Geelong Novotel’s $3.5 million makeover.

The Geelong Novotel is getting a complete refurbishment.

It’s the Novotel’s first major renovation since it opened in 2001.

The total cost of the makeover will be $3.5 million and it will see every room getting an upgrade.

Work has already begun and the Novotel has already unveiled the results on one of the floors of 22 rooms.

The project is now fully underway and all of the hotel’s 109 rooms are scheduled for completion in November.

Novotel Geelong general manager Bryan Dennis said the work is being done carefully and methodically.

The refurbishment, he says, is being carefully staged.

To minimise disruption for guests, it will be one floor at a time.

And the hotel’s management is doing it keeping the community in mind.

Every stick of the discarded furniture is being donated to Samaritan House Geelong and the Salvation Army.

“We opened in 2001 and we wanted to retain our position as the number one hotel in the number one location in Geelong.” Dennis told realcommercial,com.au

“Every room is being totally gutted and dully refurbished with a new paining scheme, new furniture and bedding.”

The renovation work is being done by Harris HMC.

And the Elsie + Betty Design firm is doing the interiors.

It’s taken a lot of work. Dennis says the Novotel has put in two and a half years of planning to get it right.

“Our first floor is back online and we’ve had a lot of rave reviews,” he told realcommercial.com.au.

“We have a lot of repeat customers and it’s a whole new world for them. It’s something they have been looking for.”

And he says the Novotel is already booked up for Saturday nights with an 80 to 81 per cent overall occupancy rate.

The refurbishment is all part of a shake-up in the area with the global brand Holiday Inn signing an agreement to open and operate a new 190-bed hotel at 44 Ryrie St, Geelong.

Leon Getler 8th June 2018.