Hitech BIM Services - Home » Blog » How BIM services can benefit contractors for hotel construction projectsHow BIM services can benefit contractors for hotel construction projects
Contractors use BIM to solve and streamline design and operational complexities in hotel design and construction. From optimizing spaces and maximizing sustainability to ensuring user experience, contractors use BIM to its full effect in high-rise hotels.
In the hospitality industry, especially for hotels, profitability hinges on positive guest reviews and customer satisfaction index. To secure higher occupancy rates, hotels need to provide the best customer experience in comfort, service and food. This requires optimal functioning and maintenance of key infrastructural elements. Heating, air-conditioning, ventilation, plumbing, fire & alarm systems and proper entry & exit access are some of them.
With travellers worldwide roughly spending $830 billion a year for hotel stays, top-notch functional designing, engineered to maximize space and guest convenience becomes even more critical.
BIM holds the key to building sustainable and environment friendly high-rise hotels. Its unique capabilities of pre-construction clash-detection and coordination ensure seamless construction and installation for contractors. By offering better asset and facility management through BIM services, contractors offer hotels higher occupancy and an average daily rate (ADR).
Benefits of BIM services for high-rise hotel buildings
How contractors use BIM services to overcome common challenges in hotel construction
Early clash detection reduces rework
Clashes between architectural, structural and MEPF systems affect the functional value of hotel spaces. This leads to diminished client comfort and security (heating, air-conditioning, plumbing, electrical issues, fire systems, etc.)
BIM supports collaboration of multi-trades with tools like Revit and Navisworks during pre-construction stages. Viewing clashes in 3D digital environment helps designers resolve clashes before they handover the final construction documents to contractors. It also results in better design decisions, making the overall building design efficient, user-friendly and cost-effective.
Early interdisciplinary clash-detection and resolution of architectural, structural and MEPF disciplines in 3D BIM models result in a fully coordinated set of construction documents for building. Stakeholders can save on construction cost and time with reduced rework and hassle-free construction by adopting a BIM workflow at the pre-construction stage.
BIM workflow used by Hitech BIM Services
Accurate quantity take-offs and cost estimates
Conventional hotel construction without precise cost estimation, BOM and documentation sets and drawings result in rework, material wastage and hotel budget overruns
Building construction done with interdisciplinary clash-free BIM models ensures seamless construction with better material planning and estimation. This reduces building costs, resulting in zero hiccups during onsite construction. It also helps plan materials and costs in a better way.
3D BIM tools like Revit automate generation of accurate material takeoffs and BOM from detailed coordinated BIM model. 3D BIM models integrated with 4D scheduling and sequencing and 5D cost estimation help stakeholders gain accurate quantity takeoffs, BOQs and BOMs.
With greater project clarity derived from accurate estimations of costs and quantities, contractors can plan precise construction sequences. With reduced workflow clashes, there is minimal wastage of material and resources and greater savings of cost and time.
A US-based architectural firm needed to convert their 2D design data into 3D models for various trades. The team of BIM experts at Hitech BIM Services created an inter-disciplinary, clash-free coordinated BIM model with accurate BOQs in a short TAT of 6-7 weeks. This helped the client save on hotel construction costs and time.
Here is an infographic that shows how BIM solutions were implemented:
Non-invasive renovations with point cloud
Traditional renovation processes and techniques impede seamless hotel renovation, leading to discomfort in patron occupancy
Mapping existing conditions of a hotel building with laser scans helps stakeholders get detailed site information needed for accurate demolition and construction sequences. Renovation in hotels needs to cause minimum disturbance to guests and to regular operations.
With restoration information in Scan to BIM models, contractors can plan the movement of construction vehicles and equipment without blocking visitor paths. They can manage material storage and delivery schedules to avoid bulk storage on site. They can also map any modifications to be made in the hotel buildings in advance.
BIM-powered renovation via non-invasive scanning and point cloud modeling ensures smooth and seamless hotel construction, causing minimal discomfort to customers.
Easy repair and maintenance with BIM
Periodic maintenance and replacement of faulty parts or components as and when needed
It is crucial for all hotel systems to function at an optimal level to ensure client comfort. This requires all systems to be maintained and repaired regularly. BIM provides detailed information about the location of components which contractors or hotel staff can refer to during periodic maintenance.
In case of repair or replacement of any faulty part, they can backtrack or refer to the BIM model as and when needed.
360-degree visualization aids better space planning
Lack of spatial coordination between hotel spaces such as lobby, rooms, restaurant, parking etc. leads to unsatisfactory customer experience
BIM ensures better space management with spatial coordination for interiors and exteriors of hotel projects for better customer experience and ease of movement.
Detailed 360-degree visualization through 3D BIM models allows stakeholders to gain better clarity in terms of the functional requirements, the space sizes of various areas and their exact locations.
With BIM, stakeholders can plan all hotel areas to facilitate quick commuting of hotel staff. For example, guests can comfortably and quickly check-in and move their luggage to their room with minimal efforts if the parking space is conveniently next to the reception.
Hitech BIM Services created a coordinated BIM model for one of the biggest chain of hotels in USA. The four storey with four roofs included the storage room, laundry, and pantry, life style lounge, meeting room, guest rooms, fitness room and in-house pool.
The BIM experts at Hitech BIM Services created an architectural and structural model including HVAC, plumbing, Fire protection and electrical systems. The spatially coordinated BIM model saved construction cost and time.
Modular construction reduces carbon footprints
Since high-rise buildings are major consumers of energy, legacy methods lead to inaccurate and inefficient energy consumption and higher carbon footprint
The use of 3D models for their unique feature of energy calculation with precise material quantities allows stakeholders to learn of material requirements for optimum performance. This knowledge results in minimal material wastage.
In fact, contractors are increasing adopting the modular system of construction to cut material waste and streamline production processes with reduced energy consumption.
BIM-based modular construction also reduces onsite installation time, energy consumption and carbon footprint for hotel projects.
Using modular construction lowers emissions by cutting deliveries to construction sites by 90%
Creating digital twins of buildings for better asset and facility management
Digital twins for hotel buildings provide digital replicas to aid the construction project by accelerating and automating production and operational processes. Digital twins act as a bridge between the digital and physical worlds using connected sensors and IoT devices to collect real-time data about physical items. This data is further combined with context and processes to understand, analyse, manipulate, and optimize processes.
Digital twins facilitate hotel management to overcome facility management challenges like lack of visibility, lack of bi-directional control to investigate low level alerts and actionable data for data-driven decisions.
The spatial visualization offered by digital twins shows the root cause of problems and offers proactive maintenance. This ensures that guests continue to gain utmost comfort during their stay at the hotel.
Conclusion
Hotel construction project owners and contractors are increasingly adopting BIM for the host of benefits it offers. Detailed 3D insights into interior and exterior areas and spaces, to accurate quantity and cost estimates for every building element, makes BIM imperative for high-rise hotel construction.
Through enhanced team collaboration, advanced building analysis and reduced operation costs, BIM allows stakeholders to save on construction cost and time while conserving energy.
With optimized functioning systems and easy operations and maintenance, contractors can enable hotel owners to ensure that guests always have an outstanding experience.
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