Blooming On Kauai

‘Tis the season to add merry color and glowing lights—and to be sure trees and coconut palms are cleaned up, and large projects are completed as we swiftly roll toward the year’s end.

Seasonal enhancements for most commercial landscapes range from traditional poinsettias to red-and-white annuals that last through spring on Kauai.

Our resort property owners deck the halls with lights:

• wrapping tree trunks
• stringing lights along rooflines
• adding lights to landscape features (pergolas) in common areas

We’re entering the busiest tourist season on Kauai, with visitors who plan winter vacations or choose to spend their holidays on our garden isle.

We want our properties to look their best, and that means not just dressing them up for the holidays, but continuing detail-oriented maintenance practices so landscapes stay neat, clean and appealing to tourists.

After all, your Kauai grounds are the front door of your property, and you want to make a positive first impression. So, here are five holiday landscaping ideas for commercial properties on Kauai this busy tourist season.

All commercial landscape bids are not created equal, and you know this if you have solicited contractors for proposals to maintain your Kauai landscape. Prices can vary widely, and so do quality standards, companies’ expertise, and the service they actually provide.

Comparing bids apples-to-apples is impossible if you get bids that address entirely different scope of work.

For starters, to choose the best commercial landscape contractor for your Kauai property, you should provide an accurate scope of work that details what services your site requires. (Don’t forget irrigation system maintenance, coconut palm tree pruning and fertilization.)

Ask contractors to bid specifically on the services you need. That way, you can compare bids by line item.

Price isn’t everything, and we have had clients leave us for another company that offered an unrealistic bid. They do come back when their properties’ appearance declines and it impacts their real estate value and ability to attract visitors.

Remember, your landscape creates a first impression, and it’s a reflection of how you care for employees and customers, too. So take this decision seriously, and consider these 10 pointers for accurately comparing commercial landscaping bids.

Surprises are never a good thing when budgets are concerned. You can prevent “unexpected” expenses by developing a solid budget for your commercial landscape that factors in costs that are often missing from typical landscape maintenance contracts.

We find that many budgets are missing critical line items: fertilizer, irrigation system repairs, and pruning for mature trees (usually an “extra” that’s not built into a maintenance contract).

Of course, commercial property managers want to exercise caution with spending—we work hard to accommodate budgets and keep costs in line. But tendency is to take last year’s numbers and find out ways to trim back your commercial landscaping budget.

Wanted: A commercial landscape maintenance firm to keep your Kauai commercial property looking its best.

You want a contractor that is professional (wearing uniforms, polite to your guests), skilled, detail-oriented, and versatile so they can manage extra projects.

You want a crew on your property that will treat your Kauai retail or resort as if it were their own home garden.

Is all of this too much to ask?

Is your commercial landscape maintenance company performing like it should on your Kauai property? Is it meeting your high standards—or is there room for improvement?

Perhaps the contractor just doesn’t get it and is overlooking property maintenance tasks that should be a given if you’re on contract.

We often conduct property walk-throughs with new clients who hire NKO after working with a company that disappointed them. Property managers never realized how much quality they were missing.

The details matter.

Ultimately, Kauai property managers want their resort, retail, HOA and commercial properties to be neat and green — and, of course, not include any unwanteds: Insects, weeds, disease.

So, how do you know if your current Kauai commercial landscaper is giving your property the service level it deserves? Here’s a handy checklist—an audit that you can use as you walk your property. If you flag one item as unsatisfactory, that’s too many.

The entrance to your Kauai building has persuasive potential—it can draw visitors inside or send them on their way to another establishment. It’s a powerful first-impression builder. A building entrance sets the tone for the experience guests will have once they enter, and it speaks volumes about how you care for your property.

The good news is, with some minor, budget-friendly tweaks and basic maintenance, you can spruce up your building entrance. You’ll be amazed at how some extra attention to your entrance will improve the look of your entire Kauai commercial property.

Without spending a lot of money or time, here are three simple and affordable commercial landscape enhancements to improve the entrance of your Kauai building.  

Before you think about hiring a landscape contractor on Kauai to perform work on your commercial property, ask this important question: Is the landscape contractor properly insured?

If the answer is no, then your commercial property could be held accountable if a landscaper gets injured on your grounds.

It’s never fun to think about worst-case scenarios—but you’ve got to protect those who use your property (employees, customers, residents) and those who work on it, including landscapers and any other contractors you hire.