Real PIPs. Real numbers. Real turnarounds.

The situation

The sponsor had a signed LOI on a 96-key Best Western in a secondary Pacific Northwest market. Their thesis was conversion to Hampton H4 based on trailing ADR comp-set analysis. The lender wanted a cost number before the LOI's 45-day inspection period closed.

What was ordered

A Snapshot. The decision at hand was binary: spend another three weeks on structural, environmental, and franchise diligence, or pass. A ± $2M range was sufficient precision for that screen.

What we delivered

In 22 hours we delivered a two-page Snapshot with:

• All-in conversion estimate: $8.4M ± $2.1M (± 25%)
• Per-key mid-point: $87,500
• Top four cost drivers: guestroom FF&E replacement ($2.8M), brand-mandated bathroom reconfiguration to H4 spec ($1.6M), lobby and F&B conversion to H4 market concept ($1.1M), corridor and public-space brand signage ($480k)
• Confidence-range rationale: wider than a typical refresh because H4 conversion triggers involve structural scope the existing Best Western layout didn't anticipate

What happened

The sponsor's underwritten conversion budget was $6.2M. Our mid-point was 35% above that. The range lower bound ($6.3M) just barely touched their underwrite. Given the asymmetric risk — unbudgeted $2M on a 96-key conversion is not a recoverable error — they passed on the LOI and refocused diligence on a second target in the same market.

Why Snapshot was the right tier

A Blueprint-tier line-item estimate would have cost more calendar time than the LOI inspection window allowed, and would have produced the same pass/no-pass decision. Snapshot is built for exactly this moment — the screening step where the downside of being wrong is a canceled LOI, not a mispriced closing.

The situation

A 12-year-old Fairfield Inn in the Southeast. The PIP arrived Tuesday at 9:04 AM — a standard Fairfield Gen 4.5 refresh scope, 74 pages, 214 line items when parsed. Her lender wanted a cost number before the Thursday 2:30 PM call. Her IC was Friday morning.

What was ordered

Blueprint. The number had to survive a lender review and an IC review back-to-back — both of which would go line-by-line through the top cost drivers. A Snapshot range would not have survived either conversation.

What we delivered

In 45 hours (SLA was 48) we delivered a nine-page Blueprint with:

• All-in estimate: $11.8M ± $1.9M (± 16%)
• Per-key mid-point: $98,000
• Line-item mapped to PIP language — every line item in the deliverable references the page and paragraph in the PIP it responds to
• Top cost drivers:
  1. Guestroom FF&E (case goods, soft seating, carpet/LVT, bath vanity): $4.2M
  2. Public-space refresh (lobby reconfiguration to Market concept, F&B counter retrofit, breakfast seating): $1.8M
  3. Corridor guide and signage: $620k
  4. Life-safety tie-ins triggered by guestroom door hardware change: $184k
• Scope assumption callouts on the seven line items where the PIP could reasonably be read two ways — each flagged in the margin of the line item

What happened

The VP took the Blueprint into her lender call at 2:30 PM Thursday. The lender's financing team had one question — whether the FF&E freight number was pre-tariff — and she had the answer from our assumption callouts. The deal cleared financing.

On Friday the IC approved at her recommended capital number ($12.1M, a modest contingency above our mid-point). The sponsor is scheduled to issue scope to their GC in 30 days.

Why Blueprint was the right tier

The decision at hand was "approve financing and approve capital." Both required a line-item estimate that could survive independent review. The Blueprint format — line items mapped to the PIP's exact language, confidence ± explicit, top drivers broken out — is built for exactly those two reviews.

The situation

A 148-key Hilton Garden Inn in the Mid-Atlantic, owned by a top-30 sponsor. Two things collided in the same quarter: a Next Gen brand PIP with aggressive public-space reconfiguration scope, and a senior lender request to restructure the renovation financing so the property stayed cash-flow-positive during construction. The sponsor's IC wanted scenarios, not a single number.

What was ordered

Playbook. The decision was not "what does this cost" — the lender and IC both needed to see options:

1. Full-scope delivery as-written, shortest schedule.
2. Phased delivery — what if the public-space reconfiguration was deferred 18 months?
3. Value-engineered delivery — what if a brand-variance request replaced the Next Gen F&B counter with an approved alternative?

What we delivered

In 68 hours (SLA was 72) we delivered a 16-page Playbook with:

• Full-scope all-in: $19.2M ± $2.4M, delivered over a 9-month schedule with partial displacement
• Phased alternative: $14.6M over Phase 1 (guestrooms + corridors, 4 months), + $4.8M deferred to Phase 2 (public space, months 16–22). Keeps the property above debt service through Phase 1.
• Value-engineered alternative: $17.1M with a brand-variance request on the F&B counter. Historical approval rate for that specific variance at this brand generation is roughly 65%; we provided the comp-set data supporting the request.
• Six-lever negotiation map for the brand conversation: which must-complies are hardest to move, which trigger items are most commonly granted deferrals, which allowances have the softest floors.
• Co-branded report for the lender — their logo, their accent color, their cover letter.

What happened

The sponsor took the Playbook into the lender call. The lender accepted the phased scenario and restructured the renovation draw schedule around Phase 1 / Phase 2 boundaries. The brand approved the F&B variance eight weeks later, bringing full-scope cost to $17.1M. Phase 1 is in construction; Phase 2 is scoped for 2027.

Why Playbook was the right tier

Blueprint would have priced the full scope defensibly but would not have produced the phased or variance scenarios the lender and IC needed. Playbook exists for the restructuring conversation — when the question is "what should we do about it" and the answer has to arrive with negotiation levers already built.