Stephani Robson, senior lecturer at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, worked for several years in restaurants and retail food operations in her native Canada before deciding to pursue a college degree in the field. She graduated from the School of Hotel Administration in 1988, and began her career as a food-service designer with Cini-Little International and subsequently with Marrack Watts in Toronto, Ontario. As a professional food-service designer, she has designed kitchen facilities for hotels, restaurants, airports, hospitals, universities, and catering halls. She joined the school’s faculty in 1993, earned a Master of Science in human-environment relations in 1999, and in 2010 completed her PhD at Cornell with a focus on consumer behavior in restaurants. Her academic interests center on how the design of environments affect consumer intentions, satisfaction, and behavior. She is a specialist in the psychology of restaurants and has presented and published her research in a wide range of industry and academic forums around the world.
Course Overview
The meeting rooms, food and beverage areas, and other public spaces in full-service hotels can be important revenue generators while also attracting new guests and maintaining their loyalty. Hotel planners and designers must carefully consider the needs of their target market and develop public spaces that address those needs.
This course prepares architects, designers, and other project stakeholders to develop planning criteria and come up with appropriate designs for public spaces, from lobbies to meeting rooms, restaurants, and recreational facilities.
Cornell Professor Stephani Robson shares her expertise and enthusiasm for these topics through videos, activities, and tools that will help you apply these concepts to your next project.
The following courses are required to be completed before taking this course:
- Foundations of Hotel Planning
- Hotel Planning Decisions
- Hotel Guestroom Design
Key Course Takeaways
- Develop planning criteria and assess the effectiveness of lobbies and other non-revenue generating spaces
- Prepare for planning food and beverage spaces for all types of service styles
- Identify mix, configurations, circulation, and support needs for meeting and function spaces
- Assess the needs of recreational spaces
How It Works
Course Length
Effort
Format
Course Author
Who Should Enroll
- Architects
- Interior designers
- Hotel consultants
- Architecture students
- Owners, developers, and construction managers