Decide or Drift
Most brand operationalizations and hotel pre-openings do not fail in the final 90 days. They start to drift 12 to 18 months earlier.
It rarely looks like failure. It looks like progress. Meetings are full. Design advances. Budgets circulate. Hiring plans evolve. Everyone is busy. But alignment quietly starts to thin.
There is one decision point in every pre-opening that determines whether a project anchors or drifts. Most teams avoid it because it requires someone to go first.
At this stage, it feels like a game of Truth or Dare. Who decides first?
- Design waits for ownership approvals.
- HR waits for Operations to define the structure.
- Operations waits for Finance budgets.
- Finance waits for “final direction” on assumptions.
- And everyone waits for a “once X happens…”
Timelines circulate. Hiring expands. Consultants may be involved. People treat ideas as facts, yet no one could implement them tomorrow. And the operational backbone remains undefined.
Have you decided what experience you are truly building and how the guest will move through the hotel?
That is where drift begins.
No one is incompetent. No one is obstructing. That is precisely why it is dangerous.
Drift rarely announces itself. It usually begins quietly, with hesitation on the first structural call. Someone needs to make that first call, but when no one does, the drift has already begun.
Where Pre-Opening Alignment is Won
In early pre-opening, someone must define what comes first. Not everything.
Just the first structural call that anchors the rest. That call shapes:
- Feasibility
- Headcount logic
- Service sequence
- Budget assumptions
- Technology configuration
- Training design
Without that anchor, progress fragments. Industry research shows that misalignment in early project stages often leads to increased costs. It can also cause schedule delays and rework.
Drift is expensive. It just hides well.
Before You Hire Further, Anchor
The most overlooked foundation in a pre-opening plan is clarity around the guest journey.
Experienced hoteliers often see the flow instinctively. Owners with multiple builds can visualize it. But instinct is not alignment.
Clarity around the guest journey delivers measurable benefits:
- Faster cross-departmental decision-making
- More precise headcount modeling
- Reduced late-stage redesign
- Stronger training cohesion
- Clearer service recovery planning
Case after case shows the same pattern. When the guest journey is mapped early and pressure-tested with Finance, Operations, and HR, staffing assumptions stabilize sooner. Fewer structural reversals occur during ramp-up.
Before design advances further and assumptions harden into structure, hold one pivotal conversation with the right leaders in the room. Walk the guest journey together. Make it visible. Pressure-test it. Then ask:
- If each of us described the journey from entrance to departure, would it match?
- Where will pressure build at peak occupancy?
- What must never be compromised operationally?
- What structural decision can we make today that anchors alignment?
Until those answers are shared, headcount remains tentative, and operational decisions stay open to revision. Hotel pre-opening alignment becomes reactive instead of intentional.
Hold that decisive conversation early. It strengthens your execution team before drift sets in and protects the distinct experience that brought everyone to the project.
Break the Loop: Practical Reset
If conversations start circling, simplify.
1. Assign one accountable decision owner per operational pillar.
Not five voices. One accountable leader.
2. Map reality before locking structure.
Walk peak arrival. Walk peak departure. Visualize service recovery. Structure should follow flow, not aspiration.
3. Separate “must decide now” from “can evolve later.”
Foundations need clarity. Details can iterate.
Open decisions create quicksand in pre-opening execution. Strong teams stay flexible while remaining decisive. Read: Brand Leadership – How the GM Protects the Brand
When External Support Helps
In complex pre-openings, an external task force can add value by bringing neutrality at the right moment. Projects carry emotion and competing priorities. An outside perspective surfaces gaps and challenges assumptions before misalignment becomes expensive.
At ZOGO Hospitality Consultants Inc., we step in at this stage and lead a workshop to ignite clarity. Sometimes that conversation feels uncomfortable. It should. Naming what is unclear today prevents rework and protects momentum.
Clarity is not delegated. Leadership defines it, protects it, and is accountable for it.
If you feel momentum but start observing held decisions, pause before accelerating further.
Call to Action
Design continues. Budgets move through approval. Hiring accelerates. Meanwhile, the guest journey can quietly split across teams. If you sense momentum but notice decisions being deferred, pause now. Not in six months.
Test your alignment this week. Ask your executive team:
- Would we describe the guest journey the same way?
- Do we agree on pressure points and non-negotiables?
- What structural decision can we anchor right away?
If the answers vary, drift has already begun – and drift compounds. The first anchored decision determines whether your hotel opens with coherence… or opens correcting itself.
That choice is made long before the countdown begins.
