Tom Daly, associate director, Faithful+Gould
MINIMISING disruptions to operations and revenue streams are key challenges for Singapore hotels that undergo live refurbishment work, according to hotel specialist Tom Daly from project and cost management consultancy Faithful+Gould.
In Singapore, there has been a sustained increase in new-build room stock, making it important for older properties to stay viable, often through renovation and refurbishment.
And as Singapore has no substantial off-peak season, hotels unwilling to decommission rooms and lose revenue would have to manage renovation work within a live hotel environment, introducing the challenge of segregating guests and construction work.
Daly said plans for careful guest routing and scheduling are hence important. Such plans might centre around movement of workforce and materials onto and around the site as well as the removal of construction waste, all while minimising guest disturbance.
At the same time, focus has to be given to achieving the desired look and feel and to meet compliance requirements, which may include the meeting of brand standards and building codes.
Daly suggests that operators and developers often have to explore multiple phasing options in order to achieve the lowest possible amount of disruption to ROI while upgrading an operational hotel.
Informing these phasing models often include measuring expected occupancy rates against the number of offline room nights as a result of construction work, which then affects plans for room handover frequencies.
Faithful+Gould’s project portfolio include hotel renovations of Fairmont Singapore, Marina Bay Sands and InterContinental Singapore, as well as F&B venues like Bread Street Kitchen, Adrift and Ash & Elm.
