Hotel spaces that locals walk into
Hotel design · Edinburgh · Glasgow · Scotland
Hotel bars, restaurants, lobbies and public areas — designed for revenue per square metre across Edinburgh, Glasgow and Scotland.
The test of a hotel bar isn't the lookbook — it's whether locals drink there.
About hotel design
A hotel ground floor is a hospitality venue with rooms upstairs.
Hotel interior design splits into two briefs. The bedroom floors are a logistics and procurement exercise. The ground floor — bar, restaurant, lobby, terrace — is hospitality, and it behaves exactly like the standalone venues we've designed for fifty years. It has to earn covers, hold an evening trade, and compete with every bar and restaurant within walking distance.
That's the part most hotel fit-out firms get wrong. They design the bar as an amenity — somewhere residents can get a drink — and it sits empty from nine o'clock. We design hotel F&B as a destination: a room with its own name, its own brand, its own front door if the building allows it, and a service flow that works at Friday peak. Locals fill the room; the room fills the hotel.
We design hotel public areas in Edinburgh, Glasgow and across Scotland for operators who measure the ground floor in revenue per square metre — not in lobby photography.
Maison by Glaschu · Glasgow
Hotel interior design Edinburgh
Edinburgh's hotel market is dense, seasonal and walked past by millions. The ground floor is the difference between a hotel that captures the street and one the street ignores. As an Edinburgh-based studio we know the conservation constraints, the licensing landscape and the supply chain — and we know what Edinburgh locals expect from a bar before they'll make it a habit.
The same commercial thinking runs through our bar and restaurant work: service speed, sight lines, lighting that steps down across the evening, FF&E that survives daily trade. A hotel application changes the constraints — breakfast service, residents' hours, event turnover — not the principles.
Hotel design Glasgow & Scotland
Our Glasgow city-centre work lives in exactly the buildings Scottish hotels occupy — listed Victorian fabric, banking halls, merchant buildings. Glaschu trades inside the historic Western Club building; Maison and The Delphine run all-day arcs inside Princes Square. Different operators, same discipline: heritage fabric on the surface, modern service underneath.
Across Scotland the brief shifts — coastal resort, Highland destination, city aparthotel — but the ground-floor question is constant: would anyone who isn't sleeping upstairs choose this room? If the answer's yes, the hotel has a marketing engine on its own ground floor. Read more about how we work →
Frequently asked questions about hotel design
The questions hotel operators and developers ask before briefing.
Do you design whole hotels or just the public areas?
Our specialism is the ground floor — the bar, restaurant, lobby, terrace and event spaces where a hotel actually competes with the high street. That's where our fifty years of hospitality design applies directly. For bedroom floors and building-envelope work we partner with architects and deliver the public-area scope as one piece with them.
Why does a hotel bar need a hospitality designer rather than a hotel fit-out firm?
Because the bar has to compete with the bar down the street, not just serve residents. A hotel F&B space designed as an amenity stays empty by 9pm; designed as a destination, it fills with locals — and locals are what make a hotel bar profitable and a hotel lobby feel alive. We design hotel bars and restaurants the way we design standalone venues: service flow, atmosphere, durability, commercial performance.
What does hotel F&B interior design cost?
A hotel bar or restaurant refit in Edinburgh or Glasgow typically runs £150–500k depending on scope, kitchen extent and the building's constraints. Full ground-floor reworks with lobby, bar and dining run higher. We work to a capex sheet from day one and tell you early if the brief and budget don't match.
Can you work in listed buildings?
Yes — most of our Glasgow city-centre work sits inside listed fabric, including the historic Western Club building. We design within consent, coordinate with heritage officers and structural architects, and specify finishes that respect the existing building while still trading hard.
Do you handle the brand alongside the hotel interior?
Yes. Naming, identity, menus, signage and web for the F&B outlets are designed as one system with the space. A hotel restaurant with its own name, brand and entrance earns covers a hotel dining room never will.
Start a project
Briefing a hotel ground floor? Let's talk.
We respond within one working day.