Top 10 Mistakes When Opening A Hotel

Autor teksta:
Klaus R. Rauter, Managing DirectorMai-BS (Thailand)
Hotel Consultant and Training Company

I am writing down these “top 10” mistakes in a hope that this list might help some developers and owners.
As we are hotel consultants, we sincerely believe that a consultant must be the most honest, transparent, straight-forward and therefore most trustworthy person close to the owners and investors.
A consultant’s intention should NEVER be to keep hotel owners and investors ‘in the dark’! A true consultant must educate advice and provide samples of good and bad practices. A hotel consultant must also be a good teacher – not a lecturer! We must guide and use all channels of communication to pass on knowledge to others. We choose to write articles in a hope that it helps and inspires others.
Mistake No 1 - Vision and Mission.
Honestly, it is hard to understand that so many hotels and resorts open their doors without a proper written vision and mission statement. OR, the vision and mission is most of the times not clear at all, or only clear in the mind of the owners. On top of that, nobody communicates the vision and mission to managers and employees. How the employees will know what is expected and understand the ‘big picture’? As mentioned in one of our earlier articles, this silly mistake ensures that the business ends up following the habits of senior managers and owners and not the organizational vision and mission.
Mistake No 2 - Sales and Marketing? – No need now!
“I have many friends and they are well connected. I and my relatives are well known people who are VIP. We will all ensure that we will have many guests using the hotel and our facilities!”
Yes, don’t be shocked! - The above sayings are what I did hear from several hotel owners. Those VIP hotel guests did come, yes, but they never paid their bills as they almost always expected to be invited since they are good friend of the owners. The result of non-existing Sales and Marketing is very costly.
Mistake No 3 - Hiring of Departmental Managers.
Surprisingly, some new hotels and resorts do hire their Hotel Manager and Department Head Team just weeks before the opening and strongly believe that this will be fine. After all, they are manager, expensive and should be able to get it right in a few days…… some owners think!
To my knowledge and from my experience, this is mostly done to save some hotel pre-opening costs as the needed money has been already lost during the construction process because of bad planning and ongoing adjustments to drawings and the building.
At one occasion I have seen that the whole management team for a 150 room hotel here in Thailand to be hired just 2 weeks before the opening. The owner kindly fired the team after 2 months as in his opinion, the team was not able to implement proper systems and service standards fast enough. Some of the best employees did resign as well, as the pressure working without a proper pre-opening was too much. I say it again, if you don’t work professionally, your most capable employees will leave you first!
Mistake No 4 - Purchasing.
The purchasing process for equipment, utensils and amenities is all done by the owner without any hotel manager and departmental manager comments, input and specifications. Once the manager and departmental leaders joined the hotel for the opening, there was no budget left for any additional purchases, as most of what owners choose are to serve their own preference and style, but not functional or practical to the workers and guest use. So, the hotel or resort did end up with equipment and utensils which are not always usable, have wrong specifications, over-specs or under-specs.
Again, the owners or senior managers never stopped wondering why professional people left the company and why the quality of products and service are not up to any standard!
Mistake No 5 - Employee Restaurant and Facilities
Strangely, employees, employee facilities and welfare seem to be the least and least important thing on owners and developers minds. I know one hotel where the owner had even meetings with the employees, right after the opening, lecturing them how good the hotel will be, explaining how professional and generous the owners are as they did buy only the best qualities and products for the guests.
He said he is not stingy and use only the best and most comfortable furniture, amenities, cars, etc. The owner also asked staff to work harder and be more committed to have a good hotel forgetting that all employees worked 2 months without a day off! The employees listen and wondered what he is talking about while sitting on a dusty concrete floor inside a badly ventilated and non-air conditioned concrete shell of room, eating from a Styrofoam food box with plastic cutlery and without any proper uniforms and only one rest-room for 100 employees. I am sure I don’t have to write down here what those employees did think and even say to each other about this owner after the meeting was over.
Mistake No 6 - Training
So far I found only 3 independent hotel owners and investors who actually provided proper facilities and time to have proper staff orientations and training for employees before opening the business.
Although EVERY single hotel developer said in the beginning that they fully agree and fully understand that training is very important and that they fully understand that people need to be trained before opening the hotel, the fact is that only the true professional owners did what they say.
Most of the time, employees did not go through any orientation program or basic training. And then, on the first day of operation the managers and owners complain the staff directly that they know nothing about the hotel, that they don’t follow hotel systems, that they don’t provide good service etc.
Mistake No 7 - Human Resource
In my humble opinion, any hotel that opening / running their property without a proper HR person, HR manual and HR systems are operationally committing suicide!!!
I have seen businesses where the majority of staff has been hired without having a written employee benefit list, written rules and regulations, written basic systems etc. Employees have been verbally promised different benefits by different managers etc. The result was simply a disaster!
And then, once the management started to implement some standardized benefits for each level of employees and some standard rules and regulations, the Human Resource nightmares become did become reality as many employees complained that they only joined this particular hotel because of benefits verbally promised by managers. Not everyone promised the same…..
Mistake No 8 - Back of the House Design
Seldom is this area given good attention. In most cases, back-of –house areas have been assigned based on vacant areas. I wonder so much why proper storage, proper offices with strategic locations, proper restrooms, proper walkways etc. are almost never important to developers and owners. It is hard, and sometimes almost impossible to explain how the hospitality industry could make money from providing a good and smooth service and for this, within a rough back-of-house workflow. It is not only the waiter and the front office staff who provide a service! EVERYONE in the hotel provides a service and ALL Departments and employees work somehow inter-connected.
Mistake No 9 - Back of the House areas
Why some people believe that that staff dormitories not need proper restrooms, showers and a common room?
Why some people believe that employees don’t need proper food and variety of food?
Why some people believe that employees will not have cars and bikes which need to be parked somewhere?
Why some people believe that a proper Training Room is a waste of space?
Why some people believe that employees don’t need comfort?
Mistake No 10 - Good managers and staff are easy to find!!!!!
Those are some nice actual sentences from owners and developers to think about:
Spa Therapist not need training, just hire some sexy girls and let them massage the guests.
My gardener at my home can make up Bed’s; please consider him as Housekeeping Manager.
Don’t worry about Accouting and Purchasing; I have someone who works for me since 10 years and he is very good with figures. Right now he controls all my drivers in the transportation company.
I found a good Human Resource Manager for our 5-star hotel. She is the wife of the local police Chief. Nobody will dare to complain.
My Son will be the General Manager; he just graduated and is very knowledgeable!
Just go to the local market, there are 100 of local people who would be happy to work at our hotel even below minimum wage!
Mistake No 11 - Hotel Opening Support from owners or developers other companies.
Yes, many business owners forgot to focus on some if not all of the above mentioned points and now they are very nervous and scared about the operation of the hotel. So, they ask some family members and employees from other owned businesses which are most of the time not from the hospitality and service industry, to come and help to do the following:
- Sales and Marketing,
- Purchasing,
- Finance Department,
- Human Resources,
“I, my family and staff from the factory only like to help! You should not complaint, be happy about it!”
I am sure you noticed that I did end up with a “TOP 11” and not “TOP 10” list! Who cares! J
As a matter of fact, it should be a “TOP 100” list as there are so many areas and subjects to discuss about.

Faza pred otvaranje hotela (pre-opening phase)

Pre-opening faza

Faza pred otvaranje hotela ili pre opening faza ključna je za svaki novi hotel.

U zavisnosti od tipa i veličine hotela, može da traje od 12 do 18 meseci za srednje i
veće hotele i od šest do devet meseci za hotele od oko 50 soba. U pre opening
fazi šrafe se svi oni zupčanici koji kasnije bez ikakvih problema treba da
održavaju rad čitavog mehanizma. Ako tu napravite greške, posledice ćete
snositi kasnije, a one često mogu da budu teške i skupe za otklanjanje.

Pre opening faza počinje tiho iako je gradilište već otvoreno i u
punom je jeku. Budući da se mnogi pitaju zašto je pre opening
faza bitna, treba naglasiti da je ona najbitnija. U trenutku kada
se hotel otvara i kada pretposlednji majstori odlaze iz zgrade, rezervacije
već treba da postoje i da prvi gosti budu u hotelu. Hotel se nikada
ne otvara kada je 100 odsto gotov: najsitniji radovi uvek se završavaju
kada je objekat već počeo da radi. Poenta pre opening faze jeste
da se ne gubi vreme, jer se u otvaranje hotela ulažu milionske sume i
objekat što pre treba da se nađe na tržištu. Zbog toga i postoje druge
faze kao što je post opening, koja takođe traje dugo (od devet do 12
meseci) i u kojoj se završavaju najsitniji zanatski radovi.

U skladu sa planiranim datumom za otvaranje hotela otvara se i
pre opening kancelarija. Za hotele kao što je Holiday In, pre opening
office, odnosno kancelarija, otvara se od 12 do 18, a u manjim
hotelima (oko 50 soba) od šest do devet meseci ranije. Kancelarija
se otvara polako, jer su već prikupljene sve potrebne dozvole (za
gradnju, otvaranje), postoji prihvaćen biznis plan, koncept, izgled i
ime hotela.


Pre opening fazu i kancelariju otvara GM hotela koji je obično
budući direktor. U nekim slučajevima, doduše retkim, pre opening
direktor po otvaranju predaje ključeve direktoru hotela. Pre opening
kancelarija po otvaranju obično ima samo generalnog menadžera i
još jednog saradnika.
Tada priprema hotela počinje da se razvija u
više pravaca. Prvo se zapošljava sledeći nivo visokog menadžmenta
budućeg hotela: prvi čovek prodaje i marketinga, finansija, F&B sektora
i room division. Po započinjanju pre opening faze raspolaže se
određenim budžetom. Finansije koje su na raspolaganju, a koje
detaljno planira GM, moraju da prate sva ulaganja u hotel i da,
između ostalog, obuhvataju sve što je neophodno: od iznajmljivanja
prostora za kancelarije, preko personala, do marketinškog materijala.

U ovoj fazi pravi se i organizacioni skelet hotela, koji već postoji u
biznis planu, ali sada polako dobija finalni oblik. Nakon što smo
doveli top-menadžment, počinje da se formira i HR služba koja
polako odabira ostatak menadžmenta, i to od vrha nadole.

Kada je o marketingu i prodaji reč, u zavisnosti od toga kom obliku
i tipu pripada hotel, pravi se marketinški plan – od filozofije i politike
cena do distribucionih kanala kojima će se doći do medijskog
nastupa i plasirati informacije u javnost. Dok se marketing bavi svojim
planovima, tim koji se bavi sobama utvrđuje kategorizaciju, što
je veoma bitno kako bi prodaja znala čime raspolaže i šta prodaje.
Definiše se broj soba, njihov standard, mogućnosti menjanja i prilagođavanja
određenim situacijama, nakon čega se mogu staviti u
poslovne ponude i marketinški se promovisati.
Paralelno s tim F&B sektor bavi se svojim delom posla, organizacijom
kuhinja u svim restoranima ili kafeima u hotelu, kao i možda
najbitnijim segmentom – konferencijskim salama, njihovim kapacitetima
i najboljim načinima za njihovu eksploataciju. Osim toga, prave
se i strategije uvezivanja kongresnih i konferencijskih sala sa room
division sektorom.

Velike obaveze ima i pravni sektor. Mnogo je papirologije kojom
taj sektor mora da se bavi u fazi pred otvaranje hotela, jer je potrebno
sakupiti dokumentaciju za sve oprativne elemente, standardna
pravila koja se u početku odnose samo na osoblje zaposleno u
hotelu, a kasnije i na sve ostalo. Ukoliko je hotel deo nekog velikog
lanca, implementiraće se njihovi standardi, a ukoliko nije, definišu se
sopstveni. Posle definisanja standarda priprema se dokumentacija za
kategorizaciju, a ujedno i sanitarni koncept jer će uslediti dolazak
velikog broja komisija i inspekcija.

Nakon regrutacije top-menadžmenta, podele poslova i deljenja
zadataka, prelazi se na sledeći nivo – regrutaciju srednjeg menadžmenta.
Ta faza počinje tri meseca nakon otvaranja pre opening
kancelarije. U tom periodu počinju da se razrađuju operativa i programi
za edukaciju kadrova i obuku personala. Sve se više ulazi u
detalje: biranje inventara, koje ćemo smerove kuhinje imati, šta
ćemo raditi na baru, kakve ćemo tipove specijalnih događaja praviti,
za koje ćemo se aktivnosti specijalizovati, obeležavanje hotela
spolja i iznutra, pristup hotelu, kako ćemo biti odeveni, kao i niz
detalja o kojima će biti reči i u post opening fazi.

Pre opening fazi sve vreme prisustvuju GM i prvi nivo menadžmenta.
Njihova komunikacija mora da bude veoma bliska i intenzivna
na dnevnom nivou. U početku svi posećuju gradilište prateći
razvoj događaja, ali kako se radovi privode kraju, njihova prisutnost
sve je veća. Zbog toga je veoma bitno da se pre opening kancelarija
nalazi u blizini gradilišta.

Kako je cela faza pred otvaranje hotela napeta i raspolaže se sa
puno različitih informacija koje se često menjaju na dnevnom nivou,
u komunikaciji između GM i menadžmenta ponekad dođe i do nerazumevanja,
pa zbog toga treba što češće komunicirati kako bi svi
nesporazumi bili brzo rešavani. U pre opening fazi šrafe se svi oni
zupčanici koji kasnije bez ikakvih problema treba da održavaju rad
čitavog mehanizma. Ako tu napravite greške, posledice ćete snositi
kasnije, a one često mogu da budu i velike. Koliko god da je svako
specijalizovan za svoj segment, u ovoj fazi dolazi do čestih preplitanja,
pa je neophodna bliska saradnja i dobra komunikacija.

Poslednjih četiri do šest nedelja pre opening faze jeste ključni period,
a o tome, kao i o ostalim segmentima te faze (sve do otvaranja),
pričaćemo u sledećem tekstu.