What to prepare in the last 60 days before opening

There is a settled answer to when preparation for opening should begin. Not as construction finishes, but while it is still in full swing.

Four things with long lead times

When an opening moves, it is usually one of the same four things.

• People: hiring, training, shadowing and building a roster all take time. You cannot hire staff the week before opening and put them straight to work.
• Systems: there is an order to it. Choose the PMS, attach the CMS, connect the OTAs, then payment and door locks.
• Distribution: room names, then photography, then rates and cancellation policy, and only then can you list on a channel.
• Procurement: for furniture, linen and amenities, the time between ordering and delivery cannot be compressed.

Sixty and forty-five days out

• Sixty days: fix the staffing and the shape of the team you need to operate.
• Sixty days: decide on the PMS, CMS and kiosk vendors.
• Sixty days: begin OTA contracts and channel registration, order furniture, linen and supplies, and confirm the licences and insurance trading requires.
• Forty-five days: run the hiring and start training.
• Forty-five days: fix room types, product names, rate policy, operating hours and who does what.
• Forty-five days: configure rooms, rates and inventory in the system, and write the operating manual.

Thirty days out

• List rooms and products on the OTAs.
• Finalise booking, cancellation and payment policy.
• Prepare the in-room guest information.
• Set charges for the facilities.
• Build the roster.

Fourteen and seven days out

• Fourteen days: set up the rooms and public areas physically.
• Fourteen days: connect the whole system, test it end to end, and run staff training on site.
• Fourteen days: measure how long cleaning a room actually takes, and inspect jointly with the construction and operations teams.
• Seven days: test the whole path from a real booking through to settlement, have the operations team stay in the property themselves, and run a soft opening as a live rehearsal.

And if you start late?

The rooms are ready but the listings are not live, so there is a window where nothing can be sold. Staff are hired but training is unfinished, and the first week of service wobbles. Linen has not arrived, so the sellable room count drops. All three move an opening for reasons that have nothing to do with construction.

Do not list the tasks. Count backwards from completion and put a date on each. The item with the longest lead time is what sets the real start date.

In short

Preparing to open means laying four tracks, people, systems, distribution and procurement, backwards from the completion date. Decide at sixty days, configure at forty-five, list at thirty, set up at fourteen, and rehearse at seven.