Hotel site size calculator

How this works

Brand prototypes publish the land they are drawn for, and the calculator starts there. Marriott's 79-room Fairfield by Marriott tertiary prototype sits on 1.61 acres with 79 parking spaces, 1.0 per key, in a building 177 ft long by 62 ft deep ^[1]. Hilton's Homewood Suites Prototype 10.0 puts 131 suites on 2.36 acres, down from 2.49 acres for the prior prototype ^[2]. Marriott's 124-room, 4-story StudioRes was planned on 2.01 acres in Jacksonville, Florida, as a press report gives it ^[3].

Each of those projects states both a key count and a site in acres, so each gives a density in keys per acre. The calculator sizes the keys you enter at each project's own density: the keys you enter times the published acres, divided by the published keys. It reports the lowest and the highest of those figures as the site range, and lists every line of the arithmetic with the label of the row behind it: industry benchmark for a brand prototype, observed in approvals for a permitted or approved project ^{[1, 2, 3]}. The published projects run from 79 to 131 keys, so a key count outside that span is still computed, with a note that each density is carried beyond the keys it was drawn for ^{[1, 2]}. The range is a preliminary estimate from labelled benchmarks, not a code limit and not a brand requirement.

Some published figures stay beside the range because they cannot be scaled. Marriott's standard Fairfield prototype spans 80 to 110 keys with no site stated ^[4]. Figures that rest only on an appraisal, an architect's or builder's project page or a property listing are not shown: none of those is an approval record or a brand standard, so no label would describe them truthfully. The Murfreesboro, Tennessee Planning Commission records a site area for a Fairfield by Marriott and for a Hyatt House but no key count, and those approvals are shown as stated too ^{[5, 6]}. A North Church hotel the same commission cleared states its rooms and stories but no site area ^[7]. The select-service hotel in Murfreesboro works through that city's approval path, and the hotel site size by prototype guide sets the prototypes side by side with the yards, fire lane and open space that add land.

Parking from the city's own code

The parking minimum is read only from a city's own code, and the calculator counts each key as one guest room, sleeping room, rental unit, bedroom unit or rooming unit, the word that code uses. Tulsa requires 0.65 per guest room, plus spaces for restaurants/bars and assembly/meeting space, under Sec. 55.020, Table 55-1 as amended by Ord. 25429, effective 12/10/2024 ^[8]. The calculator multiplies the ratio by the keys and states the restaurant and meeting parts as the code writes them, because no row gives their ratio. Tucson requires 1 per rental unit plus 1 per 300 sq ft GFA of conference, restaurant, retail, bar and banquet space ^[9], and Fort Worth requires 1 per bedroom unit plus 1 per 4 patron seats in public rooms plus 5 per 1,000 SF display/ballroom ^[10]. Enter those areas and seats and the calculator adds them; leave them blank and it computes the keys' part and states the rest.

Some codes step down as a hotel grows. Los Angeles requires 1 per guest room for the first 30, 1 per 2 rooms from 31 to 60 and 1 per 3 rooms above 60, under LAMC Sec. 12.21 A.4(b), and the calculator applies each band only to the rooms inside it ^[11]. Houston's Sec. 26-492 reads 1.0 per sleeping room up to 250, 0.75 per room from 251 to 500 and 0.50 per room over 500 ^[12]. Whether each Houston tier applies to every room or only to the rooms inside it is not verified in our research. For a key count inside the first tier both readings give the same figure, so the calculator computes it there and states the tiers above it as the code writes them ^[12].

Phoenix requires 1 per dwelling unit or rooming unit ^[13]. Milwaukee's table splits the use into "Hotel, commercial" at 1 per 1,000 sq ft GFA and "Hotel, residential" at 1 per 2 sleeping rooms, so the calculator asks which one the project is ^[14]. Keystone, Colorado requires 1.0 per room plus other uses for a hotel, motel or lodge, and 0.5 per lodge room ^[15], and River Heights, Utah requires 1 per guest room plus associated uses ^[16]. Mapped areas lift the minimum in parts of several cities, and the calculator asks whether the site is in one: Fort Worth's "H" Central Business district ^[17], San Antonio's IDZ-1 and IDZ overlay ^[18], Charlotte's Tier 3 districts ^[19] and Milwaukee's downtown zoning districts ^[14]. Fort Worth applies its minimums only to uses on residentially zoned property or within 250 feet of one- or two-family zoned property, so the calculator asks that too ^[10]. A mapped reduction, such as Milwaukee's 25% reduction near transit, is stated and never applied ^[14].

Brand prototypes sit near one space per key: Fairfield's 79-room prototype has 79 parking spaces, 1.0 per key ^[1]. The calculator shows that count beside the code, labelled, and never uses it as the minimum.

Austin, Denver, Portland, Raleigh, Sacramento and Baltimore have no parking minimum citywide, and the calculator says so for a hotel there ^{[20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25]}. Denver still requires minimum bicycle and ADA parking ^[21]. California's Gov. Code 65863.2 bars a minimum within one-half mile of public transit ^[26]. Whether it reaches a hotel is not verified in our research, so for a hotel in a California city the calculator does not apply it: it shows the city's own minimum and says the transit rule is not verified in our research for a hotel ^[26]. The parking requirements lookup reads the same rows for other uses.

Trips and aerial fire access

Trips come from ITE land use 310, Hotel, counted per room: 7.99 daily, 0.46 in the AM peak hour and 0.59 in the PM peak hour, from ITE Trip Generation, 11th Edition, as republished in a county trip generation table ^[27]. Our research found the same hotel rates in four agency tables, and the calculator uses this county's republication, labelled a published trip rate with its edition ^[27]. At 0.59 per room, a 120-room hotel generates about 71 PM peak hour trips, and at 7.99 about 959 daily trips ^[27].

Once the roof is more than 30 ft above grade plane, measured to the eave, roof-wall intersection or parapet top, whichever is greater, IFC D105.1 calls for an aerial fire apparatus access road ^[28]. Under D105.2 and D105.3 that road is at least 26 ft wide, exclusive of shoulders, and sits not less than 15 ft and not more than 30 ft from the building, parallel to one entire side ^[28]. A typical 4-story hotel crosses this threshold, so the calculator asks for the roof height and compares it with the trigger instead of assuming a height from the stories ^[29]. Appendix D applies only where a jurisdiction adopts it, so the calculator labels these rows model standard ^[28].

A city's own aerial rule sits beside the model code. Los Angeles sets 28 ft for aerial ladder segments under LAMC 57.503.1.6 ^[30], and Seattle amends the aerial trigger with exceptions for sprinklered Type IA, IB and IIA buildings with standpipe stairs ^[28]. The hotel site plan page shows where the aerial lane sits against the parking field and the drop-off.