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The Swan Hotel
Harleston

In this episode you got to see John Rice’s work again, with great results and a charming Hotelier to work with, Robin Twig who has a really pleasant hotel supported well by his local community. A real social hub in the town of Harleston, Norfolk.

John Rice, with our team had the beams, bench seating and brickwork sandblasted to show the period beauty. Also the ceilings and walls in the reception, restaurant and bar areas were repainted brilliant white. Then new curtains were made in a ‘Tudor Rose’ style yellow patterned fabric. Then the flooring was also replaced with a thick pile green pattered carpet. The main bar top was redone in a semi matt lacquer and period and historic artefacts were positioned on the walls including a selection of 2nd world war plane components from the local air museum which included a deactivated German incendiary bomb probably dropped on London during the Blitz and an air canister, part of of a Mosquito fighter plane. Historic pictures of Harleston were donated by the Harleston Museum and displayed on the walls in white frames.

The Rose & Crown
Wisbech

This period Hotel steeped in ancient history in the sleepy market town of Wisbech looked unwelcoming to any passing trade. Appearing not to want to show its true period splendour to the outside world. But instead was cloaked in ‘Victorian Clutter’ (modern day mess). Alex Polissy got to work with Jonathan the Hotelier whilst John Rice worked on a scheme to make the entrance areas more inviting, better showcasing the period features. A beautiful panelled room was eventually cleared and redecorated in a mid grey colour so as to best showcase the period panelling, shuttered windows and fireplace. A neutral grey commercial grade floor covering was laid in the entrance areas to complement the scheme and twenty tub chairs in a contrasting checked fabric were positioned around to make guests feel they had entered a welcoming space. Period furniture and ornaments were used to add more grandeur to these historical areas. And fresh flowers helped brighten up the mid grey walls in the reception and panelled room. The transformation was dearly needed to entice new interest in this historical country Hotel.

John Rice with The Hotel Inspector Episode 5: The Swan Mon 3 Aug 2009, 9pm on Five Thu 6 Aug 2009, 11pm on Fiver Alex visits the 14th-century Swan Hotel in Norfolk. With 15 empty bedrooms and a deserted restaurant, the Swan is struggling to stay afloat. Can Alex breathe some life into this lame duck?
Robin Twigge bought the 14th-century Swan Hotel in Harleston seven years ago. Despite 30 years of experience in hotel management, Robin has failed to turn this ugly duckling into an elegant swan. Still unrated by Visit England, the Swan has never managed to turn a profit. With 15 empty bedrooms and a restaurant that is lucky to get 30 covers a week, only Robin's bustling pub trade is keeping the establishment afloat. A filthy entrance greets Alex on her arrival at the hotel, and her first impressions of the rest of the Swan are distinctly underwhelming. Inside she finds an unmanned reception, no guest lounge, threadbare carpets and urine stains on the bathroom floors. At breakfast in the pub-style restaurant, Alex quickly discovers the reason few customers are willing to eat there - with 30 dishes on the menu there is no way the food can be fresh. Alex sits Robin down and tells him the unpalatable truth - he needs to decide whether he wants to be a landlord or a hotelier. By ignoring his 15 rooms, and letting the restaurant drown under the weight of such a huge menu, Robin is turning his back on two potentially profitable areas. First, he needs to start focusing on the guests' experience at the Swan by cleaning and checking the rooms on a regular basis. Next, Alex will create a new guest lounge and give the restaurant a facelift. Finally, his menu needs to be pared down and he must begin to use fresh, local produce. On her return, Alex is pleasantly surprised by the hotel's spruced-up exterior. She also discovers that Robin has halved his menu, which now features local dishes such as Gressingham duck. The hotel inspector then reveals her plan for taking the business forward. It is essential that Robin achieves a three-star rating in order to increase the number of guests. Once the restaurant has been redecorated, Robin must organise a launch to showcase the new menu and revamped surroundings. Alex's plans leave Robin with a lot of food for thought... Unfortunately, when Alex returns for the relaunch the Swan is in chaos. The restaurant has only just been completed, and with 30 invited guests - as many in one sitting as the restaurant normally gets in a week - the kitchen descends into pandemonium. However, whilst the kitchen is in crisis, the graceful front of house ensures the guests do not notice the confusion next door. The restaurant relaunch and refit is a huge success - but the hotel must now achieve the all-important three-star rating... Alex arrives for her final visit to discover that the Visit England assessor is already at the hotel, investigating the revitalised rooms with Robin. But a forgotten alarm call, missing newspaper and dirty bedding could scupper everything. Will Robin get his three stars? Or is the beleaguered manager destined to remain a publican with a hotel, rather than a hotelier with a pub?

John Rice with The Hotel Inspector Episode 4: Rose and Crown Mon 27 Jul 2009, 9pm on Five Fri 31 Jul 2009, 8pm on Fiver Award-winning hotelier Alex Polizzi resumes her quest to salvage some of Britain's worst-run hotels and bed-and-breakfast establishments. As the granddaughter of Lord Forte and the niece of Sir Rocco Forte, Alex has all the industry experience and authority needed to turn flagging hotels into profitable ventures.
Alex visits the market town of Wisbech, where the 300-year-old Rose and Crown is in crisis. Can the hotel inspector convince owners Jacquie and Jonathan to eliminate the mountains of paperwork strangling their business? Ex-antiques dealer Jonathan Davies and former nurse Jacquie Noot purchased the 300-year-old Rose and Crown four years ago. As one of the few hotels in the pretty market town of Wisbech, they hoped the 30 en-suite bedrooms, two local restaurants and priceless town-centre parking would attract a host of visitors. Sadly, the Rose and Crown has no guests, and its future is looking bleak. Upstairs, the initial assessment of the Rose and Crown is not too bad. A surprised Alex deems the bedrooms more than adequate. But her impression changes when she sees the ground floor - the exterior is shabby, the public areas are unloved and the car park looks like a scrapyard. As the investigation continues, Alex becomes more and more irritated. It is clear that Jonathan is unable to get rid of anything. His mountains of paperwork and 'antiques' are ruining what could be a beautiful building and killing off any potential business. A furious Alex calls a meeting with Jacquie and Jonathan. Rather than revealing her plan to get the Rose and Crown blooming again, Alex delivers an ultimatum: unless she sees significant changes to the chaos devouring the hotel, she will walk away from the project. Jonathan and Jacquie are given just one month to get their hotel in order. When Alex returns, she is pleased to see signs of progress in the car park, hotel frontage and even the office. However, she also discovers that Jonathan is not responsible for any of the changes. Alex calls another meeting and tells the couple that if the improvements continue and the office is cleared, she is willing to help them. Her plan is to revitalise the ground floor area by making it a more appealing and attractive place for guests to relax. Alex asks Jonathan to organise a relaunch as soon as the work is complete. She hopes freeing up the public spaces will allow guests to see the Rose and Crown as a hotel rather than Jonathan's dump. On her next visit, Alex decides to give Jonathan and Jacquie a master class in how a well-run hotel is managed. She takes them to the George, a successful hotel nearby, to show Jonathan that he needs to change his ways and clear the clutter out of his life. Jonathan seems impressed by his tour, and there is hope that Alex is getting through to him. But is Jonathan really listening? When Alex returns for the final time she discovers that yet again Jonathan has done nothing. Despite his lack of effort, however, the office has been cleared. The whole of the downstairs reception area is now a bright, beautiful set of rooms open for public use at last. But Alex is horrified to discover that all the rubbish from the old office has taken over a room normally used for meetings. Jonathan is also an hour late for his own launch party.

John Rice With The Hotel Inspector

We are very pleased to announce that John Rice our chief designer has been enlisted to help Two Four Group with their TV Hotel makeovers for the Channel 5 hit show ‘The Hotel Inspector’ which is currently presented by Alex Polizzy.

Naturally its all under wraps until aired on TV later this year. So all that can be said is that somewhere out there, John Rice is helping transform Alex’s vision for these ailing businesses into an interior scheme fit to breath new life and excitement into these historic national Hotels.

Our picture shows the TV crew at work on the hit show at a secret location in the UK.

LOMME (Light Over Matter Mind Evolution) - Cycle13 Lomme Bed, the product that won the Red Dot Award in 2008. At Berkeley Design & Build were all excited about this amazing product and are pleased to be able to specify it on current and future projects. Their design team at Lomme could not be more excited, the first product from Cycle13 a Liechtenstein based design company won the most recognised award in the world for design “ and we haven’t even started” said Agnieszka Bernacka, head designer
and creator of The Lomme Bed, “we are busy getting Lomme into full scale production as well as creating new lines and products to compliment the range”. Also in September 2008, the directors and Cycle13 team, were amazed at the positive response the Loome bed got at the 100% Design show at Earls Court in London. The Lomme Bed then went on to feature in ‘Grand Designs Live’. Lomme was conceived in Camberwell college by Agnieszka Bernacka when she dreamt up a concept for sleep, “a place to go and relax, a safe, protected place” she quotes, it is the result of a BA hons in design and a project idea that came to fruition when she set up her company together with Edward Fitzpatrick in Liechtenstein. “ We wanted a safe place to manifest this idea and we found it in Liechtenstein” says Bernacka, the combination of art, design, functionality and Liechtenstein is unusual but also a stroke of luck or divine inspiration as they met the team needed to bring the Lomme to market. The Lomme team truly has got what it takes in attitude as well as great ideas.

Eternal Elements – Metal, Stone & Water

Bathrooms & shower rooms have to withstand extremes of temperatures and conditions, going from steaming hot to cold and damp.

Fixtures and fittings have to be of excellent quality to withstand the test of time and retain their unblemished looks.

So what better backdrop to these quality bathroom & shower room products could you find than NATURAL STONE.

What better value and great looking stone could you use other than our favourite – travertine. It is figured with swirls and loops and textured beautifully. This stone comes alive when coated with a quality stone sealer. To create a tranquail and holistic space, we not only clad the floors but also the walls.

This small but perfectly formed shower room in your home would offer guests a luxury feel more suited to a five star stay in a sumptuous hotel. Its timeless elegance for generations to enjoy, at bath time.

Home Offices Have Never Looked This Good Before? Executive home office workstations can look bland and predictable, but this could never be said when describing ‘Hali Fun at Work’, the Austrian firms spectacular 700 series desk. It is available in wenge or zebrano veneer finish and has a full cabling system hidden deep within its innards to power all the desk top gadgets and gismos you’ll ever need. With a blend of modern minimalism and seamless design, this desking system would even make your cleaner feel more
important providing that is they also sat on the beautifully crafted 007 Bondesque Frag Canouan white leather chair.

Canopy Homes Honest Modernist Living for Real Families Over the coming months we will be launching a new wing of the business which will focus on modern ‘Canopy Homes’ These are homes that will let you explore the elements from a birds point of view, way up amongst the trees lush foliage. They will give a true feeling of open plan loft living even when sited in rural vistas. Built from materials such as wood and steel which will patinated beautifully into their new environment amongst the leafy trees. These homes have been built in other countries in limited numbers however, our mission is to bring them to the UK and makeing them affordable for people to purchase or rent. We will be looking to streamline the many hurdles that may arise with planning and green belt issues offering truly eco homes, which will blend beautifully in their rural and coastal surrounds. For many years now new built homes have been unimaginative and geared only to fatten the profits of the developer and investor, giving scant regards for ‘real families’ and their genuine home needs. We wish to address this by challenging
normal pre conceived architectural ideas by offering affordable eco homes offering modern cutting edge technology whilst blending seamlessly into their natural environment. These houses move the modernist home well and truly out of the 1960’s, where this country last visited true modernism for the masses, screaming and kicking into the 21st century. These houses will look stunning in the country and coastal areas, however we will also be offering them in urban settings too. Though, land prices will take them up to the mid end of the executive market when sited in Central London. So we hope this dawns a new era of honest modern homes for all of us to cherish and enjoy.

Home Automation

With the demand for modern technology to be seamlessly integrated into peoples homes we have recently added true specialists in this field to our ever increasing team. As technology moves so quickly, we believe in thinking ahead when doing our projects. We like to make sure our qualified electricians run all the necessary cabling for future technologies.

What we have learnt it is a relatively small cost when rewiring a property to make sure additonal cables are factored in at this stage and can be accessed at a later point if and when new technologies become available.

Fully integrated lighting systems like Lutron, enable the you to simply press one button, dim all the lights, close blinds, turn on a projector or music system, etc.

Technology now allows us to have endless media sources in every room and other spaces in and around our homes, which can be accessed from anywhere in the world if needed. We are only limited by our imagination.

Complex systems can now incorporate simple user access to all your homes electronics and services, whether you are flying home from abroad and wish to turn on your heating system via your mobile phone or you just want to remotely set the right mood and ambience for that special occasion.

Whether it is a simple home cinema setup or a full home automation configuration using the latest hardware from top end brands like Bang & Oulfson and Naim audio, etc we are able to deliver.