Hotel operators continue to invest heavily in refurbishment for guest rooms and front of house areas.
Regular refurbishment is a necessity to maintain customer loyalty, room rates and market share. TAE Projects can assist with both interior and common area refurbishments and exterior upgrades inclusive of painting (at heights) and fascade repairs.
Guest room refurbishment schemes fit into two broad categories, depending on the extent of work – refreshment, and remodelling/rebranding.
Guest room refreshment is required every five to seven years and involves adding new elements to rooms to ensure that the hotel is competitive within its market.
The typical Guest room scope of works
- Redecoration
- Replacement of furniture, fittings and equipment
- New curtains
Remodelling or rebranding aims to move the hotel into a different market sector, increasing room rates and overall yield.
Such a refurbishment involves major works on guest floors
- Creating new guest rooms from redundant space
- Replacement of bathrooms and services
- Changing room layouts and sizes
- Adding comfort cooling
- Introducing new guest facilities, including IT and in-room entertainment
- Complete replacement of finishes, furniture, fittings and equipment
Major refurbishment can have a dramatic effect on the performance of a hotel
Competitive pressure for refurbishment has come from changes in the demographics of the hotel market and from innovations by niche operators.
In the business and luxury sectors, new standards have been set by the boutique hotels, aimed at a younger clientele.
There are three key areas in which hotels are responding to these changing expectations
- Room size
- Room aesthetics
Hotel guests are increasingly design-conscious and affluent younger people have become an important target sector.
Design is a key differentiator in this market so hotels have moved away from traditional finishes, furniture and fittings to adopt a style influenced by the latest generation of designer hotels. - Room quality
Demand for high levels of comfort and in-room service, has led to substantial investment in the fitting-out of guest rooms.
Extremely high-quality bathrooms, high-performance air-conditioning, extensive in-room entertainment, IT facilities and enhanced safety in line with international standards are all important.
Refurbishment works on guest floors involve the complete replacement of finishes and services and of furniture, fittings and equipment in rooms and corridors and the replacement of services in risers.
Works in the public areas involve remodelling and total refurbishment of the reception area.
When TAE Projects embarks on a refurbishment project we
- Develop and maintain a good working relationship with the hotel management team.
- Speed. Working six or seven days a week and extended hours is often necessary to minimise disruption and loss of revenue.
- Maintaining continuity of work. The co-ordination of multiple trades is highly complex, particularly in bathrooms, where finishes and services trades are concentrated. Maintaining the sequence is critical.
- Providing safe, segregated access for guests, operatives and materials.
- Restricting noisy and disruptive activities to daytime periods.
- Co-ordinating service shut-downs.
- Achieving certainty of completion, zero defects and compliance with statutory requirements to permit immediate occupancy of guest rooms in accordance with the programme.
Most hotel operators are well aware that they must undertake some form of refurbishment programme to stay competitive in the market place.
Responding to changes in the market and in client expectations is imperative to retaining good occupancy levels and guest return rates.
Key components of a hotel refurbishment project are almost invariably budget-driven, and the main task for the TAE Projects team is to achieve the optimum balance between the hotelier’s vision and the constraints imposed by the budget, time scale and condition of the building.
TAE Projects works hand in hand with hoteliers to understand the client’s objectives and aesthetic expectations and be able to identify solutions that can achieve the required effect within a tight budget.
Above all, TAE Projects works with the client, and hotel manager to create a team ethos aimed at completing the project on time and within the budget.
Typically, guest room refurbishment can fall into two broad categories
- refreshment
- re-branding.
1. Refreshing
Refreshment is commonly required every five to seven years and involves adding new elements to the rooms to ensure that the hotel remains competitive in its target market.
This will include:
- redecorating
- replacing furniture
- fittings
- equipment; and
- minor works that improve the ease of operation.
2. Re-Branding
Re-branding or re-modelling aims to move the hotel into a different sector and increase room rates.
This can involve:
- creating new guest rooms using redundant space
- replacing services and bathrooms
- changing room and area layouts
or introducing new guest facilities, such as:
- IT
- in-room entertainment.
