Mandarin Oriental

In June 2018, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, completed one of the most extensive renovations in its 115-year history throughout the entire hotel. Internationally renowned designer, Joyce Wang, oversaw the redesign of the rooms, suites and public areas, taking inspiration from the hotel’s royal heritage as well as the glamour of the early 20th century’s Golden Age of travel. The most notable element of the £70m upgrade was the creation of two brand new penthouse suites featuring private terraces with extensive park and city views.

Mane was contracted by existing client, Vinci Grands Projets, parent company of Vinci Construction UK, to assist in the supply of labour and skilled tradespersons to build these new penthouses over a two year period.

With a price tag of up to £17,000 a night, it was vital that the accommodation was completed to an incredibly high specification. This was a particularly interesting job which required niche specialist talent to be sourced internationally: professional marble installers were brought in from Italy while guilders were instructed to trim the rooms with gold. Mane was tasked with supplying skilled tradespersons including carpenters and tilers to ensure that all jobs were carried out with the very best finish.

Thanks to the quality of talent supplied, Mane worked on the project throughout to the very end. At its peak, the recruiter had 40 skilled tradespersons on site at any one time. The team made weekly site visits, attended communication meetings and went on regular walk-throughs.

In order to ensure that it was able to provide superior talent for this high-end project, Mane not only made sure that it was offering good contractor rates while remaining competitive from the client’s perspective, but also employed a stringent assessment process. The background and CVs of prospective candidates were considered with quality of work in mind, and references were questioned on quality of finish. 

The client was extremely impressed with Mane’s service offering. So much so that the recruitment company has been lined up for the client’s next hotel job – a large scale hotel new build in Mayfair – with Mane involved in the bid process.

 “Mane have been supplying an array of staff to our project at the Mandarin Hotel. I have found working with Mane, in particular Paul and Chris, a smooth and hassle-free experience. The staff supplied are consistently to a high standard and I will continue to utilise the services of Mane on our next contract.”

Sharon Palmer, Office Manager, Vinci Grands Projets 

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