What Are the Things We Don't Know About Hotel Rooms?

Quora.com is a question-and-answer site where content is written and edited by its community of users. Occasionally we syndicate content from the site if we think it will interest TPG readers. This article originally appeared on Quora.com in response to the question, What Are the Things We Don't Know About Hotel Rooms? and was written by Zeev Sharon, CEO and Founder of Hotelied.

Given that most of the answers on here are about dirty blankets and other "scary" things about hotel rooms, I thought I'd share some fun facts and industry lingo that would immediately make you sound like a hotel insider:

• A single sellable room or suite is called a "key."
• A standard-size room is comprised of one "bay" and a suite could be the size of two or more bays.
• These days, the cost of building a new full-service hotel in New York City (including cost of land) can be $800,000 or more per key
• The old industry rule of thumb is that for every $1,000 invested in a room's construction, the hotel should charge $1 in average daily rate. So a room that cost $300,000 to build should sell on average for $300 per night.
• The quality of a guest room is often measured by the number of fixtures in the bathroom, which is by far the most expensive room to build. A standard three-fixture bathroom has a sink, bath and toilet. A five-fixture bathroom is more typical for luxury hotels, and has two sinks, a bath, a stand-alone shower and a toilet.
• It's very hard to design a hotel room that is narrower than 9' (although you will find such examples in cities like NYC, San Francisco, London, Paris and other major cities).
• Rooms with double beds are usually larger than rooms with king beds.
• Ceiling height is one of the most important factors affecting guests' perception of the quality and size of a hotel room.
• Hotel rooms should get a light renovation (carpets, drapes, wall paper, etc.) every 4-5 years, and a major renovation every 7-8 years.
• Mini-bars almost always lose money, even when they charge $10 for a Diet Coke. Same story for breakfast in bed. In-room dining rarely makes money for the hotel, as there's a lot of expensive labor involved.