Research by leading global modular flooring producer, Interface, has shown that biophilic designs in hospitality flooring that bring nature indoors to hotel rooms – and also public areas – can significantly boost a hotel’s revenue.
Neslihan Küçükaslan, Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) Regional Design Sales and Marketing Manager of Interface – which has KBAC Flooring as its sole South African distributors – says the calming, energising influence of natural connections can make people want to spend more time in the ambience a hotel has created.
“For local visitors and guests, a hotel lobby’s relaxing and rejuvenating connection with nature tends to make it the preferred place to meet for coffee and refreshments. Interface studies show that biophilic hotel lobbies are at least 36% more popular than conventional lobbies. At a time when Covid-19 still hampers tourism and room occupancy, this is important because hotels can in this way earn more revenue without having to fill more beds,” Neslihan states.
With public health now a major issue, she says to keep the air clean in hotels, the control of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is vital. Found in many building materials, including flooring, VOCs can easily become airborne gases or vapours that irritate the eyes, nose and throat and, at high concentrations, can be toxic.
“Interface has worked hard to drastically reduce the VOCs in all its products. Our TacTiles glue-free installation system, which has virtually no VOCs and none of the unpleasant odours associated with traditional adhesives, was hailed as a global breakthrough. Interface’s modular carpet also helps keep the air free from potentially harmful particles of fine dust and other pollutants by trapping and retaining them until removed by vacuum cleaning. And Interface has this year also introduced CQuest, its first backing with carbon negative materials, to the market.”
“Interface has worked hard to drastically reduce the VOCs in all its products. Our TacTiles glue-free installation system, which has virtually no VOCs and none of the unpleasant odours associated with traditional adhesives, was hailed as a global breakthrough. Interface’s modular carpet also helps keep the air free from potentially harmful particles of fine dust and other pollutants by trapping and retaining them until removed by vacuum cleaning. And Interface has this year also introduced CQuest, its first backing with carbon negative materials, to the market.”
Neslihan says carefully selected and designed flooring also significantly reduces the sound of footsteps in hotel corridors. Interface modular carpet helps to minimise the irritation of poor acoustics and, for specific problem areas, the company’s resilient underlay reduces noise even further. This also applies to Interface LVTs which have Sound Choice acoustic backing as standard. The 4.5mm LVTs deliver all the expected performance benefits of hard surface flooring with superior durability and far lower noise levels.
“The Sound Choice backing system provides acoustic insulation without the need for additional underlay and significantly reduces impact sound in any given space. Interface has also engineered Sound Choice LVTs to have heights compatible with the company’s carpet tile backings,” Neslihan adds.
