The Rise of OLED Lighting for a Healthy & Sustainable Hotel
By Stephanie Weaver, Marketing Manager at Nadarra Lighting
Nadarra Lighting — The importance of a hotel room’s functionality has long been agreed upon by industry experts, including architects and interior designers alike. This functionality extends beyond room layout and furniture into often overlooked aspects such as lighting. Designing a comfortable and practical lighting experience will ensure guests have a positive experience and encourage future rebooking.
From work to play, relaxing to a good night’s sleep, and everything in-between, lighting design significantly impacts a guest’s experience. Lighting not only gives us the ability to see, but it also creates the mood and feeling of a space. Lighting showcases key design features and draws people towards specific elements of a room. Unfortunately, many of today’s artificial lighting technologies can have negative effects on our health and well-being. Fortunately, an innovative and promising lighting technology focused on creating an overall healthy and sustainable lifestyle is now commercially available.
Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology is a versatile solution that meets various design needs. OLED technology’s benefits are threefold:
- Health for you.
- Health for the earth.
- Unlimited design and customization options
All of these factors are essential concepts when deciding on lighting design for various hotel spaces.
Health for you.
The pandemic has opened many people’s eyes to the importance of a proactive healthy lifestyle. We predict that the “right-now” conversations surrounding defensive health, such as wearing masks, will shift to a long-term view of how populations all over the world can be proactively healthier.
Perfect for a Guest Room
The overall healthy lifestyle concept extends far beyond merely diet and exercise and is long sought after by people worldwide. A true healthy lifestyle is comprised of various factors, with a vital piece being elements of our surroundings, such as lighting. Many of today’s artificial light sources can be detrimental to our health. Studies have shown that today’s light sources can significantly disrupt one’s circadian rhythm, cause heart issues, and other more severe diseases, headaches, eye-strain, depression, and more.
On the other hand, OLED technology lacks glare and shadows, is evenly diffused, has full-spectrum properties, is circadian rhythm friendly, and has the right amount of blue light. Instead of being detrimental, OLED light is one piece of the puzzle to being proactively healthy.
Those in pursuit of proactive health, which is becoming a societal trend, do not expect their healthy lifestyle to be put on pause just because they are away from home. Implementing the use of OLED technology in hotel spaces will not only look good, but it will also improve the guest experience.
The guest experience often extends far beyond one’s hotel room. Whether it be a guest room, lounge, bar, event space, or restaurant, hotels are at the forefront of life’s most cherished memories and experiences. Research from Travel Daily News is also predicting a trend of multi-generational active trips. In the warmer months to come, people will seek out travel as a means to surround themselves with their extended family and continue the active lifestyle that the pandemic promoted, such as walking, cycling, hiking, and running. With all of this in mind, hotels must keep health and wellness at the forefront of their guest offerings. A positive lighting experience that boosts one’s mood, supports wellness, and can aid in a better night’s sleep will have a meaningful, everlasting impact on the overall experience.
Health for the earth.
The pandemic caused travelers to be increasingly mindful about their health and the health of the planet. Lockdowns brought clear visibility to the easing of CO2 emissions and reignited discussions on the impact of worldwide travel on our planet. Research shows the rising popularity of staycations or staying at hotels with a more significant commitment to sustainability. Consumers are also inclined to fly less frequently, leading to more extended but less frequent stays at hospitality accommodations.
Adding OLED Lighting to a hotel allows for branding and differentiation around the hotel’s focus on creating a healthy planet. OLED technology is recyclable, non-toxic, energy-efficient, and composed of 85% organic and glass materials. Additionally, OLED panels have a relatively long lifetime and can last over 30 times longer than incandescent light bulbs. They provide up to 80% better efficiency than traditional light bulbs and are great energy savers. These properties make it a sustainable lighting option, which is good for both people and the planet.
Design & customization.
The hospitality industry is in a constant state of evolution. Design and lighting are not exempt from the industry’s ever-changing trends. OLED’s customizable nature ensures any stylistic requirements can be met while functionally lighting an area. Industry professionals looking to emphasize performance, light levels, efficiency, and reliability within their lighting designs have many options with OLED’s thin, lightweight, and flexible properties.
OLED light fixtures are available in a wide range of materials, are dimmable, and bring comfort to any setting. The various design options, coupled with their sustainable nature, position OLED as the premier lighting solution. A practical choice for ambient, task, mirror, overhead, or accent lighting, OLED fixtures offer an opportunity to create a space that perfectly fits the hotel brand without sacrificing guest comfort.
Health & wellness is here to stay for the hospitality industry.
As a designer, creating spaces that look good cannot be the only goal. Understanding the impact that a space has on a hotel guest’s health and wellness needs to be a part of the mix. With a continued push for healthy and sustainable brands by consumers, hotels need to follow suit.
One of Nadarra Lighting’s motivating factors is to create OLED light fixtures that are widely available. We believe that everyone should have access to healthy artificial light sources – even when they’re away from home. Hotels now can provide guests a healthy, beautiful & sustainable lighting experience that supports health, comfort, and well-being with Nadarra’s OLED light fixtures.
You can learn more about Nadarra Lighting and our focus on designing and manufacturing healthy & beautiful OLED light fixtures for the hospitality industry at www.nadarralighting.com.
