Hotel room numbering strategy - suites etc.

[tomnewsom]

We're doing a 200-key luxury hotel. Each lettable 'key' consists of at least three rooms - lobby, bedroom and bathroom. Some suites consist of as many as seven rooms - lobby, bedroom, bathroom, changing room, salon, study, WC.

So far, we've been using a room numbering scheme that goes (121.1) (121.2) (121.3) for the bedroom, bathroom and lobby of room 21 on floor 1, for example.

What I'd like to do is be able to schedule all the 'sub-rooms' of each suite as a single item. This lets me report the total suite area, the suite classification (eg. deluxe, superior) and so on. Conceptually, this would be like grouping the schedule by a parameter, then turning off itemise each instance.

I have a feeling the only proper way of doing this is by creating a shared parameter for rooms called 'suite number' but I don't really want to keep room numbers and suite numbers up to date. Is there a clever way to pick up the existing room numbers and group by the first three digits?

[KGC]

Don't know if this is the same thing, but i work on residence halls and the numbering is about the same. What we do is this:

The Unit (We typically have 6 different units), will have a bedroom, and closets, and sometimes bathrooms, each with their own room number. We assign the unit a number (Unit 101, Unit 102, and so on) and the rooms with in have an alphabetical labeling system. You could designate the rooms by a particular letter and keep that constant throughout the project. I have a parameter setup for my door schedule to break down the units to just show the room letter and not the unit number. So instead of 101A, and 101B, i have XXXA, XXXB. This allows me to just show this once on the schedule. This can worked around for your schedule too i believe.

Is that what you are looking for, or am i way off?

[tomnewsom]

More the other way round. The components of the suite vary quite a bit in area, finishes, size etc. So having a generic xxx.2 room designation for bathrooms isn't very helpful.

What I'd like is something in the opposite direction. A single schedule entry for 121.x which covers all the component rooms in suite 121. If there was a way of doing operations on strings in calculated values in schedules, that would be handy!

ie. truncate room number to 3 characters.

don't think it's possible :(

[KGC]

Yeah, that sounds more like a share parameter kinda deal.

[twiceroadsfool]

I wouldnt do it with shared parameters... Youre going to end up with data that you have to manually chase around, which will lead to inconsistancies somewhere. How are your rooms built? In a link, or a group, or just in the native file?

Regardless, i would use ROOMS as you currently are: for each room. i would classify the SUITES as a whole using AREAS, that way you can give them an area type, name, overall "suite number" (Area Mark Value) and you can schedule them all without messing with your room schedule.

We do this for tenant spaces. Rooms are Stock, sales, restroom, etc. Areas are "Tenant Space 140". Works very well, with a little planning...

[dhurtubise]

How do you measure the area? To the interior finish, center of wall, etc..

[KGC]

I wouldnt do it with shared parameters... Youre going to end up with data that you have to manually chase around, which will lead to inconsistancies somewhere. How are your rooms built? In a link, or a group, or just in the native file?

I guess i can see that. I will have to play around with that. Thanks


How do you measure the area? To the interior finish, center of wall, etc..
If you are using the room, the area is automatically calculated. I guess i should look to see where its taking that measurement as far as the finish goes.

[dhurtubise]

You have 4 options for calculating rooms area, i need to know which one he's using.

[KGC]

Sorry, that was a knee jerk response. I have never changed the way it has measured before. Guess i should look into those to see the differences.

[tomnewsom]

Actually, there are two area methods :D

1. To finished shell, disregarding columns, internal partitions, risers. This is to an international standard for hotel suite sizes. So far, this has been done by hand in the autocad set. The client has a rock-hard 40sq.m. minimum per suite on this measure.

2. To finish. This is net internal, to finishes, with no exceptions. It's the smallest area you can measure, and this is what the QS and contractor are most interested in.

So, it looks like 1. can be done with Areas, and 2. can carry on with Rooms. But now I have to draw loads of Area lines. tbh, I'd rather the Acad guys carried on with this exercise!

Of course, there's also no data link between rooms and areas. I can't say "Room 121.3 belongs to Suite(Area) 121"

[dhurtubise]

Of course, there's also no data link between rooms and areas. I can't say "Room 121.3 belongs to Suite(Area) 121"

You're right but you would only have to manually coordinate those so it's not a big deal (rooms can be turn on in Area view ofr easier coordination)

[twiceroadsfool]

Of course, there's also no data link between rooms and areas. I can't say "Room 121.3 belongs to Suite(Area) 121"

Maybe not, but there is LESS of a data link using an added SP than using areas. At least using areas, it will calculate the Suites areas for you, and you can catagorize them by type "Suite B" etc... And, it will at least perform the standard checks of asserting that you havent placed Areas with the same *Suite number*.

Using a shared parameter, youll lose all that Mark values do for you, including automatically populating. If you forget to enter the *suite number shared parameter* itll throw a schedule out to lunch, and you wont know.

Yeah, drawing area boundaries is lame, but use the pick wall tool, and theyll update for you...

[tomnewsom]

Cheers for the replies everyone. Think I'll give the Area version a go. Probably won't do the whole building though, just typical floors and the specials, to keep tabs on the magic 40sq.m. figure.

[twiceroadsfool]

How are you replicating the typical floors as it is? If its groups/links, just include the areas/boundaries in the links/groups... That is, if you need them all scheduled...