Controlled Chaos: Orchestrating Complex Hospitality Renovations

Renovating an active hospitality property is among the most complex undertakings in project management. This is a high-stakes, high-visibility endeavor playing out in real time, all while guests are still checking in, dining, and sleeping just feet away from active construction. The expectation isn’t just to deliver an extraordinary final product, but to do so with minimal disruption to operations and the guest experience.  

Hospitality renovations operate on immovable timelines tied to peak seasons, marketing campaigns, or rebranding efforts. Budgets are often fixed long before construction begins, leaving little room to absorb surprises. At the same time, dozens, sometimes hundreds, of specialized contributors must be coordinated, each with their own timelines, deliverables, and constraints.  

These layers of complexity create a fragile ecosystem where a single delayed material shipment, design change, or missed inspection can ripple outward with disastrous effect. Even successful renovations rarely come without challenges.  

What sets expert teams apart is their ability to manage not just tasks, but the interdependencies between them. Balancing them all without compromising operations requires a fine-tuned strategy and a conductor’s hand. With a thoughtful decision-making structure, intentional sequencing, and purposeful communication, even the most complex project can progress smoothly in the background without ever disrupting the guest experience.  

Establish Clear Decision-Making Structures Early  

One of the most overlooked risks in a hospitality renovation isn’t the physical building but the execution strategy. With so many parties involved, even minor delays in decision-making can have a snowball effect on the project. Many renovations are derailed from the start due to a lack of clearly defined goals, roles, timelines, and protocols.  

Without these critical factors, decisions stall, stakeholders make conflicting calls, and the project loses momentum.  

Unlike in new construction, where project governance can be built from the ground up, renovations occur within the context of a preexisting operational structure. To keep operations uninterrupted, asset managers navigate nuanced yet connected relationships across ownership groups, brand representatives, and external consultants. Without mapping these relationships and approval pathways in advance, simple questions like whether a finish selection meets brand guidelines can take days or weeks to resolve.  

Establishing a decision-making framework from day one helps prevent these logjams. This means identifying who owns decisions related to budget, construction schedules, design elements, and so on. Next, everyone needs to actually understand their role. Decision timelines must also be aligned with construction milestones so approvals happen when (or before) they’re needed, not after the work has already stalled.  

Just as important is having a defined process for escalation when alignment can’t be reached. When an unreconcilable issue arises, the team should know exactly how and to whom it should be elevated to so the project remains on track. This clarity reduces second-guessing and shortens approval cycles, allowing teams to plan and produce with confidence.  

Ultimately, coordinating plans alone can’t uphold a complex hospitality renovation strategy.  

Mark Knott, Vice President and Hospitality Sector Leader at PMA, notes, “Whenever you have a high degree of complexity, which certainly happens during hospitality projects with the number of stakeholders and team members involved, there are areas for gaps or overlap. The lines can get a little blurry. Who owns what? Who’s responsible for what?” 

“You have a million pieces coming together at the exact same time to make sure a hotel opens. The best approaches coordinate people, ensuring everyone understands their role and communicates during each phase of the project.”  

Coordinate and Sequence Execution Strategy 

Even with a solid plan in place, hospitality renovations can spiral out of control if execution timing isn’t precise. Stakeholders have to be prepared to adapt to the realities of operating in an active business environment. Guest experience, revenue flow, and staff operations don’t stop just because construction begins.  

As such, strategic sequencing requires a nuanced understanding of how different trades interact, how long each task truly demands in context, and how construction and the hotel’s day-to-day operations intersect. Work generating noise or requiring access to common areas must be timed to avoid high-traffic guest periods. Back-of-house upgrades must be staged in a way that doesn’t compromise service delivery. Failing to account for every aspect of this intertwined relationship can introduce significant setbacks over the course of a lengthy renovation and cause unwanted dissatisfaction among guests and employees.  

“Pre-mobilization walkthroughs are essential,” says Mark Knott. “You want the operator, the asset manager, the contractor’s team, maybe even the subcontractors—all in the room. You need people who know the building and those who understand how construction will impact operations.” 

These on-site planning sessions let stakeholders identify logistical constraints and interdependencies that may be invisible in drawings or project schedules. They are where issues surface, timelines are stress tested, and crews align their expectations before boots hit the ground.  

“It’s about finding the gaps before you start,” Mark says. 

Equally important is syncing the renovation plan with the location’s operations and revenue cycles. Optimally, projects will hit the “sweet spot” of lower occupancy windows or seasonal demand that allows work to progress with minimal impact to the guest experience. Delays causing the project to stray from this timeline can lead to rushed work or disrupted service during peak seasons.  

Focus on Proactive, Purposeful Communication  

Long weekly meetings and overflowing email threads tend to create more problems than they solve. Expecting to successfully coordinate dozens of players on a sensitive timeline with such passive communication is the wrong approach. At the same time, complex hospitality renovations can’t proceed without conversations between teams. 

Purposeful communication starts with focus. Rather than wasting time in large meetings, effective teams prioritize smaller, targeted huddles to answer what’s blocking progress now, what could block it next, and who needs to act. They also aren’t one-and-done.  

Rhonda Rasmussen, Hospitality Project Director at PMA, says, “Walkthroughs and planning meetings happen in layers—first with ownership and operators to confirm scope, then expanded to include contractors and vendors. The goal is to ensure everyone is aligned not just once, but continuously as the project evolves.”  

Of course, this forward-looking coordination only works when everyone comes to the table prepared. Operators, vendors, and contractors should understand not just the scope of their deliverables but also how they tie into broader sequencing and operational needs, underscoring the importance of a walkthroughs and check-ins throughout the project duration .  

Another critical shift is centralizing communication channels. Sprawling threads across email, texts, and group chats increase the risk of missed updates and inconsistent information. Establishing a single source of truth ensures everyone is working from the same playbook. This may be a shared dashboard or scheduled progress reports from key players. Regardless, setting clear standards for transparent communication keeps the project focused and prevents small problems from becoming major delays.  

The Outcome: Seamless Execution, Extraordinary Experience  

When coordination is tight, sequencing is strategic, and communication is purposeful, something remarkable happens: the renovation becomes almost invisible to guests. Construction crews, designers, and inspectors move in and out in harmony. Hotel operations hum along. Revenue flows undisrupted. When the work is complete, the transformed space feels like it was always meant to be there.  

For any hospitality renovation project, delivering a newly upgraded space without ever compromising brand reputation or day-to-day service is the gold standard.  

“Just hitting the launch date or checking off a list doesn’t mean the project was a success. In hospitality, it only really counts if you can get all of that done and protect the guests and staff safety and experience at the same time,” Rhonda says. 

Behind this achievement is a tightly managed ecosystem of decisions, schedules, and people. While each project will surely have its share of surprises, the underlying foresight and a solid framework that guides seamless decision-making ensure those surprises don’t derail the outcome.  

Connect with this article’s contributors:
Mark Knott, Vice President
Rhonda Rasmussen, Project Director