The First 90 Days of a Hotel Takeover: A 30/60/90 Plan
What new owners and operators should do in the first 90 days: secure cash and access, reconcile everything inherited from the prior operator, stabilize staff and put controls in place.
Quick answer: In the first 90 days after taking over a hotel, secure cash and systems access first, then reconcile everything you inherited from the prior operator, then stabilize staffing and put controls in place. A simple 30/60/90 plan keeps the team focused: days 1–30 on cash, AR and access; days 31–60 on contracts, reservations and staffing; days 61–90 on controls, reporting and the budget.
What should you do in the first week of a hotel takeover?
Lock down money and access. Before you change anything operational, confirm that every dollar the hotel earns will land in an account you control and that you can see every reservation.
- Confirm bank signers, deposit routing and card processor settlement accounts.
- Change admin passwords on the PMS, POS, channel manager, accounting and payroll systems.
- Get primary access to every OTA extranet and update payout banking details.
- Capture opening balances: guest ledger, city ledger (AR), advance deposits and cash banks.
- Export the prior operator's reports before any access is removed.
Days 1–30: how do you get control of cash and accounts receivable?
Reconcile the cutoff and chase every receivable while the trail is fresh. Balances that are not collected in the first month often never are.
- Tie the opening AR aging to the prior operator's last closed month.
- Classify each balance: owed to the new owner, owed to the seller or old operator, or disputed. Follow what your purchase or transition agreement says.
- Contact every direct bill account with new remittance instructions.
- List every OTA virtual card for stays in the last 60 days and upcoming stays, and confirm each is charged before it expires.
- Pull open chargebacks and note each response deadline.
- Reconcile daily: PMS revenue to card settlements and deposits.
For example (illustrative numbers only): you inherit $180,000 in AR, of which $42,000 is over 90 days old. That aged portion is about 23% of the balance and deserves a named owner, a collection plan and a decision on who keeps what is recovered.
Why do you need to reconcile the prior operator's reservations?
Because you inherit every reservation, past, current and future, along with any mistakes made on them. Errors made before the takeover still cost the hotel money after it.
- Past stays: OTA commissions billed on cancellations, no-shows or shortened stays; virtual cards never charged; direct bill folios never invoiced.
- Current stays: rate codes and routing set up correctly for direct bill and group accounts.
- Future stays: rates matching contracts, payment methods captured, and cancellation policies attached.
Work through future reservations first, because those are the ones you can still fix before the guest arrives. Then move backward through past stays, starting with the most recent, since OTA disputes and virtual card charges are usually time-limited. Keep a simple log of each error found, the amount, and whether it was recovered, so ownership can see the value of the cleanup.
Our guide to where hotels lose revenue lists the most common leak points to review.
Days 31–60: which contracts and relationships should you review?
Review every agreement that affects revenue or recurring cost, and decide which to keep, renegotiate or end.
- OTA agreements: contracted commission rates, program add-ons and payment models.
- Corporate, crew, government and group contracts: rates, billing terms and invoicing requirements.
- Vendor contracts: laundry, waste, maintenance, technology subscriptions, and auto-renewals.
- Franchise obligations: open PIP items, quality assurance deadlines and required programs.
If crew or direct bill business is a large share of the hotel, read the crew lodging billing errors checklist before your first invoicing cycle.
How should you handle staffing during a takeover?
Keep the team stable first and restructure later. Staff know where the problems are, and losing experienced front desk or accounting people in the first month makes every other task harder.
- Meet department heads in the first week and ask what they would fix first.
- Confirm payroll runs correctly on the first cycle; nothing erodes trust faster than a missed paycheck.
- Review schedules against forecast occupancy to find overtime and understaffing.
- Cross-train at least two people on night audit, deposits and AR posting.
Set up a short daily stand-up with the GM, front office manager and controller for the first month. Fifteen minutes on arrivals, open issues and cash is usually enough to catch problems before they compound, and it gives the new team a clear line to ownership.
Days 61–90: which controls should be in place?
By day 90 you should have written controls for cash, revenue and payables, and a month-end close the owner can trust.
- Daily revenue reconciliation (PMS to deposits) with sign-off.
- Segregation of duties: the person posting payments is not the person approving adjustments.
- Rate override and complimentary room approvals.
- Weekly AR aging review with named collectors.
- Monthly OTA commission review against actual stays.
- A documented month-end close calendar.
Day 90 is also the right point to deliver the first full reforecast to ownership: what you found, what you recovered, and what the rest of the year looks like with the new controls in place.
Use our hotel financial controls checklist and month-end close guide to set the baseline.
How does the first 90 days connect to revenue leakage?
A takeover is when leakage is easiest to miss and most expensive to ignore, because nobody on the new team knows the history. Hotels typically lose 3–12% of revenue to leakage. x·quic audits every reservation you inherit and recovers what the prior operator mis-collected from day one, across OTA commissions, virtual cards, no-show fees, chargebacks and direct bill. Learn more on our management companies page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most important thing to do on day one of a hotel takeover?
Confirm that deposits and card settlements go to accounts you control, and that you have admin access to the PMS and OTA extranets.
Who collects receivables from before the takeover?
Your purchase or transition agreement should say. If it is unclear, get agreement in writing with the prior owner or operator and confirm with your attorney.
Should I change the PMS during the first 90 days?
Usually not, unless the brand or license requires it. A system change on top of an ownership change multiplies the risk of lost reservations and billing errors.
How do I know if the prior operator left money on the table?
Audit a year of reservations against OTA invoices, card settlements and folios. Our transition guide covers what to request before the handover.
Know what every hotel in the portfolio is leaking.
Run the free 1-year Profit Audit across your properties, including any hotel you are taking over, and see leakage by hotel, brand, and product in your own numbers. No cost, no commitment.
