Innovative approaches in the designing hotels: the case of service landscape of lobbies

The article raises an important issue how innovative design tools for public hotel spaces impact on guest satisfaction. The authors study in details the hotel lobby because this is the place the guest sees first. The lobby is a mirror for a brand and corporate values. This is a place for communication with and among guests. The article is aimed at identifying the innovative techniques and trends in hotel lobby design based on a researching scientific literature and case studies of best practices in in a global context. The authors have analyzed the Russian and foreign scientific works and identified criteria for assessing the effectiveness of hotel lobby design and groups of innovative techniques in creating modern hotel spaces. It is noted that technical innovations in design today cannot be effective without a close connection with conceptual solutions. As a result of the review, it was concluded that in the hospitality industry the traditional approach based on the understanding of the hotel product as the main result of the enterprise is becoming obsolete, and it is being replaced by the concept of “service landscape”. The authors propose the service landscape structure model for hotels and outline the prospects for its further scientific development.