Hotel safety steps

Press, 21 October 1980, Page 6

Hotel safety steps

The' future of the United ’Service Hotel 'seems assured with the installation' of- a fire sprinkler system and plans for redecoration, of the interior.

The Licensing Control Commission . had threatened to withdraw- a hotel licence for the 95-year-old building because; it did not meet the fire code.

A deadline last April for fire safety to. be’, improved was not met, but the commission .agreed. to .allow a further six months for the necessary work to be completed. The hotel’s ' manager (Mr W. H. Menzies) said yesterday that sprinklers had been installed on the fourth floor and would be on each of the hotel’s six levels by the end of next April.- *•’: The cost of the system would be about $lOO,OOO. Mr Menzies said. An arrangement to meet this' cost had been made between the hotel’s two lessees, Idris Freeholds. Ltd. and United Service Hotel 1978, Ltd. -. (The sprinkler system pijpes were being installed so they would be inbisible in the public areas of the hotel. Special care would be taken, on the first floor not'

to damage the decorative old cornice work, Mr Menzies said. Redecoration would start on that floor, and eventually include the three accommodation; floors. No. structural changes would be made to the hotel’s

I interior, but new carpets, : wallpapers • and paintwork were planned. “We want to t keep it in the traditional ' style,” he said. The redecoration, costing between $75,000 and ; $lOO,OOO, would take up to > 18 months to complete.