ELAF Hotels Technical Standards & Design Guidelines

Project Type

Strategic Advisory

Country

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 

Case Study Title

ELAF Hotels Technical Standards and Design Guidelines  

The Client

A significant Saudi Arabian Hotel Company with an extensive portfolio of hotels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

Background

The Client wished to embark on an expansion of its hotel portfolio in the Kingdom and recognises the requirement for clearly defined and bespoke Technical Standards and Design Guidelines (TSDG) to address its expansion plans within the five, four and three star markets. Included are guidelines for Residential properties or a Residential component within a hotel or resort development and an overarching Environmental and Sustainability guideline positioning the client as the first company within the Kingdom to recognise the need for such an initiative. 

Client Need

The Client sought to identify a company with solid experience writing TSDGs in the leisure and hospitality industry –  

• Who have a proven record of defining the level of guest expectations to achieve high standards of quality, service, and associated goodwill 

• Who can demonstrate how they have worked in a diverse and complex business environment 

• With global experience 

• With experience delivering brand consistency whilst allowing regional flexibility / the need to comply with local legislation 

• With experience developing, testing and refining TSDGs across different markets, having a common framework for describing each hotel category in written and graphic terms 

Scope of Work

The hotel company needed to establish acceptable standards for the architectural, engineering and technology systems that states the operation’s specific needs and constraints for design of related projects. 

• We conducted interviews with small focus groups to research and analyse the functional requirements for each hotel category in performance-oriented (outcome-based) terms, as opposed to prescriptive specifications, means, methods and techniques. 

• We documented TSDGs that defined the building performance requirements for individual project design, including spatial features, indoor air quality, thermal quality, acoustics, illumination, life safety, energy conservation, technology systems, environmental sustainability and numerous other requirements. 

What did Hotel Solutions Partnership achieve for the client?  

The set of documents we delivered to the Client were a complete suite of TSDGs written with Brand Standards in mind, leveraging international industry best practice and written to an agreed format and template. 

The new TSDGs created a positive impact with potential owners and developers affording confidence and competence in the Client’s ability to deliver on world class hotel development projects in fulfilment of its development objectives.