The biggest challenge in any Hotel Pre-opening is for the general manager to balance the approaches and bridge the relationship between the Investor, the management company and the rest of the stakeholders.
Throughout my experience in the field, I was fortunate to work with multiple stakeholders with different needs, objectives and goals.
I successfully opened multiple properties within approved budgets while ensuring maintaining the brand equity and achieving profit in record time.
Below are a few areas needed to successfully open a hotel.
- Briefing with the hotel owner and understanding the business financial module.
- Understand the brand and the global corporate objectives.
- Thorough site inspection, conduct the GAP analysis and prepare a recovery plan.
- Preparing the critical path and the opening roadmap with timelines and required resources.
- Formulate the pre-opening budget and a 10-year plan including revenue projections, expenses and profitability.
- Developing a sales & marketing plan, including channel management strategy, price matrix, PR launch strategy.
- Preparing Pre-opening technical requirements including all the necessary furniture and equipment, IT/Systems and Operating Supplies & Equipment.
- Ensuring hand-over from contractors, commissioning of equipment, snagging, health and safety requirements and preparing maintenance manuals.
- Facilitating recruitment of capable personnel, set-up and implementation of operating guidelines, policies and procedures.
- Ensure that all associates undergo the necessary training and development needed to perform their duties diligently and efficiently
Time frame
Six to nine-month phase