Improving the hotel guest experience with elevator design and modernization

In today’s digital landscape, every guest has the potential to be loyal supporters of your hotel, as their experiences can inspire glowing online reviews that immediately impact the future of your bookings.

Regardless of your hotel’s identity and style, if you aim to shine brighter than the competition, you know the guest experience doesn’t begin and end in the lobby. Ensuring each guest has a fantastic time throughout their stay is vital.

Often, your guests' first stop after the lobby isn't their room, but the elevator. This is your chance to impress them before they even swipe their cards at their door.

The best way to do that? By elevating the experience with modernized elevators that reflect the quality and care present in the rest of your hotel.

Below, we look at the role elevator design plays when it comes to improving the guest experience.

Elevators can be thoughtfully designed, but they should also reflect their main use. If it’s a service elevator, then a robust, stainless-steel design might be the best choice. Steel adds character while also minimizing potential damage from carts or heavy equipment. Further, bumper rails and cab pads are designed to protect your elevator walls and prolong their sleek looks.

For hotels with dedicated guest elevators, the sky’s the limit. With a full elevator modernization, you can upgrade the interior with mirrors, glass, steel, and vibrant laminate colors or customize to perfectly match the other design elements and materials of the surrounding environment.

The fixtures in your elevator, such as call buttons or floor indicators, immediately tell your guests if you’ve modernized or not.

Some things to consider when modernizing your elevator with new fixtures include:

• Accessibility: Well-designed elevators help all guests move around your hotel. Fixtures with larger or high-contrast buttons, braille, and voice announcements make it easier for visually impaired individuals to use the elevator.
• Style: Fixtures come in many different styles. Half-height options are great if your budget is tight. Full-height fixtures that sit flush in the wall are the premium choice. 
• Communication: With Schindler Ahead connected elevators, remote equipment monitoring can detect a change in elevator performance and notify you before you even realize the elevator is down. Proactive service communication means less downtime and fewer disruptions for your guests. 
• Security: Many hotels use elevators to control floor access. This is done using card readers inside the elevator or a destination dispatch system that controls access from the lobby. 
• Destination dispatch: For larger hotels with banks of three or more elevators, a destination dispatch system is the fastest way to get guests to their room. Elevators are assigned to guests in advance based on destination, so they don’t have to scramble to get to the elevator with their bags. 

If you want to take things to the next level and truly wow your guests, digital technology is the solution. The Schindler Ahead MediaScreen in-car media solution provides relevant information to passengers in real-time. The practical placement of this solution next to the car operating panel makes it ideal for informing guests about the latest events in and around your hotel.

With our easy-to-use content management platform, the 32-inch display is a fast and efficient means of communication for the weekly lunch menu or a social gathering on the rooftop terrace. Define playlists for each Schindler Ahead MediaScreen and outline distribution for certain times or special events for perfectly timed messages.