£2.5m refurb is throwback to halcyon Hacienda days

RENTALCARS.COM which claims to be the largest online car rental service has splashed out £2.5m on the refurbishment of its international customer service centre in Manchester.

The company has recreated the world-renowned Hacienda nightclub inside its office space on Quay Street.
    
To maximise the design of the 63,000sq ft office in Sunlight House, more 100 staff came up with the core ideas for each floor.

The result is a design with ‘Manchester’ at the heart of the creative concept, which draws inspiration from the city and its people.

Each of the five floors is inspired by icons that are intrinsic to Manchester’s rich heritage including ‘Science and Industry’, ‘The Northern Quarter’ and ‘Manchester Culture.’

Two of the city’s most renowned artists have been commissioned to create bespoke pieces for the space. Corridor walls and meeting rooms are lined with graffiti by Kelzo and one meeting room boasts a floor-to-ceiling mosaic by Mark Kennedy: creator of Afflecks Palace’s famous ‘On the sixth day, God created MANchester’ mosaic slogan.

The in-house café is a reimagining of Manchester’s legendary Hacienda nightclub – complete with yellow-and-black bollards, multi-coloured uplights, a ‘VIP area’ and tailor-made speaker wall.

Colleagues are even encouraged to get fully immersed in the Hacienda spirit by spinning classic tracks on the Manchester-music-only jukebox.

The company has also installed a state-of-the art pizza oven that cooks up to 120 pizzas per hour and provide free breakfasts for all colleagues.

Rentalcars.com, which is responsible for more than seven million worldwide car rentals per year, has just refurbished the office to house up to 1,100 multi-lingual employees, where they speak 42 different languages, are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Rentalcars.com chief executive Ian Brown said: “Our customer service centre is core to what makes Rentalcars.com a great company.
 
It is always available, for every customer, no matter where they are in the world or where they are from.  It is where we have to get things right for the customer, every time. So it is very important that we get it right for our colleagues too.

“Our goal was to create an office that is more than just a place to work. We wanted to create a working space that our colleagues are inspired by and can be proud of.

“To make sure we achieved this, we asked them what they wanted it to be, and kept them actively involved in the design throughout.”