hotels: irrelevant or 1%ers?

(8 minute read)

Back in my non-league days, we once travelled to an away game and stayed in a Holiday Inn. The air conditioning wasn’t working, there were no social rooms, so players were either stuck in their rooms (or the bar!), and breakfast was shared with the other families and guests staying at the hotel. I remember discussing this with staff and predicting how much impact this could have on a team’s preparation.

Even once I moved into more elite sports environments, this question remained. Elite football clubs can spend up to 70 nights - almost a quarter of their season - in hotels. That's a huge amount of contact time in an environment that, arguably, receives far less attention than it deserves.

For some clubs, the hotel is an extension of their culture: a carefully designed performance environment that reduces cognitive load, reinforces identity and supports recovery. Others, inspired by Marcelo Bielsa's belief that "comfort can be the enemy," use travel to develop adaptability and resilience.

In this article, I explore the contrasting philosophies behind team hotels, alongside innovative ideas and case studies from football and other elite sports. I dived into my contacts and any existing research I could find to understand what other elite coaches’ perspectives were on this matter.

One of the famous sayings from the All Blacks is:

"Culture travels with the team."

The implication is that when they head on tour, the hotel becomes an extension of the culture they have created.

The Lionesses in 2025 went about choosing their hotel for the Euros by visiting 23 different hotels before landing on the one they felt was the most suitable for their squad. one of the deciding factors? The hotel staff.

Each hotel staff member was spoken with, and the key word "relaxing" was repeatedly associated with the members of this hotel. This was something the Lionesses wanted to feel within their environment away from media attention and fixtures.

I did a little work during this year's Men's FIFA World Cup, and one team I worked with spoke about how "anxious" everyone felt within camp. The staff and their energy - people who have numerous interactions with your squad throughout a tournament - become incredibly important.

It felt similar to the impact of a charismatic kitman. I still believe those roles are worth points across a season.

Gareth Southgate’s England were also deliberate with the location of where they stayed during major competitions. They regularly considered staying somewhere that was a slightly longer drive from games, but allowed them to isolate themselves from the physical and hypothetical noise that builds throughout a tournament.

Another area that I feel is becoming more common in current practice is "who rooms with who."

While not officially confirmed, it was reported that Southgate’s staff used compatibility tests, routines and personalities when deciding room allocations, ensuring roommates complemented each other's preparation rather than hindered it.

For example, partnering two early risers together means they can share similar sleep patterns, as opposed to a night owl being paired with someone who prefers an earlier routine. The same applies to pre-match preparation some players prefer loud environments, while others need quiet and isolation.

If you would like to read more about this, Driller and Suppiah have recently published a Roommate Sleep Preference Questionnaire. This provides a great starting point for implementing something similar within your club.

What are other sports doing?

Some sports rely on hotel accommodation far more across a season than football. The NBA schedule means players almost spend more time away from home than they do at home during the season.

The Golden State Warriors were very aware of this and were credited with ensuring every player's room was laid out in exactly the same format, regardless of what hotel they stayed in. The aim was to ensure their bedroom—their personal space - had a level of consistency.

This is something I was reading about that psychologists refer to as "anchors" within a player's cognitive load. Being able to control decision fatigue has remained a large factor in why elite sporting organisations continue to take care with the smallest details.

Alongside this consistent bedroom layout, each player would receive the same personalised welcome pack upon entering their hotel, containing whatever teas, snacks and toiletries they enjoyed. Other details included the air conditioning being set to a pre-agreed temperature, allowing players to walk into their bedroom and immediately feel comfortable.

No wasted decisions.

Again, the interview where this was discussed repeatedly came back to the word comfort. The staff wanted to ensure these players felt comfortable despite the long hours of travel and the variety of places they were staying.

Team INEOS went as far as influencing the lighting within each room, with research showing this can impact the effects of jet lag and constant flying.

They implemented what they referred to as "evening dimming" - using amber and red-toned lighting to help control the body's melatonin production. Conversely, lighter blue lights were used to simulate daytime.

A 2016 Stanford study found this approach could reduce the adjustment of the body's biological clock by up to two hours quicker compared to a more uncontrolled approach.

Team GB were famously credited with shipping their mattresses across for certain competitions to ensure players' sleep remained uninterrupted. This approach has now extended to pillows, with many sporting organisations I researched and spoke with considering this a normal procedure.

One organisation I researched went into great detail to make these environments feel like "home" - something easier to achieve when staying for a longer period rather than a weekend fixture.

This particular elite sports team brought memorabilia from their native country to decorate the hotel, taking away the Western feel of the environment and instead trying to remind athletes of what was normal to them.

They didn’t stop there.

They also brought familiar smells from their country in the form of incense, as well as creating rooms dedicated to the sounds of their country - an experience designed to capture every sense.

This was a double-edged strategy. Firstly, it helped players feel more comfortable and expressive, but it also helped trigger memories from each player's journey: where they came from and why they started.

A real effort to trigger the why.

Known as the "Proust Effect," it explores how senses can help trigger emotional or behavioural responses. in this instance, players feel safe, at home, or a word I hadn’t come across too often before: belonging.

Disney have been doing this for years, understanding how smells can influence behaviour and emotion by pumping popcorn and vanilla aromas around hospitality areas. But different smells around more retail entities.

Could this be applied within sport, with certain smells becoming associated with performance?

I still feel an away changing room has a distinct smell, and for me, that’s when you know you are in for a game.

What I really like, inspired again by the All Blacks and adapted by numerous NBA teams, was the creation of a "third space."

Teams already had formal meeting rooms (usually carrying the sports team's branding) and players had their own personal spaces through hotel bedrooms. The third space was designed to create somewhere players could have informal downtime. Again, the Golden State Warriors referenced how important the placement of the club’s portable coffee machine was in creating the right informal and off-the-record spaces.

Can comfort become an enemy?

A famous quote from one of my inspirations, Marcelo Bielsa, is that "comfort can be the enemy."

I asked this question in a coaching group chat I am part of, and some of the responses leaned towards the feeling that perhaps we are making too big a deal of this.

Are we doing players a disservice by removing opportunities to coach resilience?

Slightly different disciplines of sport, but many fighters reference going back to basics in order to recapture their form and, more importantly, their mentality.

Most recently, Anthony Joshua was quoted saying he had moved back into a single bed next to his gym.

Cus D’Amato was another fascinating example I came across. He believed the environment was not just part of a culture, but actually part of the coaching experience itself.

During camp, D’Amato would limit social activities and visitors, while having his boxers follow strong daily structures based around training, eating, sleeping and recovering.

Ironically, this still leans into the theory of removing unnecessary decision-making (and reducing opportunities for athletes to make the wrong decisions), as mentioned earlier in the article.

He even had a test for his own boxing gym, where the front door was much heavier than a normal door and wasn’t attached properly to its hinges. He claimed he could learn everything he needed to know about how a kid would “open the door”.

The smallest details could reveal the biggest insights.

Rassie Erasmus, who is another coach I have studied in great depth, was a big advocate of the phrase:

"We don’t need perfect conditions to perform."

Hotels subsequently became part of this philosophy, with facilities, pitches and environments acting as opportunities to demonstrate to athletes that they can perform under any circumstances.

Finally, as with most things, Sir Clive Woodward sums this balance up brilliantly.

He was quoted saying:

"Remove the irrelevant stresses, and then add the relevant stressors."

To me, this highlights the balance between everything discussed throughout this article, but more importantly, the importance of being deliberate with how we use these environments.

All of this has yet again influenced my own approach to coaching and leading. It has left me asking:

What is it that I want the hotel to contribute to within my winning formula?

Do I want it to optimise comfort? Reinforce culture? Shape behaviour? Build resilience?

Maybe, throughout a season, you need all of them. The hotel itself is not the performance advantage. The advantage comes from understanding exactly what you want that environment to achieve.

By sammy lander