Brighton Boutique Hotel

The Brief

A boutique hotel owner completing a full refurbishment of an 86-room property on Brighton’s seafront came to us with a specific and urgent brief: every guest room needed to achieve genuine blackout, certified to EN 13120 Class 3, installed within a six-week window during the hotel’s low-season closure.

The hotel’s online reviews had consistently cited light intrusion from the streetlit seafront promenade as affecting guest sleep quality. The owner needed a solution that was demonstrably better — not just a fabric upgrade, but a system that would eliminate edge light. The EN 13120 certification was required for the hotel’s brand standard renewal.

Our Solution

We specified motorised cassette roller blinds with full-width aluminium side channels for every room. The cassette conceals the motor and rolled fabric when the blind is raised; the side channels grip the fabric edges as the blind descends, eliminating the 3–5mm gaps that allow seafront light to penetrate standard installations. We used a charcoal-coloured Class 3 fabric that coordinates with the hotel’s dark interior palette.

Each blind is controlled by a mains-powered Somfy motor with a bedside wall switch that operates independently of the room’s main lighting circuit. The motor configuration allows the blind to stop at any position — so guests can use partial opening for diffuse morning light if preferred. All motors are preset to the fully closed position when guests check in.

Programme and Logistics

86 rooms across three floors, completed in a rolling programme over five weeks to allow the hotel’s maintenance team to complete other works in vacated rooms simultaneously. We ran two installation teams in parallel and completed a daily progress report to the hotel manager. Snagging was completed in week six before rooms were re-made for reopening.

All cassettes are powder-coated in RAL 7016 Anthracite Grey, matching the new window frames specified by the hotel’s interior designer. Cable management is concealed within the reveal on all rooms; no surface trunking is visible.

Result

The hotel achieved EN 13120 Class 3 certification across all 86 rooms, satisfying its brand standard requirement. Post-reopening review monitoring showed a significant improvement in sleep quality scores in guest feedback. The owner subsequently commissioned us for the hotel’s roof terrace pergola shading — a project delivered the following spring.