Security and hotel lobby design:

An attractive and well design lobby should ensure tight security. Since this is the entry point for all, security checks should be heightened to ensure that anybody inside the hotel is safe. A lobby being the primary entry point to the hotel should be kept at high surveillance. In the recent past, there has been an increase of terror attacks through hotels. Thus, attractive lobbies should be designed in a way that security is a key component (Chan & Lam, 2013).

Chiang (2000) reported that well-designed lobby, helps in control of movement in and out of the facility. For some hotels it is not easy to control movement, which makes a lobby an important facet, if well designed, it would help control movement. Poor lobby design thus requires deployment of more security in the interior parts which increases the operational cost of the hotel. Therefore, a well-designed lobby offers an effective use of a cost reduction approach as security will be deployed at one point. In addition, it is easy to equip one point of security scanning with integrated and high technology security machines, than having to make allocation in different points. Thus, a well-designed and attractive lobby has a positive impact on security technologies adoption.

Research has shown that most lobbies are created with convenience and attractiveness in mind, with little concern for security. In most cases, there is no plan for security, although they are much aware of its importance. Groenenboom & Jones (2003) hypothesized that it is crucial to have security measures in place to ensure customers are safe at all times. Therefore, the author recommends that a lobby can be made attractive as well as offer appropriate security. Gleave (2012) recognized that the lobby acts as the wall between the public and private area. Thus, security should be a key consideration since people in the public area need be controlled and those in the private area are needed to be secured.

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However, most security measure has been compromised since in most lobbies, there is no physical barrier to separate the private and public zone. Therefore, to ensure security for all, there should be a barrier to restrict entry. Customers with a short meeting should be allowed to the semi-private areas. To buff the security, the service desk should be conspicuously placed, and all stairs and elevators should be placed after the barriers to limit access. Research has shown, that well-designed lobby helps improve security and embraces security measure which leads to safeguarding all stakeholders (Rutkin, 2005; Baek, 2016). 

From the analysis it is clear that a lobby is the first point to entry. It thus creates an impression to customers which could be attracting them or making them feel they don’t belong. Attractive lobbies are important as they invite more customers, and make hotels a profitable enterprise. It is therefore important that the lobby is made attractive. In making them attractive, considerations need to be made to ensure smooth functionality of the hotel, to ensure security, and to ensure improved customers satisfaction. However, a lot of research has noted that most lobbies are only made for convenience and attraction with little attention to security which is crucial. A well-designed lobby should thus have security in place to ensure all clients as well as the employees are guarded well.