Per-key cost is the number every hotel owner and investor in Leeds wants first, and it is also the one most often quoted without saying what it includes. The honest answer is a range, driven by the grade of hotel, the state of the building and how much of the bathroom and services you are replacing. Here is how the figures typically break down, and what moves them on a Leeds project.
For the guest room itself, including the en suite, finishes, joinery, loose furniture and the room's share of electrics and plumbing, these are sensible planning figures for Leeds at the moment. They exclude VAT, professional fees, corridors and public areas.
Leeds labour rates tend to sit slightly below Manchester and well below London, but materials, bathroom pods and furniture packages cost much the same wherever you build. Treat the ranges as a starting point for a budget, not a quotation.
Two quotes can differ by £10,000 a key simply because they are measuring different things. Before comparing prices, check whether each one includes the items below. FF&E means furniture, fixtures and equipment, and it is frequently priced separately from the building work.
Ask too whether the figure allows for a mock-up room. Building one complete sample room before the main run costs money up front, but it nearly always saves more by catching design and coordination problems once instead of 100 times.
The building matters more than the finishes. A new-build shell with clear floor plates around the city centre or the South Bank is the cheapest place to fit out a room. Converting a Victorian office or warehouse, of which Leeds has plenty around the Calls, Park Square and the station, usually adds cost: uneven floors, irregular room sizes, limited riser space and, in listed buildings or conservation areas, restrictions on windows and services routes.
Bathrooms are the single largest element, often 30 to 40 per cent of the room cost. Factory-made pods work well where rooms repeat and there is crane or hoist access, but in converted buildings with tight access a traditional build is often the only option, and it takes longer.
Room count matters as well. Fixed costs such as site setup, design and the mock-up room are spread over every key, so a 30-room scheme will normally cost more per key than a 150-room one at the same specification. Finally, working in a hotel that stays open means phasing floor by floor, restricted noisy hours and extra protection, which can add 10 to 20 per cent.
Start with a measured survey and an intrusive look at the existing services, particularly in older city centre buildings where asbestos, tired pipework and undersized electrical supplies are common. If you are working to a brand standard, give the contractor the full specification early, as brands differ sharply on acoustic performance, bathroom finishes and furniture.
Ask for the price broken down per key and by element, with FF&E, preliminaries and contingency shown separately. Central Leeds sites have tight delivery windows and little storage, so check that logistics are priced. A contingency of 5 to 10 per cent is sensible for new build, and 10 to 15 per cent for a conversion.
Usually not. Per-key fit-out figures normally cover the guest room and its en suite only, with corridors, lifts, public areas and back of house priced separately, so always ask what is in and what is out.
On a well-organised scheme each room takes around four to eight weeks from first fix to handover, with several rooms progressing in sequence. A 100-room fit-out in Leeds typically runs for six to nine months, depending on the building and whether the hotel is trading.
A soft refurbishment that keeps the bathroom and services is far cheaper. Once you are replacing bathrooms, heating and cooling and wiring in an older Leeds building, the cost can match or exceed a new-build fit-out because of strip-out and the surprises found behind the walls.
Tell us about your site or scheme and we will come back with a route to delivery, whatever stage you are at.