Independent owner-side technical advisory

BTB Consulting SRL is an independent Belgian technical advisory firm, founded in 2019 and led by Yvon Le Cann. We work in hotel engineering, technical asset management, energy and environmental certification, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, France and Western Europe.

We work exclusively owner-side: on behalf of the owner, the investor or the lender, never for the contractor. Our value lies in reading the technical, financial and operational aspects of the same asset at once.

Four service lines, one continuous view of the asset

Most advisers cover one stage. We follow the asset through all of them, from acquisition, design, tender, works and acceptance to operation and repositioning. A single technical counterpart across the whole cycle means the assumptions made at acquisition are the ones actually checked at acceptance.

Technical Due Diligence & asset condition

Knowing what an asset really costs, before and after the decision to buy or invest.

When: pre-acquisition or pre-financing review, entry into a new operating structure, multi-year CAPEX budget, suspected deferred maintenance, portfolio comparison.

Scope: Technical Due Diligence and Property Condition Assessment, building envelope and finishes, MEP (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, BMS, lifts), Fire Life Safety and regulatory compliance, deferred maintenance and remaining useful life.

Deliverables: red flag report, full TDD or PCA report, 10-year CAPEX plan and LRIP, risk matrix by criticality, price adjustment table.

Energy, decarbonisation & ESG

Turning a regulatory constraint into a measurable return.

When: heat production reaching end of life, decarbonisation deadlines, energy costs eroding the operating margin, green loan or grant available, certification required by a lender or a brand.

Scope: energy audit and consumption modelling, decarbonisation roadmap and compliance pathway, renewables (photovoltaics, solar hot water, heat pumps), heat recovery, BMS redesign, sub-metering, EDGE, BREEAM, LEED and ISO 50001 support.

Deliverables: business case measure by measure (CAPEX, savings, payback and IRR), annual CO₂ reduction, regulatory compliance pathway, certification roadmap.

Financial and energy projections are estimates based on available data and on the assumptions stated in each deliverable. They are not a guarantee of results.

Project management & owner representation

Representing the owner from the first sketch to acceptance, and never the contractor.

When: a renovation or repositioning is decided, a brand Property Improvement Plan is expected, a development must be held owner-side, design or budget is drifting, tenders must be secured.

Scope: owner's project management and representation, programme and target budget, design reviews and value engineering, technical specifications and brand standards, site monitoring, variations and cost reporting.

Deliverables: programme and target budget, master schedule and phasing plan, tender documents and analysis reports, consolidated contract documents ready for legal review, monthly owner reporting.

Commissioning & handover

The phase that decides whether an asset performs, or merely opens.

When: a project nears completion, installations are in place but do not perform, an operator is about to take over the asset, warranties and retentions must be protected, an existing building underperforms.

Scope: commissioning and re-commissioning, Independent Commissioning Agent mandates, performance testing against contractual criteria, snagging, acceptance and close-out, handover, as-built and operating documentation.

Deliverables: commissioning plan and test reports, performance verification report, snag register through to close-out, complete handover file, preventive maintenance plan.

Brand standards

A capability few firms exercise: writing the technical and sustainability standards of a hotel group.

MEP technical standards and sustainability guidelines, enforceable on contractors and applicable to new builds as well as renovations. For Louvre Hotels Group, BTB wrote the MEP Technical Brand Standards (version 1.0, June 2025, twelve sections covering five brands) and the Build Planet Advance sustainability guidelines, after auditing more than 75 hotels in France and Italy.

Our scope, and its limits

Independent advice alongside the owner, the investor or the lender. Purely intellectual work: analyses, reports, technical opinions and recommendations.

No design, no execution: BTB carries out no works, no design mission, and produces no construction drawings or calculation notes.
No substitution, no site management: BTB does not replace designers, engineering firms, local inspection bodies or certifiers, and does not manage the site on a permanent basis.
No commitment, no health & safety coordination: BTB has no power to commit the owner legally or financially and carries out no health and safety coordination.

Decisions belong to the owner. Our role is to inform them with verified, quantified and prioritised facts.

Our method

Every finding follows the same five-field structure, to be acted on, not just read: Observation (the factual finding on site or in the documents) → Risk (technical, regulatory, operational or financial consequence) → Recommendation (corrective or preventive action, and why) → Budget (an order of magnitude, so the finding fits into a CAPEX plan) → Priority (critical, high, medium or low: the sequencing rule).

CAPEX is then planned over four horizons.