By Triana O'Keefe, editor Australian Hotelier
Talking to TheShout, Paul Kelly of Paul Kelly Design, believes it has been a strong year in the hotel sector, but with a significant change from 2013.
"The project budgets had been reduced dramatically, with no real reason as hotel growth in gaming and food was significant," Kelly said.
“I believe that 2014 was the year of reflection and tightening up loose ends, like smoking compliance issues and trying to get the food offer to the correct pitch.”
According to Kelly, significant point of reflection was in regard to the lock out laws and especially Kings Cross.
“It is a very sad market in the Cross with no sign of relief. We had several projects in the Cross shelved indefinitely and I think that this power sweep by the State government had a lot to do with clients holding tight to their assets.”
Food was a real focus for Paul Kelly Design as clients saw the benefits and the profits of strategizing their food offer, as the profit not just from food, but the offset to beverage and gaming.
“We also completed a small bar for a hotel, The Coronation Hotel in which we created a new Asian inspired venue called the ‘Smoking Panda’ pushing hotels into the beverage realm of the very successful small bars. We believe hotels have a lot more to offer than just beer, wine and spirits as there is a huge world of boutique high GP products that the customers want.”
“We are already gearing up heavily for 2015, and just having our biggest quarter in 18 years we are looking forward to further growth,” Kelly said.
For the full story, check out the December edition of Asutralian Hotelier.