How to Do the Hotel Lobby Trend: Step-by-Step
Learn how to do the Hotel Lobby trend with AI, a CapCut template or filming. Compare methods and costs, then follow the steps for your own video.
What Is the Hotel Lobby Trend?
The Hotel Lobby trend is a short vertical video of two people rapping in an orange room, sharing a single hanging microphone. It borrows the look of Quavo and Takeoff's 2022 COLORS performance, and in 2026 people began remaking it with AI. The story behind the Hotel Lobby song has its own article; this one is about making yours.
"Doing the trend" can mean three different results:
- Remaking the performance: you and a partner restage the room and perform it.
- Dropping your face into an existing clip: your images mapped onto someone else's footage, usually with its audio.
- Generating a new original performance: a fresh two-person video with new audio, built from photos.
No single technique gives you all three. Pick the result, then the method.
Three Ways to Do the Hotel Lobby Trend
| Method | What you need | Effort | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI | Two photos, or a source video plus reference images | Low | A new performance, or your faces on existing motion |
| CapCut template | A template that matches the effect, plus the media it asks for | Low, once you find the right one | The template's edit and audio with your media inside |
| Film it yourself | Two people, a phone, an orange backdrop, a light | High | A real performance you fully control |
AI. Source-video tools such as Higgsfield's Genjutsu put your images onto an existing clip's motion; the Higgsfield Hotel Lobby guide covers that route. AI Rap Duo, our own tool, starts from photos instead: two photos or one of you both, an optional topic, and the Hotel Lobby stage give you an MP4 of a new duo rap with original generated audio. Try it in the Hotel Lobby AI video maker.
CapCut template. Quickest when a template truly matches the orange two-person look, but many "Hotel Lobby" templates are unrelated edits. The Hotel Lobby CapCut template guide shows how to spot the right one.
Film it yourself. The most work and the most authentic result: an orange backdrop, one mic (a prop works) hung between you, and several takes.
How to Do the Trend Step by Step
- Pick the method that delivers the result you chose above.
- Pick your partner and get permission. Agree before using anyone's photos or footage. Minors need a parent or guardian's consent.
- Prepare the inputs. Sharp, well-lit, front-facing photos; exactly the clips a template asks for; or a backdrop, light and audio plan for a shoot.
- Make it. If the tool takes a topic, give it one specific scene, such as Two friends arguing over who packed the worst snacks for a road trip. That beats "make it funny", though no tool promises to use every detail.
- Check the result. Are both faces recognisable? Do mouths move with the words? Look at hands and the mic, and listen for audio that cuts off.
- Export and share the MP4 in vertical 9:16.
For the exact AI Rap Duo screens and settings, follow the step-by-step guide to making an AI rap video.
What Does It Cost, and Can You Do It for Free?
Prices as of October 1, 2026:
| Method | Cost unit and example | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| AI Rap Duo | Credits. Mini, 720p, 12 seconds: 10 credits | $4.99 Single purchase = 10 credits. Other settings cost differently. |
| Higgsfield Genjutsu | Credits. Official example: 15 seconds, 720p, 104 credits, about $5.20 | Higgsfield's Genjutsu announcement, published August 31, 2026. Different spec, not a like-for-like comparison. |
| CapCut template | Set by the template | Availability, Pro features, region and export conditions vary by template. |
| Filming yourself | No new software cost with a phone and free editing tools you already have | Time, space and music rights are real costs. |
Two routes in the table can cost nothing new. Filming costs nothing extra if you own the gear, though performing over a commercial song raises rights questions. Some CapCut templates need no payment, but check the Pro labels and export options on yours before you put work in. For the paid tools, read each one's current terms.
Tips for a Better Hotel Lobby Video
- Photos: sharp, front-facing, eyes visible, no sunglasses or heavy filters, similar framing for both people.
- Light: soft, even light on faces. When filming, light faces separately from the backdrop.
- One concrete joke: who always forgets the phone charger lands better than a pile of inside jokes.
- Vertical: make and export in 9:16 with both faces near the centre.
Need a partner or topic? See these Hotel Lobby trend ideas for twelve duos.
Original Song or an AI-Generated Rap?
Templates and face-drop clips usually keep the audio they came with, often a snippet of an existing song. AI Rap Duo generates new rap audio with the video, so voices and mouths are produced together. It is a new track, not the original song or the artists' voices.
Swapping a song onto a clip made for different audio breaks the mouth sync. Choose one audio source and build around it. And original audio does not decide whether a platform mutes a post; each platform runs its own checks.
Share It Respectfully
- Get a clear yes before you upload someone's photo, and again before you post.
- Don't present the clip as Quavo and Takeoff or imply that they or COLORS endorse it. Takeoff died in 2022, and some fans were uneasy about edits of the original, so aim the jokes at yourselves.
- Rewatch for odd faces or hands before it goes out with your name on it.
Ready? Open the Hotel Lobby AI video maker and pick the Hotel Lobby stage.