Hotels urged to improve meeting-room lighting

Hotels should be doing much more with lighting to improve the flexibility and functionality of meeting rooms and events spaces, experts have said.

Experts from Philips, who were in Dubai for its Illuminesca event, showcasing eleven displays of innovative lighting solutions for retail and hospitality, said that business and events spaces could be more flexible by implementing lighting which has the ability to be controlled digitally.

Pierre van Lamsweerde, general manager of retail and hospitality for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: “You can use a meeting room through the day as a work space, where you want to recreate daylight. But, at night, it could be used as something else. You will be using lighting to really help do this.”

He said that LED lighting, and the ability to digitally control it will help this happen. He added: “The costs of these technologies are coming down, so the use will increase rapidly. It can be a significant investment but has a good payback time. You do increase revenue and maximise the use of your space.”

Paolo Cervini, general manager for Middle East and Turkey, also stressed the potential of the blue spectrum in lighting in business spaces, which is proved to increase energy levels. Cervini said that many international companies are beginning to compare lighting between venues for potential events. “They want somewhere with meeting rooms that have this [blue] lighting, to make sure they can get the best productivity out of the event.”

Cervini said that even without effectively doubling the use of some spaces in the hotel, initial costs would be minimal compared to savings in maintenance. “Most of the time, hotel owners don’t realise the benefit of spending on lighting systems, even when it is such a small output compared to the cost of construction.”