Optimising Cloakroom Design for a Seamless Guest Experience
The design and layout of a building significantly influence customer experience, shaping both the first and last impressions of a visitor. A well-planned cloakroom is essential in ensuring efficiency, security, and an overall positive interaction with your venue.
The design and layout of a cloakroom, although perhaps a trivial element in the overall scheme of a building can have a very real impact on the customer experience.
Let us help with your cloakroom design.
Maximising Space & Enhancing Flow
Cloakroom layout should prioritise both functionality and flow, allowing attendants to move efficiently without bottlenecks or unnecessary delays. The optimal configuration maximises available space while ensuring ease of movement, reducing excessive “run times” that can slow service.
A flexible design is crucial—cloakrooms must adapt to seasonal and event-specific demands, providing storage solutions for both coats and bags. Multi-level rails offer a smart, space-saving approach, allowing for a combination of coat and bag storage when segregated options aren’t feasible.
Innovative Storage Solutions
Optimising cloakroom capacity without compromising on guest experience is a universal challenge.
Multi-level rails offer a dynamic solution, allowing for adaptable configurations based on event needs. While coat hangers provide a premium touch, hooks can significantly increase capacity and reduce service time—saving even one second per operation results in a noticeable difference when processing thousands of coats.
If coat hangers are preferred, and space allows, we recommend a double-height rail system with offset bottom rails. This design accommodates long coats by allowing them to hang from the top rail while draping neatly behind the lower rail, maximising vertical space without compromising accessibility.
Paired with Chexology’s ‘line-busting’ technology, which enables attendants to retrieve items before the guest reaches the counter, this approach dramatically improves service speed.
Chexology – the paperless ticketing system
Technology-Driven Efficiency
Once the layout is established, we recommend Chexology’s paperless ticketing system, a sustainable and tech-forward solution that transforms the coat check process. By eliminating paper tickets, venues benefit from:
- Faster service – Drastically reduced queue times
- Enhanced security – Digital images of checked items matched to guest
- Operational efficiency – Streamlined check-in and retrieval process
Strategic signage along the queue further enhances efficiency, ensuring guests are prepared to check their items upon reaching the counter. Additionally, increasing counter width to accommodate multiple attendants speeds up service, with Chexology recommending one kiosk per 200 coats.
Cloakroom Accessories
In addition to coat rails, there is usually a requirement for bags and umbrellas. Umbrellas being the easiest to accommodate, with either a wall or rail mounted rack & drip tray, bin profiles mounted to the end of rails or umbrella bags that can hang with the customer coats.
Racking to accommodate smaller cases and bags in compartmented shelves is also a solution with larger flight cases usually on lower-level shelving or below counter space.
Let us help with your cloakroom design.
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