Hospitality budgets fail when FOH glamour eats BOH function, or when rooms are specified like a one-off apartment. Split packages. Spend on what guests touch and what staff break. Feature ceilings can wait if the bar well is wrong.
Hospitality Budget Priorities
Split public areas, rooms, and kitchen so the quote you take to partners is comparable and honest.
Split
Rooms, public, and operator items
Guest-room joinery repeats and should be priced that way. Lobbies and restaurants carry more custom work. FF&E, kitchen equipment, and IT are often separate and should stay visible so nobody thinks joinery included the combi oven.
A 10 to 15 percent buffer until mock-up sign-off is normal. Opening stock is not interiors.
- Line items by area type
- Equipment and loose furniture called out
- Licences and base-build exclusions listed
- Mock-up cost as a line, not a surprise
Priority
Touch, wet, and repeat
Protect bar wells, toilet spec, room hardware, and flooring at the door. Save the sculptural host stand if those are at risk.
Phasing a hotel by floor only works if the mock-up already locked the kit. Phasing a café by opening the toilet later does not work.
- Wet rooms and kitchens cannot slip behind FOH paint
- Room kits before lobby art
- Spares for FOH chairs and shutters
- A snag budget that is not the owner’s pocket on night one
Kitchen, HVAC, and furniture inclusions differ. Compare packages, not a single number on a WhatsApp forward.
Guests sleep in rooms and photograph the lobby. Cut decoration before you cut hardware and wet-area quality.
Use the hospitality fitout estimator, then a measured proposal with room types and F&B area called out.
