Insights
Neuroarchitecture and hotel asset value: the development maths most projects do not run
Ask a developer what they have modelled for the interior environment and the answer is usually: it is in the construction cost line. It is in the cost line, not the revenue model.
That is the gap worth closing. The interior is where guests decide whether a stay was worth what they paid, and that judgment ends up in reviews, repeat stays and rate. The question is what the evidence actually supports, and how to use it without overstating it.
What the research supports
Refurbishment pays, then fades. A study of 305 real hotel capital expenditure projects (Turner and Hesford, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 2018) found that revenue, profit and guest satisfaction improved in the three years after renovation, while revenue and profit declined again at three to six years even though satisfaction held. The lesson for owners is rolling reinvestment rather than one large refurbishment a decade.
Rate is not RevPAR. Research on hotel pricing (Vives and Ostrovskaya, Tourism Economics, 2024; Nicolau and colleagues, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 2024) found that some attributes raise room price without raising RevPAR, and that pushing rate on good guest sentiment can cost occupancy. A design case built on rate alone is incomplete.
Age matters, and refurbishment timing matters with it. Across 3,232 US hotels, RevPAR fell with hotel age to a turning point at around 40 years before recovering, and the recovery held mainly for branded, luxury and upper upscale hotels in large metropolitan areas (Tang and O'Neill, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 2025).
Biophilic design in hotels is promising but not settled. Some studies find restorative effects for guests in biophilic hotel spaces (Suess and colleagues, 2024), while a study of hotel lobbies found no significant effect on guest wellbeing (Song and colleagues, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 2022). It should be specified for what it does to the guest experience, not sold on a guaranteed number.
What it means for specification
Some elements of an evidence-led specification cost more than builder-grade equivalents: natural materials, lighting designed around the guest's day, acoustic separation. The case for them is made against how the finished hotel performs over the hold period, not against the price of the cheaper alternative.
It also means planning for reinvestment. If the gains from a refurbishment fade after a few years, the specification should make the next refresh easy: durable frames, replaceable soft furnishings, and spare stock from the same production run.
What it requires of the process
Using this evidence does not require a different architect. It requires a different brief, one that states what the environment must do for the guest as well as how it should look, and a delivery model that keeps that brief intact through manufacturing.
That is how Boxareno works with Cocoplum Design Studio: the evidence brief written at the start is the specification that gets manufactured, prototyped and installed, without the substitutions that creep in when design and delivery are separated.
Sources
- Turner and Hesford (2018). Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. Hotel capital expenditure and performance.
- Vives and Ostrovskaya (2024). Tourism Economics. Hotel attributes, price and RevPAR.
- Nicolau and colleagues (2024). International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. Guest sentiment, pricing and RevPAR.
- Tang and O'Neill (2025). Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. Hotel age and RevPAR.
- Suess, Legendre and Hanks (2024). Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. Biophilic urban hotel design.
- Song and colleagues (2022). Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Biophilic elements in hotel lobbies.