Hotel rooms have a lot of rules, rules so deeply ingrained that you probably wouldn’t register them if you didn’t know about them. For instance – beds in hotel rooms cannot be against the walls. If they are, the hotel is instantly a “zero-star” hotel. The bathroom in a star-rated hotel room must include a bath, which can mean many hotel rooms will squeeze ever smaller and narrower baths in to maintain their star rating, even if the majority of their customers prefer to shower.
“Most hotel guests are not interested in bathtubs, and if you are in a house, you will happily put the bed against a wall to create more space,” says Bev King, founder, and owner of Z Hotels. “By breaking away from that orthodoxy, it allowed us to make the bedrooms smaller, but with more space. Guests can have a room, they can wash their face at the sink without touching the walls. We can fit a bedroom into the ten to eleven square metre range instead of needing 21 square metres. That doubles the number of rooms in a property.”
Size was not the only Rule of Hotel Rooms that Z Hotels decided to reexamine.
“People have been staying in cabins in ships without windows for years. We can design a hotel room to be comfortable without a window too,” King says. “By taking away that paradigm, we can use buildings that have spent their time as an office.”
By law, windowless bedrooms need a ventilation system installed, but Z Hotels goes a step further to install a ventilation system across every one of their hotel rooms, pumping fresh air throughout the hotel and changing eight to ten times an hour – more if the moisture sensor detects the shower has been used.
This approach opens up a lot of potential venues as modern offices have moved into what King calls “goldfish bowls” with open-plan layouts and huge windows. Buildings constructed in the 60s, 70s and 80s, with small modular offices, are not as suitable for this purpose anymore, allowing Z Hotels to take over those buildings and put in as many affordable, good-quality bedrooms as it can.
“That is how we have set our stall out,” says King. “A lot of the buildings we took were poor quality offices in A1 locations, and we converted them into comfortable hotels. We put together a good standard of components. We install a powerful shower, high-quality mattresses, duvets, and pillows. The room is fully air-conditioned and has a 50-inch LED TV with Sky Sports, Sky Movies, and more, all free of charge.”
Z Hotels’ rooms feature all the touch points of a quality hotel room, built to the highest standards, but in a smaller space, allowing it to offer a significantly lower price point at the sort of locations typically populated by Four Star and Five Star hotels.
“We are at enviable locations. You can find us on The Strand, overlooking Covent Garden, on Old Compton Street. We are just off Haymarket in Piccadilly, Fleet Street, 100 yards from Victoria Station. We have genuinely amazing locations, and location is critical,” King tells us. “All those individual components differentiate us from other hotel companies, especially considering the pricing of most of our properties. We offer exceptional value for money in a careful, considered way.”
Z Hotels, A-Grade Service
Of course, the hotel industry has had some serious challenges to overcome in recent years, following the Covid pandemic.
“A lot of the properties we had at that time were rented, and our rents were still due, so we had to negotiate deals with all of our landlords,” King recalls. “But the biggest challenge was keeping our team members fully engaged.”
From a team of 300 employees, Z Hotels managed to get through Covid losing fewer than ten people to redundancy, and when hotels were allowed to reopen Z Hotels opened all its branches as soon as possible. The pandemic demonstrated the importance of recruiting and retaining quality talent, and it has remained a relevant priority since.
“We have done solid pay reviews over the last two years, but after Covid, we gave everyone a 10% pay rise. We have since announced a 7% pay rise the following year, and then a 6% rise last year to make sure we pay a competitive wage,” King says.
As well as competitive pay, Z Hotels also holds numerous cross-company events, such as trips to see theatre productions and parties for Christmas and Halloween – even an “It’s a Knock-Out” tournament based on the 80s game show. That is combined with a selection of training programs, including a 12-week course for new starters and refresher and development courses.
“We promote all of our managers from within,” King points out.
Z Hotels’ managers have three tiers, starting with Guest Services Assistants, moving up to Duty Managers and Hotel Managers. All but one of Z Hotels’ Hotel Managers have come through the company from the GSA level up.
“I did a training course in October with the company’s top 30 managers doing a business simulation game,” King tells us. “I worked out that in the room we had 250 years’ experience between them in a 12-year-old company.”
That talent pool is important because service is a key part of Z Hotels’ value-for-money proposition. Its branches offer 24/7 service, and a small café for breakfasts, light lunches, and snacks. They even offer free cheese and wine for guests who book direct, or all customers on Tuesdays and Saturdays. However, King is keen not to distract from the brand’s core offering.
“Predominantly, we offer a good night’s sleep,” King says. “We don’t host functions. All our hotels are surrounded by the restaurants and cafes of London. We complement local businesses, but we don’t compete with them. We are literally somewhere to get a good night’s sleep and if you need a sandwich a pizza, coffee, tea or maybe a beer, you can have that.”
It is an offering that is appealing to a lot of people, and that is allowing Z Hotels to grow at a remarkable rate. There are currently 14 Z Hotels, and the fifteenth is currently being built near Leicester Square.
“The intention is we carry on growing, primarily in London for now,” King tells us. “Outside of London it is always challenging, but we are looking for more sites in London.”
