Dressing down your hotel contract beds in time for the 2012 Olympics
Yes, the countdown has truly begun to the start of the ceremony of ceremonies! London Olympics 2012 is within reaching distance. It’s only a few months to go until it arrives. For all the hoteliers out there; there is still time to get prepared.
The guests started booking their places months ago and the big hotel franchises are already beginning to turn away customers as they are booked out. If you want to compete on this level you have to step-up to their level!
Provide your guests with the best you can possibly give them. Invest in your hotel facilities and accommodations in order to bring in bigger and better business. It’s really that simple. Our specialty is of course contract beds, but that in no way overshadows the other elements of a hotel that need to be maintained or improved upon.
That said, hoteliers know that the quality of their hotel contract beds can mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a complaint. Sleep is an important factor in everyone’s lives and it is especially important for the hotel industry where positive customer satisfaction is crucial to a successful business. The hotel contract beds make all the difference by providing a focal point for any room and assist in creating the perfect holistic experience for guests. Word of mouth spreads if you provide a satisfying enough experience.
There’s still time to get those tongues wagging!
Busy hotels often need contract beds that offer longevity, universal comfort and versatility. Millbrook’s International Collection predominantly caters to hotel businesses with a range of sizes and a variety of options that can be customised to suit the practical and aesthetic requirements of individual hotel brands. If you are willing to offer the best in your hotel rooms then guests will want to stay with you for the duration of the Olympic Games.
Millbrook supplies its contract beds to businesses large and small where the quality and value of our designs can suit high end hotel chains or smaller independent bed and breakfasts. We know what makes a good contract bed, how to tailor them to the hospitality industry’s needs and how to ensure that they give a good night’s sleep to its guests.
Millbrook Contract Beds has been in the bed manufacturing game for more than 60 years and we understand this industry more than any other hotel contract bed supplier. Trust us to help you bring in more customer satisfaction and up your street cred in time for the biggest event in the world this year!
Refreshing the hotel sector for 2012 – Advice from Millbrook Contract Beds
With the 2012 Olympics on the way a recent survey conducted across UK hotels has helped to quantify the anticipation for it as a good year for the British hospitality industry. What it seems to represent is the chance for building up and bringing back business to a fluctuating economical climate. The hospitality industry has been suffering from these shockwaves over the past few years. Continue reading »
Comfort zone – a guide for the hotel sector
It’s been a while since we covered the basics of comfort in hotels and hotel contract beds. Our main interests lie in helping people find their comfort zone when it comes to sleep. In the lead-up to the 2012 London Olympics we think the pressure on hotels meeting the demands of service and quality is going to be pretty huge, so our back-to-basics advice on contract beds is probably timely. Continue reading »
Are you upgrading your hotel contract beds for the London 2012 Olympics?
The Olympics are coming to London! The world’s most revered sporting event is being hosted here in the UK for the first time since 1948, and we at Millbrook Contract Beds think every potential 400m runner or long jumper out there deserves a comfortable place to rest those tired legs after an exhausting practice session. We spotted an opportunity for all of our customers, especially in the hotel industry, to make the most of this… Continue reading »
Tips for the hospitality industry on preparing for the London Olympic Games 2012
In the previous blog we began exploring the hospitality industry’s role in regenerating and reinvigorating the UK economy in the build-up to London 2012 Olympics.
This is the perfect time for UK hoteliers to start thinking about how to approach the coming influx of business to the country, particularly the nation’s capital, and the best ways to maximise capacity potential and optimise aesthetic and practical considerations. Continue reading »
Preparing for London Olympics 2012 – the hospitality industry
Last year we explored the coming of the 2012 Olympic Games and the potential impact on hotels across the hospitality industry. Now that we are officially in 2012 it makes sense to start thinking about this in more detail.
The London Olympics has been triumphed as the much needed economic boost to the nation’s capital, the UK tourism industry and local businesses. UK hoteliers are expecting to discover new markets and new opportunities that will have long-term reverberating effects for quite some time to come. Continue reading »
Hospitality industry may be the key to economic recovery – Millbrook Contract Beds
Millbrook Contract Beds has had a vast experience in dealing with the hospitality industry for many years now. We keep our finger on the pulse of this sector and the developments within in it in order to stay ahead of the future demand. Recently, we’ve been following the hospitality industry’s prominence and growing significance during the economic downturn.
According to reports in the media and from government studies, the hospitality industry is currently leading the way in aiding economic recovery in the UK. During 2011, there was a tremendous growth seen, particularly around the time of the Royal Wedding in April. Since then the figures have only increased with a positive effect on hotelier operations nationwide. With 2012 proving to be a very big year for the UK in general courtesy of the upcoming Olympic Games and the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, the hospitality industry is extremely well-positioned to begin taking the economy in the right direction.
One of the main hindrances at current is the lack of competitive prices on offer. The higher VAT rate has been a major factor in this problem. A majority of EU states have reduced the VAT rates on accommodations and attractions in their respective countries, which makes the UK a lot less competitive than our friends across the channel.
Millbrook has been doing its part to help reduce the burden of cost for hoteliers with our contract beds and contract bed options. Through giving them the very best in contract bed quality for bargain prices it will hopefully offer an alternative solution to those businesses that engage with us and use our products. Commercial beds are a huge part of this process and hoteliers cannot operate without them, for obvious reasons.
Considering that the UK hospitality industry contributes over £46 billion in wages and profits to local economies every year, it’s time the industry got cut a break by its suppliers. That includes those of us that supply them with their commercial beds! It’s been documented through research and studies in the last year that many local authorities in the country are highly dependent on the industry as a whole and its contributions to economic prosperity.
Through the creation of new employment opportunities and a wealth of new business transactions, this industry is one of the supporting pillars in the contemporary era of British economic recovery. It needs to be championed as such. What is good to see is the encouragement coming through from the government and local authorities to see the hospitality sector grow and generate as many new jobs as possible.
2012 looks set to be a collective success across many industries as long as we can hold it together and keep prices competitive, standards high and growth steady.
Millbrook Contract Beds is dedicated to being a solid friend and business partner to the hospitality industry in the coming months and years, and we hope that everyone is ready to show their support come 2012 in the new year.
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Rebranding the hotel sector – Advice from Millbrook Contract Beds
In the last blog we addressed what Hotel Refreshment involved and how the hotel sector was preparing for the expected boom of 2012. You can read that blog HERE.
This second part in a two-part blog series from Millbrook Contract Beds is here to address the other approach to hotel refurbishment – a complete overhaul in the branding of a hotel, large or small.
It’s called Hotel Rebranding and it is a program like hotel refreshment that is implemented by many hotels – sometimes on a rolling schedule every 7 years or alternatively whenever it comes due.
London in a snapshot
So what is hotel rebranding?
Rebranding is different to refreshment as it is a bigger job and involves a lot of work including reassessing marketing strategies, aesthetics, design and its sector positioning. Room rates are usually increased during a hotel rebrand, and you are more likely to see bigger chains go through this process. It is a much more corporate approach to refurbishment and it is on a massive scale.
The process can involve creating new guest rooms out of redundant or unused space, replacing facilities such as bathrooms and communal areas, changing layouts, introducing new guest facilities and services, updating technologies and new entertainment capabilities.
Basically, this rebrand starts from the contract beds on up!
In a hotel rebrand it is possible to see so much change occur that the brand itself is reborn leaving no corner of the property untouched, from bedrooms to public areas to restaurants and event spaces.
However, due to the nature of upheaval and the cost of time and money, huge rebrands are not as common as hotel refreshments. As we are looking at the arrival of 2012 sooner rather than later, many hotels don’t have time to rebrand themselves like this.
What are Green Refurbishments all about?
Green refurbishments are in keeping with green policies that many hotels are adopting around the world. 30 per cent of hoteliers are looking to install more energy efficient green technology using renewable power for their properties. Sustainability has emerged in the last decade as a dominant trend in hospitality and hotel refurbishments. Guests are getting into a mindset where luxury ratings are simply not enough. A hotel’s green credentials go a long way to sealing the deal.
Many design principles being used or flirted with in the UK hotel sector include recycling water conservation, energy efficiency and maintenance/longevity.
Hotels Go Green
How can Millbrook Contract Beds help?
We provide a service to our customers that helps provide quality contract beds and contract bedroom furniture of the highest ilk to their operations. Our design philosophy is uncompromising in terms of how the beds are made, so you know you are getting the best of the best.
Many hotels and businesses come to us for our advice and our quality of product. In the build up to the big boom or bad bust year of 2012, Millbrook Contract Beds wants to be at the centre of the demand and in the thick of the action. If you are planning a hotel refurbishment, whether it is a refreshment of guest rooms and contract beds, or a major rebranding overhaul on everything, we know we can help. Contact Us for some impartial advice or you can always follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
The boom of boutique hotels – Millbrook Contract Beds
Millbrook Contract Beds has been looking to the future recently in terms of the hospitality industry to try and determine if it will be looking at a real boom period in the coming months and years. We took you through what to expect from the 2012 Olympics next year in London in a previous blog series, which can be read HERE, but what of the immediate future? What can the hotel industry in particular look set to expect?
According to recent projections and studies carried out, the boutique hotel sector is set to lead the way as the UK hotel industry lurches into recovery. The research has revealed that boutique is the fastest growing hotel segment in London right now and is set to nearly double in size by 2013.
The emergence of boutique hotels became common in the 1980’s within major cities like London and New York. Their purpose was to offer an intimate, unique hotel experience and environment that was as good as anything a franchise could offer but with its own flavour and sense of character.
Accommodation was personalised as was the services and facilities, sometimes with themed or stylish qualities to them. For many years the boutiques battled it out with the big brands until they themselves became enfranchised, losing some degree of that uniqueness that made so popular to begin with.
Somewhere along the way, boutique hotels have began to return to their roots. Since the economic climate shifted, boutique hotels have actually gone through a period of expansion not recession. They are more popular now than they ever were before, which begs the question; will it last?
According to reports the answer is very much definitely “Yes!”
As a contract bed supplier, Millbrook Contract Beds is incredibly supportive of these developments. Boutique hotels can be a more accurate representation and ambassador, come the 2012 Olympics next year, to a place and time than the large franchises.
Maintaining that degree of uniqueness for each boutique means having its own identity. Due to strong competition (what else is new in hospitality?), the boutique hotel sector needs to work harder to separate their services and alternative guest experiences from the mainstream hotel markets. This seems to be of greater appeal to travellers, tourists and guests in this day and age.
Millbrook Contract Beds has always kept its finger on the pulse when it comes to customer satisfaction and delivering products and services that ultimately benefit and reward them, which is why as the demand for boutique hotels increase, so too will boutique hotel standards of quality become of greater importance.
To prosper in 2013, boutique hotels, especially in the capital, need to nurture quality as if the future depended on it. People are asking if the boutique hotel sector can live up to this “boom market” hype and if it can really perform in the big leagues.
Millbrook Contract Beds believes it can! And will. Just you wait and see…
Fuelling the demand for UK hotels – Millbrook Contract Beds
A drop in overseas travel this year has seen an increase in the demand for UK hotels. Millbrook Contract Beds has been keeping an eye on the goings-on of the travel and hospitality industry in order to stay in step with what the needs are from people and businesses for this year and next.
Key tourist destinations in the UK such as London have welcomed the stronger demand from within the country for internal holidays from British travellers. The Office for National Statistics stated that holidays to the UK had hit their highest levels since the early 1960’s. This is not just from British residents but also from overseas visitors, which is a very positive thing.
Millbrook Contract Beds has taken a closer look at the figures from 2010 and listed them here…
The countries who visited the UK the most in 2010:
- France 3.6 million
- Germany 3.0 million
- USA 2.7 million
- Irish Republic 2.6 million
- Spain 1.8 million
- Netherlands 1.8 million
- Italy 1.5 million
- Belgium 1.1 million
- Poland 1.1 million
- Australia 1.0 million
These statistics have continued a positive growth into 2011, and are set for an even bigger increase when the London Olympic Games begin in 2012 (see our Hoteliers Guide to the 2012 Olympics HERE). The nation’s capital, London, attracts a large majority of the overseas visitors, making it the most visited city in Britain. The next most popular holiday hotspots in this country are Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow.
These encouraging signs for British tourism show that we are still very much open for business.
But how do we meet this demand effectively? The events of the London Riots tarnished this good news somewhat by projecting a negative image of the UK to the rest of the world, but that image is recovering as we head towards the end of 2011 with the aspirations of 2012 being a booming success for the country, in particular the hospitality industries.
Millbrook Contract Beds believes that the answer in living up to the expectations and continuing a prosperous growth into the future is quality. For sixty years we have been delivering quality to all of our customers with our contract bedroom furniture which goes a long way to creating a great guest experience. If you’re a hotelier looking to capitalise on what’s ahead, reflect on what can be improved and optimised within your business.
If it ever comes to a problem with your hotel beds, you know who to contact to get them replaced. Millbrook Contract Beds has a fine selection for you to view HERE, or alternatively, Contact Us for some free, impartial advice. You can always like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to join our community too.