As greater numbers of hotel groups revamp their lighting systems to enhance their hospitality offering and footfall, Nick Martindale finds out the driving forces behind these changes
Radical refurb: The refurbishment of the Radisson Blu Centrum in Warsaw, using Philips MasterLED products Poland, should attract more guests and lower energy consumption
Meeting wider sustainability directives was a key driver behind the decision by The Rezidor Hotel Group – owner of the Regent, Hotel Missoni and Radisson Blu brands – to switch to LEDs for all of its lighting in public spaces across its 330 hotels in Europe by 2014. "Many of our hotels had already started replacing lighting with LEDs, especially in public places and guest corridors," says Inge Huijbrechts, vice-president, responsible business. "But the big push for us came with the launch of our Think Planet project last year. This is our energy-saving programme in which we aim to save 25 per cent of our consumption in five years."
Reaping rewards
Working with Philips, the chain's focus is currently on areas where a return on investment can be made in under 2.5 years; these include guest corridors, some back-of-house areas, lobbies, restaurants and meeting spaces, as well as throughout all new hotels, including the Park Inn by Radisson locations. It is only really bedrooms – where the return on investment can be as much as seven years – in existing premises that are not currently included, Huijbrechts explains.
Other hotels are engaging in similar initiatives. GE Lighting recently worked with Asian budget hotel chain Tune Hotels to refit three of its hotels in Malaysia with LEDs in the reception area, corridors and guest rooms, and has also undertaken a project to retrofit LED lamps in 384 suites and guest rooms at Kempinski's historical Hotel Adlon in Berlin, Germany.
Simon Greenwood, commercial director for GE Lighting in Europe, says LEDs tend to be targeted initially at the areas where there is the greatest potential to reduce energy. "The phrase we would use in the UK is 'low-hanging fruit', – that means the circulation areas, lobbies, hallways and meeting rooms, which have high occupancy and burn many hours," he says. kHe gives the example of another project in which the company is involved: this one is in Spain, where the firm is providing a five-year warranty on 12,000 LED lamps, which should achieve a return on investment in just 13 months. "Effectively they're getting the lighting for free for almost four years," he says.
Other hotels are using LEDs for specific applications. When 8 Northumberland Avenue in London reopened as a hotel in 2010 – some 70 years after the building was last used for that purpose – colour-changing LEDs were used to transform both the old billiard room in the basement and the ground-floor ballroom, through Philips' amBX light system. Using an iPad, customers and staff can vary both the colour and the intensity of the lighting to suit their mood or reflect the events taking place. There's a serious business angle to this, too: bookings for the ballroom in the first quarter after the scheme was commissioned were up by 72 per cent and the former billiard room is no longer seen as a second choice by guests.
Shades of success: The installation of colour-changing LEDs at 8 Northumberland Avenue transformed the hotel's interior
Chain reaction: Radisson Blu has revamped the lighting in its Portman Hotel, London (top), Bukovel, Ukraine (above) and Radisson Portman, London
Hotels by numbers
72% The increase in bookings for the ballroom at 8 Northumberland Avenue since the hotel invested in a colour- changing LED scheme from Philips
330 The number of hotels in the Rezidor Hotel Group that will switch to LEDs by 2014
25% The amount of energy savings the Rezidor Hotel Group proposes to make under its Think Planet programme
