Hotels to spend $5 billion on makeovers this year

This year, hotels are expected to spend $5 billion on upgrades — a whopping 33% more than last year, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing a report from New York University.

As Hotel Check-In readers well know, hotel owners have had renovation fever for a while.

In our weekly Makeover Monday feature, we've been highlighting hotels that are revamping their guest rooms, lobbies, restaurants and spas. They're buying new furniture, sprucing up rooftop pools, updating VIP lounges, installing flat-screen TVs in guest rooms, boosting Wi-Fi signals and updating fitness centers. And in a move you may not see, but you definitely will feel, some older properties are finally spending the bucks to overhaul their heating and air conditioning systems to reduce their No.1 source of guest complaints.

The properties that are updating include properties with well-known names such as Hilton, Sheraton, Marriott and Holiday Inn and independent or historic hotels.

Some of the hotels are catching up because they postponed updates during the recession, while others have been getting it over with while business is slower than it should be next year.

Bjorn Hanson, a dean at New York University's Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management, told the L.A. Times that this year's renovation investment figure still falls short of the $5.5 billion they spent in 2008.

Readers: Have you recently checked into a hotel that just went through a noteworthy renovation? Tell us about it.