Executive Summary:
This paper advocates that hotel owners adopt a complete and well-defined project life cycle when developing their new hotels. Moreover, it recommends that owners should appoint an experienced and well-rounded project manager to plan all phases within this project life cycle from day one of their projects. To provide a context, the paper summarizes current approaches to opening new hotels and identified their inherent problems. Then, the overall asset life cycle for a hotel is proposed and the authors recommend that owners adopt the extended project life cycle for their new hotel projects. The goals and deliverables for the key phases within this extended new hotel project life cycle are identified and the main benefits of following this new approach are explained. This new approach ensures that all inter-dependencies are identified and planned for, and reduces the risks of new hotel opening project failures (delays, cost overruns, etc.). It also helps optimize the return on investment for each new hotel, and maximizes positive cash flows from operations.
Illustration: New hotel project life cycle
To read the full paper, please click on www.hotelopeningprocesses.com or www.4hoteliers.com.
A Project Life Cycle for New Hotels by: Gert Noordzy, MBA, CAPM, FAIQ and Richard Whitfield, PhD.
