Imagine you’re pulling up in front of the hotel where you’re about to stay for a few days. It could be any high-end hotel, but let’s just say for fun that it’s yours. 

You park the car, unload your suitcase, and grab your party size bag of cheese puffs (no judging here— you’re on vacation!)

Look around. What do you notice? Could your landscaping’s important first impression use a boost?

Hotels always have to be ready to shine. You want guests to love how the outside looks, so they can’t wait to experience what’s inside.

Maybe they’re planning a wedding. Wouldn’t it be great if they had it here?

How to improve hotel landscaping so guests linger, maybe take a quick pic of those impressive planters, and can’t wait to come back for another stay? 

What are the key areas of hotel landscape maintenance that really make an impact? 
Let’s take a look.

1. Wowing with Flowers

Seasonal rotations of bright, impressive flowers will wow hotel guests and encourage them to grab Instagram-worthy selfies. 

Beds. Planters. Hanging baskets. Everywhere you look, something should be blooming in your hotel landscaping —  New Guinea impatiens, dragon wing begonia, lantana, hibiscus, petunias. 

And keep it fresh. 

hotel entrance with flowers and vines

Typical commercial landscape clients have two plant rotations a year — a plant and flower installation in late fall and another one in the spring.

High-end hotels might have four to five plant rotations a year. That way, everything always looks fresh and in season, with no bare spots.

2. Four-Season Planters

Impress hotel guests with giant planters brimming with plants no matter what time of year they visit. 

Supersize containers — big enough to hold trees — make an instant impressive impact when used to flank an entryway, near signage, on walkways and plazas in your hotel landscaping. 

They’re a great, big-impact way to improve hotel landscaping. Guests notice. 

How to pull it off?

annual flowers in container garden

In summer, think colorful lantana, angelonia, vinca and elegant palms and tropical plants. Add a vacation vibe with exotic tropical-themed planters featuring elegant palms, colorful coleus, bright begonias, striking blue ageratum. 

In the fall, hotel landscape maintenance crews can remove the summer annuals and tropicals and replace them with cold-hardy evergreens, pretty pansies and ruffly ornamental kale.

In March, think spring, adding fresh pansies, dianthus, and dusty miller to complement bright tulips, cheerful daffodils and allium that sprout from bulbs planted in the fall.

Don’t give up on planters just because it’s winter.

Pack those pots with festive pine boughs, red twig dogwood and glossy green holly.

3. All About the Details

Guests at luxury hotels expect perfection, inside and out. Perfect flower beds. Neatly groomed, lush green lawns. Weeds? Don't even think about it.

Hotel guests notice when landscaping is messy, overgrown or struggling. 

Your hotel landscape maintenance crews should be on top of all the details,  mowing, trimming, weeding, edging, pruning, deadheading, and always on the lookout for potential safety issues.

seating area at hotel with neat plantings

What should they be watching out for? Anything unsightly, out of place, or hazardous:

  • Tree limbs hanging down to snag pedestrians.
  • Grasses flopping over onto walkways.
  • Loose or missing pavers.
  • Weeds. 
  • Any damage from a recent storm.
  • Trees that need their canopies elevated occasionally so they don’t block views.

You get the idea. They should be looking at everything.

4. Frequent Maintenance Visits

While commercial landscape maintenance crews are on site every seven to 10 days for a typical commercial property job to mow, mulch and weed, hotels require more frequent visits.

landscape maintenance team trims bushes

A good hotel landscape maintenance crew will be on site two to three times a week to neaten, water flower planters, and make sure every aspect of the grounds is pristine.

5. Emergency Landscape Touch-Ups

Special guests and events often require emergency touch-ups of your hotel landscaping. 

It’s common in the DC area for guests to book a hotel at the last minute to host a party. Dignitaries from other countries might reserve an entire floor.

patio table and chairs near flowers and trees

Partner with a hotel landscape maintenance company ready to roll with your last-minute needs and occasional rush job.

6. Expect Frequent Communication

The painstaking attention to detail needed to maintain hotel landscaping doesn’t just happen. It requires frequent communication between the landscaping company and the hotel’s property manager. Onsite weekly visits and daily conversations ensure every detail is efficiently, professionally handled.

property manager meets with landscape expert

7. Portering to Keep Things Tidy

Portering is a nice way to describe removing unsightly trash from your hotel landscaping.

The greenest lawn and most vibrant flower beds are spoiled by wayward candy wrappers and ratty plastic shopping bags.


Level Green crews can visit your hotel property once or twice a week year-round to clear ugly trash and keep your property looking neat and tidy.

8. Always Know What’s Happening Out There 

Partner with a commercial landscaping company with a plan in place to update you on their work. 

Level Green’s digital property service reports detail exactly what services hotel landscape maintenance crews performed when on your property. 

Were flower beds weeded? Trees pruned? Mulch delivered? Irrigation checked?

landscape expert mows grass

You’ll know. Your timely report might include a photo, too. These instant updates keep communication flowing.

Be sure to hire hotel landscape maintenance in DC, Maryland, and Virginia with a strong communication plan.

How to Improve Hotel Landscaping? Trust Level Green

Imagine your hotel guests grabbing their cheese puffs as they hop out of the car and take their first look around. 

What do they see? Want to make it even better? 
Our meticulous crews attend to every hotel landscaping detail. Lawns are lush, healthy and neat. Flower beds and planters brim with color and interest.

We know how important reputation is — we stand by ours proudly. We love that DC area hotels with exceptional reputations to uphold trust us to impress their guests.

Let us impress yours, too. 

If you’re not already a Level Green Landscaping client, we’d love to add you to our growing list of happy customers. Our focus is on commercial properties like offices, hotels, mixed-use sites, HOAs, municipalities and educational institutions in Maryland, Washington DC and parts of Virginia.

Contact us at 202-544-0968. You can also request a free consultation online to meet with us one-on-one.

We’d love to hear from you.

Request a Consultation