Hotels are tricky. The lighting has to look good, feel good, work reliably 24/7, and somehow be energy efficient. I’ve done retrofits in properties from budget motels to five-star resorts, and the challenges are consistent even if the solutions differ.

Why Hotels Are Different

Commercial office lighting is about function. Hotel lighting is about feeling.

Guests aren’t thinking about lux levels. They’re thinking about whether the room feels welcoming, whether the bathroom is bright enough for makeup, whether the bedside reading light actually works.

Get it wrong and reviews mention it. Get it really wrong and they take photos for social media.

This means the usual commercial approach—maximise efficiency, hit minimum standards, keep costs down—needs modification. In hotels, lighting is part of the product you’re selling.

Guest Room Lighting

The guest room retrofit is the most common hotel lighting project. Hundreds of rooms, identical layouts, massive energy saving potential.

But it’s also high risk. Every room needs to feel right.

Colour Temperature Matters

Hotels traditionally used warm lighting—2700K incandescent. Guests associate this with relaxation and comfort.

Many early hotel LED retrofits used 4000K because that’s what the electrician had in stock or what was cheapest. The result: rooms that felt clinical, not comfortable.

My recommendation: 2700K or 3000K maximum for guest rooms. Yes, warm LED costs slightly more. Yes, it’s slightly less energy efficient. The guest experience is worth it.

Dimming Is Essential

Guests expect to control their environment. Fixed lighting levels frustrate them.

Every guest room should have dimmable lighting. Bedside lights especially—they need to dim right down for evening use without flickering.

Dimmer compatibility warning: Not every LED dims well with every dimmer. Hotel rooms often have integrated dimmer switches that were designed for incandescent. Retrofit LED lamps may:

• Flicker at low levels
• Not dim below 30-40%
• Buzz or hum
• Behave inconsistently

Test the exact lamp/dimmer combination before committing. Replace dimmers if necessary.

Bathroom Lighting

Bathrooms need task lighting for grooming. Guests complain if they can’t see properly to shave or apply makeup.

Recommended levels: 300-400 lux at face height, from both sides ideally to minimise shadows.

Colour rendering: CRI 90+ is essential for bathrooms. Lower CRI makes skin look wrong, which guests notice when they’re looking in a mirror.

Shower lighting: IP-rated fittings obviously. Some hotels skip bathroom relamping because of the IP requirements and leave old halogens. These are energy hogs—worth addressing.

Reading Lights

Bedside reading lights are contentious. Many hotels have decorative lamps that look nice but provide inadequate light for actual reading.

If the brief includes improving reading light, consider:

• Adjustable arm fittings (light directed to the book, not the ceiling)
• Sufficient lumens (at least 300 lumens per side)
• Easy switching (guests in bed shouldn’t have to get up)

Public Area Lighting

Lobbies, restaurants, corridors, conference spaces—these are the hotel’s public face.

Lobby and Reception

First impressions matter enormously. The lobby lighting sets expectations for the entire stay.

Key considerations:

• Feature lighting that draws attention to focal points (reception desk, artwork, architectural features)
• Warm ambient lighting that creates a welcoming atmosphere
• Adequate task lighting at reception for staff and guest paperwork
• Flexibility for events (weddings, functions, conferences)

Lobbies often have dramatic pendants or chandeliers. LED retrofitting these requires careful colour matching and dimming compatibility.

Corridors

Hotel corridors present a specific challenge: they’re long, they’re always on, and they need to feel safe while not being harsh.

Energy efficiency: Corridors can have 24-hour lighting. This is a significant load. Occupancy sensing in guest floor corridors can reduce consumption substantially—lights brighten when guests pass and dim to a low level otherwise.

Safety and wayfinding: Even at reduced levels, corridors need adequate light for guests to navigate and read room numbers.

Consistency: Variations in colour temperature or brightness along a corridor look bad. Use product from the same batch.

Restaurant and Bar Lighting

These spaces are design-intensive. The lighting designer (if there was one) made specific choices about atmosphere.

Approach with caution: Don’t just swap lamps for LEDs without considering the design intent. The warm glow of specific lamp types might be integral to the aesthetic.

Dimming is critical: Restaurants transition from daytime (brighter, more energy) to evening service (dimmed, atmospheric). The dimming curve needs to be smooth and flicker-free.

Table lighting: If there are table lamps or candle holders, these contribute to the atmosphere even if they’re energy-inefficient. Sometimes you leave them alone.

Conference and Event Spaces

These need flexibility above all. A space might host a business conference in the morning and a gala dinner at night.

Controls investment: Conference spaces benefit from scene-setting capability. Pre-programmed lighting scenes for different events save time and ensure consistency.

Projector compatibility: If the space has projection, ensure the lighting doesn’t wash out screens. Separate control of lights near screens is standard.

Operational Considerations

Minimising Disruption

Hotels operate continuously. You can’t close the building for retrofit.

Room retrofits: Do them during housekeeping windows. Coordinate with room allocation to avoid occupied rooms.

Public areas: Night work often. Lobby work at 2am when it’s quiet.

Noise: Some fitting installations are noisy. Plan around guest sleep times and meeting schedules.

Maintenance Access

Hotels have facilities staff, but they’re not necessarily electrical specialists.

Lamp replacement: Will hotel maintenance staff be able to replace lamps? If specialised fittings require electricians, that’s an ongoing cost.

Standard products: Using widely available products means the hotel can source replacements themselves. Obscure fittings become a dependency on your company.

Warranty Considerations

Hotels are hard on lighting. High operating hours, constant switching, variable humidity (pools, kitchens, bathrooms).

Specify quality products: The 3-year warranty on cheap products might expire before the products fail. 5-year warranties on quality gear are more appropriate for hospitality.

Keep documentation: Hotels change facilities managers. Documentation of what’s installed, warranty terms, and supplier contacts should be in the building files.

Energy Management Integration

For hotel groups taking energy seriously, lighting becomes part of building-wide energy management.

Guest room status integration is the big opportunity. If the room is unoccupied, lighting (and HVAC) should reduce. Some hotels tie lighting to key cards—lights activate only when a guest is present.

For properties with sophisticated building management systems, the integration work goes beyond lighting. That’s where building automation specialists—AI consultants Sydney and similar firms—can connect lighting, HVAC, access control, and energy monitoring into coordinated intelligent systems.

But for most hotels, straightforward occupancy-based control captures most of the savings.

Project Economics

Hotel lighting retrofits can have attractive paybacks:

• High operating hours (24/7 in corridors, long days in rooms)
• Old technology (halogen and incandescent still common)
• Large quantities (hundreds of rooms)

But don’t underestimate costs:

• Aesthetic requirements increase fitting costs
• Disruption management adds labour time
• Dimming compatibility may require switch replacements
• Quality products needed for hospitality durability

I typically see hotel LED retrofits with 3-5 year paybacks. Faster if existing lighting is particularly old and inefficient.

Final Thoughts

Hotel lighting is design work disguised as electrical work. Get the aesthetics right and the energy efficiency follows. Get the aesthetics wrong and nothing else matters.

Take time to understand the hotel’s brand positioning and guest expectations. Walk the property before quoting. Look at competing properties. The technical work is straightforward once you understand what the space needs to feel like.

James Thornton has been working in commercial lighting for 18 years and is based in Australia.