The foundation of this new series is based on the growth of Hospitality Associates who are getting attention from private hotels wanting to expand their properties and private entrepreneurs wanting to transform their large personal properties into hotels.
It was in the late 1980’s, when Yawa-Attah and Mr. Aanani founded Hospitality Associates to offer hotel consultancy services. After barely two years in operation, they found themselves in discussions with a multinational company established to support African entrepreneurs in preparing and securing funding for their business projects. There, they started building their expertise around developing hotel feasibility reports, assessing hotel investments, and optimizing profitability strategies. Over the years Yawa-Attah realizes that receiving financial backing for hospitality projects requires more than just strong numbers—it demands persuasion and strategy.
In this new series, Yawa-Attah embarks on a new chapter in her career, where she explores the impact of hotel design on service delivery. She realizes that flawed designs can disrupt operations and hinder efficiency.
Many people are quick to blame hotel personnel for poor service, but Yawa-Attah discovers the critical role that well-designed hotels play in improving productivity, efficiency, and guest experience. However, addressing design-related issues is not always welcomed by hotel owners, who may resist changes despite the potential benefits.
Facility programming and management consider hotel space, infrastructure, personnel, and equipment, ensuring they align with the business’s operational requirements.
Yawa-Attah’s wake-up call came when a boutique hotel enlisted her to revamp its service delivery. As she observed operations, the problem became painfully clear: inefficient design was slowing everything down.
Housekeepers lost valuable time due to poorly planned room layouts and inadequate storage facilities. Receptionists struggled with a front desk positioned awkwardly, disrupting the check-in process. The restaurant was cramped, with obstructive pillars making it difficult for waitstaff to reach guests efficiently, causing delays in food service and undermining effective communication. It wasn’t the personnel—it was the structure itself!
As her career progressed, she expanded into personnel training, designing service procedures to enhance guest experience and improve staff efficiency. Yet, despite her meticulous training programs, some operational issues persisted.
A frustrating truth kept confronting her—one that was rarely discussed: flawed hotel designs could undermine even the most consistent training efforts. Poorly planned floor layouts created unnecessary bottlenecks, slowing service and frustrating guests.
Yawa-Attah reflects on her then limited knowledge of hotel facility programming:
“One must define the activities that will take place within a hotel, allocate the necessary space, and establish relationships between those spaces,” she thought.
She understood that this was one of the first steps in the hotel development process. While a developer may collaborate with an architect to create the program, the developer is ultimately responsible for defining it and ensuring that the building is designed to achieve the intended goals.
Beyond detailing activities, space allocations, and spatial relationships within the building, a well-structured program also determines how the building—or multiple buildings—are positioned on the site. It guides onsite vehicular and pedestrian flow and establishes connections to the external environment. In almost all cases, defining the activities is the starting point.
When planning a hotel, it is essential to balance functionality, layout, and aesthetics to create a property that meets the needs of guests, staff, and owners alike. This challenge becomes even more complex when converting existing properties into hotels, as reconfiguring functional areas can be a daunting task—especially when significant structural changes are required.
Regardless of how spaces are arranged, professional developers carefully weigh and reconcile many competing needs before finalizing a design for construction.
The best hotel designs achieve a balance between inspiration, safety, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness while maintaining their utility and charm over time.
For Yawa-Attah, this realization marked a turning point. She understood that successful hotel operations depend as much on smart design as they do on skilled service.
Follow Yawa-Attah’s journey as she uncovers design flaws—from the front-of-house to the back-of-house—and shares her insights into this overlooked aspect of hotel operations.
