On the riviera, refurbishment happens one floor at a time, every winter, with a budget agreed in November and a reopening date that never moves. In twelve rooms of 14 square metres you need to fit four people and their suitcases, and that only works if you plan to the centimetre, using the room’s real measurements. You design and build bespoke furniture for family-run hotels in Riccione, Misano and Cattolica, with installation between January and April and delivery before the first arrivals.
One floor a year, over four years
The model that works here isn’t a full refit in a single season. It’s one floor a year, with the same design repeated, so that by the end of the cycle the hotel is coherent and the cost has been spread across four financial years. For that to hold, the design has to be locked in during the first year: the same timber, the same fabrics, the same handle, the same lacquer code. We keep physical samples and check them against every new batch, so the floor redone in year four doesn’t clash with the one from year one.
There’s a practical price advantage too. Making the same piece four times with the same tooling costs less than designing four different rooms, and the design work is paid for only once. The variables that really move the budget per room are the number of finishes and how repeatable the design is: in this bracket, a room refurbished with bespoke furniture, excluding bathroom and building work, usually costs between 3.800 and 6.500 euros per key, and above that threshold you move into choices that the local market doesn’t always repay.
Sleeping four people in fourteen square metres
The third and fourth bed are the reason a family chooses one hotel over another. There are three solutions we use most often, and they are not interchangeable.
The vertical fold-away bed built into the fitted wall unit, with a slatted base and a 14 centimetre mattress, frees up the room during the day and is what guests appreciate most. It does, however, need 40 centimetres of cabinet depth and a wall that can take the anchoring. The bunk bed costs less and takes up little space, but needs at least 75 centimetres of clear height above the top mattress, a guard rail that rises 26 centimetres above the mattress surface and a ladder with non-slip steps: below those measurements we don’t install it. The double pull-out sofa bed, finally, is the compromise for rooms that need to stay a sitting room by day, and it needs a model with a proper slatted base, because the cheap ones sag in the middle after two seasons.
Whichever solution you choose, the rest of the room has to change too. With four people you need at least 150 centimetres of hanging space, four usable sockets, two extra reading lights and a surface big enough for two large suitcases, not one. And you need room to move: in front of the wardrobe, with the door open, there must be 60 centimetres of clear space, otherwise the family ends up living sideways.
Small rooms from the 1960s and 1970s
Almost every hotel on the riviera shares the same layout: central corridor, rooms of 12 to 16 square metres, a continuous balcony facing the sea, an internal ceiling height of 2,65 or 2,70 metres, and a lift with a one metre by 130 centimetre cabin rated for 480 kilograms. The dividing walls are thin perforated brick, so the acoustics between rooms are poor: when we rebuild the headboard, we fit a 30 millimetre sound-absorbing panel on the shared wall side, which is the lowest-cost measure with the most noticeable effect.
The continuous balcony creates a privacy problem, which you solve with technical dividers and furniture that doesn’t invite guests to lean out: a low table and two seats, never a tall table. Salt air reaches the seafront rooms but is less aggressive than on the exposed Tyrrhenian coast: stainless steel fittings and powder-coated aluminium are enough, with the feet replaced every two or three seasons because of the sand.
Recurring work on riviera hotels
Single fitted wall unit
A 300 or 340 centimetre run with headboard, floating bedside units, TV, fridge, desk and suitcase compartment. A single piece that replaces five items of furniture and frees up 40 centimetres of walking space.
Fold-away beds and compliant bunk beds
Certified piston mechanisms, compliant guard rails and ladders, 14 or 16 centimetre mattresses and proper slatted bases, including on the extra bed.
Wardrobes flush with the corridor wall
In narrow layouts the wardrobe goes into the entrance recess, with a 45 centimetre hinged door and an internal mirror, so the guest doesn’t have to open it in the middle of the room.
Furniture for half-board dining rooms
80 by 80 centimetre tables that combine into four and six seat settings, stackable chairs with washable seat pads, service trolleys and mobile buffets for double sittings.
Reception and communal areas
Compact desks with a luggage hatch, a bar corner, and sturdy seating for rooms that handle a hundred people a day in summer.
The winter works, which last only a few weeks
Hotels close between late September and Easter, but the real work starts in January, once the staff have left and the maintenance schedule has been set. For a batch of twelve or fourteen rooms, installation takes between ten and fourteen working days, provided all the material is on site on the first day. With only one 480 kilogram lift, you have to plan deliveries in scheduled runs: the fitted wall unit broken down into three sections, the wardrobe in separate side panels, the top in two pieces.
The date that matters is when the goods arrive, not when the work finishes. To install in February, the order needs to have gone out in November, because lead times for bespoke furniture production stay at between eight and ten weeks, and by January the workshops already have the whole riviera queued up. If you decide in February for a May opening, you’ll only find stock solutions.
Hotels that stay open for trade fairs and spring weekends can still have work done, closing one wing at a time under the rules for installation while the hotel stays open, as we do for hotels in Rimini that follow the trade fair calendar. If you’re aiming for a category upgrade, it’s worth checking the requirements for a four-star hotel in advance, because some of them relate directly to the size and specification of the furniture, and there’s no point building the same piece twice. Send us the floor plan, the number of keys and the reopening date, and we’ll prepare a quote already broken down into annual batches.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to refurbish a room’s furniture on the riviera?
With bespoke furniture, excluding bathroom and building work, between 3.800 and 6.500 euros per key in the three and four star hotels in the area. Repeating the same design across several rooms brings the unit cost down significantly.
Is a fold-away bed better than a bunk bed?
From the guest’s point of view, yes, because the room stays clear during the day. It costs more and needs a wall suitable for anchoring. The bunk bed remains the right choice in rooms where the ceiling height is above 2,60 metres and the budget is tight.
Can I refurbish twelve rooms between January and Easter?
Yes, if the order goes out by November. Installation takes up two weeks; the rest of the time is needed for production. The risk isn’t the site work, it’s the queue at the workshops in January.
How do I keep the same style when refurbishing one floor a year?
By locking in the finishes and fittings at the first batch and keeping the physical samples. Before every new batch, we check the sample against the current production run, because batches of timber and fabric shift in tone over time.
Do you also furnish the dining room and communal areas?
Yes, and it’s often the first job to do. In half-board hotels the dining room takes more wear than the rooms, and a refurbished dining room shows up in every photograph of the hotel.