| INSIGHT
HOSPITALITY & LEISURE
Delivering I N A PA N D E M I C Plans for both refurbishment and new build projects across the hospitality sector have, inevitably, been impacted by Covid-19. Insight spoke to Paul Sherwood, Equity Partner and Head of the Hospitality and Leisure team, to find out more about how their clients have been affected… “It is of course true that it clearly isn’t a case of ‘business as usual’ for our hospitality clients, and that the market has been significantly disrupted,” he told Insight. “However, we have seen some of these clients take this time as an opportunity to re-examine their capital investment plans and project timescales.
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“It’s provided a chance to implement some of their plans, particularly renovation, without disrupting their guests or impacting revenue.” Take, for example, The Hilton London Metropole in Paddington. The owners took the decision to close two wings of the hotel, still leaving plenty of space for guests, but enabling the development of work on not only bedroom renovation, but also public areas including conference and event space, restaurants and the gym.
“Our role on the project is as Project Managers,” explained Paul. “There are 550 hard room renovations planned and, originally, work would have started on these back in the summer. The arrival of Covid delayed the start date, but we are now making up for lost time. “We’ve completed the three ‘model’ rooms – examples for sign off – and the schedule is to hand over 20 completed rooms each week from mid-January 2021 onwards.” This, says Paul, is an ambitious timetable, but ‘doable’ – and demonstrates the optimism the Hotel Owners and Hilton Group have in a recovering market.
