Overlooked Features for your Soft Remodel

We can’t fight aging and neither can our hotels. Carpets will get matted, and paint will begin to peel. Keeping things clean daily is a great way to prolong the life of a property, but eventually, the property will require a facelift. Like plastic surgery, remodeling a hotel can be an expensive and painful process. Unfortunately, guests can often be caught in the middle, but if done right, the result is always going to be worth it. Hopefully, your property is structurally intact and only needs some minor improvements. We like to call these “Soft Remodels,” and they are usually quicker, less expensive alternatives to major construction. But with any remodel, it is important to anticipate your guests’ needs, and some simple touches are often overlooked.

Consider the Source

One of the more straightforward upgrades a hotel can do to improve the look of their room is to swap out their bulky tube televisions with newer, flat screens. Unfortunately, some hotels stop there and think the new TVs are enough and forget that High Definition televisions require an HD source. Traditional standard definition channels look worse on more modern televisions. When a guest sees an HD television, they are going to expect HD quality. Depending on your area, a lot of local broadcast television stations will have an HD signal for no additional charge. If your property uses a Satellite or Digital Cable service, you will need to contact your provider about adding the improved service.

With the increase in guest demand for Wi-Fi, hotels have seen a sharp decrease in any Video On Demand services they offered. Guests aren’t willing to pay for in-room movies when they have access to online streaming services. Instead of fighting this and limiting access to those services, embrace it. When upgrading your televisions look for ones with easy to access computer or HDMI inputs on the front or the sides. This will allow guests the ability to connect their laptops or tablets to the TV, giving guests a more comfortable viewing experience.

Hide the Wires

A new flat-screen television provides a sleek and clean look to almost any hotel room, but a quick way to undo that is with exposed and messy wiring. Hiding wires behind a dresser is a simple and universal solution, but for hoteliers looking to mount their TVs on the wall, some additional work is required. Some people choose to run their cables inside the walls. This tends to add a lot of cost to the installation. A simple solution is to hide the wires behind a plastic channel that gets screwed into the wall. The channels can then be painted to match the decor of the room to keep them from standing out too much. The same principle applies to any exposed wire in a place. If it is coming from a refrigerator or an air conditioner, keep it out of sight as best as possible.

Outlets, more outlets.

The one thing cellphones, laptops, tablets, and cameras all have in common is that they need to be charged. Guests are traveling with more technology than ever before. This fact amplifies the need for places to charge their devices. Most hotel rooms typically have one or two outlets exposed, mainly so housekeeping can quickly vacuum a room. The rest are hidden behind dressers and end tables to keep things looking tidy, but this becomes very inconvenient for guests. Consider bringing in an electrician to add some outlets for easier guest access. An outlet at level with an end table or desk is a little detail your guests will love. If you would like to take it one step farther, look for outlets that have USB ports built into them just in case someone forgot their adapters at home.