Floods hit hotels twice. First from water cleanup and repairs, then from lost room nights that ripple through F&B, events, and reviews. This guide gives you a clear room-night loss calculator, a retrofit menu with realistic ranges, and a simple payback model that shows which upgrades protect revenue fastest.
Use the calculator to estimate room-night losses and the retrofit menu to see which projects cut downtime. Then run the payback to rank projects by fastest revenue protection.
1Room-Night Loss Calculator
This is a planning tool. It ignores taxes, commissions, and displacement to sister properties unless you add them under advanced options.
Your Loss Summary
2Flood-Resilient Retrofits for Hotels
| Retrofit | Typical scope | Range (USD) | Downtime reduction | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backflow prevention on sanitary and storm lines | Check valves, gate valves, serviceable cleanouts | $5k–$25k | High for low-floor restrooms and BOH | Prevents sewage back-up that triggers long closure |
| Elevate critical MEP in ground-floor rooms | Raise PTACs, switchgear, data racks, POS, laundry controls | $15k–$120k | High if systems flooded before | Reduces repair lead time and parts risk |
| Flood doors or deployable barriers | Lobby thresholds, service entries, loading dock berms | $20k–$150k+ | Medium to high | Needs training and a deployment checklist |
| Wet-tolerant first-floor finishes | LVP or tile, polymer base, removable thresholds | $8–$18/sq ft | Medium | Shortens dry-out and relaunch time |
| Sump and pump redundancy with alarms | Dual pumps, battery backup, text alerts | $7k–$35k | High for basements | Protects elevator pits and BOH corridors |
| Exterior grading and inlet upgrades | Regrade, trench drains, higher inlet capacity | $12k–$90k | Medium | Targets nuisance flooding that closes wings |
| Emergency power for dehumidification | Generator tie-ins for drying gear and elevators | $25k–$250k | High | Lets you start dry-out the same day |
Ranges vary by brand standards, union labor, and access. Ask vendors for itemized quotes with lead times and training requirements.
3Payback: Revenue Protected vs Retrofit Cost
Enter a retrofit and estimate how many outage days it could avoid. The model uses your loss inputs above to value saved room-nights.
Payback Result
4Why Hotels Lose the Most Days
Top drivers of downtime
- MEP hit on the first floor or basement that takes weeks to replace.
- Contaminated water that forces deeper demolition and drying.
- Elevator and fire alarm resets that block re-opening even when rooms look ready.
- Front desk and POS outages that delay check-in flow.
Insurance considerations
- Business Interruption waiting period and daily limits can cap recovery.
- Contingent BI rarely responds to local infrastructure outages.
- Review flood deductibles and any sublimits that apply separately to BI.
5Department Playbook: 48 Hours to Re-Open
| Department | Immediate actions | Re-open target |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering | De-energize hazards, assess MEP, start pumps, set dehus and air movers, photo log meter readings | Drying underway in 6 hours |
| Front Office | Move arrivals to higher floors, update OTA messaging, set waiver scripts, call groups | Accurate inventory by hour 12 |
| Housekeeping | Segregate wet linens, isolate affected floors, HEPA vac dry spaces | Clean dry floors ready by day 2 |
| F&B | Protect food stocks, switch to limited service, record discard weights | Limited menu within 24 hours |
| Sales | Reseat events to dry spaces, push make-goods, protect key accounts | Retention plan by day 2 |
6Quick Checklist for GMs
Open checklist
- Map which rooms and departments go down first in a shallow flood.
- List equipment that must be elevated by 12 inches or more.
- Confirm backflow devices and test dates with maintenance.
- Stage barriers and train staff on deployment, with a shift roster.
- Pre-approve vendor call tree for pumps, drying, and electrical.
- Run this calculator with peak season assumptions.
Run the loss calculator with your peak season numbers and then test a few retrofits. Projects that remove outage days usually pay back faster than those that only trim premiums. Share the payback results with your insurer and vendors so everyone is aligned on the plan to protect room-nights.
