At a glance
| Item | Example size, mm | Clear space in the example, mm | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Beside the bed, window side | Super king 1,800 x 2,000; bedside tables 450 x 500 | 1,400 from the bed edge to the wall; 950 beyond the bedside table | Plan geometry. Diagram 17 annotates 1,500 beside the bed in one accessible example. |
| B Beside the bed, lobby side | as above | 900 from the bed edge to the bathroom wall; 450 beyond the bedside table | Plan geometry. Housekeeping access: operator to confirm. |
| C Desk chair to the foot of the bed | Desk 1,500 x 600; chair 450 wide, 520 deep, tucked 70; pull-out 400 | 1,150 behind the chair in use; 750 with it pulled out | Plan geometry; chair datums as the dining and boardroom sheets. |
| D Wardrobe in the lobby | 1,200 long x 600 deep; two 600 leaves | 1,100 from the leaves open 90 degrees to the bathroom wall; leaves must open through 180 degrees | Approved Document M vol 2, 4.24(b); plan geometry. |
| E Entrance door | Leaf sized for 800 clear | 800 effective clear width, straight-on, new building; 300 beside the leading edge in an accessible room | Approved Document M vol 2, Table 2, 4.24(a) and (j). |
| F Luggage bench | 900 long x 500 deep, seat about 450 high | At least 1,700 in front (to the bed foot) in the example | Practice and plan geometry. No standard read. |
| G TV centre | Screen centre 1,250 above the floor | Eye zone at the desk 1,135 to 1,310; sitting up in bed 1,285 to 1,460 | Our arithmetic from the eye heights on the anthropometrics sheet. |
| Desk top; mattress top | 740; 600 | Seat 450; bed base 350 and mattress 250 | Table heights, desk and bed sheets (examples). |
Millimetres. The room is an example 6,400 x 4,200 mm. Only the Approved Document M rows (E, the 180 degree rule, and the figures on the Diagram 17 line) are regulatory; the rest is plan geometry from the example sizes, or practice. Letters match the plan.
The plan: sizes in, clearances out
No standard fixes the space around the furniture in an ordinary hotel bedroom: brand standards do, and they are client-specific. What a specifier can do is draw the room, state each size and let the clearances follow. The drawing shows an example room 6,400 mm long and 4,200 mm wide with an entrance lobby, a 1,200 mm wardrobe, a luggage bench, a desk with a chair, a super king bed and a window. The sizes are examples. The lettered clear spaces are what the sizes leave over, and the table lists them.
Four points come straight from the geometry:
- The passage beside the bed is the room's pinch point. There are 1,400 on the window side and 900 on the lobby side, but only 950 and 450 once the bedside table at the head is counted. Move the bed or the bathroom wall and both change at once.
- The desk chair is the largest moving object. Sitting at the desk the chair back is 1,050 from the desk wall; pulled back to stand up it is 1,450. That leaves 1,150 and 750 to the foot of the bed. Our dining and boardroom sheets use a pull-out of 300 to 450 mm; the drawing takes 400.
- Doors take floor. Two 600 mm wardrobe leaves open to 90 degrees reach 1,200 mm from the wall and leave 1,100 to the bathroom wall. The entrance door's swing stops 174 mm short of the first wardrobe leaf; change the wardrobe by 175 mm and the two collide. Draw every swing, not only the ones that look tight.
- The TV is set by the eyes, not the wall. The heights below start from where the viewer's eyes are.
Heights: bed, desk, TV and the controls on the wall
Heights are measured from the finished floor, as on our bed and headboard sheet: the mattress top is the base plus the mattress (350 + 250 = 600) and the headboard shows 700 above it in our example. The desk top is 740, with a 450 seat, as on the desk sheet.
TV height. We found no standard for the height of a hotel television, so we derive a range from the eyes. A person sitting at the desk has eyes 685 to 860 mm above the seat, taking the 5th percentile woman in one British table and the 95th percentile man in the other (see the anthropometrics sheet): 1,135 to 1,310 mm from the floor on a 450 seat. A person sitting up in bed has eyes the same height above the mattress, if we assume an upright posture and ignore the pillows: 1,285 to 1,460 mm on a 600 mattress. A screen centred at 1,250 mm sits within the desk range and 35 mm below the bottom of the bed range. That is a compromise between two viewing positions, not a rule: lying down lowers the eye, so a room where the TV is watched mainly reclined wants it lower, and a room used mostly for work and video calls wants it nearer the desk eye line. Put the screen centre on the drawing and the brand's viewing position in the brief.
Above the desk. A screen centred at 1,250 mm and 690 mm high has its bottom edge 905 mm from the floor, 165 mm above a 740 mm desk. The 690 mm is a drawing value, not a product size. Check the real screen, its bracket and the cable and socket positions behind it.
Controls and outlets. Approved Document M volume 2 gives heights for the things on the walls of an accessible bedroom: wall sockets, telephone and TV outlets 400 to 1,000 mm above the floor, with a preference for the lower end (paragraph 4.30(a)); controls needing precise hand movements 750 to 1,200 mm (4.30(c)); window controls 800 to 1,000 mm (4.24(d)); an emergency pull cord with two bangles, one at 100 mm and one between 800 and 1,000 mm (4.30(e)). The third drawing sets them against the furniture heights. A headboard or desk wall that carries switches and sockets needs them in these bands in an accessible room, and whether a socket built into joinery counts as wall-mounted is a question for building control.
Wardrobe doors, drawers and the luggage bench
Approved Document M volume 2 says that in all bedrooms swing doors, where provided for built-in wardrobes and other storage systems, open through 180 degrees (paragraph 4.24(b)), that handles on hinged and sliding doors are easy to grip and operate and contrast visually with the door (4.24(c)), and that built-in wardrobes and shelving are accessible and convenient to use (4.20). Three consequences for the layout:
- A leaf opened through 180 degrees ends up parallel to the front, beside the wardrobe. It needs its own width clear beside the carcass, in line with the front, or a flat wall face there to lie against, and that space must be free of mouldings, outlets, switches and furniture. Ask the partner workshop for a hinge that opens that far and for the offset it needs; we have not checked any hinge range. In the example the right-hand leaf at 180 degrees lies across the front of the luggage bench, which stops 100 mm short of it (the bench is 500 deep, the wardrobe 600).
- The 90 degree arc is still what you plan the floor around. A 600 mm leaf sweeps 600 mm into the lobby, as drawn. The person standing at the wardrobe needs room beside the open leaf as well: the 1,100 to the bathroom wall in the example is the width that remains.
- Bench, wardrobe and drawers compete for the same wall. A luggage bench of 900 x 500 beside the wardrobe is a place to open a case, not a place to stand. Where drawers are in the wardrobe, add their pull-out to the zone in front: runner and drawer sizes are on the wardrobe rail and drawer dimensions sheet, and the inside of the wardrobe on wardrobe and dressing room dimensions.
Approved Document M gives no luggage bench, desk or TV dimension for a hotel bedroom (searched in the volume), and it does not say whether free-standing or fitted furniture is within it: building control decides. The standard bedroom door is also covered: its effective clear width must meet Table 2 (4.24(a)), which is 800 mm for a straight-on approach in a new building. Our door sizes sheet shows how a leaf width becomes a clear width.
What Approved Document M says, with the paragraph
These are the figures in the volume that bear on guestroom furniture, with the paragraph where each is found. They are for England, in the edition named in the notice. They describe what is asked of a wheelchair-accessible bedroom, one for every 20 bedrooms or part of that number (4.24(g)); they are not a recipe for the other rooms.
| Item | What the volume says | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Beside the bed | Space for a wheelchair user to manoeuvre at the side of a bed and transfer to it. Diagram 17, one example with twin beds, annotates 1,500 minimum at the side of a bed, 700 minimum between the beds and a 1,500 x 1,500 wheelchair turning space. | 4.19, 4.24(l), Diagram 17 |
| Entrance door | Effective clear width to Table 2 (800 mm straight-on, new buildings); a clear space of 300 mm from the leading edge to the side wall. | 4.24(a), 4.24(j), Table 2 |
| Bathroom door | Effective clear width of any door to an en-suite bathroom or shower room to Table 2. | 4.24(k) |
| Wardrobe and storage | Swing doors open through 180 degrees; handles easy to grip and contrasting; wardrobes and shelving accessible and convenient to use. | 4.24(b), 4.24(c), 4.20 |
| Outlets and controls | Sockets, telephone and TV outlets 400 to 1,000 mm; precise controls 750 to 1,200 mm; window controls 800 to 1,000 mm; pull cord bangles at 100 mm and 800 to 1,000 mm; wide-angle viewer at 1,050 and 1,500 mm. | 4.30(a), (c), (e); 4.24(d), (n) |
Diagram 17 is described in the volume as one example. The room in our plan is not an accessible bedroom: its clear space beside the bed is smaller than the 1,500 annotated in the diagram, and nothing on this page is a compliance layout. For any room that is, the access consultant draws it first and the furniture is fitted to that drawing.
What to put on the drawing, and what to ask
A guestroom set is made in numbers, so the drawing has to be repeatable. Ask for the following on the shop drawing, and ask the operator for the brand standard before drawing anything:
- One datum, many rooms. Dimensions from the finished floor and from a named wall or corner, not from the door or the window. Give the same datum on the room set and on every variant (left-hand, right-hand, accessible).
- Site fit. Which pieces are scribed to the wall and which are free-standing, and what the site tolerance is. Tolerances are on the furniture tolerance sheet and the site survey sheet. Survey a sample room before production, as a mock-up room is the cheapest place to find that a swing hits a skirting.
- Every door swing and drawer pull-out drawn, open, with the floor they need.
- The accessible rooms drawn separately. Their furniture, handles, controls and circulation follow the access consultant's drawing, not the standard room.
- Housekeeping. Which trolley, vacuum and case sizes the operator uses, and how far under the bed and furniture they must reach: the operator, not the standard, sets it.
Specification wording
Paste into your schedule or specification and replace anything in [square brackets] with your own figures. Wording is a starting point: your specification governs.
Guestroom furniture set [ref], room type [standard / accessible], dimensions in millimetres from finished floor level and from [named wall]: bed [super king 1,800 x 2,000] with mattress top [600]; bedside tables [450 x 500], top [600]; desk [1,500 x 600], top [740], chair seat [450]; luggage bench [900 x 500], seat [450]; wardrobe [1,200 x 600], two leaves [600], interior as [drawing ref]; TV screen centre [1,250]. Clear spaces to be as drawing [ref]: beside the bed [900] minimum; desk chair to bed foot [750] minimum with the chair pulled out [400]; lobby clear of open wardrobe leaves [1,100] minimum. Every door swing and drawer pull-out drawn open. Dimensions to be confirmed on a sample room before production.
Wardrobe swing doors to open through [180] degrees (Approved Document M volume 2, paragraph 4.24(b)), with the hinge and its offset stated on the shop drawing [hinge ref, offset, opening angle]. The space beside the wardrobe into which each leaf opens, in line with its front, to be free of mouldings, outlets, switches and adjoining furniture. Handles easy to grip and operate and visually contrasting with the door [handle ref]. Hinge opening angle and rated door weight to be confirmed by the partner workshop in writing.
Wheelchair-accessible bedrooms [number] as the access consultant's drawing [ref] and Approved Document M volume 2 (England); furniture, handles, controls and circulation as that drawing, not as the standard room. Entrance door effective clear width not less than [800] mm (Table 2). Outlets and controls in the bands in paragraph 4.30 [list]. Dimensional tolerance for repeat rooms [ ] mm as the project tolerance schedule [ref]; site dimensions of [sample room] to be surveyed and issued before production.
Terms used on this page
- Wheelchair-accessible bedroom
- A hotel bedroom designed so a wheelchair user can transfer to the bed, move around and use the facilities independently. Approved Document M asks for one for every 20 bedrooms or part of that number.
- Effective clear width
- The width of a door opening measured at right angles to the wall, from the outside of the door stop on the closing side to any obstruction on the hinge side, including projecting door furniture. Approved Document M Table 2 sets the minimum.
Standards and sources
- Approved Document M, Volume 2 (2015 edition incorporating 2020 and 2024 amendments; England): paragraphs 4.17 to 4.24, 4.30, Table 2 and Diagram 17 read on 5 and 6 November 2026.
- BS 8300-2:2018: named as the detailed accessibility code: not read, no figures quoted. Confirm against the current edition.
- Brand standards of the operator: client-specific; they set the bed size, the clearances and the TV position in most hotel projects.
Questions we are asked
How much space should there be beside a hotel bed?
There is no standard for an ordinary room: it is set by the brand and by housekeeping. In our example plan the passage beside the bed is 900 to 1,400 mm, and 450 to 950 mm once the bedside table is counted. For a wheelchair-accessible bedroom, Approved Document M volume 2 (England) asks for space to manoeuvre at the side of a bed and Diagram 17 annotates 1,500 mm at the side of a bed as one example.
What height should a hotel TV be?
We found no standard. We derive a range from the viewers' eyes: at the desk, with a 450 mm seat, eyes are about 1,135 to 1,310 mm from the floor; sitting up in bed, with a 600 mm mattress, about 1,285 to 1,460 mm (our arithmetic from British body tables, assuming an upright posture). A screen centre near 1,250 mm sits between them. Reclined viewing wants it lower. Put the figure and the brand's viewing position on the drawing.
Must hotel wardrobe doors open through 180 degrees?
In England, Approved Document M volume 2 paragraph 4.24(b) says that for all bedrooms, swing doors provided for built-in wardrobes and other storage systems open through 180 degrees. Ask the partner workshop for a hinge that does this, and keep the space the leaf opens into, beside the wardrobe and in line with its front, free of projections.
What is the minimum door width for a hotel bedroom?
The effective clear width of the door from the corridor must meet Table 2 of Approved Document M volume 2 (paragraph 4.24(a)): 800 mm for a straight-on approach in a new building. An effective clear width is smaller than the leaf, so check the door sizes sheet.
How big should a hotel luggage bench be?
No standard fixes it. The example uses 900 x 500 mm with a seat about 450 mm high, which holds an open large case. These are practice values with no source: confirm with the operator, and keep it clear of wardrobe leaves and the entrance swing.
Is the plan on this page an accessible hotel room?
No. It is an example to show how furniture sizes turn into clearances. Its space beside the bed is smaller than the 1,500 mm annotated in Approved Document M Diagram 17, and it is not a compliance diagram. Accessible rooms are drawn by the access consultant first.
What tolerance should repeated guestroom furniture have?
Tolerances are set per project and are on the furniture tolerance sheet. For a repeated room set, survey a sample room, issue its dimensions and have the partner workshop confirm what its site fit allows before production.
Download the factsheet
A two-page A4 PDF with the example plan and its clearances, the heights table, the Approved Document M paragraphs and three specification clauses, to keep with your project file.