Bathroom manufacturer, Geberit, has launched its new 2022 Hotel Guest Experience Report in collaboration with some of the UK’s leading architects and design pioneers.
The publication explores the challenges and opportunities facing hotels today and covers an array of topics from design and technology to comfort and wellness. Here Sophie Weston, Channel Marketing Manager at Geberit, explores more about the hotel guest washroom as a temple of tranquillity and uncovers the link between acoustic design and wellbeing.
Hotels can play a huge role in providing a sanctuary to recover from the stresses of everyday life. Whilst there is a strong desire to vacation and make memories, visitors now expect every aspect of their stay to enhance overall wellbeing and calm. With our awareness of physical and mental wellbeing never greater, the hotel bathroom can provide that place of relaxation.
Sound
The impact of sound on our wellbeing, for instance, should not be under-estimated and this is something we explore in the report. Our ears work even when we’re asleep, with the brain continuing to process the sounds it detects. Unwanted noise pollution – such as dripping taps, loud drains or a disruptive toilet flush – can cause hotel guests to wake up groggy, unrested and having never entered the crucial deep REM sleep our body and mind needs.
A YouGov survey conducted by Geberit in 2020, for example, found that a third (30%) of respondents who had stayed in a hotel over a 12 month period had been disturbed by bathroom noise at night. Additionally, the survey found that more than half (51%) of respondents cited unwanted internal noise as having a negative impact upon their wellbeing.
Understanding the impact of this unwanted noise on the guest experience can hold the key to revolutionising the hotel sector and its approach to this often forgotten sense.
The Solution
Tom Middleton, an award-winning sound designer and composer of science-based functional music, writes about acoustics in Geberit’s Hotel Guest Experience Report and comments: “With a socially responsible person-first sensory design approach I believe we can optimise our bathrooms- and hotel guest bathrooms in particular- to be a safe and peaceful haven of optimal wellness where we can escape the noisy, stressful world outside.”
Managing the acoustics within a bathroom is key. Geberit’s Silent-db20 piping can reduce noise transfer from draining water from washbasins or showers. Wall-hung toilets with concealed cisterns and pre-wall frames such as Geberit Duofix can prevent noise from travelling down the wall and through the floor. Simple product innovations like this can vastly transform the guest experience into one that produces nothing but positive and peaceful emotions.
Harnessing the power of sound to create an escape for guests away from the stresses of everyday life is sure to enhance the experience of the customer, help build stronger positive memories and keep them coming back. The hotel washroom may be the heart of this.
For more information visit www.geberit.co.uk and check out the new 2022 Geberit Hotel Guest report featuring Tom Middleton https://www.geberit.co.uk/guestreport
