It is the 11th hour, just a few short months before a hotel’s opening. Fatigue has set in, and the finish line is in sight. The property is abuzz with nervous excitement.
Inevitably, the hotel opening process throws all owners, developers and operators a series of curveballs to test the team's fortitude and ability to pivot when presented with unexpected challenges. Many of these issues carry a cost, financial or otherwise. A project scheduled to open in XYZ months has lingered well beyond that date, and panic has set in. Owners and leadership are desperate to flip the direction of cash flow and start earning rather than spending. It is an uncomfortable place to be and a familiar story, right?
On a regularly scheduled property walk, a hotel owner is often bombarded with suggestions, proposed changes, associate requests, etc. In these high-pressure moments, hoteliers are challenged to keep their eye on the prize. The well-hidden trap of this time is weeding out the valid feedback, leaving the rest politely in your rearview and standing firm in the discomfort of last-minute decision-making.
An understandable mixture of frustration, decision fatigue and fear set in for many owners now. It is so easy to become overwhelmed by the swarm of busy bees, all with ideas of their own, working to bring a hard-earned plan to life while looking to leadership for validation. Owners, this is a perfect opportunity to center, regroup and remain steadfast. This type of fear can be a silent killer of projects. We, as hoteliers, must learn to face these fears, reminding ourselves of our original vision and refusing to fall victim to the many new voices filling our ears and our inboxes.
So, how do we navigate this crucial decision-making process in a timely manner? By being prepared for its inevitable reality.
Know Your (Hotel’s) Identity and Trust It
Think back on your initial vision for the property. You have spent months, or even years, planning for this project. You have made strategic and informed decisions through the hotel development process with the help of a trusted team to identify your target clientele, analyze the market and solidify a vision that both pencils and promises guest satisfaction! Trust that your time in clarifying this vision is your North Star. Use it as a filter for every decision to come.
The months leading to opening a hotel prove to be the most hectic and overwhelming part of the process. This time is when owners and operators will hear the most opinions from stakeholders, associates and bystanders. Onlookers will freely share their assessment of your project, its budget and the planned timelines for execution. While some of these opinions may prove valuable, not all are gold. Remind yourself that no one knows this plan like you do and do not allow the outside chatter to trigger doubt in your original vision or decision-making.
Identify a core list of trusted experts and advisers who have collaborated on this project since the preliminary stages. This list often consists of internal stakeholders (investors and corporate level leadership), key vendor partners like owners’ reps or project managers, architects, interior designers, branding agencies and a member or two of the operations team. This team should be selected based on their thorough understanding of and participation in early property planning. As trusted advisors, they must adhere to one important rule: No second-guessing or backsliding. It seems obvious, but even your inner circle will be faced with their own self-doubt and third-party commentary.
A good rule of thumb for processing unsolicited feedback is that the loudest voices must belong to the most experienced individuals on the project. Once a hotel identifies its niche within a market, targets guests and identifies its key drivers, the designers use that information to lay out the spaces and solidify guest flow. Milestone deliverables such as floorplans, interior finishes and furnishings, the brand’s visual identity, hotel programming, amenities and the like should be considered set in stone. The construction and installation process will inevitably identify holes in even the most thorough plans and your team of trusted advisers should be charged with solving these issues.
Set a Proper Budget and Stick to It
Hoteliers often make their most damaging revisions in the pursuit of more revenue-generating space. Condensing one space to make another larger or changing the purpose of an area to jump-start revenue generation often results in a property that lacks cohesion. Guests can tell when a hotel is sacrificing its vision for profit, and all efforts should be made to avoid last-minute decisions that sacrifice guest experience for incremental boosts to revenue.
To avoid these challenges, operators should set a clear and realistic budget for their development as early as possible and always include a healthy contingency. Failing to be realistic about the cost of building or renovating a hotel can lead to a sea of problems. Assuming a project is near opening, there are ways to ease the burden of insufficient or exhausted budgets. A thorough analysis of where the remaining dollars should be focused can be completed with the help of your trusted advisers.
While some projects can find ways to cut back on certain aspirational elements to save money, the challenge comes when hoteliers fall into the trap of sacrificing their property’s positioning and guest promise in the hope of short-term gains. These challenges often arise when the on-property team arrives and struggles to see the vision in totality. Understandably, they view all areas of the hotel as a means to drive the almighty dollar and achieve success in their first bonus cycle, while hotels are full of spaces that are unlikely to generate direct revenue.
While amenities such as the lobby or outdoor spaces often do not represent apparent cash flow, they are table stakes for properties of a certain caliber. There are creative ways to monetize these amenities once the hotel is open to guests, but their omission or extreme value engineering will be noticed. If cost-cutting measures must be taken, they should be done in collaboration with the appropriate teams to maintain the integrity of the design already completed. While shortcuts or sweeping moves to expedite opening may seem attractive, short-term gains will quickly fall away, leaving operators with unfinished property and a partially executed strategy. Instead, hoteliers should commit to overcoming the fears that fuel this decision-making.
When in doubt, seek counsel, but trust yourself. No one knows this project or its potential like you do.
Ashley Parrott is the principal and creative director at AEP Hospitality Consulting.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.