What Actually Happens in the 6 Months Before a Hotel Opens
Opening a hotel is often treated as a construction milestone.
In reality, it is an operational one.
By the time the building is finished, most of the decisions that will define guest experience, cost structure, and long-term profitability should already be made. Yet this is exactly the phase where many projects underestimate the work involved.
Pre-opening is not about getting through a checklist.
It is about designing an operation that will function under real pressure.
Months 6–5: Designing the Operation
This is where the foundations are set, and where mistakes become expensive later.
Key decisions in this phase include:
Defining the operational model
Choosing systems and technology
Structuring staffing and outsourcing
Aligning owner, operator, and commercial incentives
Furniture and branding often receive attention here, but they are secondary.
What matters more is whether daily operations will still work during peak season, staff shortages, or unexpected incidents.
Once the hotel opens, changing these fundamentals becomes slow and costly.
Months 5–4: People, Roles, and Responsibility
Hospitality does not scale on software alone.
It scales on people supported by systems.
This phase focuses on:
Defining roles and responsibilities
Deciding which functions are in-house and which are outsourced
Building realistic staffing models
Establishing reporting and escalation paths
Hiring too early increases fixed costs.
Hiring too late creates chaos.
Getting the timing right is one of the most underestimated pre-opening challenges.
Months 4–3: Processes, SOPs, and Stress Testing
This is where operations become tangible.
Workflows are documented and tested:
Guest journey from booking to check-out
Cleaning, laundry, and maintenance processes
Incident handling and after-hours procedures
Financial flows and owner reporting
If a process cannot be clearly explained on paper, it will not work during a busy summer weekend.
Pre-opening is about removing uncertainty before guests arrive.
Months 3–2: Commercial Reality Check
This phase often requires uncomfortable conversations.
Assumptions are tested against reality:
ADR expectations
Occupancy curves
Distribution costs
Staffing and operational margins
Strong pre-openings prioritise resilience over optimism.
The goal is not perfect forecasts, but an operation that can absorb pressure when reality deviates from the plan.
Final 60 Days: From Plan to Practice
The last two months are about execution.
Training teams on real systems
Running test check-ins and check-outs
Simulating peak days before they happen
Finalising emergency and escalation procedures
When pre-opening has been done properly, opening day feels almost uneventful.
That is a good sign.
Pre-Opening Is Where Hotels Are Won or Lost
Most operational problems that appear in the first year are not caused by guests or staff.
They are the result of rushed or incomplete pre-opening decisions.
Pre-opening is not a phase to get through.
It is where hospitality businesses are designed.
At Palmera Group, we treat pre-opening as the foundation for everything that follows.
