Refurbishing and Redecoration

Redecoration

The rooms are put off for the required amount of time. This work is planned for the slack season of the year. This is done either floor by floor or part of a floor at a time depending on the shape and number of rooms on the floor. It is always planned in such a way to cause as little inconvenience possible to the guest. Redecoration is also carried out in the public areas. The restaurant area is closed and the lobby work is done only at night; cleaning away everything by morning. Several nights may be required to complete the work. Basically, the work includes repainting, repolishing of furniture if required, and rearrangement and after this, a full maintenance work and general cleaning are carried out. Many hotels using tidy and skilled craftsmen manage the work without removing the carpet but dust sheets are placed over it for protection.

TO PREPARE A ROOM FOR REDECORATION:

1. Remove linen from the room and bathroom and send to the laundry including bedspreads and blankets.
2. Remove all supplies and store in the maids’ service room. Some hotels also store them in a drawer in the room but often the workmen fiddle with it.
3. Remove the curtains and draperies and send them for cleaning. Save the hooks in an envelope marked with the room number and is placed in the maids’ service room.
4. If sufficient space is available in the service room, place the lamps there too covered with dust sheets.
5. Generally, unless the floor is taken off, the furniture is not removed from the room but stacked in the middle with dust sheets placed over them.

Now the redecoration takes place. Next maintenance does the complete checking and prepares the Snag List. This can be prepared by the Executive H.K. or the maintenance supervisor. After the maintenance work has been done, the H.K. prepares the room again to be let out.

TO PREPARE ROOM AFTER REDECORATION:

1. Remove all dust sheets and send them to the laundry.
2. The bathroom walls, all fixtures and fittings as well as the floor are scrubbed.
3. Vacuum the room.
4. Scrub the balcony and terrace. Clean the furniture present there.
5. Clean the windows thoroughly including the frame.
6. Polish or clean all the furniture in the room.
7. Replace curtains.
8. Replace bed and bath linen.
9. Arrange all furniture correctly.
10. Replace supplies.
11. Replace lamps, cleaning the shades if necessary.
12. Switch on the mini-fridge after cleaning it.
13. Shampoo the carpet and dry it.

The room is then fit for LETTING OUT AGAIN.

Refurbishing

Refurbishing always involves redecoration. Refurnishing is just changing the upholstery of furniture whereas refurbishing involves everything in the room, i.e. curtains, carpets, furniture etc. and bathrooms completely gutted and renewed.

Refurnishing also can be partial or complete. If it is partial it may not involve carpets or may not involve all furniture, e.g. – only beds may be replaced or only certain items of furniture replaced. Refurbishing always includes new curtains, bedspreads, upholstery etc. A full planning is to be made before refurbishing or refurbishing an area. It is done in the slackest season.

1. Strip the room of the linen, including curtains and send them to the linen room.
2. Remove all supplies.
3. Usually, hotels sell all the items, often they do room by room and a buyer must buy the whole room.
4. The furniture and the carpets are removed and the buyer usually has to collect it the same day as storage is a problem. Otherwise, another room is emptied and use for storage.
5. Next, all the bathroom fittings are removed and the bathroom completed gutted and renewed, then redecoration takes place.
6. Next, the electrical work is completed replacing plugs and sockets etc.
7. The carpet is laid or re-laid.
8. The new furniture is installed including the upholstery and all wirings completed. E.g. – bedside console, the TV, bedside lamps etc.
9. New lamps and accessories are installed.
10. The HK comes to clean starting with the bathroom, balcony, windows, and furniture cleaning.
11. After this, the curtains are hung.
12. Beds are made.
13. All supplies are replaced.
14. Vacuum cleaning the room completes the work.
15. The room when ready is returned to the reception for re-letting. Generally, this is done when the whole floor is ready.

If the work is delayed in any way this makes a pressure on HK and may require overtime in the evening or night to prepare the rooms. This takes place generally after 5-7 years. Some hotels do it rather gradually. E.g. – bathrooms and carpets – one year and furniture another year etc.

Much depends on how busy the hotel is and the type of client etc. it is a major capital investment but if a hotel is not kept up to a standard it will lose revenue so in the long run, it is a necessary investment.