Technology in hotel construction: why starting early avoids rework and cost

The pattern that repeats from project to project

A recurring story goes like this. The site is bought, the architect draws up the concept, the interior design defines finishes and furniture, the works move forward, and at some point someone asks: "where does the rack go?" or "how many network points does this room have?". The answer, often, is that nobody has decided yet, because technology was not on the list of complementary designs from the start.

The cost of that delay is not abstract. Pulling cabling after the ceiling is closed, resizing a technical room that is too small for the racks the network design requires, or finding out there is no dedicated power for the Wi-Fi access points on a whole floor are common and avoidable kinds of rework. None of them is the fault of a specific supplier: they happen because technology often has no defined owner from the design brief onwards.

Why this happens so often

Technology in a hotel project is not a single supplier, it is a set of decisions that involve the internet provider, the network integrator, the PMS supplier, electronic locks, CCTV and guest Wi-Fi, among others. Each of these suppliers usually only joins the project when there is already a closed plan to work from, which means they react to architectural decisions already taken instead of influencing them.

Without someone responsible for looking at the whole, each supplier optimises its own part and nobody makes sure the parts fit together: the electrician sizes the switchboard without knowing how many racks there will be, the architect defines the technical room without knowing what the network design will require, and physical security is only discussed when the works are well advanced.

What to decide in each phase of the project

The earlier a technology category enters the conversation, the cheaper it is to adjust. A sequence that works in practice:

Design brief and concept: number of rooms and categories, brand standard or independent operation, PMS requirements and planned integrations, the need for technical rooms and roughly how many.

Detailed design and complementary designs: routes for network and CCTV infrastructure in the electrical and data designs, sizing of technical rooms, a Wi-Fi heat map over the floor plans, specification of electronic locks and building security integrations. This is also the phase to plan power for technology: UPS units, critical IT circuits connected to the generator, the PoE load of the switches and cooling for the technical rooms.

Construction: installing the cabling and network infrastructure according to the approved design, fitting racks, switches, cameras and access points, and certification testing of the cabling before ceilings and walls are closed.

Pre-opening: configuration and integration of the PMS, POS, locks and guest Wi-Fi, load testing on the network, staff training and naming who is responsible for IT and security in the operation. Before opening, an operational acceptance test with complete scenarios is worthwhile: booking, check-in, room access, a POS charge, billing, check-out and fiscal invoicing, along with the contingency procedures (in Portuguese) for when one of these systems fails.

In a renovation with the hotel still operating, the plan also has to consider the path to get there: how the network, Wi-Fi, CCTV, locks and operational systems keep working while each area is handed over, modified and returned to the operation.

That sequence is what sits behind the 24 categories of our checklist, available in detail on the hotel construction technology checklist page.

The areas the checklist covers

The checklist's 207 items are organised into seven broad areas, each with its own categories:

• Construction and renovation planning: the technology design brief, sizing of technical rooms, an as-built survey and a phasing plan for hotels that stay open during the renovation.
• Connectivity and network infrastructure: structured cabling, racks and switches, a Wi-Fi heat map, internet redundancy and network segmentation between guests and administrative systems.
• Operational and payment systems: PMS, POS, booking engine, channel manager and the PCI DSS requirements that apply to systems that process, store or transmit card data.
• Room and guest technology: electronic locks, temperature control, TV and entertainment, guest Wi-Fi.
• Physical security and building systems: CCTV, access control, building automation and the integration of these systems with the IT network.
• Corporate IT, cloud and cybersecurity: backup, antivirus, firewall, and the security measures the LGPD (Brazil's data protection law) requires to protect personal data.
• Project management and supplier coordination: the schedule, owners for each category and decision points that depend on more than one supplier at the same time.

How the tool works in practice

We created the checklist because it is the list we use internally when we help a hotel plan technology before or during construction, and we decided to make it available for free. It comes in three formats, depending on how you prefer to use it:

• The checklist page, with a summary of each of the 24 categories and the option to download the full tool.
• The interactive version, free and with no sign-up, right in the browser: you mark whether each item is required and its status, assign an owner, add notes and follow progress by category, with everything saved automatically in your browser.
• The downloadable version, an HTML file with the same tool, available after a simple sign-up, for those who prefer to keep a copy on their computer and fill it in offline, without depending on the internet.

In all three, the reference quantity field is free to fill in: you note your project's own numbers, because they depend on the specific plans and on a technical network, RF and security design that only exists once the hotel is defined.

How to get the most from the checklist

A few practices make a difference to how the checklist is used in a real project:

• Take it to the first meeting with architects, engineers and suppliers, not the last, so that the categories go into the design instead of being squeezed in later.
• Assign an owner per item, not just per category, so it is clear who confirms each decision.
• Also name an owner for each integration between suppliers, such as PMS and locks, PMS and POS, or network and CCTV. Without that, each supplier may consider its own part finished while the integration still has no owner.
• Use the notes field to record the reason for a specific decision in your project, which is useful when a supplier changes along the way.
• Follow progress by category rather than item by item, to see quickly which areas still have no decisions taken.

Who coordinates this in your project

The checklist's 207 items, in 24 categories, generally pass through around ten different suppliers. If your project is already under way and nobody is driving these decisions and coordinating the suppliers through to handover, that is exactly the role we play in new builds and renovations and in hotel technology project management.

If the project already has a team that looks after this, they can use the checklist themselves. External coordination makes more sense when there are several technology suppliers and nobody is accountable for the whole. In that role, HotelTI does not replace the network, RF, electrical or security engineering designs: we make sure those designs take the hotel's needs into account and that the suppliers work in a coordinated way through to handover.

Next steps

Technology does not have to be the last thing decided in a hotel project, and decisions taken before the works move forward usually cost much less to change than those discovered after walls, ceilings and installations are finished. Start with the interactive version of the checklist, with no sign-up, and take the result to your next project meeting.