When comparing the size of hotel rooms over the last few years, new research has revealed that hotel bedroom sizes are shrinking in size.
A study by the commercial property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) said that at least 18 percent of room vacancies in the United Kingdom fell under the category of “compact-sized hotel rooms.”
A compact-sized room measures to approximately 120 square feet in size, MSN reports.
According to 2015 data, the average hotel room size was 350 square feet. This means that travelers are getting less room to move around.
Since 2016, there’s been a 95% increase in compact-sized hotels rooms in popular tourist destinations like London, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Dublin.
Also, LSH’s report revealed that more than 4,000 rooms were added in compact hotels between 2017 and 2018.
Nick Boyd, LSH operations director hotel and leisure, told Boutique Hotelier, “The hotel market is currently in a period of exciting change and we have seen a number of hotel groups turn conventional wisdom on its head and successfully operate hotels with compact sized bedrooms.”
“Not only do these cleverly designed rooms appeal to the younger end of the hotel customer base but they have enabled hoteliers to provide affordable bedrooms in high-value locations.”
Compact room brands in the U.K. include Premier Inn, easyHotels, YotelAir, Point A, Motel One, citizenM and Z Hotels.
Matthew Colbourne, Associate Director of commercial research at LSH, also told the publication, “We anticipate continued growth in this part of the market, as compact brands are rolled out across a growing number of UK cities. The compact sector will be one of the most innovative parts of the overall hotel market, as operators explore new ways to squeeze value-adding features into smaller room footprints.
Currently, there are 5,000 more compact hotel rooms in the development process, showing that this trend is far from over in the U.K.
