Vos and Sons completes renovation to provide hot breakfast area in 10 days
GTA Construction Report staff writer
Upgrading to meet the new standards of its parent brand, Comfort Inn Barrie has expanded its breakfast service and modernized its lobby with a fresh new look.
General manager Laura Kogan says the hotel, originally built in 1984, made the change in response to Choice Hotels’ (Comfort Inn’s parent company) new standard for hot breakfast. “We previously had breakfast service out of the main lobby but there wasn’t a lot of space and we couldn’t accommodate the menu options we now currently offer,” she explains.
Vos and Sons Contracting demolished two guest rooms and their accompanying washrooms and created a new opening to connect the new ‘hot breakfast room’ to the main lobby. “It’s a very noticeable difference visually,” says Kogan. “And now we’ve been able to expand our service to include regular and flavored waffles, hot eggs and bacon or sausage to our offering of cereals, yogurt, breads and pastries.”
Peter Vos, owner of Vos and Sons, says he is helping other Comfort Inn locations make the same transition. “Many locations are having to take on renovations to accommodate this change. In the case of Barrie we gutted the two rooms, added a servery and updated the lobby with a new granite desk and flooring,” he adds.
Vos, whose company specializes in hotel work, says: “Hotel work is special. You want to get the hotel back up to full operation as quickly as possible so that can mean working seven days a week for a month at a time to get the job done. You can’t start before 8 and have to be cleaned up and done by 5,” he says.
Vos will send his staff of 20 across the country as needed because many clients would rather pay travel expenses to know they have someone who can not only do the job, but work closely with the hotel staff to minimize revenue loss from disruption, and treat the hotel guests with respect.
“Our clients have an expectation of consistent top quality work, executed in tight timelines. Completing a project of this scope with a 10-day turn, as we did in Barrie, is something we manage on a regular basis,” he says. “I work with a millwork company out of Shediak, New Brunswick called Glenwood Kitchens who I know can get me what I need and on time. These projects need a team effort to get done on time and we have that team in place.”
Kogan says the renovation is beautiful and she is pleased to be able to offer this expanded service to the hotel’s clients.
