Hotel Renovator - PC Review

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I am so happy to be talking about Hotel Renovator, one of the many games soon to be released by the development team at Two Horizon and published by Focus Entertainment. This game is to be released today (March 7th 2023) on Steam for £20.99 with other entries lined up such as Aqua Park Renovator and Camp Builder coming sometime in the future.

Hotel Restoration, Lawsuits not included

I have had this game on my wish list for a while now, being a simulator games lover. Mainly ones based on occupations like House Flipper, or Gas Station Simulator. When I saw that I could renovate and manage my very own hotel I was happy to see what I can create with the tools, furniture, and colour palettes I would be able to use in this game.

Gameplay

The premise of the story is you inherit an old run-down hotel from your late Grandfather. A sandbox mode is also available to play as well which gives you access to everything. Both require you to pick one of the four assistants; Yumiko, Sandra, Max, and my personal choice the charismatic, lovable bot BB101. Their main job will be to watch the desk and check customers into the rooms that become available after being fixed up. Before any of that starts you must get rid of the local nuisance, (who is a random chicken that roams the halls) and throw her out the window. Don’t worry though, she does return with a vengeance and dice weirdly.

A selection of four individuals, with text below of a brief introduction of who they are. a yellow box with the highlighted character selected. — Who will you pick to help run the show?

Now to the best part; the renovation of the rooms. You will be tasked with destroying any old furniture that remains. Some valuables like paintings and chairs can be sold for a little extra cash to help you out. The tools at your disposal at the beginning are a simple sweeping brush and crowbar. When you hold down the left mouse button with the crowbar you will be able to destroy large patches of floor, ceiling, and walls in seconds. Later on, you can upgrade to the amazing sledgehammer which can do whole sections of walls in one swing.

After you have de-cluttered and cleaned the room you get to move on to the more creative aspect of the game. When designing the walls you will have a variety of wallpapers and paints to choose from, all with their own colour palettes and designs. I found it great that I could choose to select a single square of a wall to paint or the whole wall. You can be a bit more creative and use the spray paint feature to graffiti the wall. In story mode not all of the items will be unlocked, that was not an issue with a large number of decorations I could use already with the full creativity that was offered. All furniture can have its colours, wood, and fabric changed to better fit your ideal rooms.

A menu showing the colour and palette it belongs to selected and a hand holding a pencil which serves as a cursor pointing to area of wall to be painted. one side is a clean set of blocks in a white paints, on the right it has been spray painted in red. — Art isn’t my strong suit.

During each renovation, there is a checklist of basic items each room will need for it to be functional for guests to stay in. Some guests will ask for personal requests that are optional, like asking for a certain shade of wallpaper or a particular set of branded furniture. When done with your renovating you can now book in your guests, let them get comfortable, and when they are happy they will leave you a nice tower of tips!

A table holding a small pile of bills that have also fallen onto the floor and is shining. A bright red carpet helps make the black furniture stand out next to a closed window. — Here’s a tip for you.

As the story progressed, I was happy I could fast-forward time to make the guests come and go, so that I could get a steady flow of income. Random events happen now and again, mainly ones to do with a soon-to-be guest asking you to add stuff to a pre-made room, like a surfer who simply wanted a surfboard placed in his room, or you may have to fix a leaky pipe or capture a ghost that is scaring the customers.

A woman's portrait with a text box asking you if you can fill a small request for privacy, behind the box is the lobby with a man wearing a cowboy hat and blue shirt with hhis back turned to you. — Never boring around here.

As you progress in Hotel Renovator you’ll earn a new rank that unlocks more guests and furniture of higher quality. The furniture will help to improve the overall comfort level for your customers. Later in the game, you can start to unlock quality-of-life upgrades, such as room service that will clean rooms after each guest leaves, or dynamite to help clear a whole room so you don’t have to go through the whole trouble of destroying the room with your trusty sledgehammer again.

A focused look at the chicken who is challenging the player to a dice battle and is surrounded by a dark green with yellow text in the upper left area and a murkier green with dark text in the lower right. — Bring it on!

You can find golden eggs scattered around the hotel that will give you money. I have not played much of the overall story of Hotel Renovator as I had gotten lost with decorating. The story behind your Grandfather is interesting and I cannot wait to uncover more. I had an issue that whenever I left a room, the previous room’s checklist wouldn’t tell me what I’d finished there. This could be fixed by simply reloading the save.

Graphics and Audio

The colour palette and fabric selections were spot on. None of them made my eyes hurt and I couldn’t stop browsing the different design choices. NPCs tend to move and react a bit too clunky and lifeless. Luckily you can walk right through them so they don’t ever block your way. I had some heavy stuttering when destroying walls in large chunks or going between hotel floors. Hopefully, these problems will be ironed out very soon after or before the game launches. I had no game-breaking bugs during my time with Hotel Renovator. Apart from the pre-mentioned issues the game runs very well on PC.

Sound effects are really satisfying, with placing down ceramic tiling or sticking wallpaper, making each of the materials sound unique. I found BB101’s voice to be very pleasant and cheerful to listen to. One issue I had is BB101’s voice changed to a female one when explaining one task.

Longevity

I played 20+ hours of Hotel Renovator without getting bored, thanks to the many decorative options in-game. I still hadn’t even gotten my hotel to three stars by then. When I got new furniture, I would always find myself destroying the old rooms and redesigning them from scratch. Each room took me roughly an hour and a half to finish redecorating.

A saluting robot receptionist wearing a traditional bell boy hat, is saluting you as you pass by. Desk is black with a silver corner and a rare vinyl hangs a brown wooden wall. — Goodbye, hope you enjoyed your stay.

Final thoughts

I enjoyed playing this game and hope to see some DLC that adds more items to Hotel Renovator. The business side of the game doesn’t get to shine which is a bit of a letdown. They already have put a lot of work into a solid decorating experience for the players.

I look forward to seeing how this game changes over time and what quality-of-life updates they will bring. A feature I would like to see is the ability to swap between tools without having to put one away. Or adding more ways to decorate the ceiling as well instead of just painting it.

even though it has a few bugs here and there I award Hotel Renovator the Thumb Culture Platinum Award.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

About Author

Kyle A McGrath

I’ve loved gaming ever since I was a kid. I always found myself diving into new games and getting lost in the many different worlds. I would say Ratchet & Clank 2 is my all time favourite game. I cannot wait to see what the future of gaming has in store.

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