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Balancing construction, guest experience, and operational continuity during major property upgrades

When it comes to hospitality renovation, not all Property Improvement Plans (PIPs) are created equal. Some are straightforward refreshes—new finishes, updated furniture, and a coat of paint. Others are far more complex, requiring teams to reimagine multiple spaces, manage competing priorities, and execute construction in a fully operational hotel. 

We sat down with Alberto Lopez, a Project Director at PMA, to explore his experience with those complex PIPs and uncover where the real challenge—and opportunity—lies. 

B&D: Tell us about your background and how you got into hospitality projects. 

Alberto Lopez: I’m a licensed architect in California, and that was really my first career. I worked at large firms in San Diego on big mixed-use developments, including high-rise urban projects that often included hotel components. Over time, hospitality just kept landing on my desk. 

I never set out thinking I’d be “a hotel guy,” but I really enjoy it. You’re designing spaces for people on vacation or traveling for business, which brings a completely different energy and mindset to the design problem. After COVID, I completed a $2B hospitality development and made the transition to PMA. I wanted to be closer to execution and problem-solving, not just design. 

B&D: How do you define a large-scale, complex PIP—and what makes it different from a typical renovation? 

AL: It really comes down to scope. A simple PIP might just refresh guest rooms—new finishes, furniture, paint. Very contained. 

Complex PIPs start when you’re touching multiple parts of the hotel in pieces. Maybe you’re updating guest rooms, modifying the front desk, relocating luggage storage, and reworking parts of the lobby—all without redoing the entire space. That piecemeal approach is what drives complexity. 

The more fragmented the scope, the harder it is to coordinate. You’re dealing with dependencies, sequencing, and a lot of moving parts—all while the hotel is still operating. 

B&D: What are the biggest challenges when executing a PIP in an occupied hotel?

AL: The biggest one is balancing construction with guest experience. Unlike ground-up work, you’re renovating in real time, trying to maintain occupancy and revenue.  

There’s always a strategic question: Do you “rip the band-aid off” and accept a shorter period of heavy disruption…or do you stretch the work longer with limited daily impacts? 

From what I’ve seen, the most successful approach is usually to compress the work. Set clear hours for noise, execute quickly, and get through the most disruptive work as fast as possible. Because time is money—both in lost revenue and the cost of keeping contractors mobilized longer. 

B&D: Can you share a real-world example that illustrates this complexity? 

AL: On a recent large-scale hotel project, we had to saw cut and jackhammer areas on the pool deck for several weeks. The contractor wanted to start as early as 6 a.m., but that obviously doesn’t work in an operating hotel. 

So we worked with ownership and operations to define acceptable hours that started closer to 9 a.m., and coordinated everything around that. 

That’s a perfect example of where communication and planning become critical. Everyone needs to understand the work, the noise levels, and the schedule in detail to make it successful. 

B&D: Speaking of communication, what separates good coordination from bad on these projects? 

AL: Honesty and specificity. 

You can’t just say, “We’ll take care of it.” You need details—what work is happening, what tools are being used, how many people are on-site, and when is it happening. 

We rely heavily on look-ahead schedules—three-week forecasts that show exactly what’s coming. That helps everyone anticipate disruption and identify problem areas early. Once everything is out in the open, you can start solving for pressure points, whether that’s adjusting work hours or resequencing activities. 

B&D: How do you avoid a fragmented guest experience when only parts of a hotel are renovated? 

AL: That’s a big one. 

We ran into this on a recent project where we started by renovating a bar, but the space was so open that it didn’t have a clear stopping point. Suddenly you’re asking: where does new tile end and existing tile begin? 

We had a situation where modern finishes were sitting right next to outdated materials from decades ago. That’s when you have to push your design team to create solutions that “blur the edges” so the space still feels cohesive and doesn’t create a distraction that removes guests from their experience. 

B&D: What ultimately separates successful PIPs from those that struggle? 

AL: It starts with the right team and strategy from day one. 

You need experienced partners, especially in hospitality, because if you underestimate the complexity, things can spiral quickly. In particular, bringing in a contractor early for preconstruction is also critical. It helps align scope, budget, and sequencing before you get too far down the path. 

Thanks to Alberto for his participation in Ask the Expert. If you have a topic you’d like one of our experts to cover in a future issue, submit them here.