We see many candidates highlighting in Bold or underlining the places where they have worked and were part of the pre-opening team of the project. To highlight this importance, I am sharing how a pre-opening experience differs.
I can share the details below based on my personal experience, where I have worked as part of the pre-opening and opening team of 6 international hotels, and I have been involved in the pre-opening and opening of more than 20 restaurants, which allows me to understand well the importance of this experience in the world of hospitality.
First, let’s talk about the hotel pre-opening experience.
When a team joins a hotel’s pre-opening stage, normally the hotel is in the final stages of construction and handover period. Senior managers join the pre-opening period around 3 months before the opening, but some might be hired even earlier or later, depending on their roles and responsibilities and the operator’s plan for the hiring process.
When it comes to the junior staff joining on board, it is around a month before opening, and sometimes a bit more. The team goes through a significant stage of team building, training, and development during this period until opening.
Management does follow what is called the “Critical Path” or “Retro-plan” or can have different names, where the manager has weekly tasks to complete, similar to a puzzle where you complete parts of the puzzle on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis until the final puzzle is there. Management meets once a week in order to evaluate progress.
So, a lot of training, a lot of projects, and a lot of team building occur, setting up operational units by the team, such as setting up hotel rooms, restaurants, spas, etc. During this course, the entire team builds up a significant experience that is much more than anyone who can possibly join after the opening period, and this is where the real value lies in working in this particular stage.
What counts even more is when the pre-opening stage comes closer to the day of “opening,” where the first guests are welcomed, and business starts building up on a daily and weekly basis, with occupancy going from zero to as high as 80% and even more.
Usually, staff working during this stage of hotel pre-opening/opening do get a “Pre-opening certificate” that is considered a plus and is a motivational tool for staff who have worked hard during this period.
In a hotel, the system is more complex than in a restaurant opening, as in a hotel there are many departments/divisions, and the staff have to understand not only their own department’s duties and SOPs but also how their department is linked and interacts with the other departments.
When it comes to a restaurant pre-opening,
The scenario is similar to the above, where a “Retro-plan / critical path” is followed until opening, where also projects and tasks such as branding, supplying, planning market lists, building and studying menus/descriptions, costing, and many other tasks are performed and executed by the team in the set-up stage of a restaurant.
During this stage, the staff are divided into the kitchen (back of house) and the restaurant main dining area (front of house), where these two divisions plan and develop their standards individually and later collectively in order to train both divisions on menu preparations and service delivery to clients.
A pre-opening stage involves long working hours; at least a week or two during the opening stage will be days off for the staff and involve a lot of stress, which results in turnover during this stage, especially with staff who are not well experienced with pre-opening pressures. Therefore, it is important to educate staff on what they will be facing during this stage.
In fact, it is important to highlight that the biggest task during pre-opening is the recruitment and onboarding, where, in some countries such as the GCC, the staff are provided with accommodation, and the task of onboarding and allocating staff in different rooms in the accommodation and ensuring that they feel welcomed is considered the biggest challenge, especially if the majority of the staff travels for the first time outside their countries.
Staff joining after an opening or joining an operation that has been running for some time will get orientation, training, and product knowledge, but will not necessarily be part of developing a menu, sourcing products, and other tasks that were mentioned that staff experience during the pre-opening period. Here comes the real value of pre-opening experience.
A head of department is key to making or breaking his/her department during the pre-opening stage. The more experience someone has in following a critical path, completing tasks as required, and effectively leading and delegating their teams, the smoother the opening will be.
So, overall, I do agree that a plus and advantage should be given to the staff/managers that have good pre-opening experience, as they tend to blend, adapt, and perform better under stress.
Cafe de Vie 