A major hotel group completing an $80M renovation needed to hand off 400 rooms to FM operations within 72 hours of practical completion. Their previous approach — folder-based O&M manuals and a spreadsheet asset register — had failed on two prior renovations. FM onboarding took three weeks. Warranty claims were consistently filed incorrectly. Maintenance response times in the first 90 days were double the target. They needed a different model.

WeReno was introduced at construction kickoff, not at handover. That decision made all the difference.

The challenge

The FM team was inheriting a building they had never seen during construction. Rooms across five floors were in different completion states at any given time, and the sequence of practical completion was being driven by guest demand — not the GC's original programme. No single person in the FM organisation had a complete picture of which spaces were ready, which assets had been installed, and what their warranty status was.

Equipment warranties hadn't been entered into any system. Commissioning certificates were in the GC's files, not the owner's. The asset register — a spreadsheet built from the tender documents — bore little resemblance to what was actually installed. These are not unusual problems for hotel renovation handovers. They are the norm.

The WeReno deployment

• BIM twin built from the IFC model at construction kickoff — 11 months before practical completion
• Zone status updated by the GC daily throughout the renovation
• FM team given read access at 60% construction completion — 4 months before handover
• Asset register populated by trades as equipment was installed, not at closeout
• Punch list items linked to specific rooms in the twin and resolved before each floor's handover date

Handover day

On practical completion day, the FM director accessed a fully populated twin with every room's status confirmed, all 400 units' equipment registered, and every warranty document attached to the relevant asset record. The team ran a 4-hour orientation walkthrough using the twin — navigating to specific rooms, reviewing equipment data, and confirming maintenance schedules. Previous renovations had required three weeks to reach this point. This one took a morning.

90 days post-occupancy results

• FM response time: 4.2 hours average → 1.7 hours average (60% reduction)
• First-fix resolution rate: 58% → 84% (technicians arrive with diagnosis, not just a work order)
• Warranty claims filed correctly: 40% → 100% (data was attached to the asset, not buried in a folder)
• Unplanned maintenance incidents: 62% fewer than the prior renovation in the same 90-day window

What made the difference

The twin wasn't a handover document — it was a live operating tool the FM team used from the first day of occupancy. Having room-level data at their fingertips eliminated the "who installed this and when?" problem that drives FM inefficiency. When a guest reported a fault with a room's HVAC, the technician navigated to that room in the twin, saw the unit's install date and last service record, and arrived with the right parts. This happened consistently, from day one.

The second factor was timing. By giving FM read access four months before handover, the team had already learned to navigate the twin before they were responsible for the building. Handover day wasn't an introduction to a new system — it was the point at which they got the keys to one they already knew. This should be standard practice on every major hotel renovation.