Internal note — one page

The business case for your management

You have done the calculation and you are convinced — what is left is convincing whoever signs. This page turns your figures into a one-page note: the decision being asked for, the amounts, the objections already answered, and the timetable.

1 p.

A note that runs past one page does not get read, it gets deferred. The format is deliberately constrained: three figures, three objections, one request. Everything else belongs in appendices nobody will open before saying yes.

Context
The figures

Take the three figures from the cost calculator. They are the only ones that will appear in the note.

The message

A note with no reservation reads as a sales pitch. Naming the limit yourself defuses the first question.

Internal note · Guest amenities

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The decision requested

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The figures

Saving / year—
Which is—
Capital—
Payback—

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What it changes for the guest

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The three objections, answered

  1. “It will feel less premium.” It is the bottle and its finish that carry the perception, not how it was filled — which the guest never sees. A card in the bathroom explaining the product does the rest.
  2. “The bottles will disappear.” Anti-theft holders exist, for a few euros more per bottle. The decision is taken at the order, not after the first stocktake.
  3. “The teams will lose time.” The daily laying-out in each room disappears and is replaced by a grouped check. The pilot will measure the real difference rather than estimate it.

What I am not hiding

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Proposed timetable

  • Weeks 1 to 2 — order the equipment and brief the housekeeping team.
  • Weeks 3 to 6 — pilot on ten rooms, weekly reading of actual consumption.
  • Week 7 — compare the readings against the assumption, decide whether to roll out.
  • Weeks 8 to 10 — roll out floor by floor if the pilot confirms it.

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How do you get a change of guest amenities approved?

By stopping selling the product. Management is not deciding on a cosmetics range: it is deciding on an amount, a risk and a timetable. The note that gets through gives all three on one page and asks for a precise decision — a pilot on ten rooms, not “agreement in principle”.

The most common mistake is opening on the environmental argument. It is real, it counts, and it makes nobody sign: it comes in as reinforcement once the figure is accepted, never before.

Why ask for a pilot rather than the full switchover?

Because a pilot is reversible, and management says yes far more readily to a reversible decision. Ten rooms over four weeks cost almost nothing, produce the real figures that are missing, and turn the second request into a formality.

Should you mention the limits?

Always. A note with no reservation sets people looking for the catch. Naming the weakness yourself — the gap narrows on long stays, actual consumption is still to be confirmed — puts you on the analysis side rather than the selling side.

And if the calculation shows no saving?

Then the note should not be written. With well-negotiated single-dose and long stays the gap can be marginal: in that case the question is about experience and waste, which is a different subject, with a different audience.

Who should sign the note?

Whoever is carrying it, not procurement. An operational note signed by the person who lives with the decision carries more weight than a file passed along. Copy in the executive housekeeper: their agreement is worth more than another argument.

What to attach

Real cost calculator → the three figures in the note

Switchover plan → the detailed timetable

Common objections → the ten objections and their answers

In-room card → the guest-perception side

This note names no brand and recommends no supplier: it is about a format.

The “what I am not hiding” field is not decorative. A note carrying no reservation reads as a sales pitch, and gets treated as one.

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