The module governs everything
Unlike almost any other interior, a hotel room is designed once and built many times, which changes the economics of every decision. A fitting that costs ₹800 more is ₹1.6 lakh across two hundred keys. A layout that wastes 150 mm of width costs 30 metres of building across the same count. This is why hotel room design starts from the structural bay and the corridor position rather than from the interior, and why the module is fixed before any finish is considered.
| Segment | Room width | Room depth | Gross area | Bathroom | Cost per key |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget / economy | 3.2–3.4 m | 6.5–7.0 m | 220–250 sq ft | 45–55 sq ft | ₹4–₹8 lakh |
| Mid-scale | 3.6–4.0 m | 7.5–8.5 m | 280–340 sq ft | 55–70 sq ft | ₹7–₹18 lakh |
| Upscale | 4.0–4.3 m | 8.5–9.5 m | 360–430 sq ft | 75–95 sq ft | ₹16–₹32 lakh |
| Upper-upscale / luxury | 4.3–5.0 m | 9.5–11 m | 450–600 sq ft | 100–150 sq ft | ₹22–₹55 lakh |
| Serviced apartment | 4.0–4.5 m | 9–12 m | 420–650 sq ft | 70–110 sq ft | ₹14–₹30 lakh |
Cost per key includes FF&E, bathroom, MEP within the room and a share of corridor finishes. It excludes public areas, back of house and the building shell.
Inside the room: the zones
A hotel room is four zones in a narrow rectangle: entry with wardrobe and bathroom door, sleeping, working or lounging, and the window. The sequence rarely varies because the bathroom must be near the corridor for drainage stacking and because the window has to serve the sleeping and seating zones. What distinguishes a good room from an indifferent one is the detail within that fixed sequence.
- Entry: 1,000 mm clear, with the wardrobe and luggage bench on one side and the bathroom door on the other. This corridor is where guests first judge the room, and it is usually the least considered part of it.
- Luggage bench at 450 mm high, 900 mm wide. Without it, the suitcase opens on the bed, every time.
- Bed at 900 mm from the wall on the access side, 600 mm minimum on the other. Below 600 mm, housekeeping cannot make the bed properly and the corner of the sheet never tucks.
- Bedside: a socket, two USB ports, a light switch and a surface at mattress height. The single most complained-about omission in Indian hotels is an inaccessible bedside socket.
- Work surface 1,100 mm wide minimum, with power at desk level, not under it. Business guests measure a hotel by this.
- One comfortable chair that is not the desk chair. A room with only a desk chair has nowhere to sit and read.
- Blackout, and a sheer. Blackout curtains that actually black out, with an overlap at the centre and a pelmet. Light leak at 6 am is a review.
Durability and the refurbishment cycle
Hotel interiors are specified against a soft-refurbishment cycle of five to seven years and a hard refurbishment at twelve to fifteen. That is a completely different durability calculation from a home. Carpet is chosen for a five-year life at high traffic; case goods must survive being knocked by suitcases daily; the corridor-side wall of every room takes trolleys. Specifying residential-grade material anywhere in a hotel room is a false economy that appears in year two.
| Element | Hotel specification | Why not the residential equivalent | Refurb cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carpet | Solution-dyed nylon, 700–900 g/m² | Polypropylene flattens and stains | 5–7 years |
| Case goods edges | PVC 2 mm or solid timber lipping | Suitcase impact chips thin banding | 10–12 years |
| Wall protection | Vinyl wallcovering or panel to 1,100 mm | Emulsion marks within months | 5–7 years |
| Bathroom counter | Solid surface or quartz, coved | Laminate fails at the basin | 12–15 years |
| Upholstery | 100,000 Martindale, cleanable | Domestic fabric at 25,000 fails in a year | 5–7 years |
| Door hardware | Commercial grade, 500,000 cycles | Residential locks fail in 18 months | 10–12 years |
| Bathroom floor | R11 porcelain, small format | Polished tile is a liability claim | 12–15 years |
The bathroom, at 18–22% of the room
Hotel bathrooms are judged harshly and cost disproportionately. At mid-scale the target is 55–70 sq ft containing a 900 x 900 mm shower or a 1,700 mm tub, a WC with 600 mm of clear width in front, a basin with usable counter, and somewhere to put a wash bag. The recurring failures are a shower that soaks the whole floor because there is no proper screen or fall, and no ledge or hook anywhere within reach of the shower.
Waterproofing in a hotel is a different order of exposure from a home: the bathroom is used by a different person every night and receives far more water. Full tanking with a 48-hour ponding test per bathroom is standard practice, and the cost of skipping it is measured in rooms taken out of service for rectification, at daily-rate revenue lost per room per day, rather than in the repair itself.
Build one mock-up room and live in it for a night before you build the other one hundred and ninety-nine.
Greenbox commercial fit-out lead
The mock-up room
Every hotel project of any scale builds a full mock-up key before production begins, and it is the most valuable expenditure in the programme. It is built to the final specification, furnished, serviced and then occupied for a night by the operator, the designer and the owner separately. What it catches is the set of problems that cannot be seen on a drawing: the socket that the bedside table hides, the door that swings into the luggage bench, the light switch you cannot find at 2 am, the shower screen that channels water onto the floor.
A mock-up costs the price of one key plus perhaps 30% for the iteration, and it routinely saves multiples of that across a two-hundred-key build. Skipping it to save four weeks on the programme is the decision most regretted on hotel projects, because the resulting problem is not one room's problem — it is repeated in every key and can only be corrected at scale.
Finally, corridors and the approach matter more than their share of the budget suggests. A guest experiences the corridor immediately before the room and forms an expectation there; a dim corridor with a worn carpet and a visible service door discounts the room behind it before the door opens. Specify corridor lighting at 100–150 lux with accents at the doors, keep the carpet specification the same grade as the rooms, and make sure the room numbering is legible from a distance of four metres. None of it is expensive relative to the key count, and all of it is part of the room.
Hospitality interiors specified for a five-year refurbishment cycle
Selected work by Greenbox Design Studio. Tap any image to enlarge.
Frequently asked questions
What is a standard hotel room size in India?+
280–340 sq ft gross for mid-scale, on a module of 3.6–4.0 m wide by 7.5–8.5 m deep, including a 55–70 sq ft bathroom. Budget properties run 220–250 sq ft, upscale 360–430, and upper-upscale 450–600. The module is fixed by the structural bay before any interior design begins.
What does a hotel room cost to fit out?+
₹7–₹18 lakh per key at mid-scale and ₹22–₹55 lakh at upper-upscale, ex-GST at 2026 Indian rates, including FF&E, bathroom and in-room MEP. Public areas, back of house and the building shell are separate and typically add 35–60% to the per-key figure at portfolio level.
Why do hotels use different materials from homes?+
Because the wear is an order of magnitude higher and the refurbishment cycle is five to seven years for soft finishes. Solution-dyed nylon carpet, 100,000-Martindale upholstery, commercial door hardware rated to 500,000 cycles and vinyl wall protection to 1,100 mm are all responses to a room used by a different person every night.
How big should a hotel bathroom be?+
Eighteen to twenty-two per cent of the room's gross area — 55–70 sq ft at mid-scale. That accommodates a 900 x 900 mm shower or a 1,700 mm tub, a WC with 600 mm clear in front, a basin with usable counter space, and somewhere to put a wash bag, which is the item most often forgotten.
What is a mock-up room and is it necessary?+
A single fully finished and furnished key, built and occupied before production begins. It costs the price of one room plus about 30% and it catches the problems that drawings hide — hidden sockets, door clashes, unfindable switches, showers that flood the floor. On any project above about forty keys it is the highest-return spend in the programme.
What do guests complain about most in room design?+
Inaccessible bedside power, light leak from inadequate blackout curtains, no surface to open a suitcase on, and bathroom showers with nowhere to put anything. All four are design decisions rather than budget decisions, and all four are caught by occupying a mock-up room for one night.