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Renovations are complicated and require enormous cooperation and attention to detail. Core team members should include real-estate-investment-trust representatives, hotel senior leadership and contractor project managers. Renovations are complicated and require enormous cooperation and attention to detail. Core team members should include real-estate-investment-trust representatives, hotel senior leadership and contractor project managers. Task lists must be understood and agreed upon and realistic timelines put in place. Potential problems and contingency plans need to be anticipated and discussed. Hotel operators need to calculate which areas of the hotel to close when, for how long and how much of the hotel at once. Depending on the scope of the renovation, restaurants, sleeping rooms, ballrooms, meeting rooms, public areas and pools all are considered against how much revenue will be lost during this period. Critical path deadlines must be met, but the ultimate reason—the guest—should never be forgotten. Developing a plan Gregg Herning, VP of sales and marketing at Peabody Hotels, recently completed a two-and-a-half-year major hotel renovation and expansion at the Peabody Orlando in Florida. “The pressure on the hotel operator is immense. Developing a proactive communication and operational plan is the answer,” he said. “We decided to stay open. I saw with my own eyes the value of a well-thought-out communication and execution plan. We were very proud that during this time we were able to maintain our Forbes 4-star designation.” Steve Glenn, in-house architect for general contractor specializing in hotel renovation Cicero Development Corporation, said “The challenge is in the interface with hotel (GM), the REIT owner and the management company, who may or may not have the flag on the property. It is important to be as invisible as possible to hotel management as well as to the guest.” Glenn said invisible means partitioning off a two-story ballroom with aesthetically pleasing temporary walls and shutting down the escalator so the public does not accidentally find themselves lost in a closed area. Invisible means housing the crew on the guestroom floors that are being renovated. Invisible means scheduling the freight elevator at night so materials won’t be loaded in and around hotel day traffic and guest activities. When it comes to hotel relations, it is all about getting involved. Cicero Development attends the daily stand-up meetings and also interfaces with the key hotel departments. “When a contractor knows what the in-house group and guest activities are, they can try to adjust their schedules for better noise control and limit the interruptions for the guest,” Glenn said. These changes can impact their deliverable schedule, but Glenn said Cicero has never missed a deadline yet. “This is a unique business to be in, but it is not for the meek.” |
