NEW YORK— Sixty-five million dollars buys a lot, even in New York City. And for that amount of renovation dollars, the Grand Hyatt New York on 42nd St. expects likewise to get a lot: more business, more revenue and more “wow” all around. However, the property is not just creating more meeting space, adding a restaurant and revamping all 1,336 guestrooms; the Grand Hyatt renovation also is serving as the springboard for a new brand standard. “It’s the rebirth of the Grand Hyatt hotel, and it includes the introduction of what is going to be the first part of the guestroom of the future for Hyatt Hotels: the Grand Bed product,” said Gary Dollens, Chicago-based vp/operations for Hyatt Hotels Corp., who saw the bed as “part of what we’re doing to redefine our product.” The renovation process actually started about two years ago under Dollens’ watch when he served— up until January of this year— as vp/managing director for the New York flagship adjacent Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan’s East Side. “The hotel is 24 years old as a Hyatt hotel [it started out as The Commodore Hotel in 1918], and as you go through time you do certain types of renovations in the early years. But as we got to the point where we were 20 years old, it was evident we really needed to do something to change the product, update it, because the industry has changed and matured over the period of time we’ve had the hotel.” Hyatt specifically looked at beds and designs that reflected current guest attitudes and needs, he said. The bed, a Sealy Posturepedic 720 Series, will be installed in all Hyatts in the United States, and will be “a very big departure from where we’ve been in the past,” said Dollens. The bed features a box base, box spring with fitted cover, eliminating the bed frame. Bedspreads have been replaced with down blankets and 250-thread-count triple sheeting, a 1.5-inch, striped top sheet, decorative pillows and throws. A decorative royal blue and gold cummerbund rings the foot of the bed. Unlike most traditional guestroom bed spreads, Dollens noted the top sheet duvets get changed every time a guest checks out. “It’s a very clean, very slick bed product. It’s white because white says very clean,” he noted. Dollens added the company also wanted a look that put Hyatt on the front edge of design, something that was current, but has a life to it, as well. “You can’t go with a design that’s slick for today, but has no lasting power, or is uncomfortable,” he contended. Louis Kievit, director of sales for the Park Hyatt brand and former director of sales for the Grand Hyatt New York, said the overall design was selected with a purpose, to “reflect what people perceive New York to be, so it needed to be contemporary and somewhat chic, but not too over the top.” While the “Grand Bed,” will be the signature piece to go across the brand in the 123 Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt hotels in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, Dollens indicated a cookie-cutter approach to refurbishment was not the goal. “Hyatt has always been known for its individual design, hotel by hotel, and we’ll always be known for that. You’ll still see different designs of the surrounding portions of the room, but a commonality of our bed product.” Among the challenges in doing the renovation was dealing with 156 different rooms types, the result of reconfiguration from a 2,000-room property in the 1980s, according to Richard Morgan, vp/managing director of the Grand Hyatt. “And everything fits differently in every one of those rooms, so we ran institutions with three and four decisions every day. For example, how do we run the wall vinyl in this application? Is this really going to be enough light with the new lamp? It’s a lot of challenge to make sure you’re doing the right thing for the guest.” Still, Dollens said Hyatt also is thinking ahead in terms of what room design might morph into in the future. Toward that, credenzas, not armoires, now hold the guestroom t