17 Best Ways to Transform Your Hotel or B&B with Artificial Plants

As a hotel or B&B owner, you know that, in the hospitality industry, appearance is everything. Potential guests will decide based on your photos if you may be the right hotel for them, and once they arrive, they’ll make another snap decision about whether they feel like they’re going to love it there or not. Wow them and they’ll relax, but if you disappoint them, they may be much more reactive to any slipups.   

You want to give your guests a magical experience and the best way to do this is to make sure your venue looks welcoming, warm, and unique. Plants are a fantastic way to make any space look well-thought-out, but maintaining a selection of live plants takes time and effort to keep them happy and looking good. If your hotel is particularly big, you may even have to hire someone just to water and care for your plants. That’s a big, unnecessary expense you can avoid by using artificial plants.

Artificial plants can breathe life into even the darkest corridors and budget-friendly rooms, adding a sense of tranquillity and luxury. Read on as we look at some of the many benefits of artificial plants and share some hotel décor inspiration.

Why Should I Choose Artificial Plants as a Hotel or B&B?

• Artificial plants are low- or even zero-maintenance. Real plants are beautiful, but if you have hundreds of rooms or a small business, finding time to keep them looking their best isn’t easy and can equal an unnecessary expense.  
• Artificial plants maintain the same appearance from the day you buy them – they won’t die, go brown, yellow, need repotting, or grow so fast you can’t keep up with trimming. 
• They don’t need light – most B&Bs and hotels have dark hallways – it’s necessary so the rooms get the view, so hallways can look dark and moody. Large hotel hallways also tend to all look the same, and it’s not unheard of for a guest or two to forget which floor they’re on. You can easily use artificial plants in the hallways to give them more visual interest without taking up much space. 
• Artificial plants aren’t affected by the seasons. The success of a real plant often depends on the weather and with artificial plants, this is not an issue. Even inside plants can be affected by the seasons, growing less in winter and exploding in summer when they benefit from full light.
• They are cost-effective – once you’ve bought them, you don’t need to spend any more money on new pots, fertilisers, people’s time to care for them, and water. You can even store your artificial plants and use them seasonally, which is simply not an option with real plants.
• They boost people’s mood the same way real plants do. Studies have shown that people tend to feel happier and more relaxed when in a room with plants, whether the plants are real or artificial. 
• They won’t trigger guests’ allergies. As an establishment that sees large numbers of people walk through its doors every year, you can never be too careful when it comes to guests with allergies. There are a lot of house plants that can trigger allergies and if you welcome pets too, you need to be even more careful.  

Now that you know why artificial plants are a better option for a hotel or B&B owner, let’s look at some ways to decorate your venue with artificial plants.

How to Use Artificial Plants to Transform Your Hotel or B&B

The ideas we cover below are for a range of establishment sizes, so you may need to get creative and tweak an idea to best work for your business’s size and style. You may find that artificial lemon trees are more your pace than an artificial palm plant, so don’t be afraid to get creative! Here are some amazing things you as a hotel owner can do with artificial plants: 

#1 Artificial Living Walls

An artificial living wall is where you cover an entire wall (or most of a wall) with foliage. The great thing about an artificial living wall is that you can choose the exact size and foliage design you want, without worrying that it will wither or dry out. Maintaining real living walls is something you usually have to outsource to the company who installed it, otherwise you deal with a lot of die-off.

With an artificial living wall, you can also eliminate the issue of growth inconsistencies where one side gets more sunlight than the other and grows more quickly. Artificial green walls are also a convenient option if you’re looking to decorate a high-up or awkward area that would otherwise need to be accessed for watering and trimming.

#2 Use Symmetry to Draw the Eye to Places of Note

Symmetry is pleasing to the eye and many guests find it inherently comforting. A symmetrical arrangement may come in the form of two small bonsai trees on your check-in desk or an artificial lemon tree on either side of your restaurant doorway. This is an ideal way to add more interest, but also a great way to draw the eye to places of note. It’s much easier to say that the restaurant is between the lemon trees than it is “over there, behind the seating area.”

#3 Use Artificial Plants for Privacy Screening

Opt for some large plants as screening between areas in your hotel’s cafe or bar. If you want to keep an open-plan feeling but still maintain some separation between areas, plants are a great way to do this. This keeps the room airy and open but provides guests with some privacy from the next table. Use large, leafy plants like parlour palms for a tropical atmosphere, bamboo works in almost any setting, as does artificial topiary.

#4 Use Artificial Hedging to Block Undesirable Views

Choose artificial hedging to block out less-than-perfect views. If there’s a building or street you’d like to keep your guests from seeing, create a cosy, insular feel with artificial hedging. These can also act as a noise suppressor to reinforce the feeling that guests can escape from the rest of the world, even if you’re in the city. 

#5 Hang Topiary Balls in the Lobby

Break up all that low-to-the-floor furniture by hanging topiary balls from the high ceiling in your lobby. Hang a few from one another and add fairy lights for a whimsical effect, or just hang single balls for a modern look to act as a natural divider between spaces.

#6 Use Artificial Topiary Outside the Entrance

Make a statement with some artificial topiary outside the entrance. If hanging topiary balls aren’t in keeping with your chosen design style, you may want to go with something equally grand, but a little less dramatic. Topiary outside your hotel adds instant luxury. Whether you choose lollipop shapes, spirals or pyramids, an artificial topiary is a great choice for a hotel entrance.

#7 Fill Trough Planters in White Spaces

Install trough planters for a modern, urban feel. This is a great way to fill a space that is “missing something”, such as a windowsill, on a side table, or a bathroom countertop. Trough planters come in all sizes, so you can easily find a style and size to suit your hotel’s design. As your plants are artificial, you can mix and match with whatever suits the room best.

#8 Use Plants to Break Line of Sight in Restaurants

If privacy screening doesn’t work for your restaurant, consider using potted artificial plants to break the line of sight in your restaurant. There’s nothing worse than being sat a little way from another table and constantly making eye contact with the stranger sitting opposite you – an artificial plant in between can make guests more comfortable.  

Make sure you choose plants that emphasize the restaurant’s theme or reinforce your brand’s colour scheme. For example, artificial roses would work well in a country B&B, while large bamboo would work best in a large hotel in the city.

#9 Use Artificial Plants in Bathrooms

Even small plants, such as an artificial succulent, can make bathrooms more welcoming, more relaxing, and give your bathrooms a fresh, clean feel whenever a customer enters.

#10 Turn an Awkward Courtyard into a Jungle Oasis

Create a unique, jungle-like oasis if you have a small courtyard or balcony you aren’t sure what to do with. This is a great way to turn that awkward roof terrace into a premium experience, even if it’s surrounded by buildings. Use large grasses and bamboo and giant palm plants around the edge and use smaller plants with richer colours and more interesting leaf shapes within, with some seating and lanterns.

#11 Use Plants to Cover Up Unsightly Characteristics

If you have certain areas you want to draw attention to or from, large, leafy plants do the job well here. You could hide a storage door, place a plant strategically in front of an employee’s only door (with enough room behind it so employees can move freely), or an electrical panel.

#12 Use Window Boxes

Window boxes on the exterior of your hotel or B&B will wow your guests from the moment they arrive and be visible from their room. This is a great way to infuse a little more greenery, especially if you’re looking for space-efficient ways to decorate.

#13 Use Plant Shelving

Another good way to save space while ensuring your rooms have greenery is to install a couple of small shelves and fill them with plants. Tiny potted artificial succulents and ferns work beautifully in any style of room. You could also use artificial vine plants and string them along the wall if you want a more relaxed, bohemian feel.

#14 Bring Life to Dark Hallways

Choose a selection of vibrant artificial plants to bring life to dark hallways, whether that be outside the doors to the rooms or downstairs in the restaurant passage to the public bathrooms.

#15 Use Potted Plants by the Lifts

Place potted artificial plants by the lifts. This is a classic hotel interior design technique as it draws your guests’ attention away from something unremarkable like a lift. If you have a mirror on either side of the lift, that’s even better; it creates the illusion that there are twice as many plants there. It also adds a splash of colour to a part of a building that is often dark or monochromatic.  

#16 Fill Unusable Balconies with Plants

Sometimes, a balcony just isn’t big enough to be a practical space for your guests, so fill the space with artificial plants so they have an interesting view out the window or door – just keep them to about the same height as the balcony itself so you don’t block the natural light.

#17 Use Plants by the Pool

Place a selection of large, leafy plants by the pool. Who doesn’t want to feel like they’re taking a dip into a pool in Barbados or the French Riviera? Big plants give a luxurious feeling so that your guests will feel relaxed and pampered as they enjoy your hotel’s pool. 

It’s amazing the difference a couple of plants can make to a building, regardless of the architectural or interior design style. Artificial plants are the ideal solution for hotel and B&B owners who want to add a pop of colour into a minimalist entrance, liven up an otherwise uninteresting lobby or bring a fresh, botanical feel to a check-in area.

As a business owner, maintaining hundreds of plants probably isn’t very high up on things you want to add to your to-do list – you’ve got a lot going on and you don’t have the desire to spend time and/or money on plant maintenance. Artificial plants give you the best of both worlds – beautiful, realistic plants, without the hard work real plants bring.

To view our range of artificial plants, click here.