The Complete Guide to Starting Your Hotel Construction Project
As we become more tuned to environmental concerns, every sector of business is striving to be greener. This includes the hospitality sector. Sustainable hotels are not just a fad. They’re a trend that even hotel booking apps are catering to, allowing people to be specific in their search for sustainable properties.
If you’re considering a sustainable hotel construction project, what should you consider?
Here are our 10 pre-construction tips for hotel construction projects
Tip #1: Define your business reasons
It’s crucial for all stakeholders to understand the business reasons for constructing the hotel. Is this the first sustainable hotel in your group? Does it mark a shift in policy? Is this to be a flagship property? Is it an extension of an existing brand?
Tip #2: Lay out your expectations for the hotel
What benefits do you expect to reap from the hotel? These will, of course, be highly linked to the objectives and goals that you have laid out when defining your business reasons.
However, you should consider the benefits of the success of the accommodation, which means you should set out hotel construction principles that include:
Tip #3: Choose the right hotel project management team
Select a project management team that has experience in managing the construction of sustainable hotels. This will be invaluable to you, helping you to avoid costly mistakes in sustainable hotel construction projects, keeping the construction on track, and delivering the hotel you desire.
Tip #4: Get the operations team on board early
Involve your operations management team in the design and development of your hotel from an early stage. This will help you to build a hotel in which all stakeholders are invested, and will help to ensure that the design is fit for purpose in all areas of the hotel.
Tip #5: Decide on the start and end points of the construction project
The start point includes preparing for the design, developing stakeholder alliances, and implementing all pre-construction deliverables, such as detailing expectations of quality, health, and safety on the hotel construction site, and project timetable.
The endpoint of the project is when the hotel has been constructed and project deliverables have been delivered.
Tip #6: Consider risks and constraints
What are the risks and constraints associated with the project? How will you prepare for and mitigate these? What business factors may derail the project? What disaster recovery planning do you need to put in place, and what contingencies should you include?
Tip #7: Create a comprehensive activities list
This is crucial in successful hotel construction. Tasks range from environmental and business assessment; delegation of responsibilities; business planning; quality management; risk management; training; evaluation; facilities planning; technology; materials; costs and budgets; resource management; construction; etc.
Tip #8: Create a process to analyze project events
Create a workflow for project events, and ensure that you also have a proven process in place to analyze each event at each event stage. This will aid you to manage resources more effectively (including human capital management).
Tip #9: Allocate resources effectively
How will you manage project resources? You’ll need to consider the scope of the project, timetable, and how resources will be sourced and employed. This includes where you will source materials and labor ─ local sourcing will improve the sustainability credentials of the project.
Tip #10: Establish a handover schedule
Finally, establish the conditions under which the project shall be handed over as complete, from the construction and project management teams to the operations team. What overlaps will be needed? How will shortfalls from expectations be approached and resolved? What inspections will be needed?
Plan for complexity
Hotel construction is a highly specialized field. Designing and building sustainable hotels is a subset of this, and presents specific challenges and complexities. Project management of sustainable hotel construction projects must not only apply the principles of project management. It must do so within the unique challenges of creating a building that is not only environmentally friendly but has been constructed adhering to the principles of sustainability.
At ACB Consulting, we are committed to helping improve the communities in which we live, work, and play – including how they are conceived, designed and created. To leverage our experience in hotel construction, contact ACB Consulting.