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GRMS planning guide

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Lighting control

Occupancy detection

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GRMS planning guide

Here are the things that we have found to be important when designing guest room management systems for the hospitality industry.

GRMS is the invisible butler who welcomes the guest into the room and makes sure they enjoy their stay to the fullest. It also provides the operator with sensor data and cloud API that can be used for third-party integrations, further develop the operations, and ultimately create better guest experiences.

Here are the things that we have found to be important when designing guest room management systems for the hospitality industry.

Lighting control

Mount Kelvin GRMS is designed to provide a premium experience in lighting control. Our principle is total lighting control, which means that all luminaries in the room, including table/floor/reading lamps, are controlled by the system.

Total lighting control is the basis for the proper implementation of other features — such as All off.

Lighting control switch positioning

Here is a tried-and-tested set of lighting control switch positions and functions for a standard guest room.

The guiding principle for these positions is convenience above all, which is the backbone of true luxury. When the controls are in exactly the right place and do what they are supposed to do effortlessly, the guest will thank you. No amount of shiny things can replace convenience.

We prefer to use wireless switches because they offer the ultimate freedom in positioning: switches can be placed in optimal positions without worrying whether pulling a bus cable to this position would be prohibitively expensive or downright impossible.

As you can see, all switches are plain in sight. You should always strive to keep the controls unobstructed by furniture, plants, etc.

P1 entrance

This is the first switch that the guest encounters. It should be as simple as possible and positioned conveniently next to the entrance.

Upon entrance, the guest presses Lights on, and the guest room is completely illuminated (bedroom and bathroom) in order to present the room to the guest. Default to a very bright setting, for example, the Daytime scene.

Upon exit, the guest presses Away, and all lights go off (and HVAC goes to eco-mode).

No keycard reader?

That's right, the default guest room design of Mount Kelvin does not propose keycard readers. Keyless entry is gaining traction, so a future-proof room operation does not rely on keycards.

Charging devices?

The Away function should switch off the lights and set the HVAC to eco-mode, but keep on the device charging outlets. The guests want their devices to be charged when they return to the room.

Energy savings?

Whether the keycard reader is a proper way to control unnecessary energy usage in a room is a moot point: almost all guests are given two keycards: one for accessing the room and one for the keycard reader.

That's why a simple switch positioned right next to the exit with an Away function is by far the best way to ensure that the guests switch off the lights and HVAC when they leave the room. Let your guest be a good person without extra hassle, and they will act accordingly.

P2 pathway to bedroom

• Four scenes. Here we introduce the four lighting scenes to the guest:
• Daytime. The default, brightest lighting scene for the room. Designed for presenting the room and energizing the guest in the morning.
• Evening. A more relaxed and chill scene at a lower brightness level.
• Night. This is for illuminating the room just enough for navigation, for example visiting the bathroom during the night.
• All off. All lights off, including the bathroom and all decorative lights (table lamps, floor lamps).
• Curtain control for opening and closing the curtains.

Why four scenes? That's what we've found to be the sweet spot for guest rooms: enough options to set the mood of the room, but not too much to confuse the guest.

See examples of real-life lighting scenes in our virtual showrooms.

P3L and P3R bedside left & right

Guests spend a lot of time in bed, not only sleeping, but working on their laptops and watching the TV. That's why special attention has to be paid to the positioning and the functions of the bedside controls.

• Wall socket outlet with USB ports. Make charging devices next to the bed easy, because that's where people typically want to keep their devices. The guest should be able to charge a laptop, phone, and a tablet.
• Curtain control
• Reading light
• Four scenes

2USB sockets are an excellent choice.

We recommend outlets with both USB-A and USB-C contacts.

P4 writing desk

P5 Bathroom

Typical brightness levels for scenes

Since the scene settings depend on the lighting and interior design of the room, it is impossible to give any definitive guidelines for brightness levels for individual luminaires.

For inspiration, check out our virtual showrooms.

Room sensors and detectors

Mount Kelvin is equipped with sensor-enabled features that make the room even more delightful to stay in and eco-friendlier in terms of energy consumption. In a standard room, two sensors and one detector need to be placed in the room.

Sensor-based features

Welcome lights

Room lights slowly fade in to welcome the guest when they arrive in the room for the first time or if the room is unoccupied.

Lighting control

Automatic eco-mode

Automatic eco-mode switches the lights and HVAC off or to eco-mode when the room is unoccupied.

Occupancy detection

Night lights

Based on the time of day, bathroom lights are switched on automatically when the guest enters the bathroom and switched off after the guest has left.

• 08.00—18.59 daytime scene
• 19.00—23.59 evening scene
• 00.00—07.59 night scene

Additional features

Socket outlet control

There may be situations where certain electrical sockets have to be turned off when the hotel room is unoccupied (e.g. electrical socket for iron).

Mobile app control

Some concepts include a mobile app for controlling the facilities of the room (and interacting with other services in the hotel).

General design principles

Keep the controls plain and simple

Hotel guest rooms are not homes. An average hotel stay is 1.8 days, so the guest has no interest in learning intricate or non-intuitive controls. The highly valued features of guest room controls are:

Do not design in silos

In order to create a guest room design that makes sense, you need interaction between the interior architects, lighting designers, electrical and room control designers, and HVAC designers.

For example, when designing the controls by the bedside:

• the interior architect has a say in the fit and finish of the switches (frames and colors)
• the interior architect needs to know the dimensions of the controls in order to accommodate them in the design
• the electrical designer needs to know whether there are charging points next to the bedside (to accommodate the cabling)
• the lighting designer needs to know that the lighting fixtures need to support different lighting scenes (Daytime, Evening, Night, and All off)
• HVAC controls need to be conveniently placed with other controls

Think about the operational efficiency of the hotel

A well-designed hotel has a limited number of guest room types (Standard, Junior suite, Executive suite, etc). The room control design should follow these room types and keep the designs as uniform as possible. Keeping the controls uniform has many benefits:

• When a need for a change in configurations arises, you can do changes over the complete fleet, instead of checking each room separately for exceptions
• Replacing faulty devices is easy to learn for maintenance
• Less spare parts need to be kept in stock
• When the design is consistent across rooms, the guests learn how to operate the rooms no matter which room they stay in

Build a mockup room for real feedback

Even if you follow these guidelines 💯, it's wise to build a complete mockup of the room and let real people – who are not partaking in the design process – test the room.

There are always design questions that arise when combining new room layouts, interior designs, and controls. Yes, building mockups is costly, but repeating mistakes 300 times in production is far costlier.

Mocking up the designs in VR is a very cost-effective way to have a rough idea of the room design.

On this page

• GRMS planning guide
• Lighting control
• Lighting control switch positioning
• Typical brightness levels for scenes
• Room sensors and detectors
• Presence detector (bedroom)
• Motion sensor (bathroom)
• Door sensor (entrance)
• Sensor-based features
• Additional features
• General design principles
• Keep the controls plain and simple
• Do not design in silos
• Think about the operational efficiency of the hotel
• Build a mockup room for real feedback