Project Manager - Hotels Opening

ZipRecruiter; London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading hospitality recruitment platform is looking for an experienced Hotel Opening Project Manager in London. The successful candidate will oversee the pre-opening process of new hotels, ensuring operational standards align with design and construction. Ideal applicants will have 5–10 years of hotel operations experience, outstanding leadership skills, and familiarity with project management tools. This role is crucial for ensuring a seamless hotel launch.

Qualifications

• 5–10 years of hotel operations experience, including pre-opening roles.
• Strong understanding of hotel operating models and design integration.
• Experience with construction and design teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the pre-opening process from an operations perspective.
• Act as operational lead in cross-functional meetings.
• Create and manage detailed project plans and timelines.
• Implement systems to monitor progress and flag risks.
• Facilitate alignment among ownership, brand, and operations.
• Lead site readiness reviews and oversee task force deployment.
• Provide progress reports to senior leadership.

Skills

Hotel operations experience

Project management

Organizational skills

Communication skills

Leadership skills

Education

PMP or similar certification

Tools

Smartsheet

Asana

MS Project

Job description

Job Description

We are seeking an experienced Hotel Opening Project Manager with deep operational expertise to lead and coordinate the successful opening of new hotels. This role is anchored in pre-opening operations and serves as the critical link between hotel operations, design, and construction teams to ensure the property is built, delivered, and launched to brand and operational standards.

This is not a construction PM role. It is a hospitality operations specialist position with a strong understanding of how hotels come to life and how operational requirements must inform and align with physical design and development processes.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own the full pre-opening process from an operations perspective, including staffing, training, systems, licensing, vendor coordination, and SOP development.
• Act as the operational lead in meetings with design, construction, and development teams, ensuring operational needs are integrated into construction and FF&E/OS&E decisions.
• Create and manage detailed project plans, critical paths, opening timelines and checklists in coordination with construction schedules, procurement plans, and hotel leadership
• Implement systems or tools to monitor progress, flag risks and record learnings
• Facilitate alignment among ownership, brand, technical services, procurement, IT, and operations to ensure smooth handover and readiness.
• Lead site readiness reviews, oversee pre-opening task force deployment, and support the hotel through soft and full opening.
• Provide regular progress reports to senior leadership and recommend process optimizations.

Qualifications:

• 5–10 years of hotel operations experience, with a minimum of 3 years in pre-opening leadership roles (as project manager, task force lead, or opening director).
• Strong knowledge of hotel operating models and how they intersect with physical design (front/back of house, guest experience, compliance, etc.).
• Experience interfacing with construction, design, FF&E/OS&E, and technical services teams.
• Outstanding organizational, communication, and leadership skills across diverse stakeholders.
• Familiarity with project management tools (e.g., Smartsheet, Asana, MS Project).
• PMP or similar certification is a plus.
• Ability to travel to project sites as needed.