Opening a New Hotel: Why Pre-Planning and Pre-Selling Decide Your Revenue Ramp

Hotel Under Construction

Opening a new hotel is one of the most exciting milestones for any owner or development group. But in today’s competitive hospitality landscape, excitement alone won’t fill your rooms. The hotels that stabilize quickly and outperform their comp sets all have one thing in common: they invest early in people, planning, and proactive sales well before the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Industry studies, as well as guidance from the top two leading hotel brands, point to a clear truth: the way you plan your pre-opening sales timeline directly determines whether you capture high-yield business from Day 1, or spend years playing catch-up with discount-driven segments.

1. People First: Hire the Right Leadership Early

General Manager: Brought on board about 8 months prior to opening, a GM sets culture, leads pre-opening checklists, and engages the community. Director of Sales/Marketing (DOSM): Ideally hired 6–9 months before opening. This gives time to pursue corporate RFP cycles, negotiate LNRs, and solicit group business.

Pre-Opening Sales Budget: Owners should plan for at least 7–12 months of pre-opening payroll for leadership roles. Cutting corners here is one of the costliest mistakes.

2. Build a Pre-Opening Sales & Marketing Timeline

The two leading hotel brands both emphasize early visibility:

·         12–18 Months Out (Full-Service/Convention Hotels): Start group and citywide RFP submissions. Major conferences, associations, and sports tournaments book a year or more in advance.

·         8 Months Out: GM and DOSM hired. Begin community outreach, local partnerships, and top-40 account targeting.

·         6–7 Months Out: Brand systems activated. Submit to OTA and digital channels.

·         3–5 Months Out: Hotel goes “Open to Sale” online. Digital marketing ramps up—website live, Google Business profile active, social media content posted, TripAdvisor and brand.com pages populated.

·         0–3 Months Prior: Pre-sell push for base business, revenue strategy alignment, and final training to ensure staff deliver a flawless guest experience at launch.

3. Secure Base Business: Anchor Segments Before You Open

Owners who delay proactive sales often find themselves settling for last-minute, price-sensitive demand: OTAs, wholesaler series, and discounted leisure. Instead, your sales team should be working months in advance to lock in:

·         Corporate LNRs and Fortune 500 regional accounts

·         Long-term stay contracts with project crews, universities, or government

·         Sports and SMERF groups with predictable shoulder demand

·         Citywide event that generate compression and layer future year’s group business and a backlog.

This base occupancy is what allows revenue management to yield rates up instead of selling out at discounts.

4. Set the Right Pricing & Revenue Strategy

It’s tempting for a brand-new hotel to chase occupancy with deep discounts. But research shows this hurts long-term RevPAR performance.

·         Best practice: Open slightly below comp set ADR, then plan a 12–18-month glide path to parity or premium positioning.

·         Protect ADR: Better to run at 70% occupancy with healthy ADR than 90% at rock-bottom rates.

·         Work with an expert revenue strategy team that understands yield management and proper price positioning to ensure strategies are aligned well before launch.

5. Win on Day-One Guest Experience

Even with the best pre-sell work, if early guests leave with poor impressions, you’ll pay for it in lost reviews and conversion.

·         Training & Service: Service culture must be established pre-opening.

·         Reputation Launch: The first 90 days of TripAdvisor, Google, and OTA reviews set the hotel’s long-term digital reputation trajectory.

·         Execution: Delivering flawless stays means positive social proof, which accelerates booking momentum and RevPAR stabilization.

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

·         Owners who under-invest in pre-opening sales and marketing typically:

·          Miss corporate RFP cycles and group base business

·         Rely on OTAs and discount channels

·         Take 12–18 months longer to stabilize

·         Lag comp set RevPAR Index by 10–20 points even years after opening

The ROI of Doing It Right

Owners who execute these five fundamentals—early hires, proactive sales timelines, base business capture, disciplined revenue strategy, and flawless guest experience—often achieve:

·         Faster stabilization (1–2 years vs. 3–4 years)

·         Higher ADR growth trajectory

·         RevPAR Index over 100 within 12–18 months

·         Stronger NOI and debt service coverage

Conclusion

The best hotels don’t just open. They launch with a clear plan, the right people, and the right capital allocated to pre-selling, marketing, and service delivery. Owners who understand this reality and invest accordingly, set themselves up not only for a strong opening, but for a faster path to profitability and long-term brand strength. As I often tell owners and development groups: 'Time will either expose you or reward you.' Meaning; the work that we do each and every day by scheduling hard hat tours, engaging with top businesses in your backyard, attending chamber mixers and presenting your hotel to groups, making prospecting calls, volunteering at the local hospital, following up consistently, and promoting your hotel’s value proposition across all business segments and diverse sectors will ultimately reward your efforts with more business.