Hotel Management Consulting Services for Hotels

Here is a short list of how your hotel business plan should look like. If you would like a more detailed checklist, be sure to check out our free hotel business plan template.

1. Executive summary
This part should include two main parts, one being the mission statement, and the other are your objectives. Keep this part short, concise and grab the attention of the reader.

2. Company Analysis
This is the part where you dive deeper into your company’s USPs (unique selling points). Basically, explaining what the concept entails.

3. Industry Analysis
Investors want to know if you properly understand the market you are going to operate in. This also forms the foundation of which trends and developments you will be building your brand on.

4. Customer Analysis
This part focuses on breaking down your target market. Think of factors such as:
Geographics
Demographics
Socio-economics
Psycho-graphics
Behavioral segmentation
Imagine the type of guests which will be likely to visit your hotel. Painting a picture of guest types will give you the insight needed to evaluate how value can be provided to your customers.

5. Competitive Analysis
Of course, studying local competition is essential to highlight your strengths and weaknesses, as well as weighing those of the competition against your own. This can also be defined as a SWOT analysis, which investors use to see how you differentiate and stand out from the crowd.

6. Strategic Plan
The strategic plan consists of three important parts covering marketing, distribution and revenue management. Further down we have listed a time-based planning covering these topics.

7. Operations Plan
This is all about the details when it comes to running your operations smoothly. Do not make the mistake of not diving deep enough here, so make sure to include the following:

Staff, anyone from lower level staff to managers should all be quantified.
Operating processes, how/when/what you will be developing manuals for. Make sure to set your service standards.
Suppliers, which/and what will you be needing suppliers for (linnen, food, drinks, office supplies etc.)

How will your inventory be managed?
8. Management Team
Who will be running your business, and what makes them unique and capable of creating a great hotel that stands out. Explain your team’s backgrounds will give insight into this.

9. Financial Plan
How much money will be needed to fulfill your needs. Start with the capital investment (start-up costs of the hotel), followed by ongoing business costs and operational expenses:
Profit
Payroll
Purchases
Rent and Utilities
Other Expenses (franchise fees, marketing expenses, maintenance costs etc.)

10. Key Milestones
Setting milestones will increase the likelihood of success. The risk for lenders or investors decreases each time a milestone is achieved, reaching high chances of success once the last milestones are in sight. Important milestones include:

Location selection
Permits & Licenses
Build-out / Construction of the Hotel
Staffing and Training
Opening
GOP Break-even
NOI Break-even
10% Ebitda

11. Appendix
All other content less relevant to getting your important message across belongs in the appendix. Try keeping your plan as concise and straight to the point as possible, referring to the appendix when needed to avoid an over cluttered appearance to the investors.

Do not be Too Late: Start on Time
Beginning on time is not only essential to your success, but it can save you a lot of money. Consider the below timeframes to give you an idea of when to start your business processes.

The Planning: From Start to Finish 0-1 months:
Grand Opening:

Do not put your entire marketing budget in the grand opening. This is just one day, and it will be impossible to reach enough potential business to fill your hotel in the long run. View marketing as a constant long term effort instead.

Soft opening:
Final finetuning and testing for the staff and systems before official opening
Great opportunity to take press and industry bloggers on a tour of the hotel without the burden of operational pressure of a full hotel. Reporters really appreciate all the help you can give them with preparing a story on this new hotspot in town.
Invite corporate decision makers to test the hotel. Treat them like VIP’s. Wine and dine them, and turn them into ambassadors of your business. Impressing them with an unforgettable experience will start spreading word-of-mouth for you.

3-6 months
Open for sales on your own website and OTAs etc.

Reservations:
Prior to this it is possible to have staff taking inquiry and answering questions with scheduled callbacks at a later stage once everything is organized. However, from 3 months prior to the opening the reservations call center needs to be up and running.
System selection

MS, Web Booking Engine, CRS, GDS, Channel Manager, Rate Shopper, CRM. These all need to be selected, purchased and installed between 6 to 3 months prior to the opening.
9 months
Sales
Schedule visits daily with decision makers of companies from 9 months prior to the opening trying to win them over from the competition.
12 months

Website live
Websites page/history is a strong factor in ranking on google, so launching your website as earlier as possible would be the best. This will also ensure your website is properly indexed on search engines