Why Fixing Things Before They Break Is the Secret to a Better-Run Motel

Last Edited 05/01/2026.

Most motel maintenance problems don’t announce themselves politely.

They don’t wait until low season. They don’t care that you’re short-staffed. And they almost always happen at the worst possible moment — usually when you’re fully booked, it’s after hours, and the guest has already checked in.

If you’ve ever had a hot water system fail on a Sunday night, an air-conditioner die in the middle of a heatwave, or a bathroom tap suddenly start spraying water like it’s under pressure from the council mains, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

The frustrating part is that most of these “emergencies” weren’t really emergencies at all. They were just small issues that quietly built up over time… until they couldn’t be ignored anymore.

I’ve lost count of how many motel managers I’ve spoken to who say something like, “That thing’s been playing up for a while” — right after it finally breaks.

That’s the difference between reactive maintenance and proactive maintenance.

Reactive maintenance is what most motels fall into by default. Something breaks, a guest complains, you scramble to fix it, often paying more than you should, often at the worst possible time. It’s stressful, expensive, and usually happens in front of guests.

Proactive maintenance, on the other hand, is much less dramatic. It’s quieter. Boring, even. And that’s exactly the point. Now, and possibly sadly I enjoy spreadsheeting out my maintenance tasks, and if you continue to the bottom of the article you can grab yourself a copy of my most up to date maintenance tracker or dashboard.

It’s checking things before guests ever notice a problem.

It’s replacing a washer before it leaks. Cleaning an air-con filter before it stops cooling. Testing a smoke alarm before it starts chirping at 2am in a guest room. Note to you - add this to your maintenance tracker.

The irony is that proactive maintenance actually feels like less work — but only once you stop relying on memory. When I first operated a motel I would enter the same room to do different tasks so many times over a week, that I started to realize - “hey, I can batch these jobs and spend a lot less time doing the same amount of work!”

Most motel owners and managers don’t avoid maintenance because they don’t care. They avoid it because they’re busy, juggling reception, housekeeping, bookings, staff issues, and everything else that comes with running a motel. Maintenance ends up living in someone’s head instead of in a system.

And that’s where things go wrong.

When maintenance lives in your head, it gets pushed down the list. “I’ll check that next week.” “I’ll get to it after checkout.” “It’s fine for now.” Until suddenly it isn’t.

I once worked with a motel where the same a/c system service had been “on the list” for months. It was noisy but still worked, so it never felt urgent. Then one weekend it finally failed completely, the guest was a long stay at the time for 10 nights, and requested to leave on the second night. We never heard from them again, after a few apology follow-ups. This is the point, and only the service of what you pick-up from guests - a lot of them will leave, never come back and you will not be the wiser.

None of that would’ve happened if someone had simply logged it and arranged the appropriate service.

That’s the real cost of not tracking maintenance. It’s not just the repair bill. It’s the stress, the guest complaints, the lost guests, the comped rooms, the negative reviews, and the time you lose firefighting instead of running the business.

Scheduled maintenance doesn’t need to be complicated. It doesn’t require software, consultants, or a full-time maintenance team. What it does require is visibility.

You need to be able to see what’s been checked, what hasn’t, and what keeps popping up in the same rooms.

Once you start tracking maintenance properly, patterns become obvious very quickly. You’ll notice the same air-con model failing in multiple rooms. The same tap type wearing out faster than expected. The same door lock getting stiff every winter.

That’s when maintenance stops being reactive and starts being strategic.

You’re no longer guessing. You’re managing.

This is especially important in motels, where buildings are often older, rooms turn over frequently, and small issues are noticed faster by guests. A hotel guest might tolerate a slightly noisy air-con for a night. A motel guest will hear it immediately — and they’ll mention it in a review.

And reviews don’t say “The air-con filter wasn’t cleaned on schedule.”

They say, “The room felt tired,” or “Things didn’t seem well maintained.”

That’s what proactive maintenance really protects — your reputation.

The biggest mistake I see is thinking maintenance needs to be “done properly later,” instead of “tracked simply now.”

You don’t need perfect records. You need usable ones.

That’s why we created a free Motel Maintenance Tracker — not as a piece of software, not as something fancy, but as a simple system that actually gets used.

Something that lets you log rooms, assets, checks, and notes in one place. Something you can glance at and immediately know what’s overdue and what’s under control.

Whether you’re doing the maintenance yourself, relying on staff, or outsourcing to trades, the tracker gives you continuity. It stops things falling through the cracks. It makes handovers easier. And most importantly, it moves maintenance out of your head and onto paper (or screen), where it belongs.

Proactive maintenance won’t eliminate every problem. Things will still break — that’s part of running a motel.

But it will dramatically reduce the number of surprises.

And in this business, fewer surprises means fewer late nights, fewer angry guests, and a much calmer operation overall. If you are not confident with your motel operation currently, have a look at our Motel Management Courses, Motel Management Book or read more about our Hospitality Courses.

If you’re tired of fixing things only after they break, download the free Motel Maintenance Tracker and start getting ahead of problems instead of reacting to them.

Your future self — and your guests — will thank you.

Download: Free Maintenance Tracker.

Getting your Maintenance spot on will save you time and money. While it can feel like a lot to put in place proactive systems, ultimately, you will do less and have better results. Start today, download our free Maintenance Tracker.