In 2007 Kensington was approached by a client working in Dubai. The lady wanted to open a new boutique country hotel in Chiang Mai; a peaceful place where a few guests at a time could come to relax, enjoying fine food, the beautiful countryside and all the attractions of the city. Naturally the lady had a budget and her own ideas. Due to work commitments she were unable to come to Thailand to organise it and asked Kensington to help. After much discussion regarding style, size, budget and specifications Kensingtons in-house architect started to create the first preliminary designs. He communicated regularly with the client, as too did the Construction Director and Managing Director. The property was to be created with a budget in mind and to the clients preferences.
Designs and ideas were sent to the client via e-mail. Kensington continually worked with the client to achieve the design they wanted. After a few weeks of slight alterations the first preliminary designs had been accepted. Now they had a firm idea of what the client wanted and what it would look like, they provided the client with the price quotation for the full set of architectural drawings needed to build the property In Thailand. The quotation was immediately accepted and work began. Within 8 weeks the full plans had been completed. Kensingtons construction director who has over twenty years experience checked every detail to make sure all was correct. As is required by law in Thailand, Kensingtons qualified architect signed the plans and provided as many copies required for the government land office. As with all their projects, to the benefit of the client, an independent structural engineer checked the plans and signed them off too.
To save the client coming to Thailand, the lady asked if she could use Kensingtons service to gain the relevant governmental permissions to build the property. This Kensington happily did and permissions were granted. During this time Kensington provided an accurate construction cost quotation to the client including all the clients choices of tiles, bathrooms, kitchen and any built in furniture.
On acceptance of the price, the client signed Kensingtons standard construction contract via a faxed copy. A copy of each was kept by both client and Kensington. The agreement is written in English or Thai, depending on the language used by the client. It not only protects and safeguards each of them, but also clearly lays out the responsibilities they have agreed to. Payments were spread over the course of construction into 4 payments. On transfer of the first stage, Kensington started the project.
At each stage of construction Kensington provided digital images of the completed stage and then the client sent the next transfer of funds. An invoice/receipt was sent to the client for each payment.
Kensington completed the property in less than 10 months. You can check it out on the clients web site www.waterorchid.com for further details. The project was completed on time, to budget and a testimonial can be found on the testimonial page of this web site. The client was extremely pleased with the results and was abroad during most of the construction process. Another happy customer !
