Overview
Scenario:
Hoy Hall Hotel Refurbishment Project
Note:
Hoy Hall, a historic, timber-framed building dating from the 17th century, was originally the residence of the Lords of the Manor of Hoytown. The building is registered as a Heritage Building of Special Interest and is subject to restrictions in terms of development. Used as a hotel for over a century, it has recently fallen into disrepair, and for two years it has been completely unused, accelerating its deterioration. The local community has formed the Action Group "Hoy for Hoy Hall" to save the building, and wants to be closely involved in its future success.
After much discussion Hoy Hall has been purchased by Architecture Angels (AA), a small company whose directors are experienced hoteliers. Five years ago they decided to move into the property renovation business and have recently restored two other similarly-endangered buildings for use as hotels.
Architecture Angels are keen to both support local businesses and to have local people run their hotels, giving them a significant amount of autonomy to do this. To maintain core consistency, the hotels use Architecture Angels' Head Office services, such as IT operations, accounting, payroll, stocktaking, compliance, human resources and property management. The Head Office is based 80 miles from Hoy Hall.
Recently Architecture Angels commenced an Agile project to renovate Hoy Hall, which has a large downstairs hall and reception area, and 20 potential bedrooms upstairs. The roof requires extensive repairs and the electrical and plumbing installations require complete replacement. The 40 acres of land around the site are overgrown and need to be restored, and the driveway needs re-laying.
In the hotel industry, the trend for direct customer bookings via the internet has had a major impact on the growth of those hotels with this facility. Online booking now accounts for around 80% of room bookings, with only 20% being made via walk-in and telephone enquiries. Before Hoy Hall can open for business, a reservation system must be fully operational.
Architecture Angels use contractors to manage such work and have good relationships with two local companies: Timber Tigers (TT) who will handle the internal works, and Earth Excavations (EE) who will handle the gardens.
A Project Manager, who has since left the company, started the Feasibility phase. This phase has been continued by the Senior Management Team, which consists of the Sales, Marketing, and Finance Directors and the Chief Executive. This was scheduled to take a month and has almost been completed. A Feasibility Assessment has been produced. An Outline Business Case has been completed which assessed the project as being viable.
The Architecture Angels Senior Management Team will be responsible for Steering the project.
The table below shows the appointments planned for the project team and is subject to change.
Additional Information:
The project is approaching the end of Feasibility. The original Project Manager was involved in drafting a Delivery Plan for the project but not in the outline refurbishment options.
The Senior Management Team generated several options for the refurbishment. All the options included a landscaping solution for the gardens and re-laying of the driveway, as the solution will not be acceptable without these. However, the best solution for the refurbishment is still under debate. The new Project Manager has suggested that a Feasibility Prototype could consist of paper-based drawings for each option. The "Hoy for Hoy Hall" Action Group thinks that a physically-built representation is mandatory for a prototype and wants a small-scale model of the recommendation for the building. The time available to produce this, however, is limited.
Contracts for resources have not yet been signed and will be postponed until the chosen outline solution has been agreed.
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