Hotels and leisure operators could be using time available to them now – when Covid-19 restrictions minimise footfall – to look at upgrading their interiors and fit outs so that when custom returns to normality, users are greeted with sophisticated design schemes, which meet their modern expectations.

However, budgets are tighter than ever, with the long-term impact of the Coronavirus forcing businesses to look at how to conduct renovations using cost efficient technologies and suppliers that deliver value for money.

Manufacturers and distributors that have quickly adapted to the new needs of the sector are now offering grouped product solutions, which work in harmony to easily modernise hotel and leisure spaces, without the need for major renovation or construction works.

Häfele, for example, has designed its Loox, Dialock and Sliding Door Gear solutions to complement one another, providing operators with sleek technologies that can be retrofitted to existing furniture, whilst creating a more engaging experience with added elements of comfort and security.

Dialock, the electronic remote access control system from Häfele, provides a mixture of reassurance and convenience to hotel users, enabling them to open entrance doors, drawers, wardrobes, gym lockers, meeting rooms and other storage equipment in a contactless capacity, using a single electronic key via a smartphone app.

The entire system consists of just six components, which can be quickly and easily installed using plug and play technology, enabling a hotel user to control all door and furniture locks at the touch of a button.

Elsewhere within a hotel building, Dialock and flow control technology can work together, enabling access whilst potentially limiting the number of people entering communal spaces such as reception areas, restaurants and leisure facilities – those which must meet government guidance on social distancing.

Meanwhile, within a guest’s room, Dialock and electronic systems can sync up to create a feeling of seamlessness and continuity that demonstrates that the design scheme has been deeply considered.

For example, Häfele’s Loox LED lighting system offers a modular, flexible solution to illuminate furniture, but works together with Dialock using motion sensors and automation to light up spaces as and when a user wishes to access them.

Low-profile enough to be almost invisibly fitted to the drawers, wardrobes and cabinets, Loox lighting switches on once a guest uses their Dialock app to gain entry, and switches off once locked again. As a plug and play system, Loox can be retrofitted and is compatible with international drivers, switches and system components meaning it can be rolled out with uniformity for global brands wanting to revamp all of their premises.

Additionally, users can control furniture lighting systems like Loox via an app, allowing them to change the colour and brightness of a room, depending on their mood, time of day or activity, to increase their own comfort.

There’s an urgent need to review the fit-out of hotels, looking at how technologies can improve health and safety but also create designs which will be relevant long after the pandemic has passed.

If operators choose to use the time available to them now – when travel and leisure are restricted – to make the necessary changes using manufacturers whose product groups enable time and cost-efficient installation, they can reap the benefits by offering their customers both futureproofed and futuristic spaces.