If you’ve ever hired us for hotel procurement you know that we’re quite particular about carpet. As operators we fear it; it stains, wears, and discolors. Our franchises want us to change it constantly. It’s like a car – the minute you drive it off the lot (or in this case, install it) it’s worth significantly less than what you paid. And ugly. It’s tempting to go in another direction. Our brands have agreed.

However, I’d argue the opposite. Carpet is necessary, practical, even. It provides a better guest experience.

Consider the following:

Torlys’ Everwood Premier LVT tile installed in Entourage sur-le-Lac in Beauport, QC. I never said it wasn’t nice, just that it wasn’t necessarily the best idea for the incremental cost.

1) Doing things properly takes time

Brands generally suggest (and I would concur) that carpet needs to be vacuumed daily and deep cleaned 2-3 times per year. Any more and the wear from shampooing tends to discolor the flooring; any less and stains become irreversible.

LVT is meant to be the solution. LVT doesn’t stain, true. I’d argue, however, that the time it takes to do things properly – vacuum, mop and hand scrub any particularly sticky liquids – costs time on a day to day basis. I know wet vacuums exist and yes, if you have a busy enough wood grain pattern maybe you get away with some stuck-on gum. The diligence required to do it right can increase the housekeeping minutes required per room over time (hours of housekeeping per month/total occupied room nights per month).

Will guests see a wear pattern or staining? No. But dust, dirt, and anything sticky will present itself proudly. Our guests notice, though, and let us know about it.

2) The impossible quest for ‘clean’

Imagine the hard surfaces in your home (or, if you don’t have them, in the gym floor of your elementary school). Imagine wearing nice, clean white socks on those floors (even Youtube knows that this is a thing). If you have hard surfaces now (or even walking on them as you read), you know your socks will have the gray/black outline of dust on them. And it makes sense, really. Without any fibres to hold it, dust sticks to the next soft thing it touches. A clean floor begins accumulating dust the instant the mop is removed.

We know our HVAC units – especially PTACs – don’t filter the small particulate matter in the air well. We also know that our average guest checks in around 3-4 hours after housekeeping is complete. How much dust accumulates during that time?

Additionally, the sheen on a relatively flat/lightly textured LVT in low light situations will always give the appearance of the floors being dirty. That trendy dark wood shows footprints, dust bunnies and hair. All this regardless of housekeeping performance.

3) Noise, noise, noise

This one is self-explanatory. Hard surface is just noisy. At best, you have a hard surface on a 1/8” (maximum) underlay. Carpet has a ¼” pile (approximately) with a ¼” underlay. Hard to compete on sound. Our guests complain bitterly about sound from the hallway, sound through party walls and sound from the bathroom to the guestroom. The value of the additional noise would have to be significant to justify the additional investment.

 

Creative Matters, Inc’s beautiful inset rug. Before it starts getting mopped.

Rug areas in bedrooms – set into the LVT or above – have been the brands’ countermeasure. This doesn’t change much – I’d argue it’s worse. The more transitions of flooring type the greater the risk of water staining on carpet or lifting or cracking of surfaces at the point of transition through repeated impact of vacuums and mopping floors. I never feel it makes sense to add complexity to a housekeeping job – it’s tough enough as is. One or the other is better than both.

 

I don’t hate LVT. A bit of LVT or tile in the entry area? Or public areas? Absolutely. Properly installed in a bathroom? I think this should be considered more often – no grout cleaning of grout and can last equally long if installed correctly. LVT is a fraction of the cost of tile (in most places) and we ourselves (and our clients) have used it with great success in bathroom settings. LVT holds up better to pet and smoke odors and damage. Just needs to be used in the right places, and I don’t believe the bedroom area is that place.

 

If you’re convinced, three things we look for when picking carpet for our clients:

1) A face weight and underlay suitable to the use (rather than simply the brand)

https://www.mohawkgroup.com/detail-durkan/Carpet/8692/144446/Cosmos-Tile

Mohawk’s lovely Interstellar Cosmos tile

*Nearly* every brand has the same guidelines: 32 oz in guestrooms, 36 oz in public areas. One hurdle to be cleared, that’s it. Reality is it’s like saying that every hotel needs an apple. There are hundreds of varieties of apples, each with a different character, sweetness and skin.

We worry less about the weight and more about use, pattern and color. Exterior corridor guestrooms should be extremely busy– with a hard surface entryway to keep some of it cleanable. Interior corridor guestrooms can have less variations of color or pattern but should have a variety of mid-gray or brown tones to keep eyes away from dust and dirt.

 

Don’t do this in your corridors. Or anywhere.

2) Pattern is key

 

Hospitality carpet is different – quite different – than residential carpet. The day to day wear is significantly higher and its importance to the overall character of the room (especially given the size of the space) is pronounced.

A few tips to knowing whether your pattern is suitable:

1) The coffee test. If a carpet sample can hide these stains well then you’re on the right track – coffee causes the most stains in a guestroom (after dirt and dust from shoes).

2) A small repeat. Every carpet sample will tell you how large the ‘repeat’ is – the height and width of the repeating pattern in the carpet. Aim for repeats less than 36”x36” for guestrooms – if you need to seam in patches of carpet it’s significantly easier to hide with a smaller repeat (plus creates less waste on installation). Corridors are required to be more artistic but keep your door drops – the area between sets of doors – a smaller pattern in an accent color. This will get dirty fastest (water staining from hard surfaces inside, wheels sitting while guests enter the room, etc. Good to have something you can readily change.

3) Pile height matters

Tandus Centiva’s surprisingly affordable Change II tile. Doesn’t have to be expensive to be nice!

Residential carpet is much taller than hospitality carpet, generally. We like our carpet at home to wrap around our toes and be extremely soft on our feet. This does not work in a hotel setting.

Look for carpets that have a lower pile height – say 3-4 mm. These will give you the best compromise between comfort and wear. Multi-level pile (‘textured’ carpet) can create another distraction for the eye – but make sure that the pattern this creates remains less than 48”x48” and the difference in height is small.

And, lastly, ensure that you have commercial grade flooring. I know so much of the time this is a farce – and I usually agree – but the finishes and densities of commercial flooring tend to be radically different from household quality flooring. It doesn’t make sense to spend the extra amount in a house but does in a hotel.

Hope this helps! I’d love to get some feedback on your experiences with this. Please contact me through the incorporated form or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alim-nizar-somji-133a257/!