GENEVA, Switzerland  -- The Traveller Hotel Group (THG) will soon reduce its overhead by... well, by reducing its overhead. According to a statement by the company, all 14 properties now under construction in Europe and North America will have guest room ceiling heights reduced from the standard 96 inches (2.44 meters) to 85 inches (2.16 meters).

The results of a cost reduction study done for THG by the consulting firm of Weeken-Phitmore showed that among various cost cutting measures, reducing the overall volume of a hotel's physical space had the greatest payback.

“The savings in construction costs alone will be tremendous,” said Avoir DuPois, spokesperson for THG. "From reduced fees for building permits to the use of less building material to down-sized HVAC equipment to fewer man-hours to construct, nearly every aspect of construction will be reduced. We should save about $3.8 million for every new hotel we build.

"But that's just the beginning. With fewer cubic feet of space, we expect the costs of heating, cooling, maintenance and — because maintenance personnel will not need stepladders — even items like insurance to drop.

"We considered reducing the square footage of our standard room," said DuPois, "but surveys showed that our guests are getting wider rather than taller. Indeed, we recently introduced our Frequent Inactive Traveller Programme for our portly guests. Now we are simply removing extra, unused space above their heads."

In related news, the National Basketball Association has released a statement that it will not be renewing its contract with THG.