With increased competition from vacation rental companies, these days hotels are under pressure to provide their guests with a lot more than sleeping accommodations. One of the best ways to enrich your guests’ experience is to maximize and enhance your outdoor spaces.
Offering outdoor dining, lounging, and gathering spaces that are beautiful, comfortable, and unique will make your hotel a destination in itself. For inspiration, check out these nine brilliant exterior design ideas.
Hotels equipped with outdoor grill and kitchen areas are on the rise and proving to be quite popular with guests. For one, they offer a way to compete with vacation rental companies like Airbnb and VRBO because they provide a shared cooking area for your guests, a feature that is uncommon in many hotel rooms.
Plus, outdoor cooking spaces can enhance your guests’ sensory experience as your hotel’s surroundings are filled with the savory smells of barbeque and other grilled cuisine.
Outdoor structures dripping with vines, greenery, and flowers bestow unparalleled beauty and elegance upon any outdoor space. When installed over an outdoor dining area, a pergola draped in trailing plants like bougainvillea, wisteria, or butterfly pea can transform a nondescript restaurant into a romantic retreat.
Alternatively, cultivating climbing plants around a gazebo or on an outdoor structure above a seating area provides a delightful sensory experience to enhance your guests’ relaxation.
Maximize your guests’ ability to make use of your hotel’s outdoor spaces by providing a source of warmth and light during the evenings. A fire table can improve your guests’ comfort level and delight them with the beauty of a flickering fire. Additionally, a fire table provides much-appreciated surface area for your guests to rest their refreshments, devices, or handbags while they lounge in your hotel’s outdoor spaces.
Transforming a central courtyard into an outdoor dining area is a great way to boost capacity for your hotel’s dining establishments and make them more visible to your hotel guests.
Courtyard dining spaces also add architectural appeal to your hotel’s common areas, and can make your hotel feel more lively as your guests’ conversations echo around the communal space.
Funky furniture and quirky decor are great conversation starters for hotel guests lounging in outdoor communal areas. Plus, what’s more Instagram-worthy than lounging in a hotel where the furniture itself is a work of art? Consider it free social media advertising thanks to your trendiest hotel patrons.

Sometimes outdoor space is hard to come by, especially in urban downtown areas and in older hotels. But the lack of outdoor access doesn’t have to be a bummer. Instead, think of it as an opportunity to bring the outdoors inside.
Creating open air transitional spaces in your hotel, such as entryways, hallways, and corridors, can allow you to elevate your indoor spaces by inviting in sunlight, fresh air, and the pleasing sounds of the outdoors.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more calming sound than the splash of running water from a fountain. Installing a fountain in a courtyard or other common area where your guests congregate can add a relaxing sonic characteristic to your hotel and a visually attractive centerpiece that can be enjoyed by adults and children alike.

Lounging areas by pools are essential, especially at a hotel. Your guests are going to want to seamlessly transition from your hotel’s pool to a comfortable seating area where they can recline, sunbathe, read a book, or sip on a refreshing beverage. Having a fully furnished poolside lounge area — with adjustable chaises that fully recline, end tables, umbrellas, and cushioned sectionals — will no doubt enhance your hotel pool’s appeal and popularity.
Don’t let your outdoor spaces go unused during the cooler seasons. Placing attractive, free-standing patio heaters strategically around your outdoor common areas will make them more inviting to your hotel guests as places to relax, eat, and hang out in. Plus, they’ll maximize your hotel’s available communal spaces, which will not only make your hotel feel more comfortable but also more spacious and lively.
As a hotelier, you understand the importance of putting your guests’ satisfaction above all else. Elevating the exterior design and outdoor furnishings of your hotel is a guaranteed way to increase your patron’s pleasure in your hotel and cultivate incredible experiences for your guests. At Patio Heat & Shade, our priority is supplying the widest variety of high-quality outdoor furniture, climate control products, and décor to our clients. When you’re ready to enhance your hotel’s outdoor spaces, check out our vast inventory of outdoor products or contact one of our design experts to receive a free project design consultation.