It's food without having to wait for it in a restaurant as well as sometimes a pleasant place to sit that isn't a bar. It's a place where you might feel comfortable chatting with other guests, much the same as one can sometimes talk with a seatmate on a plane. For some people, it must be a bit of DYKWIA in that the hotel openly treats you special and you have access to a place where they don't allow all guests.

In some hotels, the lounge floor is key-card controlled access. This provides extra security, especially in large hotels in urban areas where almost anyone can apparently enter the elevators leading to guest floors.