Novus Blog

Hotels are almost like living entities and cannot simply be put on hold when maintenance work becomes necessary or when upgrades are required.

Our strategic operations manager Jeremy Ford recently wrote an article for Hotel, Sport and Leisure magazine where he explained how, by working carefully around hotel staff and guests, any works can be completed quickly and efficiently with as little disruption as possible.

Read the full article below.

Guests are the lifeblood of a hotel, with the experience of each and every visitor ultimately shaping the reputation and the future prospects of anyone in the hospitality business.

No establishment can afford to cause major disruption to its clientele during a period of redecoration or building works.

Years of experience in the sector have taught the team at Novus Property Solutions that the successful delivery of refurbishments to hotels requires a firm focus on the Three Cs: coordination, communication, and consideration.

1. Coordination

Coordination of the schedule of works with the activities of all the hotel management and staff prior to, during and after the period of the fit-out is key to the success of any hotel project.

It is of paramount importance that the interaction between tradespeople, hotel staff and guests is meticulously planned, so that the chances of unwanted or unexpected disturbances are minimised.

Room refurbishments must be subject to carefully phased plans, so that sections of the building are segregated and the work carried out in an optimal order.

A phased approach may take longer to complete, but it allows the hotel to remain operational throughout the works, and keeps the number of rooms unavailable at any given time to a minimum.

2. Communication

Clear lines of communication with hotel management during the planning stage are vital, but once the work gets underway there must be an equally strong focus on transparency and openness.

Using clear signage and physical barriers to segregate all works whilst under construction, and monitoring construction areas at all times, making sure that fire exit routes are kept clear and hotel guests are safe is essential when working within a live hotel environment.

In some cases, customers may need to be redirected through temporary entrances to gain access to rooms, and both signage and in-person communication are used to help this process run smoothly.

3. Consideration

Being considerate of hotel guests is key to a smooth operation and happy guests and hotel management. Novus restricts the times of noisy works during a project to between 9am and 6pm on weekdays, with an even shorter time frame over weekends.

Novus also holds daily briefing sessions to keep hotel management fully informed about the works and activities they can expect on site that day.

These briefings ensure everyone involved in the running of the hotel knows what to expect, and they give hotel staff the chance to ensure guests who may wish to sleep in late are booked into rooms away from the works.

Other considerations that can make all the difference include keeping compound areas to a minimum to maximise car parking spaces for guests.

In some cases, Novus is able to utilise other sites to place the compound and use a “just in time” delivery service to minimise disruption when car parking or servicing arrangements are tight for space.

Successful hotel projects should run smoothly from day one, and you can often tell when a project has been well planned and managed, because no one at the hotel will be talking about it – if staff and management are well briefed, and the workforce is considerate, there will be little need to discuss the works.