Value with verve
Unveiling the eye-catching and rousing ibis Adelaide in August 2014 perked up the economy hotel sector in Australia. The intelligent and edgy ibis Adelaide is arguably the most innovative economy hotel that has been built in this country.
Ibis is part of the worldwide economy hotel operator Accor that offers consistent quality accommodation and services in all of its hotels and Accor is the forerunner for Australia’s next era of economy hotels with the opening of ibis Adelaide.
Established in 1974, ibis is the European leader and one of the first economy hotel chains in the world. It has 1012 hotels in 59 countries and is known for offering guests the best local value, a well-designed and fully-equipped bedroom, major hotel services available 24/7 and on-site food and beverage options.
The ibis standard has been recognised by the International Organisation for Standardisation certification ISO 9001 since 1997. Ibis is also the world’s first hotel chain to demonstrate its environmental commitment by securing the ISO 14001 certification that has already been awarded to one third of its hotels.
Ibis Adelaide is located at 122 Grenfell Street just a short stroll from the city’s famous shopping and dining precincts. It is the first new-build ibis to be developed in Australia since 2008, following on from the successful ibis Sydney King Street Wharf development.
It certainly made some waves in the industry when it opened its doors in August after a $70 million build by the owners, Hines Property group. The development is part of a major expansion of the ibis brand across Australia. With its striking floor-to-ceiling glass street frontage and focal futuristic LED-lit multi-coloured glass staircase, even passers-by know that this hotel offers something very different.
Beyond its stunning first impression, there are cool artworks by street graffiti artist Ghostpatrol waiting to be discovered. In another Australian first for ibis Adelaide, Ghostpatrol, was specially commissioned by the hotel, he has had a number of solo exhibitions as well as collections at the National Gallery of Australia and Artbank.
Channelling notions of urban space, travel and fantasy, Ghostpatrol’s extraordinary visual world has been perfectly presented at ibis Adelaide. Ibis Adelaide’s general manager Nathan Frost said, “It was really exciting and inspiring to work with an artist like Ghostpatrol. His work pushes social boundaries much like Ibis Adelaide.”
The hotel certainly aims to push boundaries, from the playful interior design to the verve of the graffiti art. From the relaxed and friendly staff wearing converse shoes to the latest Samsung in-room technology. This juxtaposition of ideas, design and atmosphere is very new and very exciting. “The hotel represents an exciting new phase of economy hotels in Australia, making the experience both fun and unexpected,” adds Mr Frost.
Ibis Adelaide’s interiors are modelled on the new ibis global design aesthetic created by Parisian designer Atelier Archange. This successful international architecture and design studio produces high quality, contemporary graphic design and furniture. Here at ibis Adelaide they have created a mischievous and light-hearted arrival impression with their use of colour and LED lighting and they have added a welcome and warmth with the over-sized timber clad barrel lights that hang from the ceiling and the natural oak panels on the walls.
Cheerful staff welcome guests with ease inside the comfortable reception area and to the side of the lobby is a “chill out zone” that allows guests to sit and catch up on their emails, check their phones or just take a breather.
Upstairs is a communal bar that spills over onto a balcony and hangs over the bustling Grenfell St below. The restaurant has designer features such as Bentwood and Kartell Comeback chairs and a beautiful and stylish wall length mural featuring a black and white Parisian sketch.
Hines Property group contracted Workspace Commercial Furniture for the manufacture and installation of the 311 guest room’s interiors, which equates to nearly 4000 pieces of custom-built furniture. The guest rooms have been cleverly designed and furnished to maximise space and function. Sleek and minimal with a neutral colour scheme and dark wood accents that serve to highlight the stunning Ghostpatrol graffiti artwork that is the hero of the room.
Yardley Hospitality supplied the very impressive Samsung 690 series smart TVs that are featured in every room. According to Frost the technology is an absolute standout and “is the smartest one-stop-shop for accessing everything from the restaurant’s menu and on-demand entertainment to internet enabled TV apps”.
The rooms facilitate and ease the burden of the modern traveller; to meet all their advanced technological expectations and to heighten their comfort. The room has been ingeniously designed with a compact desk, a Philips LED lamp with USB ports and a very comfortable adjustable desk chair for those business trips.
The quality of guests’ sleep is and should always be a hotel’s main priority and here the accredited Sleep Maker delivered the Sweet Bed by ibis to every room. The beds also feature an LED backlight that allows for maximum comfort and a bit of night time reading.
For their business travellers, the hotel also contains small meeting facilities that can be opened up for larger groups. There is also a guest laundry and well-equipped, high tech gym facilities featuring the latest Technogym exercise equipment with Bluetooth capabilities also onsite.
It took a great amount of work and much preparation by Accor and the whole ibis Adelaide family to achieve a smooth transition from the opening phase to operational phase, Mr Frost explained.
He said, “It is always hard when learning new product however the training that we have given our team is clear, as the customer service and feedback that we are receiving from our guests has been exceptional.”
It is very surprising that the team faced no setbacks through the process and Mr Frost admits that preparation was key to their success and that from day one all of the prepared systems were operational “to the point where some of our guests feel like we have been open for much longer than two months”.
The general response from guests and locals about the property has been very satisfying with guest opinion shooting the hotel straight to number five on TripAdvisor. Guests say that they love ibis Adelaide because of its clean, quirky and modern design, its location and especially the value for money that it offers.
Mr Frost said, “Weekends have been very busy for the hotel thanks to the AFL being played at Adelaide Oval and a lot of this market is made up of South Australians coming into town to watch the game and stay the night.”
The Adelaide locals have also really taken to the property, with the conference rooms and corporate lunches being in very high demand with the local businesses. The bar is also proving very popular with nearby office workers who like to lunch on the balcony while watching the world go by. The ‘affordable chic’ and distinctive design of ibis Adelaide is different but also very approachable and user friendly. With its unique entrance and unconventional lobby, advanced levels of technology, high quality furnishings, bedding and the in-room facilities.
As it is in a prime central business district location, it is a superb package at an affordable rate. The successful format of the opening of ibis Adelaide will be continued.
The chief operating officer of Accor Pacific, Simon McGrath said, “The strategy to consolidate Accor’s economy hotel product in one ibis ‘megabrand’ has been the key growth driver for Accor’s economy product in Australia. The three megabrand brand tiers of ibis, ibis Styles and ibis Budget has fuelled the new wave of investment in economy hotels. With 60 ibis hotels now in Accor’s economy hotel network with the opening of ibis Adelaide, this density delivers both scale and strength behind the brand.
“Ibis Adelaide will be followed by two new ibis Styles hotels in Western Australia and Queensland and a further three ibis branded hotels scheduled for announcement shortly.”
Mr McGrath continues, “Europe and America have seen major advances in the ‘affordable’ hotel category, and Accor is making a major impact with Australian travellers who want contemporary style, convenient locations and a reasonable price.
“The new ibis Adelaide adds vitality to Accor’s economy megabrand hotel network and with its street art and edgy design it is the new face of economy hotels. Innovation and growth is essential to the future success of this industry and the distinctive ibis Adelaide certainly serves to inspire.”
Yardley Hospitality has been serving the industry since 1999 supplying hotels, motels, apartments and tourist parks throughout Australia. Their speciality is their deep understanding of the unique needs of this industry and being on top of every new trend and development. This has garnered their long, successful history of providing a wide range of products from many leading brands. They supply only the highest standard of products and were able to tailor a complete package of electrical appliances to suit the needs of the remarkable new ibis Adelaide.
According to Paul Yardley the managing director of Yardley Hospitality the ibis Adelaide purchased the Samsung HG40AB690QWXXY hospitality TV.
He said, “This model is part of Samsung’s smart TV series. A key feature is the connectivity via screen mirroring using Samsung mobile devices or wireless using Samsung/other branded mobile devices. Allowing guests to use the TV to display the content supplied by a phone, tablet or PC. This is ideal for applications such as Facebook, U-tube, Internet access and media files etc. The 690 series’ wireless access point can connect up to four devices and provide internet access in the room via a cabled connection.”
According to Yardley the hospitality range of Samsung TVs were selected due to their hotel friendly features with hotel lock mode and their ability to work with the hotel’s in-house VOD system. There is also the flexibility for other systems to be connected, if required at a later date. The TV has hospitality features such as “hotel logo display” with a time out setting and welcome message which can be displayed every time the TV is turned on and he states that at only 6.5cms deep the TVs are slim and stylish designs that enhance Ibis Adelaide’s rooms. They also include a three-year warranty.
Ibis Adelaide also selected from Yardley Hospitality the Philips 69195 LED desk light with touch dimmer and two USB chargers, the Philips AJ3123 stylish radio-alarm clock with a built-in FM radio and the Philips HP4935 hand held hair dryers for their 311 guest rooms.
Workspace Commercial Furniture create space, style and functionality
Hines Property Group contracted Workspace Commercial Furniture for the manufacture and installation of the 311 guest room interiors, this equates to over 4000 pieces of custom built furniture. The highly respected name in Australian furniture, Workspace Commercial Furniture can trace its history for over 100 years, having been originally established in Adelaide as T H Brown Furniture in 1911.
Workspace Commercial Furniture has a solid reputation for quality in the industry that they proudly maintain due to their state of the art manufacturing plant located at Melrose Park Adelaide that covers over 12,500m² and employs over 130 employees nationally. This includes its interstate warehouses and showrooms located in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide and Workspace’s head office and large scale manufacturing plant is located in Adelaide.
Adrian White is the national manager for hospitality projects and he is very happy to be associated with ibis Adelaide and this “significant project that supports Australian manufacturing and the state economy”.
Mr White explains, “The project supports Adelaide’s economy and also Australian manufacturing with approx. 90 per cent of the manufactured furniture items being produced at the Workspace Adelaide based factory.”
Given the overall design brief, Workspace Commercial Furniture worked hard to ensure that the style, size and finishes of the furniture delivered the desired look, sense of space and functionality that was required for the rooms. Some of the more unusual requests, Mr White explains, were the “LED light strips integrated into the bed head with dual switching for continuous lighting or a user only section”. This stunning design feature is especially guest friendly.
The finishes used to create the sought after feeling of warmth and welcome throughout the hotel are Laminex Nuance texture grain. This gives a realistic wood grain feel and it coordinates especially well with the neutral modern colours that were selected. Mr White added, “Workspace also supplied many furniture items for the public areas, restaurant banquette seating and back of house office products.”
Workspace’s accredited large scale manufacturing plant supplies commercial projects nationally and internationally and it specialises in various market sectors that include hospitality, office, aged care, health care, bespoke, and education projects. Due to this large manufacturing capacity Workspace had the capability to successfully meet the unique requirements of ibis Adelaide. Mr White concluded, “Our strengths lie on our turnkey services that control product design and development, production planning, right through to in-house logistics and installations.”
Sleepmaker delivers the Sweet Bed by ibis
Providing high quality sleep for their guests is promoted as being one of ibis Adelaide’s main priorities, so to ensure they purchased the correct bedding for the job they worked with the accredited and highly respected Sleepmaker to deliver the Sweet Bed by ibis to every room.
Sleepmaker is one of Australasia’s largest bedding companies, with over 300 employees across Australia and New Zealand and a proud history that spans over 70 years. Sleepmaker Commercial Solutions has achieved the highest reputation for developing superior quality technologically advanced bedding solutions for a range of industries. The development of continuous coil systems, pocket spring and technologies reflects our commitment to developing superior products.
Sleepmaker’s website states, “We listen to our customers and aim to develop products that match their requirements. Our commercial solution offers superior quality, competitive prices, durability and satisfaction.” With this company assurance Accor developed the ibis Sweet Bed in conjunction with Sleepmaker for the ibis Hotels and Sleepmaker manufactures the ibis Sweet Bed exclusively for ibis Hotels in Australia.
The ibis Sweet Bed is a specially designed bed that consists of three pieces: a low profile pocket spring mattress with a matching topper and a platform base all designed to work together to produce a great night’s sleep. Michael Anderson is the national commercial account manager for Sleepmaker and he said, “All ibis Sweet Beds are made in Australia, and incorporate our special Australian made low profile pocket spring designed for ibis and made using One Steel.”
The ibis Sweet Bed also features a unique Climatex Quilt this is a breakthrough sleep surface that combines newly developed DreamFoam with premium high loft fibre. “DreamFoam’s unique cell structure” Mr Anderson explains is “an intricate web of fine and highly uniform bubbles”. These bubbles make it “more breathable than regular bedding foams, thus promoting less heat build-up”.
Revolutionary DreamFoam is made using cleaner production methods and the latest European technology. There has never been anything like it in Australasia before and it is the winner of the Green Ribbon Award 2010. So this ibis Sweet Bed mattress is superior when compared to other mattresses using standard quilting foams and this is not only because it is greener but because DreamFoam is also “resilient, luxurious and durable”.
Ibis Adelaide chooses world leading lock technology
Onity, the world’s leading provider of electronic locks, in-room safes and energy management solutions provided the locking equipment for ibis Adelaide. Geoff Sherrard is the sales manager at Onity and he said, “Onity offers a full spectrum of advanced facility management technology with an integrated range of products and a vast global support network.
We provide the power of real solutions and reliable support to maximise the efficiency of your operations today and into the future.”
For the Adelaide ibis project Mr Sherrard said, “We were asked to price our locks and equipment by the builder Watpac, mainly because we had worked with the project manager on a previous project that ran very smoothly.” He explained that a meeting with the architects was set up to discuss our range of locks, a specific lever (Toledo) was chosen to be used with the HT series locks that have RFID technology.
“The architects discussed our proposal with the clients, Hines, and the hotel operator, Accor, and once the tender was complete Onity was confirmed as the supplier of the HTRFID ANSI locks and SK2 energy saving devices used for the project. The client and operator also confirmed that they also wanted to use our OS200 in room safes and VL30 mini bars for the project, thus giving a complete Onity package.”
The sophisticated HT RFID lock technology supplied to ibis Adelaide by Onity ensures that guests have a trouble free and easy stay using contactless keycards that mobile phones will not demagnetise. This installation was stand alone, meaning that no wires required. The lock is also programmable for specific needs such as: a meeting room or a variety of housekeeping needs.
The high quality and flexible Onity mini bar supplied to all the guest rooms offers the hotel the opportunity to increase revenue. The user friendly Onity in-room safe is one of Onity’s newest electronic safes, it has a very high level of reliability and functionality, so this makes it the perfect choice for ibis Adelaide.
Onity also supplied their wall readers in the ibis Adelaide lifts to provide individual floor control so that guests are only able to access the floor level they are assigned. Onity have local service agent in Adelaide who installed all of the equipment and who also services the equipment for the ibis Adelaide when required.
