Your first guests are due on Friday, but the bathroom is still being grouted and the shower screen has not arrived. Do you book the cleaner or warn the guests? You want to settle that risk while the work can still be planned, rather than during check-in week.
It is easy to see how a refurbishment ends up here. Work starts a little late. A delivery slips. Someone decides that, while the bathroom is stripped out, the pipework ought to be replaced too.
Put your first booking date in the initial brief for your holiday apartment renovation. It is the date the apartment must be usable, not the day the last tradesperson should finish. Allow for fitting equipment, checks, cleaning and snagging before guests arrive.
Work backwards from check-in
Start with the day the apartment needs to be fully usable. Allow time before that for furnishing, cleaning, checks and snagging. Only then set the construction programme.
Try the space yourself before a guest does. Run the shower. Check that it drains. Switch on the air conditioning and kitchen appliances. Make sure the new flooring has not stopped a door from closing, and that the bedside sockets are accessible once the furniture is in.
Finding a fault then is inconvenient. Finding it during somebody's first night on holiday is a much harder conversation.
Spend on the problems that affect the stay
A leaking shower needs attention before a decorative wall. A worn finish can be renewed; damp plaster needs its cause investigated first.
Think about how guests will use your apartment and how it will be cleaned between stays. Where does a suitcase go? Can towels dry? Are the surfaces suited to frequent changeovers?
For a rental property, a practical, durable finish earns its place. A detail that needs repairing between bookings does not.
Check the bathroom before agreeing the scope
Replacing tiles is one job. Removing a bath and installing a level-access shower is another.
Before committing to that layout, have the available floor depth, drain position and existing services checked. A photograph of a finished shower tells us little about whether the same arrangement will work in this apartment.
Where the condition of the substrate is uncertain, a carefully chosen inspection opening can help settle the scope before the whole room is stripped out. That is a better moment to discuss the budget than after the tiles have been ordered and the bathroom demolished.
A showroom sample is not a confirmed delivery
Before the relevant work starts, confirm the actual quantities and delivery dates for tiles, fittings and equipment. Check what is made to order, too.
A bespoke shower screen may need measuring after tiling. Its manufacture and installation still need a place in the programme from the outset. Writing “fit screen” on the final day does not make it available.
For a new kitchenette, settle the appliance positions and coordinate the electrical and plumbing connections before the walls are closed. Otherwise, a small change to a cabinet can send several trades back over finished work.
A tight deadline calls for a smaller job
It does not call for skipping preparation or shortening drying times. Those depend on the chosen products, build-up and conditions on site.
If there is not enough time for the full refurbishment, consider a smaller, complete package now and schedule the bathroom after the season. Opening every room at once leaves you fewer options when something takes longer than expected.
Changes during the job need the same discipline. Agree the extra work, price and effect on completion before it is carried out. Moving a basin after the pipework is in can mean chasing the wall again, altering services and remaking the finish.
Plan the journey from the van to the front door
An apartment upstairs in a narrow street in Poreč or Rovinj needs a different delivery plan from a ground-floor property with parking outside.
Materials have to come in; rubble has to go out. Confirm access, storage, carrying routes and the arrangements for the particular building. Check local working conditions and building rules before fixing the programme, especially if neighbouring apartments are already occupied by holiday guests.
These are part of the job, things to agree before the crew arrives.
Leave time for the handover
A good photograph is not a functional check. At completion, have the fitted items inspected and operated, the relevant trades to carry out their checks, and any snags recorded with an agreed plan to put them right.
Then comes the preparation for letting: linen, towels, crockery and the final clean. Do not book all of that for the same afternoon as the last installation.
Tell us your first booking date
Send BUILD GRUPA the location, approximate floor area, current photographs and what you want to change. Include the first expected arrival date and any confirmed bookings.
We can arrange a site visit and work through the scope, purchases and sequence. Give us the guest deadline while the plan can still change—not after the bathroom has been stripped out.