Frequently asked questions

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About Parafin

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What is Parafin?

Parafin accelerates hotel site acquisition by automating the generation of design concepts, budgets, and pro formas for real estate development opportunities.

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What results does Parafin provide?

Financial outputs based on the selected hotel design and your financial inputs: building program, development budget, revenues, and investment assumptions. Results are exportable as PDF or Excel.

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What kinds of projects does Parafin cover?

New-build hotels of three to six floors, laid out from a select-service or extended-stay brand’s own prototype program. Conversions, additions to an existing building, and taller buildings are outside what Parafin generates today.

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Can I use Parafin for a site in Canada?

Yes, with two differences. Parafin has no parcel data for Canada, so draw the site boundary by hand instead of clicking parcels on the map. A project at a Canadian address is set to Canadian dollars, and you can switch it.

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Working with projects

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Can I modify features of the design prototype?

Parafin follows brand standards set by the hotel flag. Modifications that would require a brand waiver aren’t supported.

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Can I add a meeting room the design doesn’t include?

Some brands offer a meeting room or board room as a design option. Select it under Program Options. If the brand doesn’t offer one, Parafin can’t add it to the design. Account for it in the numbers instead: a custom budget line for building and furnishing it, and a custom revenue line for what it earns.

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How do I leave out land that can’t be built on?

Pull the site boundary in around it. Parafin places buildings only inside the boundary, so this works for a floodplain, wetland, stream buffer or easement along the edge of the site.

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How do I get more variety if top designs look similar?

Narrow your filters, especially room mix and room types. Tighter filters force more diverse designs into the top of the list.

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Can I try another brand on the same site?

Yes. Click the brand logo in the Project Panel, then click Change Brand under the logo. Pick a brand and click Generate Designs. Parafin creates a new project on the same site and leaves the original in My Projects. Both carry the same name, so rename the new one to tell them apart. The site boundary and setbacks, land cost, developer fee, contingency, custom budget lines and investment assumptions carry over. Hard costs, soft costs, FF&E, ADR and occupancy start from the new brand’s defaults, because they differ brand to brand. Building filters carry over where the new brand can still meet them.

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Financial modeling

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What construction type do the default hard costs assume?

The starting Hard Costs figure is the brand’s default, set for that brand’s own prototype, so what it assumes varies from brand to brand. If you are building to a different construction type, replace the figure in the Budget tab.

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Where do I input OS&E, IT, and pre-opening expenses?

Roll them into soft costs. Parafin doesn’t break out these line items separately yet. Email support@parafin.ai if segregating them is important for your workflow.

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What’s included in NOI margin?

NOI margin includes profit from departments less undistributed expenses, non-operating income and expenses, management fees, and reserve for replacement.

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How do I model performance ramping over time?

Parafin currently reports stabilized-yield analysis, not time-series cash flow. Email support@parafin.ai if time-series analysis is important for your workflow.

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Can Parafin calculate IRR?

Not yet, for the same reason as ramping. Parafin reports stabilized yield today. Email support@parafin.ai if IRR matters for your use case.

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Platform

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I found a bug. How do I report it?

Email support@parafin.ai with screenshots and a description of what happened.

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Where do I send feature suggestions?

Email support@parafin.ai or bring them to your next User Testing call.

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When will more hotel brands be added?

Parafin continuously trains new brands. Email support@parafin.ai with the brand you want and it gets added to the roadmap.