Journal · 2 August 2026
What to bring to a modeling scoping visit
Do not tidy the spreadsheet first. The mess is usually the model.
A scoping visit on Melikishvili Street lasts up to ninety minutes. It is not a presentation. It is the hour in which we find out whether a forecast can be honest.
Bring two years of the series if you have them — occupancy by room type, till tapes by week, warehouse counts, loan schedules. Bring last season’s plan even if you are ashamed of it. Bring one person who was there when a number was written down, not only the person who now owns the file.
Leave at home, for an hour
The pitch deck. The growth slide. The request that we “just make it look like last August.” Those can wait until we have said, in writing, which gaps would make a model dishonest.
If the gaps are too wide, we stop. You will not be talked into a eight-week engagement to decorate four months of tape.
Telephone if the season is already moving and ninety minutes cannot wait for a tidy calendar. The brief on the contact page is enough to put a time on the book. Write the decision in the first line. We can always look at the mess together.