Bedfordshire’s most treasured historic house has recently been brought to life in a multi-million pound refurbishment to become one of England’s finest spa hotels, Luton Hoo.
The building itself is grade 1 listed so when it came to the interior refurbishments, only the highest quality specifications would complement the elegant and opulent architecture. Central to the hotel’s requirements were its facilities encompassing the bars, restaurants and brasseries.
Looking for bar equipment that offered synergy with its interior, yet still providing high performing and durable bar applications, IMC provided the service and quality Luton Hoo was looking for, and as an under bar specialist, IMC was able to fulfill the brief to fully equip all the bars in the hotel and leisure areas.
Luton Hoo’s renovation to become a leading luxury five star hotel began in 2005 with the aim to offer luxurious surroundings for guests with state of the art facilities that blend with its historic setting.
The brief for the bar areas was to provide the highest quality bar equipment that would work with its surroundings while remaining customer focused and functional.
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Luton Hoo has four bars and restaurants all of which offer a range of catering outlets. From formal dining rooms to informal brasseries, and has dedicated individual bars for each unique area of the hotel.
The bars include a functional ‘spikes’ room for golfers that contains a brasserie style bar and in the main house, a fully functioning restaurant bar that requires bespoke bar equipment to serve their catering needs.
The hotel is both classic and contemporary and while guests in the hotel require an ambience of times gone by, they also require the very latest in technology and equipment to cater for modern day needs.
IMC’s Mistral refrigeration and stainless steel Bartender systems were chosen because of their sleek appearance and easy to clean features allowing it to be maintained to the same pristine condition as when it was first installed.
At Luton Hoo, the customer is always the staff’s first priority and having face-to-face contact with customers while serving a range of drinks is paramount. IMC’s work-station concept allows bar tenders to be in direct contact with the customer throughout the drink serving process enabling them to build rapport with the customer and to reflect the intimate and homely atmosphere of the hotel.
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From the bottle coolers, till units, ice chests to bottle bins and waste units, bar tenders can serve drinks while having everything to hand and at most, just a few paces from the serving area.
This is unique in the way it is designed but also in how the separate units allow ease of installation providing a hygienic and extremely functional system while providing a stylish solution.
The entire bar scheme was designed with the customer and quality factor in mind. Unique bar areas have been fitted with ease and to the highest caliber. A drinks cabinet style bar area in the hotel’s snug, aims to give the impression of being more of a private credenza, however is still highly functional and efficient for staff to serve drinks and includes waste units and a stylish preparation area that complements the ornate architecture.
Luton Hoo C and B Conference and Banqueting Operations Manager, Mark Bierton says: “When it comes to Luton Hoo, quality is what we want our guests to experience and IMC has been able to provide bar equipment that is inline with our overall vision. All the equipment was fitted by HCE who made the equipment really come to life into fully functioning bar areas. Our staff have been trialing the bar equipment and have been most impressed by not only the quality of fittings but the usability aspect of how they are able to ‘work’ the bar station while remaining in contact with the guests, something that is a unique service offered by IMC.
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