Reopening a seasonal hotel: the last four weeks before the first guest

A hotel reopening checklist is a dated, owner-assigned list of what must be verified before the first arrival. In the last four weeks a seasonal hotel works in risk order: water systems and plant, then rooms and linen, then kitchens and suppliers, then systems and logins, then staff training and a test day, then a go/no-go review.

The first guest arrives at 14:00 on a Friday. Three weeks earlier the hotel was a cold building with the shutters down, water standing in the pipes and a kitchen nobody had switched on since October. Almost everything that goes wrong in the first week was decided in those four weeks. This article walks the four weeks in order, so you can build one list, assign it and defend the opening date.

What does a hotel reopening checklist cover in the last four weeks?#

It covers everything that must be true before a paying guest can sleep, eat, wash and be billed, ordered by what can cause harm or stop the opening rather than by department. The list has four workstreams: building and water, rooms and stock, food and beverage, systems and people. Each one has a single named owner who signs.

Order by consequence. Safety and legal duties come first: water, gas, lifts, fire detection. Then anything that stops a sale, such as rooms not signed off or rates not loaded. Comfort items come last. Give every line three fields: what done looks like, who signs it, and the date it must be signed by. A line without a date is a wish.

Build the list from last season's evidence: the maintenance log, the complaint log and the incident reports from the closing weeks. The winter closing checklist is the input. Whatever was switched off, drained or locked in November has to be switched on, refilled and unlocked now. Keep one list, not parallel department lists: parallel lists hide the items that fall between departments, such as the corridor carpet that housekeeping and maintenance each assumed the other had ordered. If you have not closed yet, read our guide to closing a seasonal hotel for winter first.

Four weeks out: what do plant rooms, water systems and pools need?#

They need to be brought back in a fixed sequence, because water treatment comes before the guest rooms are opened, and the plant has to be proven before either. The controlling document is the Regulation on the Procedures and Principles for Controlling Legionnaires' Disease (Resmî Gazete, 13 May 2015, No. 29354), which sets routine protective measures for accommodation units including hotels, motels, holiday villages and guesthouses. You can read the consolidated text on the Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (opens in a new tab), published by the Ministry of Health.

Two provisions matter most for a seasonal hotel. If a hot-water tank or part of the hot-water system has been out of service for a week or more, the water is kept above 70°C for at least one day from the moment it is put back into use (Article 8(1)(c)). If the facility itself has been closed for a week or more, Article 8(2) requires, before guests are accepted:

• heat the water in all hot-water tanks to 70°C and hold it for at least 24 hours;
• run all hot taps and shower heads for at least 5 to 10 minutes so the water from the tap reaches at least 60°C;
• keep tap water above 60°C for at least 24 hours;
• hyperchlorinate the whole hot and cold system to at least 3 ppm residual chlorine and hold it for at least 24 hours, or use another chemical eradication method, while making sure guests do not drink or use the water;
• clean shower heads and taps and remove scale and deposits;
• drain cooling towers completely, clean and disinfect them, and apply effective biocides on restart.

Article 8(3) requires a file of these measures, shown on request to the health directorate, the community health centre (TSM) or inspectors. Record temperatures and chlorine readings with times, not ticks. Separately, taps and shower heads in unused rooms are run with hot and cold water for 3 to 5 minutes every day (Article 8(1)(e)), which matters in a hotel that opens wing by wing. Describe the duty in general terms here; confirm scope, dates and your own case against the regulation text with a health and safety adviser. Penalties are not covered in this article.

Beyond water, this week covers boilers and chillers, lift inspection, fire detection and extinguishing, gas lines and kitchen extraction, and pool plant with chemical dosing and safety equipment. Book outside contractors before the four weeks start, because their calendars are full in spring. A longer view of scheduling belongs in a hotel preventive maintenance plan.

Three weeks out: how do you get rooms, linen and stock ready?#

Deep-clean and inspect room by room, then hold each room in a status the front desk can trust, so nobody sells a room that has not been signed off. The sequence per room is fixed: strip and air, deep clean (mattress, curtains, carpet, grout, air-conditioning filters, minibar, safe, hairdryer), maintenance punch list, linen and amenities, inspection, status change.

Room status codes such as vacant dirty, vacant clean, inspected and out of order are common practice, not a published standard, and systems differ. Agree the meanings in writing before the season starts. Out-of-order rooms must be blocked in the system, not just known to the housekeeper; otherwise the first sold-out weekend sells them.

Linen is counted against par, stained and torn pieces are pulled and replaced, and the laundry contract and turnaround are confirmed before the first full house, not after it. Stock covers amenities, minibar, cleaning chemicals, pool towels, printed collateral, key cards and encoder consumables: count, order, and set a reorder point per item. Terraces, gardens, pool decks, sunbeds, umbrellas and signage are part of the room in the guest's mind, even when another department owns them.

Two weeks out: how do you commission kitchens, bars and suppliers?#

Commission the kitchen as equipment and as an operation: prove every appliance, every extraction line and every temperature control before the first delivery arrives. Gas appliances, extraction and fire suppression are proven with the qualified contractor, not by switching them on and listening.

Refrigeration and cold rooms are pulled down to temperature, recorded, with door seals and defrost cycles checked. A freezer that stood off for months needs a full clean before it is restocked. Pest control runs a full inspection after the closed season and before stock arrives, not after the first complaint. Small equipment, glassware and crockery are counted, breakages replaced, and dishwasher and glasswasher dosing and rinse temperatures checked.

Suppliers are reconfirmed: every contract, price list and delivery slot, with the first week's orders placed before opening rather than during it. Menus are costed at this season's prices, allergen information is prepared, and kitchen and front of house are briefed on what changed since last year. In the bar, lines are cleaned, gas and post-mix checked, ice machines cleaned and sanitized, and the cellar brought to temperature.

How do you check systems, logins and data before opening?#

Test the path a booking takes from the channel to the bill with a real test reservation, and confirm that every login still works and belongs to someone who still works for you. Logins to test cover the property management system, channel manager, payment terminal, bank, e-invoice integrator, KBS (the guest identity notification system), Wi-Fi controller, door locks, safes and point of sale. Remove access for staff who left and add it for staff who arrived.

Rates and availability come next: load the season calendar, check restrictions, minimum stays and closed dates, and confirm the same room cannot be sold twice. Then run one end-to-end test booking: create, modify, cancel, check in, post a charge, split the bill, close the day. Cancel it and confirm the room returns to inventory. Spot-check guest history, company and agency records, and rate agreements carried over from last season by reading a few records, not just confirming they exist. Compliance items (KBS, e-Fatura and e-Arşiv, KVKK records) belong on a separate list with their own owner; our pre-season compliance checklist for seasonal hotels in Türkiye covers that side.

When should staff arrive, and what does a test day prove?#

Bring department heads back first, about a week before their teams, so training has an owner who already knows the building. Training is demonstration, not a briefing: each person performs the task, whether check-in, posting a charge, taking a booking or closing a bill, while someone watches.

The test day is the proof. Staff book, arrive, check in, eat, use the pool, order room service, complain, ask for the bill and check out, with every department running its real process at real speed. Brief one person to complain on purpose; the point is to find where the handover between departments fails. Record everything that breaks on one list, fix it, and repeat only the failing part the next day. Before opening, agree who writes incident reports, where the forms are, and who is called at night; our guide to seasonal staff onboarding gives the department-level detail.

What belongs in the go/no-go review before the first guest?#

A short list of items that, if not done, mean the hotel opens with fewer rooms, fewer outlets or a later date, plus one named person who decides. Criteria, not opinions: water file complete and signed, fire and lift certificates current, rooms inspected with correct statuses, rates loaded and the test booking passed, kitchen commissioned, suppliers confirmed, staff trained, test-day failures closed.

Name the decision-maker, usually the general manager, and the fallback: which rooms or outlets stay closed if an item fails. Phasing is a legitimate outcome. Sell fewer rooms in week one and keep the rest out of order until they are signed off. In the first week, hold a short daily meeting with the same list and the same owner, so a failure on Tuesday is fixed on Wednesday. Write down what was deferred and when it will be done: deferred items become the season's maintenance backlog, and they return in August.

What to do next#

Start the list today from last season's closing checklist and its failures, give every line one owner and one date, and put the go/no-go review in the calendar before the first arrival is confirmed. The four weeks are not a countdown to a date; they are a sequence in which each week removes a category of risk from the opening.