Why Do Hotels Use Carpets?

My kids were born in California and grew up there. As a result, the first time they heard the word “carpet”, they thought it was a kind of animal that you keep in the car as a pet!

You can imagine, therefore, the first time we took our littlest, Lil Lily, on her very first hotel visit. Raised in a home where the flooring is mostly hardwood, tiles, linoleum and even stone, the hotels’ oceans of carpeting left her so bamboozled she just had to ask,

“Daddy, why do hotels use carpets?”

Aware, understanding, and empathetic of my little darling’s situation, I tried as best as any loving dad would, to explain to her why.

1. Soundproofing

Unlike hardwood, stone, or tile flooring, carpeting tends to muffle footsteps. In this regard, whether other guests are walking in a hotel’s corridors or pacing up and down in their rooms, their footsteps are often deadened by the hotel’s plush, thick carpets. For hotels, carpets are a great way of managing the acoustics in hotel rooms.

2. Warmth and Ambience

Tiles and stone flooring are great in warm climates. Conversely, they tend to make large living spaces extremely cold or seem so. Carpets are ideal for large living spaces, especially in cooler locations.

Consequently, to warm large living spaces such as hotel lobbies, corridors, and rooms, as well as to give a welcoming ambiance of warmth, hotels do with it by using commercial carpets. Commercial carpets for hotels are preferred because of their styles, comfort, and ambiance that they can provide the residents.

3. Aesthetics

Carpets comprise a large and noticeable part of the interior design of any living space. In this vein, different hotels provide different carpets with different styles that can make them aesthetically stand out in many ways. So, while some hotels stand out in their way by applying hardwood flooring, however, they tend to lack a certain style to make them stand out among others that do the same. Because carpets come in different colors, shades, and thicknesses, they are a vital component of the interior aesthetics of any hotel types.

4. Psychological Attachment or Disconnect

As simple as carpets might seem, they can psychologically change a simple hotel visit into a unique experience. ( Depending on the warmth, ambiance, and aesthetics of a hotel, as a visitor, you can either form an emotional or psychological attachment resulting in you always wishing for a return visit to the hotel.  Alternatively, such things as carpeting can lead to a psychological disconnect that will not make you want to return to the hotel anytime soon. Subsequently, some hotels’ carpets have been described as horrible, and others as weird or mystical.

5. Quality Hotel and Hospitality

The world over, hotels have for years been known to focus on the quality of their hospitality. One way of doing this has been with their hospitality carpet. Compared to hardwood, tiling, or stone floors, the quality of some hotel carpets shout QUALITY, GENEROSITY, and EXCELLENCE. The idea of the hospitality carpet is to create a comfortable and unique environment for all visitors that visit.  As such, the quality, design, and durability of carpets that aim to enhance the quality of an establishment, are all created to be able to be maintained for many years, regardless of the flow of traffic. For example, the quality of the carpet coming into the hotel is designed to sustain more traffic in comparison to the room’s carpets. A quality hotel carpet should, therefore, last much longer in comparison to a residential carpet.

6. Easier to Maintain and Replace

Thanks to hoovers and now vacuum cleaners, hotel carpets are easier to clean and maintain compared to other types of flooring like teak, parquet, ceramic tiles, and stone floors. While the latter need to be polished weekly and shined daily, at best carpets do not require as much maintenance other than daily vacuuming and perhaps a fortnightly or monthly shampoo.

In the event of a hotel’s carpet becoming worn out, it is easier and less messy to remove and replace than other types of flooring.

7. Less Slippery, More Traction for Guests’ Safety

Comparatively, hotel carpets offer more traction than other types of flooring like teak, parquet, ceramic tiles, and stone floors, which tend to be more slippery because of their shiny and smooth surfaces. Less slippery hotel carpets offering more traction for guests also means they are safer walking on the hotel’s surfaces.

8. Carpets are Versatile and Customizable

Coming in the form of wall-to-wall and tile carpets, hotel carpeting offers versatility and custom designs. However, for large spaces, large-scale patterning, custom designs, and hospitality projects such as hotels, wall-to-wall carpet is the option you’ll want to go with. More importantly, wall-to-wall carpeting can achieve a plush comfort that pre-backed carpet tiles simply can’t replicate. For this reason, many hotels choose wall-to-wall carpets over carpet tiles.

9. But Why DO Hotels Use Carpets? 5 Reasons Why Not To

Despite hotels using carpets, there are those who, for various reasons, are vehemently against the idea. Some of the reasons they believe hotels shouldn’t use carpets are because,

1. That in pursuit of durability, “far from plush, hotel carpets tend to be thicker, smoother and harder than anything a guest might (have) in their living room.”
2. Thicker, smoother and harder carpets make guests accident prone, especially when stiletto tips get stuck in them and the wearer suddenly falls.
3. Some customized, branded carpets are “weird with the busiest patterns possible.”
4. Plush hotel carpets are harder to maintain since they camouflage debris that might damage the fabric because it is more difficult to see or vacuum.
5. Lastly, over time, hotel carpets wear out and need to be replaced.