached to themanagement and registration area or, again,may be in a separate building or in a buildingattached to the motel wings rather than tothe building housing management and registration. In many motels the food operation is alease arrangement and is run by chains of foodand beverage companies that make a specialtyof operating restaurants for individual motelsor for motel chains .Quality Court Motels are used in this contextas an example . (See Figs . 6 and 7 .) Our office

has prepared prototypes for this company formotels ranging in size from 51 rooms, 76rooms, 103 reoms, on up to 150 rooms . In thecase of this particular organization, where themotels are usually individually owned andoperated under a franchise, the food operationis a lease operation, but in every respect eachof the motels contain the some basic element :namely, the registration and administrative

building and a restaurant varying in sizedepending upon the size of the motel . A standardfeature of every motel is an adequateswimming pool and pool deck (an amenitywhich is invariably found in all highwaymotels), ample parking to take care of all theguest rooms, and sufficient parking for restaurantguests who may not be staying at themotel .

Motel guest rooms differ somewhat fromhotel rooms . Motels cater to two distinctclienteles . One type is the traveling businessmanusing a car for transportation . He usuallytravels alone . All he wants is a small room forhis overnight stay . The other guest accommodationis for a traveling family . Here a largeroom is wanted . It will have two king-size beds

to accommodate the parents and two children .A careful study of the location will yield theclue that will determine the mix of small andlarge rooms. Drawer space is not a necessity ;several shelves and luggage stands are ofprime importance . Closets may be and usuallyare omitted . Most motels are designed for

single overnight stays . The use of an additionallavatory is suggested . This amenity permitsa family to complete its toilet rapidly for theusual early morning start . (See Figs . 8 and 9 .)A space should be provided for vendingmachines that dispense hot and cold drinks,candy, snacks, and magazines . An ice maker

is a must, as well as insulated ice buckets foreach room . Self-service of traveler comfortsand needs by means of vending machines is anextra boon for the road-weary traveler who isanxious to get his night's rest .