Refurbishing Your Hotel for New Year Tourism

New Year’s Eve is an international event, with tourists travelling throughout the UK to celebrate, as well as arriving from overseas to enjoy the festivities. By providing these tourists with a place to stay, hotel businesses can enjoy a significant revenue boost. However, to improve their chances of attracting business, hoteliers should consider refurbishing their properties so they look their best.

In this article, we’re sharing our five top tips for refurbishing your hotel for New Year’s Eve. Additionally, we’ll explain why these refurbishments are so important, and take a closer look at the tourism hotspots during New Year’s Eve.

 

UK New Year’s Eve Tourism in Brief

Unsurprisingly, it’s the large metropolitan areas that typically see the most tourists during New Year’s Eve. This is primarily due to the larger number of events a city will put on, compared to a rural area.

London is a key example of this: over 100,000 spectators gathered to watch the annual New Year’s Eve fireworks show for the end of 2022 — and that’s without counting the tourists visiting the capital for other end-of-year celebrations.

In Scotland, there are also significant New Year’s Eve celebrations (referred to as ‘Hogmanay’ by Scots). Approximately 30,000 people attended the official celebrations on December 31st last year, with thousands more visiting the city for friends’ parties or to see family as well.

Regardless of their reason, many of these visitors will need a place to stay, and so hoteliers have a massive incentive to provide them with the best facilities possible.

 

Why Refurbish Your Hotel for New Year’s Eve?

With New Year celebrations imminently approaching, major cities should expect an influx of tourists, and hoteliers must seize this opportunity to refurbish their rooms. But what’s the real value of refurbishment, and how does it relate to increased revenue or a larger customer base?

The primary benefit of refurbishment is to improve the appearance of your hotel. Faded paint, old carpets, and scratched furniture can be repaired or swapped out for newer, more appealing replacements. These more attractive surroundings will enhance the experience for your guests.

However, the improved appearance of your hotel also comes with a host of side benefits. For example, marketing is significantly easier, as you’ll have an easy source of marketing materials available by photographing the newly refurbished areas.

You might even want to turn the refurbishment itself into a marketing campaign — try posting behind-the-scenes videos of the decorating process, or promoting the end date of the refurbishments so customers book out rooms in advance.

Additionally, if you use the refurbishment as an opportunity to upgrade your rooms and furniture, you might be able to break into a new market. By installing high-grade furniture or lavish decorations, you can try marketing your hotel as a high-class luxury option for New Year’s Eve.

 

5 Tips for Refurbishing Hotels for New Year’s Eve

1. Plan and Budget

Any significant business development should be backed up with a comprehensive plan. Refurbishment is no exception: make sure you plan out exactly what you hope to achieve with the refurbishment, as well as how long everything will take. Timing is especially crucial if you want to have everything ready for New Year’s Eve.

As well as working out how long things will take to refurbish, you’ll need to make sure you know how much things will cost. Create a budget that accounts for any materials you’ll need for the refurbishment, as well as the labour time (assuming you’re hiring professionals so that the work is completed to a high standard).

During your budgeting, you may find that you need additional funding to fully implement the changes you have planned. In these instances, you will likely need to find a new source of funding (such as an outside investor or a bank loan).

However, the right investors can be difficult to find, and bank loans can have a negative impact on your SME credit rating should you fail to make your payments. Instead, consider alternative funding options like revenue-based finance — we’ll discuss the benefits of this kind of funding in more detail below.

 

2. Keep Your Brand in Mind

Refurbishing a hotel means redecorating it to a significant degree. You will likely be repainting walls as well as replacing furniture and fixtures. However, take the time to consider how much you’re looking to change, as a hotel’s interior decorating is a significant part of its brand.

If, for example, if your brand centres around cosy, rustic furnishings which appeals greatly to your target market, it would be unwise for you to then replace the existing furniture with sleek, modern alternatives. Although the replacements might be visually appealing, they don’t align with the existing brand you’ve built.

On the other hand, if your current brand image isn’t working, a rebrand may be exactly what you’re looking for. Just keep in mind that a full rebrand is an expensive prospect. So, if you are simply looking for a small boost in revenue over New Year’s Eve, this may be a project that you postpone for a later date.

 

 3. Consider Renovation as Well as Refurbishment

Refurbishment is less invasive than renovation. To renovate your hotel would mean significant construction work — adding new rooms, expanding or reducing old ones, or making changes to the exterior of the building. Renovation typically takes longer and is more expensive, but you may want to consider it during the refurbishment.

For example, renovating your existing rooms to make them bigger or to add more might increase your revenue, as the bigger rooms can be rented at a higher price and the additional rooms mean more customers.

A more significant renovation would be the addition of an alternative source of income, such as adding a kitchen and dining room. As well as renting rooms, many hotels act as a restaurant for both those staying overnight and those passing by.

This idea can also be applied in reverse — if you own a pub or restaurant and have room to expand, you may want to consider branching out into offering rooms for guests to stay in overnight. Doing so could create a lucrative new revenue stream.

However, expanding into the hotel industry is a much bigger project than offering food and drink as a hotel, so many SMEs may not be able to afford it, particularly during low-revenue winter months. If you’re concerned about your pub surviving through the end of 2023 and into the start of 2024, see our article on safeguarding your pub business over winter for helpful ideas.

 

4. Create Marketing to Announce Your New Additions

It’s hugely important to let customers know when your refurbishments will be completed, especially if the refurbishments are disrupting your day-to-day business. Additionally, marketing that you are undertaking refurbishments can attract new clientele who are interested in staying in new-and-improved rooms.

Choose your marketing channels carefully. Hotels located in big cities may have a broader selection of advertising options available to them, compared to hotels in other locations. For example, due to the higher level of foot traffic in metropolitan areas, city-based hotels may be able to benefit from Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising tools like billboards and public transport adverts.

 

5. Set Measurable Goals

Make sure you set goals so you can understand how effective your refurbishment has been. Select the right KPIs (key performance indicators) that will be able to illustrate the impact of the changes you’ve made. For example, you may want to keep a close eye on analytics such as:

• The number of bookings made per week or per month both before and after the refurbishments.
• The number of positive reviews you receive.
• The level of social media engagement for the marketing campaign mentioned above.

Additionally, make sure you measure your New Year’s Eve revenue, so you can see how much of a revenue spike you experience. If it’s a significant increase, you may want to implement New Year’s Eve into your business strategies permanently.

 

How 365 finance Can Support Your Hotel Refurbishment

We’ve mentioned that refurbishment can be expensive, depending on your plans. However, if you don’t have the appropriate resources at hand, don’t worry. 365 finance offers accessible and speedy funding through our revenue-based finance services.

Applying for our revenue-based finance is fast and easy. After completing your application (which takes only minutes) and gaining approval, we can send you funding within 24 hours. This leaves plenty of time for you to start your refurbishments and complete them before New Year’s Eve.

Additionally, the repayments for our finance are based on your income, so you’ll never be faced with unreasonable payments. Instead, a percentage of any card transaction you complete will go towards paying off your debt.

At 365 finance, we can provide both long and short-term financial solutions, with revenue-based funding available from £10,000 to £400,000 in capital. Apply for funding today without affecting your credit score, or speak to our team to find out how we can help your business. To find out more, head to our website.