What a hotel luggage room can actually earn
Most luggage rooms cost a hotel staff time and generate nothing. Here is a transparent worked example of what the same square metres can return once storage becomes self-service and paid — with no hardware cost to the property.
A 100-room city hotel, month one
The figures below are an illustrative model, not a guarantee. They are deliberately conservative: only a fraction of guests who need early or late storage are assumed to pay.
- Rooms
- 100
- Occupancy
- 80%
- Guests needing early or late storage
- ~6 per day
- Paid sessions per day
- 4
- Average session price
- £8
- Gross storage revenue per month
- £960
- Hardware, install and support cost to hotel
- £0
The hotel receives its agreed share of that gross revenue each month. Because there is no capital outlay and no fixed fee, the return begins in the first month of operation.
The saving nobody puts on the P&L
Every stored bag today costs a front-desk interaction: tagging, carrying, storing, retrieving, and often a second conversation when the guest returns. At a handful of bags a day that is hours of desk time every week, concentrated exactly when arrivals and departures overlap. Self-service storage removes that work entirely and takes the queue with it.
What drives the numbers up
Properties that outperform this model tend to share a few traits: a city-centre location near a station or attraction, a high share of leisure and group business, a check-in time well after typical arrival times, and clear signage so guests discover storage before they reach the desk. Group and tour business in particular produces multi-bag sessions that lift the average considerably.
How the commercials are structured
Lobby Locker funds the hardware, the installation, the 4G connectivity, the monitoring and the support. Guests pay per session on their own phone. The hotel's share is calculated on each payment and settled monthly with a full statement. There is no contract minimum and no charge if the units are never used.
Common questions
- How does the revenue share work?
- Guests pay per storage session at the point of booking. The hotel's agreed share is calculated automatically on each payment and settled monthly with a full statement of sessions, sizes and durations.
- What does the hotel pay for?
- Nothing. Lobby Locker funds the hardware, installation, connectivity, monitoring and support. There is no purchase price, licence fee or subscription.
- How many guests actually pay to store bags?
- It depends on check-out patterns, group business and location, but early-arrival and late-departure guests are the core users. City-centre properties near stations and attractions see the highest usage.
- Does charging for storage upset guests?
- Guests are already used to paid left-luggage services in stations and city centres. Hotels can also keep storage free for selected guests — loyalty members, suites or groups — while charging everyone else.
- What if usage is lower than expected?
- There is no downside cost. Because the hotel has no capital outlay and no fixed fee, low usage simply means a smaller share — never a loss.
See what your luggage room could earn.
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