Pre-opening checklist — 6 milestones, D-180 to opening
On a new or refurbished hotel, guest amenities almost always come last, once everything is decided and the walls are finished. That is a scheduling mistake: two decisions in this package have to be taken very early, or they cost ten times their price afterwards.
Where the holders are fixed is decided before the finishes go in. Drilling laid tile, stone or a lacquered panel to fit a bottle holder costs more than the holder does, and the result shows. If you settle only one thing early, settle that one.
Decide what the bathroom has to say, before looking at a single product.
The structural decision. It constrains the build and is not easily undone.
Choose the supplier on facts, with time to test before committing.
A firm order, with the margin for error an opening schedule always imposes.
Everything fitted, written down and understood before the first room night.
Opening distorts every figure. Measure anyway, conclude later.
Much earlier than people think. The product itself can be chosen late — production lead times are short. But two decisions in the bathroom package are constrained by the build and have to be settled six months before opening: the format, and how the holders are fixed.
The format determines whether wall brackets are needed. Wall brackets determine fixing points, which have to be drilled before the finishes go in and marked on the drawings. A project that decides on refillable three weeks before opening ends up drilling new tile, or standing bottles loose where they will disappear.
Technically yes, economically badly. The alternatives are drilling afterwards — expensive, visible, and sometimes refused by the project manager under warranty — or a loose bottle, which gets stolen and knocked over. Neither gives the result settling it at D-120 would have.
That is the question to ask at D-120, because it is the same reasoning carried forward. A bathroom delivered in 2026, 2027 or 2028 will still be in service on 1 January 2030, the date on which Regulation (EU) 2025/40 stops single-use guest amenity packaging intended for an individual booking being placed on the market — whatever it is made of.
A project specifying single-dose today will therefore have to reopen the fixing question before the building's first operating cycle is out. That is the drilling-afterwards described above, with a date known in advance. Drilling once costs less than drilling twice, and the only moment it costs almost nothing is still D-120. What the text says →
A full par stock for every room, plus a reserve worth one month of operation at forecast occupancy. The first weeks are unpredictable: unstable occupancy, press and invited guests, routines not yet settled. A stockout in opening week gets noticed more than anywhere else.
Yes, and test them in real conditions before settling the choice: in the shower, in hard water if that is what you have, and handled by whoever will run the floors. A texture or a scent is judged in use, not on a meeting table.
Ideally the incoming executive housekeeper, as soon as they are hired. Failing that, management, with the housekeeper's sign-off before any firm order. A bathroom package decided by the interior designer alone produces beautiful bottles nobody knows how to refill.
Real cost calculator → price the format before you freeze it
Supplier comparison grid → compare on 15 checkable criteria
In-room card → explain the product to the guest from day one
Eight-question diagnostic → check the decision holds up
Six milestones set for an opening or heavy refurbishment of 50 to 150 rooms. The timings are indicative; the order is constrained by the build.
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