The Hospitality Market: Renovation keeps the sector hopping

By Jessica Chevalier

In its second year of real rebound, the U.S. hospitality business is strong, and all signs point to more good years ahead. In fact, in March 2014, the average daily rate (ADR), which measures the average rate paid for rooms sold, reached $115.28, the highest figure since before 2008, according to hospitality reporting firm STR. 

MARKET ACTIVITY
The bulk of current hospitality work is on the renovation side. There are around five million hotel rooms in the U.S., and since the recession, about one third of these have been renovated. The renovation rate in 2013 was 400,000 rooms, and in 2014 it is expected to be down only slightly. 

There are, of course, new hotel rooms coming on line as well. This year, 70,000 new rooms are expected; in 2015, 90,000 new rooms are expected; and 100,000 are anticipated in 2016. 

Since the recession, the bulk of these new rooms have been in the upper middle segments of the market. According to STR, of the 78,700 rooms under construction as of August 2013, 4,700 were luxury accommodations; 7,600 were upper upscale accommodations; 29,500 were upscale accommodations; 21,600 were upper midscale accommodations; 3,300 were midscale accommodations; 1,100 were economy accommodations; and 10,900 were unaffiliated. 

According to Angela M. Denney, vice president of interior design with FRCH Design Worldwide, “Upper midscale brands, such as Hampton Inn, and upscale brands, such as Residence Inn and Hilton Garden Inn, are doing a lot of projects right now. During the recession, people who needed to travel were on tighter budgets and instead of staying in upper upscale brands tended to switch to midscale and upper midscale. Guests realized these were nice properties that provided them with good, clean rooms and typically a free breakfast, along with free Wi-Fi. So, in many ways, guests now realize that there’s no reason to pay more for essentially the same thing, especially if the higher-end brands make guests pay for breakfast and Wi-Fi.”

Denney adds that many properties delayed renovation during the recession and are now beyond their typical renovation timeline. She has seen some spending in the luxury market, but a much greater amount of spending in the midscale market. 

When hospitality facilities choose to renovate, they typically complete the work in bits and pieces as funding becomes available, says Hussain Kamal, senior vice president and managing director of Wilson Associates Los Angeles. “This is challenging for designers because we want to create an updated design that is both beautiful and functional. We’re asked to make the new design flow with the old design, but we try to help clients understand that spending the money to make phase one completely right is a better option than putting a band-aid over the current design.”

Denney concurs, adding, “We’re seeing a lot of renovation done as phases rather than full renovations. Guestroom areas might be scheduled for one year with public spaces to follow a year or two years later. It also depends on the hotel brand and if they have a [renovation] program that they require owners to implement. Typically, those will have an implementation timeline that the owner has to adhere to, which will dictate the scope of the work required.”

By and large, guestroom carpet is replaced every five to seven years. Hard surface flooring can last up to ten years as long as it is quality product that looks fresh and works with the current style.

HARD SURFACE MAKING STRIDES
Hard surface flooring has been taking share across the board, and the trend holds true in the hospitality market. Motel 6, now owned by The Blackstone Group, has specified LVT throughout each of its 1,100 locations, and Red Roof Inn is now using LVT in certain areas of its facilities. Previously, both of these brands had carpet throughout. Marriot is also considering swapping out carpet for LVT in some areas within its hotels. In large part, the reason for these changes is obvious. Hard surface flooring is easy to clean and typically lasts longer than soft surface flooring. In addition, in many cases, the guest’s perception of hard surface flooring is that it’s cleaner than carpet—especially if said carpet is permanently dirty or dingy looking, stained, or the fibers are crushed.

Denney says that hard surface flooring is now being used in both public space and guestrooms. “It’s quite common to see them in lobby areas where dirt can get tracked in easily by guests coming in from outside. By using a hard surface, it is typically easier for the hotel staff to keep clean and maintain and is less likely to show staining the way carpet or area rugs can. The same applies to guestroom entries and bathrooms. Restaurants are another area where hard surface is commonly used, again due to ease of cleaning. However, the designer has to be cognizant of the number of hard surfaces so there aren’t sound issues…porcelain tile has come a long way in the designs and sizes that are available. It gives designers a lot more options than in the past. We’re also seeing more resilient flooring coming to the market, such as Shaw’s Quiet Cover product.” 

Maintenance is Kamal’s most important consideration with regard to specification in hospitality environments, specifically related to cleanability, followed by functionality (shelf life and durability). Hard surface flooring typically ranks high in both these criteria. 

In addition, Denney points out that using tile or stone in the entry to a guestroom offers several advantages over using broadloom. First of all, these smaller-format materials are easier to install in a tight space. And second, they produce less waste. Of course, in hotel rooms, minimizing sound transfer between the floors is of utmost importance, so using the proper underlayments is imperative.

SOFT SURFACE CHANGES
Printed carpet and Axminster for many years have been the go-to flooring for hotel common areas, because they allowed designers to create large-scale patterns for these spaces. However, Card-Monroe’s ColorPoint technology has enabled designers to create these same large-scale patterns in tufted product with a much shorter lead time. “Printed doesn’t seem as popular as it used to be,” reports Denney. “Since CYP quality has improved so much along with ColorPoint machines, more designers are choosing to go that route and be able to get products that have cut and loop. Axminster is still very prevalent as well, and you have the ability to have so many colors, which is great. However, since texture has been trending so much, we may be seeing more of the CYP type products installed instead of Axminster or printed.”

In addition, carpet tile is making headway in hospitality environments. Says Denney, “Carpet tile is definitely becoming more popular in hospitality projects. We’re seeing it both in guestrooms and corridors and to some degree in public areas. An advantage of carpet tile is if you get a really bad stain, or traffic wear, you can just switch out a few tiles rather than having to replace it all. It would also be easier for the hotels to replace a few tiles with less interruption to guests versus having to bring in big rolls of carpet. It also gives designers more creative options. There’s still a learning curve with owners about the advantages of carpet tile versus broadloom product, as they often look purely at cost, but that’s beginning to change.”

DESIGN TRENDS
Both fashion and residential design influence the hospitality market. Says Denney, “It’s not unusual to see color and pattern specifically from fashion show up in fabrics, carpet and wallcovering finishes. With the advent of HGTV, Pinterest and Tumblr blogs, hotel guests are much more educated on design than they were in the past, so it’s important to stay up to date with what they’re seeing.” The designer reports that in carpet she’s seeing a strong emphasis on texture and neutral colorways, especially in guestrooms. In corridors, she is seeing a lot of asymmetrical designs rather than typical door drop patterns. Public spaces, such as lobbies and restaurants, are also feeling more residential. For ballrooms and meeting rooms, there’s still pattern, often very large scale, but with the design elements being used in an unexpected way. 

Kamal reports that his team is often choosing abstract, custom carpet patterns in their more contemporary designs. On the hard surface side, he has noticed quite a bit of ceramic tile with the appearance of washed wood, which is well suited to lobby and restaurant spaces due to its cleanability. He notes that formats are getting larger and that bamboo and cork seem to be experiencing a renaissance in hospitality design. 

In wood flooring, current colors tend to be on the dark brown or grey side with more refined graining, not a rustic feel, says Denney. Ceramic tile is often in neutral tones and larger size tiles like 18”x24”.  Denney also notes a trend toward different shapes of tile besides squares and rectangles; herringbone patterns are popular as well.  In addition, concrete and subtle stone looks are becoming trendier in the very neutral colors and patterns. Generally, says Denney, contemporary styles are more popular than traditional or transitional. “You want something that is on or slightly ahead of trend, but not too trendy, since the owner might not change it out for seven or eight years, or more.”

SUSTAINABILITY
The green movement hasn’t taken the same hold in hospitality that it has in, say, the corporate sector. While working in a beautiful, sustainable LEED certified office has a strong draw for many of today’s workforce, crashing for a night in a sustainable hotel simply isn’t as great a concern. The transitory nature of the hospitality business allows it to fly under the radar a bit. While many visitors are willing to reuse their towels during their hotel stay for the sake of saving water, fewer will take the time to appreciate the sustainable profile of the materials used throughout the space. Because there is so little sense of ownership by the users, there is no real impetus to invest in green unless the brand or facility owners have personal ethics dictating sustainable principles. 

Denney reports that while hospitality-focused designers typically care about sustainability, hotel owners are often indifferent, “For many of them, it’s ‘I like how it looks, and it’s a good story. But what’s it going to cost me?’” The most activity with regard to going green, says Denney, is the recycling of old product by manufacturers or the use of recycled materials in new products. 

Kamal says that the cost to choose green is a deterrent with his customers as well. “However, we are seeing a trend of using more natural products, which plays into sustainability,” says Kamal. “Wood, bamboo and cork are all natural materials, so they are automatically ‘green.’ Some manufacturers are moving towards recycled materials as well.”

Related Topics:Shaw Industries Group, Inc.