Displaying a cutting-edge mentality is a hallmark of the hotel industry. Whether that mentality involves operations, financing or marketing isn’t the issue. What matters is the hotel industry presents opportunities to be bold—like Ellsworth Statler was during the early 1900s when he installed elevators and in-room bathrooms in his hotels; like John Portman was when he designed the Peachtree Center in Atlanta half a century ago; and like the financial geniuses behind commercial mortgage-backed securities were 20 years ago.
There are numerous other examples of bold thinking in the hotel industry. A more recent one is fueled by the age of the Internet, and it’s ironic the time-lapse video of China’s Broad Group constructing a 30-story hotel in 15 days came during the same week HotelNewsNow.com is looking at design, architecture and construction trends in the hotel industry.
The stories we have today focus on construction costs, the impact of the opening of the present-day Marriott Marquis in Atlanta 50 years ago and the state of construction financing. None of them specifically deals with building a hotel as quickly as they do in China, but we’re happy to know there’s so much interest in building hotels these days.
For those wondering if the T30 Hotel building in China is safe, reports indicate it can withstand a 9.0-magnitude earthquake—important to note because the building is in Hunan province, which is no stranger to earthquakes.
According to the company’s video, the hotel features four-pane windows and is five times more energy efficient than a typical hotel. Two hundred workers reportedly worked around the clock to assemble the hotel. The not-so-secret process behind the speedy build out is the use of pre-fabricated sections made at off-site factories. Given that the company built a 15-story hotel in six days last year, and that Broad Group’s Zhang Yue told news.com.au it will be building 50 buildings a month using this method by 2014, we can expect China’s hotel supply to continue its rapid growth.
I’m as skeptical as anyone when it comes to believing everything I see on the Internet. Not that I’d want to see it, but I wonder if the real-time footage of the 15-day construction process is available. My attempts to reach someone at the Broad Group failed, so I’m not sure I will ever find out.
Taken at face value, the time-lapse video reveals Broad Group is a company taking charge and providing a solution to challenges the hotel industry faces. Whether the fast-paced construction process ever takes hold elsewhere in the world remains to be seen. My guess is it’s a bit too radical to quickly achieve widespread adoption.
But let’s not lose sight that the hotel industry is full of innovation and cutting-edge thinking. That’s one of the things that makes it so interesting.
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