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A procurement manager at a hotel group in Antwerp told us something a few months back that stuck with us. She said the lobby floor is the one thing nobody budgets enough time for, and the one thing every guest photographs within the first ten minutes of arriving. That’s basically the whole story behind why porcelain tiles for Belgium hotel projects have become the default conversation in architect and procurement meetings right now, and why large format is winning out over smaller formats almost every time.
Belgium’s hospitality pipeline isn’t slowing down. Brussels has a steady run of boutique conversions, older townhouses and office buildings being reworked into smaller-footprint hotels with a design-forward edge. Antwerp’s business district keeps adding serviced apartments aimed at corporate travel. Bruges and Ghent see a near-constant trickle of tourism-driven refurbishment, and the Flemish coast towns refresh their resort-style properties every few years to keep pace with what visitors expect now versus a decade ago.
None of this is explosive growth. It’s steady, layered, and it means flooring decisions are happening across dozens of projects at once, not just one or two flagship builds.
Every one of those projects eventually lands on the same question: what goes on the floor that won’t look tired in three years and won’t cost a fortune to maintain. That’s a genuinely boring but expensive problem, and it’s why large format porcelain keeps coming up as the answer.
Here’s the thing about smaller tiles. Every grout line is a place where dirt collects, where moisture sits, where a cleaning crew has to spend extra time with a brush. Multiply that across a 200 square meter lobby and you’re looking at real labor cost over a year, not just an aesthetic preference.
Large format tiles cut that down. Fewer joints, less grout exposed, faster mopping, and a floor that reads as more expensive than it actually is.
Walk into any recently renovated four-star property in Belgium and you’ll notice the floor looks like one continuous surface rather than a grid. That’s the effect 800x1600mm porcelain slabs create, which is exactly why they get specified so often for lobbies and reception desks, where first impressions decide everything in the first thirty seconds.
For bathrooms, the math shifts a bit. Guest bathrooms don’t need lobby-scale drama, so 600x1200mm tends to be the sweet spot. Large enough to keep grout lines minimal. Practical enough to install without the handling headaches that come with bigger slabs in a tight space.
Spa areas and wellness zones sit in between. Some properties go with 600x1200mm for a calmer, more intimate feel. Others push to 1200x1200mm large format tiles if the space is more open and they want that same continuous look carried through from the lobby down the hallway and into the spa entrance.
Design conversations are fun. They fall apart fast if the technical specs aren’t right, and hotels are not residential homes. Traffic is constant. Cleaning is aggressive. The margin for error is small.
Slip resistance matters most in wet areas. Wet areas need R10 minimum. That’s not optional, and pool surrounds often need to go up to R11 depending on local code. A slip incident at a hotel pool isn’t a design problem anymore at that point. It’s a liability problem.
PEI rating matters more in lobbies than people expect. It rates how well a tile resists surface wear. For a space seeing luggage carts, room service trolleys, and hundreds of footsteps a day, PEI 4 or PEI 5 is the realistic floor. Go lower and you’ll see dulling within a couple of years, right where guests notice it most.
Chemical resistance is the quiet one. Nobody asks about it until housekeeping complains. Hotels go through industrial quantities of disinfectant and cleaning agents.
A porcelain surface that stains or discolors under repeated exposure looks dated fast, no matter how good it looked on day one. For hospitality tiles in Belgium specifically, this is the spec procurement teams skip past most often, and it’s the one that causes complaints two years in.
Water absorption ties into all of it. Most specs ask for under 0.5% absorption, because that number is what actually determines how a tile holds up through years of mopping, spills, and humidity in spas and pool decks.
For a long time, Italian and Spanish porcelain was the default for European hospitality projects. That’s shifting.
Cost is the obvious driver. Indian tiles for Belgian hotels typically run 30 to 40 percent cheaper than comparable Italian or Spanish products, a difference large enough to fund better lighting, furniture, or landscaping instead.
Quality has kept pace too. Indian manufacturers now produce the exact formats hospitality projects ask for, including 600x1200mm, 800x1600mm, 1200x1200mm, and 1200x1800mm, built to the same hospitality-grade specs architects already require.
Lead times typically run 28 to 35 days by sea from Morbi to Belgian ports, worth building into the project timeline early. Export infrastructure has matured too. Shipping uncertainty that used to be a real concern a few years back is now a far more predictable variable.
Belgian importers are increasingly running cost comparisons between Italian and Indian products on the same format and finish, and the gap holds up even after freight and duty. Ongoing discussions around India-EU FTA benefits for importers could shift costs further in the coming years, especially for multi-phase developments. You can read more about our export process for the full picture on how shipments are handled.
This is the part where it helps to get specific rather than talk in generalities about formats.
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Explore our 800×1600 and 1200×1200 collections for hospitality projects → View Collections
Flooring decisions get made early and live with a property for a decade or more. Getting the format, the spec, and the sourcing right at the start saves a lot of headaches later, both in maintenance cost and in how the space actually feels to a guest walking through it at 11pm after a long flight.
Want to see how these tiles actually look and perform before committing to anything? We can ship hotel-grade porcelain samples to Belgium, and our team typically responds within 24 hours of a request.
Request hotel-grade porcelain samples shipped to Belgium → Request large format samples, Contact our export team
800x1600mm and 1200x1200mm are the most common picks for premium hotel lobbies right now.
Yes. Low water absorption and easy cleaning make it a practical, durable choice.
PEI 4 or PEI 5 for lobbies and other high-traffic commercial spaces.
Yes, increasingly. Belgian importers and developers are sourcing from India for both cost and quality reasons.
R10 is standard for bathrooms and wellness zones.
Yes, with an R11 rating on the immediate pool surround.
You can, but expect more grout lines, more cleaning time, and a less premium look over the life of the property.
