Common questions.

A hospitality consultant works alongside hotel owners, operators, and investors to improve performance, solve operational problems, and develop strategy. At Dalmagne Performance, that includes operational audits, workforce redesign, automation roadmaps, guest experience improvement, and strategic positioning — depending on your situation. We don't parachute in with frameworks and leave; we stay until the work is embedded.

Fees vary by scope, duration, and engagement type. A focused diagnostic — a function-level audit or a specific strategic question — is typically a fixed-fee project over four to eight weeks. A longer transformation engagement might be structured as a monthly retainer with defined milestones. We share a clear, itemised fee proposal before any engagement begins, so you know exactly what you're committing to.

Both. We work with independent hotels, small groups, large portfolio operators, and their investors. For independent properties, engagements are often more focused — a specific operational challenge, a pre-opening plan, or a defined strategic question. For groups, we may work across multiple properties or at the corporate level on strategy, portfolio benchmarking, or workforce redesign.

Our primary geographies are Europe (France, Mediterranean, Adriatic) and the GCC (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar). We also work selectively in Korea and Asia. Cédric advises in English, French, and German, which supports our cross-cultural practice and our work with European and international investors operating in these corridors.

Three things. First, we combine strategy consulting credibility (Monitor Deloitte) with genuine manufacturing-grade automation experience (Samsung Electronics) — a combination no major hospitality consultancy currently offers. Second, we are boutique: you work directly with Cédric, not with a junior team. Third, our PRISM framework gives us a structured, proprietary approach to the automation question that larger firms are only beginning to develop. We are not generalists who have added an automation brochure.

Yes — with the right design and deployment. Autonomous delivery units, automated linen transport systems, smart housekeeping trolleys, AI-assisted check-in, and sensor-equipped kitchens have all been deployed successfully in luxury environments. The key is ensuring automation handles the repeatable so your people can focus on the remarkable. Done well, the guest experiences more attentive human service, not less — because the humans are no longer spending their energy on tasks a machine can do better.

PRISM — Performance & Robotics Integration Staffing Model — is our proprietary diagnostic framework for hospitality operations. Applied to an engagement, it produces a structured picture of where value is leaking, which functions are genuinely suited to automation, and what the right workforce looks like on the other side. The output is a phased, budgeted roadmap — not a slide deck that sits on a shelf. The methodology is applied in context and explained as part of a discovery conversation.

We score every task on four criteria: repeatability (how standardised and predictable is the task?), guest-experience contribution (how much does this moment matter to the guest?), labour cost weight (how many hours and how much cost does it represent?), and automation feasibility (does proven technology exist that can perform this task in a hospitality context?). High repeatability + low guest-experience contribution + high labour cost + proven technology = strong automation candidate. The concierge conversation is never automated; the linen trolley journey between floors often should be.

Done well, automation creates better jobs — not just fewer jobs. Roles that remain after thoughtful automation tend to be more skilled, more guest-facing, and better compensated. We build workforce transition plans that include role redefinition, retraining pathways, and structured change management. Automation fails when people resist it — and people resist it when it is done to them rather than with them. We make sure it's the latter.

A full PRISM-based transformation typically unfolds over 12–24 months in three phases: diagnostic and roadmap (4–8 weeks), technology selection and phased integration (3–9 months), and workforce redesign and change management (ongoing). A focused diagnostic engagement — producing a readiness assessment and roadmap without full implementation support — can be completed in 4–8 weeks.

That decision follows a diagnosis; it does not precede one. We start by separating what the asset is worth from how it performs — positioning against its real market, condition of the building, capital needed to bring it to standard, and the gap between the two. A hotel that is undervalued because it is badly run is a different case from one that is fairly valued and structurally constrained. The answer differs, and so does the work.

Where the money actually goes. Departmental profit, labour cost by function, and the share of revenue that never reaches the operating line. In our experience, owners track RevPAR closely; far fewer can say which functions consume margin without contributing to the guest experience. That gap is usually where the first tranche of value sits.

No. Dalmagne Performance does not practise legal, tax, or regulatory advice, and does not issue valuations. Our analysis is economic and operational. Where a decision depends on a point of law, on tax treatment, or on a formal valuation, we say so and the question goes to a qualified professional. We would rather narrow our claim than overstate it.

All three, and the work is not the same. An owner asks what the asset should become. An operator asks how to run it better with what they have. An investor asks what it is worth and what a 100-day plan should contain. We are explicit at the outset about whose question we are answering, because the same hotel produces different recommendations depending on who is asking.

Yes. Cédric Dallemagne advises in French, English, and German, and France is a primary geography. Every deliverable exists in both French and English. Market context, operating practice, and commercial structures are within scope; legal, tax, and regulatory questions are not — see above.