HILTON HOTEL
READING
The Hilton Hotel in Reading has jazzed up the look and feel of its Livingwell Health Club with a £75,000 revamp of the changing rooms and poolside shower.
The design and building works, carried out by Black Book Leisure Consultancy whilst the health club was still open to guests and members, took just three weeks to complete and included a full strip out of the showers, washing areas and vanity units in the male, female and DDA changing rooms.
New, more modern showers and cubicles were fitted, with light grey acrylic panels on the walls to brighten up the area and make it feel larger than before and new white acrylic panels on the ceiling to enhance the light further, and keep the space fully watertight. New lights were also fitted in the shower areas to add to the brighter, fresher environment. The wet vanity areas were fitted out with larger more user-friendly basins, as well as a large, 3.6m by 2.4m single mirror, whilst Safe Space Lockers fitted new vanity tops and fronts.
Poolside, a contemporary monsoon feature shower was fitted, complete with wall-mounted controllers, whilst the rest of the pipework was hidden in the walls and ceiling, which were also re-panelled in light grey and white to match the main shower area.
Brian Thompson, Founding Director of Black Book Leisure Consultancy says: “On peeling back the old walls during our preparation works we found that none of the showers were individually isolated. So we carried out a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ work on the pipes to ensure that if there is an issue with one shower, the club will no longer have to turn off the water for all 11 of its showers, making them far easier to maintain in the future.
“Our colour change from the club’s previous green walls makes the whole area look more appealing to use. We also re-located all the shower lighting, including poolside, so that guests no longer have to shower in a shadow.”
I
In the changing area, Safe Space Lockers installed new tops to the dry vanity areas, whilst new locker front doors give the whole area a fresh, more up-to-date feel. New bench seating was also installed.
“Whilst this was a relatively small project for Black Book and Safe Space Lockers, the impact on the look and feel of the Livingwell Health Club is significant.
Black Book Leisure Consultancy is the only Design and Build Consultancy on Hilton Hotel’s Supplier List, and we hope the Reading works demonstrate what hotels can achieve to give maximum impact at an affordable cost,” says Thompson.
Dominic Hyett is Managing Director of Safe Space Lockers, which is also on Hilton’s preferred supplier list. He says: “Our collaboration with Black Book and Hilton Reading has been incredibly rewarding; our high-quality, durable solutions align perfectly with Hilton’s commitment to guest experience and operational excellence, and we are keen to complete more projects together for Hilton hotels across the UK and Ireland.”
