How do I renovate motel rooms without closing the motel?

A motel earns room by room, so closing the whole property for a renovation means losing every night at once. Many owners avoid that by treating the work as a series of small projects. Each one removes a few rooms, finishes them, and returns them to service before the next group starts.

Phase the work around your quiet weeks

Look at your own booking history and find the stretches when rooms sit empty. Put the heavier work, such as flooring and bathrooms, there. Keep lighter work, such as paint and fixtures, for busier weeks when only one or two rooms can come out. Leave a buffer, because a room that is promised back by Friday and is not ready costs you a guest.

Take rooms out of every booking channel

Block each room in your front-desk system, your channel manager and every booking site before the crew arrives. Check the sites a day later to confirm the room no longer shows. A guest sent to a room with a missing bathroom writes the review you will be reading for years. Reopen rooms only after you have walked through them yourself.

Protect the guests who are staying

Tell guests at booking or check-in that work is under way, and give the quietest rooms to people who ask. Limit noisy work to mid-day hours. Keep the work area closed off and the parking lot clear of materials. Meet the contractor with your head housekeeper so cleaning and construction never fight over the same corridor.

Keep a record of every room

• The date each room came out of service and returned
• What was replaced, and the supplier and contractor used
• Warranties, receipts and any permits your contractor pulled
• Photos before and after