The characterful buildings at the former Seelig barracks were enormously appealing to De Rooi Pannen in their search for the ideal site to house the training programmes they wanted to offer. One such building is ‘Het Arsenaal’, which has become the training hotel with help from Inspirium. In this hotel, real guests are received, and students get the chance to gain experience in a practice-orientated learning environment.
Distinctive training
Micha Wijngaards, director of De Rooi Pannen in Breda, says enthusiastically: “To keep on attracting future students, you must be just as distinctive in training as one is in hospitality. With the help of Inspirium, I think we've achieved something that's right and tells a story. That's expressed in the rooms, restaurants, and even in the meeting rooms. The building dates back to the 1700s, the period that Napoleon was in power in the Netherlands [translator: please check the date of Napoleon's occupation]. We've brought back that history with a modern and luxurious look by using materials and details from the period. For instance, copper edging on the tables and copper lighting fixtures, but great attention was also paid to colour schemes and look by the partners of Inspirium, and they went to extremes to bring the underlying ideas to life. With a splendid result".
Future employee
Wijngaards: "It's very special to see how it has such a pull factor. We see guests come in and their mouths fall open. You can't call this just a school anymore". But it's not only the guests who are so enthusiastic. "The students are also extremely happy. Thanks to the furnishing and total concept, we now receive a very diverse public, which includes international guests. That makes for a very realistic and dynamic practice situation.
Wijngaards adds: "Everything is done for the hospitality employee of the future. We have here a magnificent school and a magnificent building in which to practice. That's what you give your students. They'll be working in 5 years' time, and you want to give them the best. And that's exactly what we do".
He is most grateful to Inspirium for their role in realising the training hotel. Wijngaards: "Having just one point of contact during a project like this is really an asset. It ensured we could act much faster and that we were unburdened. It is simply taken care of".