Aparthotel construction in Batumi, designed for an operator

Aparthotel construction in Batumi starts with the question of who will let the rooms and how. Guests stay here from a couple of nights to several months and cook for themselves, so the building is designed around a kitchen in every room and around the operator's work, not as a set of separate apartments.

Aparthotel or residential building: what to decide before the concept sketch

From the outside an aparthotel looks like a residential building of five to seven storeys, but inside it works differently. In a residential building each apartment lives its own life, while the rooms of an aparthotel work as a single room stock: identical within a category, with shared linen, shared cleaning and a reception desk in the lobby. If you are still choosing between apartments for long-term rental and a room stock, take a look at how we build residential buildings of 3–5 storeys: their floor layout is different and their services are simpler.

Before the first sketch we agree on the essentials:

• how many apartments and of which types: studios, 1+1s, family units with two bedrooms;
• who the owner is: you alone, or several people, each with their own unit;
• whether an operator has been chosen and whether it has a room standard;
• whether parking is needed and where it will go on the plot.

The standard apartment sets the frame grid

The same unit repeats on every floor, so we fit the frame to it. We choose the column spacing so that one or two apartments fit between the columns without a column in the middle of a room. The kitchens and bathrooms of neighbouring units are placed as mirror images around a shared shaft: it carries the water, drainage and extraction for two apartments at once, and the shafts run straight from the basement to the roof.

The frame is usually cast-in-place concrete: the columns and slabs take the seismic load, and the infill between the columns is chosen for sound and heat. Walls between apartments are built solid, or as double walls with sound insulation, and the shaft access doors open onto the corridor: the operator's plumber has to be able to turn off the water without going into a guest's room.

We work out the storey height from the building services: ducts, cable trays and pipes run above the corridor ceiling, and below them there must still be a proper ceiling, with no boxing at head height.

The operator's standard and the common areas

An operator usually has its own standard: the floor area of each room type, what goes into the kitchen, the finishes, the locks, the TV and the Wi-Fi coverage. If the operator has already been chosen, its requirements go into the technical brief before the working drawings. The design book, from which any contractor can reproduce a room, is prepared as part of the room and lobby design.

An aparthotel has fewer common areas than a hotel, but the room stock can't work without them:

• a lobby with a reception desk or a self check-in area, and a luggage room;
• a linen room and a cleaning store on each floor or by the service lift;
• a laundry, if the operator does its own washing rather than sending the linen out into town;
• a plant room for pumps, tanks and distribution boards, with an entrance from outside;
• a place for refuse bins with vehicle access, away from the guest entrance.

How the operator then sells the rooms, splits costs between owners and runs the stock in winter is described on the page about aparthotel management. We don't promise income or occupancy: we build the building, and the operator lets it.

Shared building services

A kitchen in every room changes the electrical side of the building. On a floor area where a residential building would fit twenty apartments, an aparthotel puts forty studios, each with its own hob, water heater and air conditioner. We calculate the power at the concept stage and prepare the connection application straight away: if the network company needs a new substation, building it can take months, and they have to be fitted into the schedule. The hobs in the rooms are electric or induction, and if the boiler room needs gas, the gas service connects it.

Hot water is heated either by a water heater in each room or centrally. A water heater of its own is convenient when the apartments have different owners: each has its own consumption and its own breakdowns. Central water heating frees up space in the rooms, but needs a circulation loop and a hot water meter for every apartment.

The ventilation is shared: extraction from the kitchens and bathrooms runs through shafts with non-return valves, and supply air goes to the corridors and rooms. Without the valves, the smell of dinner from the first floor reaches the fourth.

Air conditioning is chosen together with the ownership scheme. A split system in each room is cheaper at the start and takes its power from the apartment's own meter, but every outdoor unit needs a recess or a bracket cage on the facade, with a condensate drain. A central system with the outdoor units on the roof keeps the facade clean and costs more, and if the apartments belong to different owners, its running costs have to be split between them, so the rule for splitting them needs to be agreed with the operator in advance.

At the inlet to each apartment we fit shut-off valves, meters and circuit breakers in the floor distribution board, and keep the access points reachable without removing tiles. After a few seasons the rooms will need refreshing, and they are renovated in blocks, riser by riser, without closing the whole building, as we do when renovating hotels that stay open.

Class of structure, lifts and acceptance into use

We determine the class of structure at the concept stage, together with the architect, from the building's floor area, height and structural layout: the class decides the permit procedure and the scope of the design. Guide figures for floor area and height are collected on the page about commercial construction, and by these figures a building of five to seven storeys as a rule goes beyond Class II, the class a private house usually falls into. We check the zoning rules, the number of storeys and the setbacks against the registry extract together with our partner lawyer.

The general permit procedure is described on the page about construction in Batumi. For an aparthotel the package is thicker: sections on fire safety, lifts and utility networks, with the technical conditions for connection. After construction we help with acceptance of the building into use, if its class requires it, and prepare the as-built documentation for it, and for the lifts the installation and commissioning documents. If the apartments will belong to different owners, our partner lawyer works out how they will be registered in the Public Registry before construction starts.

Construction sequence and timing

We plan the earthworks so that the open excavation doesn't stand through the autumn downpours. Then the frame goes up floor by floor, with a photo report of the reinforcement before every pour. While formwork is still up on the top floors, walls are already being built and risers run on the lower ones.

The first finished apartment of each type is inspected and accepted by you and the operator. We enter the comments into the specification before buying finishes and appliances for all the floors: fixing a mistake in one room costs less than in forty. The lifts are installed once the shafts are ready and put into service after commissioning, and the fire alarm is handed over as one system for the whole building.

For a building of about 3,000 m² on six storeys, the design and permit usually take us 4–7 months, and construction through to acceptance into use 16–22 months. The timeline for each stage is written into the contract.

How much aparthotel construction costs in Batumi

A turnkey aparthotel costs from 2,430 to 3,000 ₾ per m² of total floor area. The price includes the cast-in-place concrete frame, the facade, lifts, building services with spare power for the kitchens, and finishes in the apartments, lobby and corridors. Priced separately are furniture and appliances, underground parking, the operator's launch of room sales and the design: with all its sections, including fire safety, it costs from 125 ₾ per m².

For comparison, a low-rise residential building in white frame starts from 1,380 ₾ per m². The difference comes from the lifts, the shared ventilation, the turnkey finishes and the common areas. A passenger lift for 630 kg with 4–5 stops costs from 90,000 ₾ installed, and each additional stop adds to the price. Supply and extract ventilation costs from 205 ₾ per m², and furnishing one studio with furniture and appliances for short-term rental from 16,200 ₾.

The price goes up with underground parking, central air conditioning, many room types and an expensive operator standard. It comes down with a repeated standard floor and with kitchens and bathrooms grouped around shared shafts. We send a preliminary estimate based on the plot extract and the list of apartments within 24 hours on business days. The final cost is set on the basis of the design, after a visit to the plot and once the estimate is agreed.