Lighting for the Hospitality Industry Key Terms

Learn the vocabulary of lighting for the hospitality industry

By Shannon Tani

The lighting that you choose for your hotel or restaurant is responsible for setting the atmosphere. Lights that are either too bright or too dark may make guests uncomfortable. To choose the right lights for your company, you need to start by learning some key terms. Switching to halogen or LED lighting could save you money over the traditional incandescent bulbs. Track lighting and table lamps are excellent for creating a specific mood. Get started with these terms.

Halogen lighting

Halogen lighting uses the halogen gas to create the light. It creates a bright light and is energy efficient, but has a tendency to get too hot. If you are going to use halogen lighting, make sure that it's in a place that won't harm your guests.
Try: See examples of halogen lighting at GE.

Track lighting

Track lighting is a series of lights that are placed on a track that's mounted to the ceiling or a wall. Each lamp can be individually adjusted, creating a mini-spotlight. Many businesses use track lighting to highlight artwork.
Try: Visit Pegasus Associates Lighting to see the different types of track lighting.

LED lighting

LED lighting is efficient and safe. It is cool to the touch. You can see LED lighting in clocks and indicator lights in cars. A hotel may use LED lighting as a night light or as guide lights.
Try: You can view some examples of LED lighting at Best Home LED Lighting.

Lighting retrofitting

If your current lighting system is older, chances are it's wasting a lot of money. Consider a lighting retrofitting, which is the process of replacing all of your old lights with newer, more energy efficient styles.
Try: Progressive Lighting offers a lighting retrofitting service. They describe it on their website.

Table lamps

Table lamps are small lamps that you place on tables. This can create mood lighting in restaurants, but are also a necessary feature in hotel rooms. Table lamps come in a variety of styles to suite whatever your decorating scheme is.
Try: View table lamps that are appropriate for restaurant tables at RestaurantLights.com. Atlantic Hospitality shows table lamps suitable for hotel rooms.

Drum shade

A drum shade is a particular style of lamp shade. Rather than sloping outward, a drum shade is uniform throughout. It is designed to look like a drum.
Try: Alluminare shows examples of drum shades.