In this article
A contractor hands you one quote, and most owners treat that number as the entire renovation budget. That's the mistake: there are two more numbers that matter just as much — what comes up unforeseen once the walls are open, and what you lose in revenue while the place is closed or running at half speed.
Every restaurant renovates eventually: a floor that's stopped cleaning up, a kitchen line that no longer keeps up, a concept that needs a refresh, or simply an expansion because the place has outgrown itself. The process almost always starts the same way — get a contractor in, get a quote, sign.
That quote prices the build — materials, labour hours, installations. What it almost never prices is the rest: the contingency that surfaces once a wall comes down, and the revenue that disappears while the venue is closed or running a shorter menu with fewer tables. Both are just as real as the build cost, and both rarely make it onto the same sheet of paper.
This piece runs a renovation through seven numbers: cost per square metre as your first check on a quote, where that build budget typically goes, how much contingency is realistic, what the closure days cost you, what the reopening ramp adds on top of that, what the realistic total becomes, and whether your financing actually covers it.
The worked example below is a 140 m² venue that got a €176,400 quote for a mid-range renovation, needs 21 days fully closed, and has €168,000 in savings and loan ready to go. Below that you plug in your own numbers — everything runs in your browser, nothing is sent or stored.
Why a quote is rarely the whole story
A quote prices work the contractor can see in advance: the walls, the pipework, the installations that are visible or can be read off the plans. What's behind an existing floor, an old pipe run or a wall that's decades old, nobody sees ahead of time — and in hospitality, where kitchens and plumbing often run for decades, something almost always turns up. Cost analyses in the sector point the same way again and again: somewhere between a quarter and a third of renovation projects run over their original budget, usually because of exactly that kind of surprise.
The second blind spot is bigger, and almost never gets counted: the days the venue is closed, or running with fewer tables, a shorter menu and less staff, cost just as much real money as the build itself — it's simply not an invoice anyone sends you. A kitchen that's out of action for three weeks is three weeks of revenue that never appears on any quote.
And even the day the doors reopen, the bill isn't closed: guests don't instantly know you're back open, the team needs to get back up to speed, and the first weeks after a reopening rarely run at the level they did before. That reopening ramp is the third invisible cost, and together the contingency, the closure and the ramp are often the difference between a quote that looks affordable and a renovation that puts the business in financial trouble.
The 7 numbers, in the order they build on each other
First the build cost itself and where it goes, then what's realistic for contingency, then what closure and reopening actually cost in revenue — and only then the question that actually matters: does your financing cover all of it?
1. Cost per square metre — your first check on the quote
Before you accept or reject a quote, divide it by your floor area first. At 140 m² and a €176,400 quote, that's €1,260 per m² — and that number alone tells you whether the quote is in the ballpark of what a comparable venue pays, well before you look at the rest of the budget.
As a rule of thumb, a light refresh — paint, lighting, furniture, no structural work — typically runs €500–900 per m². A mid-range renovation with a new kitchen line and a fully reworked dining room sits more around €900–1,600 per m². A full gut renovation with structural work, new services and a serious permitting process runs up to €1,600–2,800 per m², sometimes more. A quote well below that is usually missing something; a quote well above it deserves at least a second opinion.
2. Where the build budget actually goes
Inside that quote there's no random mix of costs — the same four categories show up in almost every hospitality renovation, and they typically carry the same rough weight. The kitchen alone — equipment, extraction, technical connections — typically takes up a quarter to a third of the budget, even though it's often only a fraction of the floor area.
The dining room — flooring, lighting, furniture, acoustics, the look the guest actually sees — typically carries the most weight, somewhere around 40–50% of the budget. The rest goes to permits, professional fees, and what the contractor themselves keeps as margin and overhead. Know roughly how that split should look, and you'll spot instantly when one line — usually the kitchen — has been priced out of proportion.
A €176,400 quote, broken down into the four categories that show up in almost every hospitality renovation.
The kitchen carries a heavy weight because of its technical complexity, even though it's usually only a fraction of the floor area — which is exactly why a quote with a cheap kitchen line is a red flag.
3. Contingency — why 10 to 20% isn't excessive
Contingency feels like a margin the contractor grants themselves, which is why it's usually the first thing cut when a quote comes in too high. That's exactly backwards: contingency isn't for the contractor, it's for you — it covers precisely the part of the job nobody could see in advance.
On a €176,400 quote with 15% contingency, that adds €26,460 on top, bringing your total build budget to €202,860 — before a single day of lost trading is even counted. Below 10%, you're genuinely at risk that the first surprise — a pipe run that doesn't match the plan, a floor that needs opening up further than planned — eats the whole budget on its own.
4. Closure days — the first chunk of revenue that disappears
Every day the venue is fully closed for the work costs you that day's revenue — not as a line in the accounts, but as money that literally doesn't come in. At 21 closure days, 6 opening days a week and €2,520 average daily revenue, that adds up to €45,360 — before contingency or reopening are even in the picture.
That figure changes completely depending on how you plan the work: a venue that's only closed on Monday and Tuesday and works around live service the rest of the week loses nothing on the days it stays open — but the work itself takes longer, and usually costs a premium for working outside normal hours. Which approach wins depends on how heavily your revenue weighs against that premium.
5. The reopening ramp — the second chunk nobody counts
The day the doors reopen, revenue doesn't snap back to a hundred percent. Guests haven't yet found out you're open again, the team needs to get back up to speed with a new layout or new equipment, and anyone who went elsewhere during the closure doesn't automatically come back on night one.
Plan for roughly 55% of normal revenue in the first week after reopening, 75% in the second, 90% in the third, and full strength only from week four. At 6 opening days a week and €2,520 average daily revenue, that adds another €12,096 of lost revenue, on top of what the closure days already cost.
Revenue doesn't snap back to a hundred percent the day you reopen — it builds up over four weeks.
That build-up applies on top of the closure days themselves: a venue closed for three weeks loses, in practice, the equivalent of nearly four extra weeks of revenue.
6. The realistic total — quote plus contingency plus revenue loss
Add the three numbers above together and you get a very different figure from the quote alone. At €176,400 build cost, €26,460 contingency, and €57,456 of revenue lost across the closure and the reopening ramp combined, the realistic total comes to €260,316 — 48% above what the quote alone suggested.
That gap isn't pessimism; it's simply the part of the bill a contractor never invoices, because it isn't their cost. Anyone financing a renovation on the quote alone is, in practice, financing barely two-thirds of what it's actually going to cost.
7. The financing check — does what you have cover what it really costs?
The last step is the only one that really matters: put the realistic total next to what you actually have in savings and loan financing. At a realistic total of €260,316 and €168,000 available financing, there's a shortfall of €92,316 — money the quote alone never suggested, and money you need to find now, not once the bill lands mid-project.
Whoever knows that gap in advance can adjust: shrink the scope, plan a phase later, or widen the financing beforehand — with a tool like the startup capital & financing planner or the cash-flow planner. Whoever only discovers it once the work is already underway has neither option left.
Calculate your own renovation cost
Enter your own project's numbers — your floor area, the quote, how much contingency you're planning, your daily revenue and how many days you'll be closed, and what financing you have lined up. The calculator instantly shows your cost per m², the contingency, the revenue lost across closure and reopening, and whether your financing covers the realistic total.
Everything runs live in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server and nothing is stored — change the quote or the number of closure days, and every figure on this page recalculates instantly.
Renovation cost calculator
Your cost per m², your contingency, your revenue loss, and whether your financing covers it — with your own numbers.
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Rule of thumb: always add the quote plus contingency plus revenue loss together, and check that against your financing — never the quote alone.
On the worked example above — a €176,400 quote for 140 m², 21 closure days, €168,000 available financing — the realistic total comes to €260,316, €92,316 more than the financing on hand. That's not an edge case: it's exactly the pattern a quote alone never shows.
Want to plan the closure itself — which line items genuinely require closing versus what can happen around live service, and what each approach costs? The free renovation budget & downtime cost planner builds a full, line-by-line version of that, including a print-ready sheet for your bank or your contractor.
What to do with this, this week
Getting a renovation budget right isn't a construction decision — it's a piece of arithmetic most venues only do after the work has already started. This order works better.
Today
- Divide every quote you have by your floor area, and compare it against the light-refresh, mid-range and full-renovation rules of thumb.
- Ask your contractor explicitly how much contingency is already in the quote — 10%, 15%, or nothing at all.
- Estimate how many days the venue genuinely needs to be fully closed, separately from how long the work takes overall.
This week
- Calculate your revenue loss across the closure days AND the reopening ramp — not the closure alone.
- Add build cost, contingency and revenue loss together into your realistic total.
- Put that next to your own savings and the loan you can actually get — not next to the quote alone.
Before you sign
- If there's a shortfall, discuss a smaller scope or a phased approach with your contractor first — before you sign, not after.
- Set aside a reserve buffer you don't touch unless the contingency is actually needed.
- Schedule the start date outside your busiest weeks, so the closure and the reopening ramp hit your lowest revenue.
It's one budget, not two
A renovation quote and a renovation budget aren't the same document, even though they're often used interchangeably. The quote prices what the contractor builds. The budget also has to price what you lose while they build it — and what gets added if something goes wrong.
Run your own numbers through the seven steps above once, and a renovation turns from a leap in the dark into a decision you can back up in advance — at the bank, with your contractor, and with yourself.
The difference between a renovation that strengthens the business and one that weakens it financially rarely comes down to build quality. It comes down to whether anyone worked out the other half of the bill beforehand.