After the inscription of the Historic City of Yazd on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2017, the number of tourists visiting increased. The area is formed of several neighborhoods. This study aims to propose a conservation plan for the oldest, the Shah Abul-Ghasem Neighborhood, using the urban design qualities suggested by Golkar. The study based on a field survey in the neighborhood was carried out in such a way that items related to urban design qualities were photographed and categorized into environmental, functional and aesthetic-experimental components. Proposed measures and recommendations for the development of tourism in the area are presented based on the field survey results.

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PurposeIn the early 2000s, a wave of new practices concerning the adaptive reuse (AR) of historic buildings into boutique hotels began in Yazd, Iran. This study presents the findings of a postoccupancy evaluation (POE) of adaptively reused historic buildings into boutique hotels. It aims to explore and prioritize the main factors of architecture's physical aspects in the adapted buildings.Design/methodology/approachIn order to carry out a POE, hotel guests' written reviews from online international and national travel platforms were analyzed. According to this preliminary analysis, a questionnaire was designed and randomly distributed among 300 hotel guests. The data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS software. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce a set of indicators into the main components.FindingsThe findings revealed that “preliminary physical feasibility study and evaluation of building's functional potential” is the most important component with a weight of 0.709. Then, “adaptive reuse design” and “quality of building conservation” are placed with a weight of 0.232 and 0.058, respectively. The results show the mere attention of practitioners to architectural restoration rather than adapting historic buildings into boutique hotels in Yazd. Also, the lack of a specific framework for this purpose is felt in Iran.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could evaluate the architectural aspects of historic buildings that have been converted into various functions from the main users' views.Practical implicationsThis research's main contribution is to recommend guidelines for more user-friendly boutique hotels. This includes principal components and their sub-indicators that should be considered in the AR process of historic buildings by conservators, investors and hoteliers. Also, the extracted factors can be implemented for boutique hotels' improvements in operation because they determine the order of priority from the users' viewpoint.Originality/valueThis study introduces a new application of POE in the field of conservation of heritage assets and the hospitality industry; it focuses on the evaluation of the users' feedback regarding the architectural aspects of adaptively reused historic buildings into boutique hotels based on original empirical data.