By Yash Rathod, Design Director, Mario Contract Lighting | VP, IES Roanoke Chapter
After designing lighting for almost a decade in the hospitality industry, I walk into a hotel room the way a doctor walks into a waiting room. The first thing that catches my attention is lighting. And even though, it is one of the most important elements of any space, it stopped living years ago.
It is mostly flat, static and indifferent. A fixed color temperature in the same cylindrical flush mount specified sometime around 2008, installed without controls with simple on/off wall switches. Whereas the guest, science and technology have evolved beyond recognition.
I call it ‘Dead Lighting’ and unfortunately, the industry is full of it.
The Diagnosis
Full disclosure. Dead Lighting isn’t broken lighting. The room is well lit, luminaires work and you won’t bump into things. But there is no empathy, intelligence, rhythm or responsiveness to the human body behind it. When you enter with curtains closed, you’ll not know if it is 7:00 am or 5:00 pm. It doesn’t know if you have come across a block, city, state or country. Basically, it doesn’t know anything at all. You occupy, consume and leave and it is just sitting there, either On or Off.
I know that guests feel it but just can’t name that feeling. It is usually the other elements that take the blame, like the mattress for bad sleep or the HVAC for a bad mood or even the slightly off smell or atmosphere responsible for that 3-star review. Mostly, nobody blames that morning grogginess on a 4000K downlight that was blazing overhead last night.
How the Lighting Died?
I understand how it happens. From budget conversations shortening the brief, to purchasing companies stripping down the controls, to on-site engineers recommending to remove the dimming capability for the sake of ‘simplicity’, a lighting consultant’s efforts are reduced to a ceiling grid and a wall switch and lighting designers reduced to adding visual accents to that same cylindrical flush mount we talked about earlier to make it look ‘different.’
One more reason is the Lighting Brief. It is written in the same old way for decades with wattage, lux levels, CRIs and fixture schedule. Best case scenario, an attachment of IES files if available at the vendor. It is technically compliant but experientially lifeless. By comparison, every other adjacent design field has started with experiential briefs. From interior designers incorporating emotional journey mapping and biophilic designs, to acoustic consultants designing how sound makes the user feel at each stage of the stay, to healthcare architects specifying patient recovery outcomes, not just code compliance. For our profession, the most sophisticated piece of technology I still see is a motion sensor.
Signs of Life
As an Industrial Design graduate, lighting fascinated me more than any other product category. I believe lighting has the most powerful role to play in any spatial experience, more than thread count, polish on the furniture, or even sleep number of the mattress.
It is simple. Artificial lighting in the evening suppresses melatonin and disrupts circadian signals that helps with sleep, mood and recovery. So, a guest arriving at 9:00 pm after a 6 hours’ drive to a fine New York hotel, with cool lighting, is forced to love that contemporary interior rather than recover from their journey.
I believe advancements like AI-driven, circadian lighting can change that. They just don’t dim, they think, react and respond, by changing color temperature throughout the day, and constantly learning through guest behaviors and occupancy. On top of decorative lighting following the hotel’s design language, a living light can also enhance the experience from check-in to check-out. The light wakes up and winds down with the guest. It is encouraging to see that some hotels like Six Senses, Equinox, and 1 Hotels have already started adopting living lighting into their design DNA.
The Wake-Up Call
Now I understand the first counterargument will be that it is an expensive technology and a typical 3-star hotel cannot afford it. That is true, but it is also true that technology gets more affordable when adoption increases. LEDs are the best example. Once a technology so rare and expensive, it is now available in Walmart and Dollar tree.
To every hotel owner reading this: your guests are sleeping badly and it may not be the mattress to blame. To every interior designer: The lighting brief you accepted without controls is costing your client 5-star reviews. To every lighting consultant: compromising on the fixture schedule, without circadian capability, is already obsolete. We are at a point where technology exists, science supporting it exists, and the silent guests’ needs that we’ve discussed have existed for decades.
The lighting in the hotel exists, too. The question is whether anyone is truly home.
About The Author:
Yash Rathod is Design Director at Mario Contract Lighting, a 100+ year old hospitality lighting manufacturer and Vice President of the IES Roanoke Chapter. He holds dual master’s degrees from SCAD and brings 9+ years of experience in hospitality lighting design. Currently exploring the intersection of AI and lighting design through research and emerging generative tools.
Top image: Technically adequate. Experientially forgettable. A room that tries hard everywhere except the lighting. Image courtesy of Mario Contract Lighting.
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