For decades, hotel bars have often been viewed as supporting amenities, spaces intended to activate a lobby, provide a gathering place for guests and contribute to a property's overall atmosphere. But according to bar designer, author and hospitality consultant Tobin Ellis, that mindset leaves significant revenue on the table.
Ellis, founder of Studio Barmagic and author of Bar Design Essentials: How To Design Bars That Work for Everyone, believes hotel owners and operators should think of bars less as aesthetic showpieces and more as operating businesses engineered to generate profit.
"The bar is a theatrical factory, not a showroom," Ellis said. "Design the bar engine first that can deliver the performance required, then wrap everything in finishings. Not the other way around."
That philosophy, which Ellis calls "inside-out" design, starts with understanding how bartenders work, how drinks move through the operation and how guests interact with the space. The approach challenges the traditional hotel development process, where bar layouts are often driven by architecture and aesthetics before operational realities are considered.
The Hidden Cost of Poor Bar Design
While many hotel owners closely analyze room revenue, Ellis argues that relatively small inefficiencies behind the bar can have an outsized impact on profitability.
He recently conducted a revenue-leakage review for a hotel bar in Miami Beach where the physical design of the space was adding approximately seven seconds to the production of every drink.
"It sounds like nothing," Ellis said. "It calculated out to an annual revenue loss of $1.1 million, which is $10 million of valuation they aren't capturing."
The example illustrates a key issue Ellis sees throughout the hospitality industry. Decisions involving equipment placement, workstation layouts, bar shape and adjacencies are often made by people with limited experience working behind a bar during peak periods.
"There isn't just one workflow mistake," he said. "Because a bar is not a living room. Every decision about equipment spec, size, location and adjacency affects the rest of the system."
The good news, he added, is that the industry is beginning to change. Developers and operators are increasingly recognizing the importance of specialized bar design expertise, particularly from professionals who have worked as bartenders themselves.
Beyond the Lobby Amenity
As hotels look for new ways to grow revenue beyond guestrooms, Ellis believes bars deserve greater strategic attention from ownership groups and asset managers.
"The bar can be one of the highest-profitability revenue centers in a hotel when properly designed and programmed," he said.
Unlike guestrooms, which generate a fixed amount of revenue once booked, bars present opportunities for incremental spending throughout a guest's stay.
"Once a room is booked, that's it," Ellis said. "Guests don't spend more on the room. They will spend more at the bar."
That ability to drive additional guest spending can significantly influence hotel performance metrics such as total revenue per available room and gross operating profit per available room, making bar operations increasingly important in today's hotel environment.
As operators seek to maximize ancillary revenues, Ellis sees the lobby bar as one of the most overlooked opportunities in the building.
Designing For the Bartender
A central theme of Ellis' work is the idea that bartenders, not guests, are the primary users of a bar. He often compares bar design to automobile design.
"Most people intuitively get that the driver is the primary user of the car, not the passenger," Ellis said. "Cars are designed first and foremost for the driver."
The same logic applies to hospitality spaces, he argued. A bartender's ability to work efficiently directly affects speed of service, guest satisfaction, labor productivity and revenue generation.
"The operators who realize that the bartender is the primary user of the bar rather than the guest are the ones who can capitalize on massive opportunities for improving the guest experience and profitability," Ellis said.
Designing from the bartender's perspective means focusing on ergonomics, minimizing unnecessary movement and creating workstations that support high-volume production without increasing physical strain on staff.
"The more efficient and ergonomic the bar is designed for the people who make it work, the better the experience for everyone else on the journey, the guests and the investors," he said.
The Importance of Flow
Ellis' design philosophy is rooted in concepts such as "zero-step," "neutral-spine" and "neutral-reach" bartending, principles intended to reduce wasted movement and improve efficiency.
The goal is to create a bar environment where employees can execute repetitive tasks quickly and comfortably throughout a shift while maintaining high service standards.
For hotel operators, that focus on workflow can be particularly important as labor shortages and rising wage costs continue to pressure margins. Rather than relying on additional staff to solve service challenges, Ellis believes thoughtful design can help existing teams work more productively.
Building Bars that Work All Day
The rise of all-day dining concepts has created new challenges for hotel food-and-beverage operators. Many hotel bars now serve multiple roles, functioning as morning coffee stations, daytime workspaces and evening cocktail destinations.
According to Ellis, success requires understanding the distinct operational needs of each service period. "Don't try to guess at the design," he said. "Bring in an expert who understands the unique challenges and design requirements of your all-day dining restaurant as well as the hyper-specific workflows of both a barista and a bartender."
Designing for multiple dayparts requires balancing flexibility with efficiency, ensuring that transitions between coffee service, lunch and evening beverage operations do not create bottlenecks or compromise guest experience.
Where Owners Should Invest
When asked which design investments currently offer the strongest returns, Ellis pointed to one area above all others: The bar engine itself.
"High-performance, ergonomic, customized bar engines," he said. "Nothing else can increase every KPI hotels look at in a bar, lounge or restaurant."
Because bars have historically received less operational scrutiny than guestrooms or other core hotel functions, Ellis believes opportunities for performance gains remain substantial. "The bar is often the most overlooked area of opportunity," he said. "The potential gains can be surprisingly large."
At the same time, he cautions operators against chasing trends that prioritize appearance over functionality. Among the concepts he considers overhyped are gimmicky neon signs, decorative Edison bulbs, uncomfortable metal bar stools and custom equipment that struggles under real-world volume demands.
For hotel owners seeking stronger returns from food and beverage operations, Ellis' advice is straightforward: Focus less on how a bar looks and more on how it works.
In an era when operators are under pressure to drive profitability from every square foot, that shift in thinking may make the hotel bar one of the property's most valuable assets.