by Mary | Aug 28, 2015 | Design News, Hospitality Design
Successful hotels have figured out the guest room experience and continue to figure out how to accommodate the ever changing lifestyle needs of their customers.
Comfort and convenience in the guest experience is paramount and that is defined by more than a goods night sleep.
Mobile Connections:
Being connected in real time to the incoming guest as they travel to your hotel is increasingly important. With the arrival of competitor airbnb.com, personal texting around the customer arrival and their changing needs has become expected. The kind of virtual presence a hotel creates needs to be personal and flexible. (more…)
by Mary | Aug 27, 2015 | Design News, Hospitality Design
Guests who can afford luxury, don’t always spend luxury rates for business and social travel.
The challenge for the mid-scale lodging market is to include enough style and amenity in their experience without raising room rates. That means being smart on where to spend the money
2014 saw a new awareness by mid-scale hotels that they needed to “up the ante” in their design. Many flags took on the challenge to remodel facilities which are being showcased.
So r.o.i. Design asks, “What are the things that brought the greatest ROI in those mid-scale remodels? What are we recommending to our mid-scale customers as they remodel?” (more…)
by Mary | Aug 17, 2015 | Meeting and Conference, Workplace Design
Entry of Front Street Studio
r.o.i. Design’s offices are at Front Street Studio. The owner of r.o.i. Design also owns the building and there is a 1300 SF first floor suite available in January 2016. This is a great space for creative firms or those who like to hang out with creative folk. Currently in the building we have photographers, videographers, light manufacturing of decorative products, audio book recording, and pastoral care. Extremely convenient to 131 and I96, and described as on the “fringe” of downtown Grand Rapids. Please contact Mary Witte at r.o.i. Design for more information!
Exterior of Front Street Entrance
by Mary | Aug 17, 2015 | Design News, Interior Design, Project Management
GVSU Marketplace Designers and Owners
r.o.i. Design knows that the customers experience of the design-build process will predict whether or not they will love their new space. It is so much more than having the perfect design or the “expert consultant” on the job.
When there is a great design-build team the outcome has a much greater chance of meeting and exceeding customer expectation of the finished product. There aren’t layers of concern and stress laid on top of the customer-team relationship, making the customer suspect and wary if they are going to get what was promised them or not.
A great design team also means efficiency which saves everyone budget dollars.
- When there is trust between team members it accelerates the customer’s confidence in all recommendations where ever they come from.
- When simple oversights are managed before they become a crisis or trigger change orders, customers are saved the awkward experience of finger pointing between team members.
- Real time communication is ongoing and a shared responsibility between owners, designers and contractors that is supported by protocol documentation verses solely relying on “the system”.
- Trust creates an attitude of flexibility in the process which allows great ideas and solutions to surface anytime in the process. When a design criteria is well understood and all parties buy in, it is only ego that keeps good ideas from being executed.
r.o.i. Design strives to be part of great design-build teams. For us that has happened when:
- Jobs we share could have started with any one of the groups, whether it is the contractor’s customer, the architect’s customer or our customer, we communicate to the customer early in the process who the team is and how we would like to work with them.
- Roles on a job are defined and respected, even when the customer challenges the structure, we represent the team.
- Building and maintaining relationships is everyone’s priority.
This week a manufacturing customer, remodeling a floor in their facility to create an innovation center commented to r.o.i. Design, “So you guys actually get along with this construction company. Our last remodeling project was a nightmare – the designer, architect and contractor kept blaming each other. They won’t ever be back.”
by Ryan | Aug 5, 2015 | Design News
Getting Stuff at the Best Price and On Time.
Hotels, senior care facilities and multi-family developments all need “stuff”, but not all the time. Do properties have on-staff administrators that that can handle the periodic upgrade or remodeling purchasing, or do they look to outside sources to help them temporarily? It depends on how they want to spend their money.
- Inside administrators know the property and its processes and procedures, but they may not have a database of competitive suppliers at their fingertips to make sure they are getting competitive pricing. Those talented day to day staff administrators may not have experience in logistics and project management which may result on costly learning curves. The most common mistakes properties make in procurement include:
- Incomplete design when procurement starts
- Unconfirmed product budgeting
- Incomplete or unrealistic planning of receipt, staging and delivery.
- Outside procurement professionals know the industry and while they don’t have experience with all the particulars of a property at start, should be fast learners. They can set up the team based on the particular project needs and include a member of the current property team so site considerations are prioritized. Procurement companies have a network of companies and manufacturers to draw from to get competitive pricing. Typically they have warehousing and trucking capabilities. Some of them have designers, artists, installers and a variety of other skills that can be purchased a la carte. When hiring outside procurement professionals may not be the best solution for a property:
- Unmanaged expectation of cost of services and weak contractual agreements. (Procurement services are 5% to 7% of a total budget based on the variety of SKU’s. Storage, delivery and installation is additional to procurement.)
- Unqualified design selections. (Design and selections have to be made and approved prior to procurement)
- Tension on teams where on site contractors and owners aren’t able to share information in real time to procurement professionals due to lack of trust or financial changes that challenge the job.
So what is the best solution for a property? Exploring the options and getting information specific to a project is the only way to know how best to proceed.
- If there is a $1M procurement project for a property that has 200 beds, and a fully completed and approved design, it is likely that a currently employed administrator will spend 18 months focused, partially or entirely, on the one time procurement project. Their efficiency will be compromised and their stress increased. And it is likely that other staff will be asked to participate because of it, which means you have more dedicated staff salaries diverted from their key job of keeping customers happy and the property running. In addition to salary costs, you still have the cost of storage and material handling, which means hiring a moving company. (Hopefully they have experience in staging at this scale.) Most properties never totally realize their costs when they manage projects internally.
- If there is a $1M procurement project for a property that has 200 beds , less than 300 SKUs and your designers has given you written specifications on all products including finishes, you will pay around $50,000 for outside procurement services, and you will have at least one staff administrator dedicating 20% of their time to the project. There is still the receiving, storage and delivery costs. But costs are known and there is a greater opportunity for accountability to budget.
Download our FFE & Product Fulfillment brochure.
r.o.i. Design is a design and procurement company. We welcome your call when we can learn about what you need and if we can help you make your project purchases stay in budget and show up on time.
