Hospitality Business: The Facility Maintenance and Systems—Case Study: The Building and Exterior Facilities
Facilities and Maintenance Systems for Hospitality:
This case study involves the process and decisions required to comply with a hotel’s 10 year capital plan to seal coat the front driveway and parking area every 2 years and the possibility of building an additional parking lot for the hotel facility.
This property is a 670 acre historic resort in southern Michigan with 2 four star championship golf courses, 263 rooms, 34 suites, and 27,000 square feet of convention space.
Seal coating includes sweeping of the drive and lot, filling all cracks with a solvent based filler, applying 2 coats of asphalt sealer, and finally re-striping the drive way and parking area.
The challenge encountered by the Director of Facilities was that he had to find a way to put a product on the asphalt that required 24 hours of drying time in an environment that was open for business 24/7. This driveway is the only direct access to the entrance of the hotel and main parking area from the main road. He also had to consider temperature. The asphalt companies are closed from November thru March. This is due to the fact that the petroleum based products will not cure in temperatures below 50 degrees. In April the planning began.
The plan was to complete the seal coating before the busiest time at the resort. The resort is busiest from May through October, so the timeline for completion is very short. Another factor to consider was the annual Ladies Professional Golf Association Tournament (LPGA) scheduled at the resort for June 19-22. It is important for the property to look it’s best for the anticipated 20,000 guests that attend this function.
The present parking lot for the facility has space for 500 cars. The owners would like to add on 400 additional spaces in an area across the road from the present lot and hotel entrance.
1. What operational considerations (alternate parking, delivery schedules, guest access, etc.) need to be considered for the coordination of the seal coating project?
2. Since the main parking lot will be relined after the seal coating, how many ADA compliant handicapped spaces will be required for the main lot, if any? How many handicapped spaces if any will be required for the new parking lot?
3. While seal coating the main lot the facilities director would like to take advantage of the down time to correct some drainage issues. He has two main concerns, sheet flow and open channel flow. Explain what each type of flow is and how each type of flow needs to be accounted for on the property in and around the parking areas.
4. When considering the construction of the new parking area what are the advantages and disadvantages of choosing concrete versus asphalt? Which type of surface would you choose for this new parking area?
5. When considering the construction of the new parking area what would be the important structural features of the ground and surface? What structural feature would you consider to be most important in the ultimate successful performance of the parking lot area?
6. The present parking area and driveway also provide the only access to the loading dock and garbage dumpster area. There has been some problems with asphalt buckling in that area. What would be your recommendation for correcting this problem if any?
7. Considering that this issue with seal coating and re-striping is a regular maintenance issue occurring every two years, create a plan that takes into account the time of year, events and needs of the hotel while creating the least amount of downtime and disruption.
Representation of the hotel property, not drawn to scale. This is provided only to give you a visualization of the property and the issues involved.