The ROI of Light: Why Guests Leave Early, and How Dim-to-Warm Lighting Fixes It
Whether you run a hotel bar or design one, you watch the numbers that matter: F&B revenue, bar sales, average spend per guest. But have you looked at your lighting?
I had a personal experience that changed how I see “high-end” LED lighting.
I have a music room where I host gatherings. Under halogen lighting, we would party until 3 AM. After I installed high-end standard LEDs, the energy was flat. Guests left before midnight, and they described the atmosphere as “not as nice.”
The fix? I switched to dim-to-warm LEDs. Instantly, guests stayed longer, and the atmosphere returned to its former glory.
One room and one group of friends is not a study. Still, it shows something we see in hotels and restaurants all the time: when you dim a space, the color of the light matters as much as its brightness.
Why standard LEDs lose their cozy feeling when dimmed
Halogen and incandescent lamps get warmer as you dim them. Their light drifts from white toward the amber of candlelight, and for decades that is what a dimmed restaurant, bar or living room looked like.
Standard LEDs don’t do this. Their color temperature doesn’t change and remains the same no matter the brightness level — they simply get darker.
A 3000 K downlight dimmed to 10% is still 3000 K: dimmer, but no warmer. The room never takes on the cozy glow guests expect late in the evening.
We associate cool, white light with daytime and work, and warm, amber light with evening, rest and conversation. When the lights go down but the color doesn’t warm up, the room never feels like evening. Guests sense it, finish their drink and leave.
Dim-to-warm LEDs solve this. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, they give a normal 2700–3000 K white at full output and warm to as low as 1800 K as they dim. Brightness and color shift together when dimming, just as they did with halogen.
For hospitality spaces used mainly in the evening, dim-to-warm is the simplest way to get the atmosphere right.
Where it pays off in hotels and restaurants
- Lobby bars and lounges: the spaces that change character most between afternoon and midnight.
- Restaurants at dinner service: light shapes appetite and mood as much as the menu does — more on that in Eating with Light.
- Guest rooms and suites: bedside and ambient light that warms as it dims helps guests unwind.
- Private clubs and residences: owners expect the warmth they had with halogen, without its energy bill.
Our hospitality work in Hong Kong includes The Dynasty Club and The Landmark MO Entertainment Suite. In Macau, we moved the Mandarin Oriental to LED and automated its lighting and curtains. In the Philippines, our projects include The Manila Peninsula, Sofitel Philippine Plaza, UMU Restaurant at Dusit Thani and Nuvo Bar & Restaurant.
The ROI of light, in numbers
Here is a simple example. The figures are assumptions — replace them with your own.
- A hotel lobby bar with about 60 seats, open 360 evenings a year
- Better lighting keeps just four tables for one more round
- Two drinks per table at HK$120 each
That is HK$960 more per evening, or HK$345,600 a year, from four tables. In Manila, at ₱450 per drink, the same four tables add ₱3,600 an evening and almost ₱1.3 million a year.
The premium for dim-to-warm fittings and the right controls is paid once. The extra round comes back every night.
What goes wrong when it is specified cheaply
The expensive mistakes happen around the dimmers. With many well-known dimmer brands, LEDs flicker at low levels and lights cut out before they reach their warm end.
Compatibility of dimmer and driver is tricky. Testing by the Electric Power Research Institute found that the same LED lamp could perform up to 25% differently depending on the dimmer it was paired with. Our experience is that Eltako from Germany has proven to be reliable for every TRIAC-dimmable driver. It takes LEDs down to 1% without flicker; you can see it in our LED dimming demo.
Stop lighting rooms. Start lighting moods.
Architects design spaces for human connection, and we light them. Specifying dim-to-warm is the easiest way to make sure a space is used as intended — late into the night.
Working on a hotel, restaurant or bar in Hong Kong or the Philippines? Bring TELCS in at design stage. Request a lighting design proposal or contact us — we work alongside your architect and interior designer.
