Hotel Development & Design-Build in Portugal
From feasibility to the first guest: architecture, engineering, tourism licensing and construction under one contract, built to open on time.
One contract, one accountable team
Hotel Umay: 11,000 m² wellness hotel, Melides
New builds and heritage conversions
Full BIM with clash detection
Every hotel project lives or dies by the opening date: a slipped season is the real cost of a fragmented team. WALLNUT designs, licenses and builds hotels in Portugal under a single contract, new builds and building-to-hotel conversions alike, so one team owns the schedule from feasibility to the first guest.
Can this building become a hotel?
The first question on any conversion is legal and technical, not aesthetic: tourism use authorisation (utilização turística / RJET classification), fire safety (SCIE, the hardest hurdle in old-building conversions), accessibility, and, for classified buildings, heritage approval (DGPC). Our feasibility review answers it honestly before design begins: what the building can become, what licensing realistically takes, and the budget frame.
Why design-build for hotels
A hotel is a dense machine of mechanical, electrical and plumbing services per key, and the opening date is fixed by contracts with operators and OTAs. A single design-build contract puts architecture, engineering and construction under one accountable team; full BIM with clash detection resolves the MEP conflicts that otherwise surface on site, and FF&E is sequenced into the programme rather than bolted on at the end. You are buying schedule certainty, not convenience.
Every discipline under one contract
A hotel needs far more than a builder. We hold the whole stack under one contract: masterplanning and architecture, the required engineering disciplines (structure, MEP, fire, acoustics), landscape design for arrival sequences and outdoor experience, and interior design and FF&E that carry the brand to the last detail. The masterplan, the building, the grounds and the interiors are designed together, not left to disconnected scopes late in the process, which is where coherence and budget usually leak.
New build or conversion
We handle both: ground-up hotels and the conversion of palacetes, pombaline buildings and other heritage stock into boutique hotels and branded residences. Conversions are where the integrated model earns the most, because the surprises are inside the existing structure and the licensing path is the steepest.
Design-led: selected work
Every project begins as a design problem, not a construction quote: restraint and material honesty over decoration, resolved in full BIM and built by the same studio that designs it, so the design reaches handover intact. Selected work includes Hotel Umay, an 11,000 m² wellness hotel on the Melides coast, Hotel Oasis in the historic centre of Oeiras and Villa Ninho d’Águia in Albufeira (2,000 m²).
Frequently asked
How much does it cost to build a hotel?
Hotel construction is best discussed per key and per m², in indicative ranges that only become a real number against a real program and building. See what premium construction really costs in Portugal.
How long does tourism licensing take?
It varies by municipality, building classification and scope: months to over a year for substantial conversions. We scope it in the feasibility review and design the calendar around it.
Do you do boutique conversions?
Yes, converting a heritage building into a boutique hotel is one of our core briefs, run end to end under one contract.
Updated: June 2026