The reopening of London’s savoy Hotel has been delayed until “early 2010”, following complications in the £100m restoration programme.
The iconic hotel had originally planned to reopen in May this year, but announced in February that the project would not be completed until the autumn, and has now pushed this back to the first quarter of 2010.
The latest delay has been blamed on “two key factors”, namely the poor condition of the hotel’s services infrastructure, and the discovery of original design elements that needed to be protected. Said a spokesperson for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts (which will manage the property):
“We discovered that much of the services infrastructure (water, heat and power) was in a far worse condition than we had anticipated. In most cases, the pipeline and electrical networks had to be completely replaced and of course, this is such invasive work.
“Secondly, and more encouragingly, as the restructuring works 'peeled back' layers of history, original design elements were revealed that had been hidden for decades, and it was important that these were either protected or, in some cases, incorporated into the new designs.”
In other news, Fairmont Hotels is to open two new five-star properties in Abu Dhabi and Vancouver in the next six months. The 369-room Bab Al Bahr Hotel is due to open in the Arab state in the next eight weeks, while the Fairmont Pacific Rim is slated for January 2010.
For more information visit fairmont.com.
