Why hospitality owners of all sizes are upping their capital program game

For many hoteliers under pressure to improve performance across the board—especially while rebounding from the pandemic—there’s renewed focus on better capital planning and execution. There seems to be a “perfect storm” of economic drivers, environmental focus, and better processes and technology than has ever been available before.

With capital expenses accounting for a significant percentage of overall costs, it’s critical to address this facet of the business to accelerate recovery. Such scrutiny of capital program management also is allowing the hospitality industry to tackle a historical challenge: a reputation of waste in food, plastics, water, and electricity, according to Hospitality Technology.

The payoff for the extra effort?

An improved bottom line and better reputation, according to Forbes. There’s a greater opportunity to win over millennials, whose oldest generational members are turning 40.

They’re becoming increasingly influential consumers, who’ve long prioritized a brand’s social responsibility and environmental friendliness when making buying decisions.

Hyatt is a prime example, achieving notable results through improved capital program management. The hotel chain implemented three global changes to reduce waste:

• Transitioned to large-format bathroom amenities to replace traditional small bottles of shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion.
• Increased the number of water stations in key public spaces at hotels for guests who wish to refill reusable water bottles.
• Serving water in carafes or other containers for meetings and events with bottled water available by request.

Although there was a cost for making these changes, the moves are reducing the hotel’s ongoing expenses. And Hyatt anticipates gaining a competitive edge in the marketplace as consumers direct their spending toward more environmentally conscious businesses.

Not only does Hyatt win as a company and brand, so too, do its individual properties. A Hyatt in Georgia received an award for its water savings, a result of optimizing mechanical systems. It’s yet another example of the overlap between cost savings and environmental stewardship.

Maximize the value of your capital portfolio

Follow the lead of hospitality industry leaders, who are taking steps to maximize their capital investments by streamlining their processes and implementing consistent protocols and central systems across their portfolios.

This consistency and automation helps use your data to make better and more timely decisions. As the project owner you’re more involved in assuring project tradeoffs are consistent with organizational goals.

Academic research has found that portfolio management optimization tools typically increase overall portfolio value by between 5 percent and 20 percent.

Standardize project prioritization and selection, improve control over project execution, and ensure access to the right data at the right time. Visibility and control help you proactively keep costs under control while ensuring successful project execution and ongoing maintenance.

For example, owners can prioritize which properties to retrofit first when evaluating the impact of switching from incandescent to LED lights with sensors, while also considering usage and energy costs across all projects. Projects undertaken for cost savings can also benefit the environment.

LED lighting with sensors throughout facilities help keep costs down while reducing energy use.

Get up and running quickly with new technology solutions

In the past, robust capital program management solutions were reserved for large organizations with the time, budget, and resources for a multi-month definition and implementation program. Many capital program services are also outsourced to industry consultants, who can be costly and often can’t provide instant data access.

Today, organizations of all sizes are benefiting from not only technology but also from capital program management process expertise in the form of pre-configured guided business processes. This new model allows hospitality owners to see the value from their technology investment in as fast as a couple of weeks.

Hotel operations are complicated. Implementing the right solutions to gain the benefits of a cohesive project planning and execution tool allows you to manage approval cycles, contracting, cost, schedule, and risk across your entire portfolio of properties.

Learn about Oracle’s Primavera Unifier Essentials, the quick-start solution built on top of the world-class capital program management platform, Primavera Unifier.           

Oracle Construction and Engineering, the global leader in construction management software and project portfolio management solutions, helps you connect your teams, processes, and data; empower better decision-making; and synchronize activities across the project and asset lifecycle. Drive efficiency and control in project delivery with proven solutions for project controls, construction scheduling, portfolio management, BIM/CDE, construction payment management, and more

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