Is it Time to Renovate Your Meeting Room?

Meeting room renovations are en vogue right now. A quick read through Google News turns up plenty of examples of meeting room providers and hoteliers investing in upgrades. Considering that your business center is in competition, in part, with hotels it’s important to stay on top of the industry trends.

Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco Chicago just completed an event space renovation featuring bold colors, playful textures and nods to the building’s rich history. Located on the third floor, the new meeting and event space offers 4,100 square feet.

What’s more, Kimpton is getting creative with services. Meetings are enhanced by the convenience of Monaco Chicago’s “Concierge on Demand.” Upon request, the concierge station can be moved to the third floor, strategically placed to be on hand to make reservations, arrange transportation or answer any other questions during meeting breaks or post-meeting.

Meanwhile, Millennium Hotel Minneapolis just reopened after a four-month, $22 million renovation, according to the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal. The renovation included the 22,000-square-foot meeting space. The flexible meeting facilities, event spaces and friendly staff can accommodate all manner of events, and ensure everything runs smoothly. Notice again the service angle.

And according to International Meetings Review, the Hotel Omni Mont-Royal in Canada just completed a $20 million renovation that includes 10 flexible meeting rooms that can be used for events ranging from board meetings and conferences to black tie galas. Starwood is also undergoing a $400 million renovation at several of its properties. And the list goes on and on.

So, with all this in mind is it time to renovate your meeting rooms? How do you know if it’s time to renovate? Here are a few things to consider:

1. All meeting rooms will face wear and tear. Sometimes that means a quick repair. But other times you need to renovate. If the ceiling is crumbling or the walls are cracking, if the chairs are creaky and the technology constantly glitches, it’s time to renovate.

2. Meeting room trends come and go, but if you’ve sat idle during the past several office design trends your meeting room probably looks retro – and not in the positive sense. You don’t want your clients walking into a meeting room that looks like it’s straight out of a 1980s soap opera. It’s time to renovate.

3. If you are retooling your marketing program to target a new audience, or if the demographics in your community have changed, you need to make changes to handle the needs of potential tenants. It’s time to renovate.

4. If you are going to renew a long-term lease and you haven’t renovated in a while, now may be a good time. You may even be able to get tenant improvement dollars from your landlord to help foot the bill.

Have you renovated your meeting rooms late? Do you plan to? What would cause you to make the investment?

Image: Meeting rooms in Wilshire Boulevard, LA