Renaissance’s first hotel opens in London

The six boutique bedrooms - priced at £119 including breakfast - are spread across the third and fourth floors of the venue , with super king, king or twin beds, Egyptian cotton linen, a rain shower or roll-top bath, an HD Freeview television, free wireless internet, Nespresso machine, black-out curtains or blinds, mini-fridge, kettle and safe as standard.

Design​

Renaissance co-founder Tom Peake, who took care of the design alongside artist Adam Ellis, interiors expert Hannah Lindsay and design firm Conchord BGW, talked to BigHospitality about the difference between designing a pub and hotel rooms.

“Everyone - me included - thinks bedrooms are easy, without all the technical details such as EPOS and so on. But actually, it’s amazingly complicated. Every light switch has to be placed very precisely to allow for all the other furniture.

"You also realise you need to spend tens of thousands on acoustics and putting extra layers of sound-proofing. It goes very quickly from popping six bedrooms above a pub to this really complicated project. It’s been painful but I’m really pleased how they’ve turned out and the feedback has been good.”

The rooms’ interior is consistent with the pub’s, with exposed bricks that give them a modern industrial feel, but are completed with roman blinds and fitted upholstery on the armchairs for a more boutique and luxury feel.

“There’s definitely a good connection between the rooms and the pub. It ties in in terms of premium, not on price but on quality. Our pubs have a premium offering in terms of menus, at a reasonable price. In the rooms we spent a lot of money on the comfort and the beds. If the bed’s not comfortable, no matter what else is going on in the room, you’re not going to come back, so we made sure we invested in proper beds, pillows, duvets and sheets, and double-glazing to avoid the sound of traffic,” added Nick Fox, another of the Renaissance owners.

Location​

Having been attracted to the idea of running hotel rooms for years, the Renaissance trio (including Peake, Fox and Mark Reynolds), chose the Tommyfield for its location, a mile from the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and the US embassy.

They expect the bulk of their customers to be tourists or business people in town for a night, but wanting a more unique experience than they can get with chains.

Moving forward, Renaissance would like to open more rooms above its pubs, with the recently-reopened Latchmere and the Rosendale on top of the list.

“Assuming that the Tommyfield rooms go well, we’d definitely like to continue. There is scope at the Latchmere and the Rosendale to possibly add rooms, so it’s definitely a direction that we’d love to move in more and more,” Fox said.