HotStats Limited · 22 May

You wouldn't trust a doctor's mere intuition with your health, right? Of course not. You'd require testing and data. Operational benchmarking is the hotel industry's electrocardiogram (EKG), MRI, X-ray and ultrasound — the instruments that provide the cold hard facts. Isn't your bottom line worth it?

HotStats Limited · 14 May

COVID-19 has made breaking-even more tolerable than the alternative—going broke. It's not the hand hoteliers wanted, but it's the hand they've been dealt, forcing them to approximate at what occupancy rate they can operate their hotel such that cost and revenue are equal.

HotStats Limited · 9 Apr

It feels interminable now, but there will come a day when the coronavirus — this "invisible enemy" that continues to lay waste to normal, everyday functions and in a matter of weeks succeeded in leveling the world's economy — will subside and end.

HotStats Limited · 17 Mar

COVID-19 is putting an end to 11 years of unprecedented growth in the hotel industry. There is no sugarcoating it: the coronavirus has induced panic across the globe, throwing markets into chaos, postponing conferences, stamping out travel and emptying drugstore shelves.

HotStats Limited · 16 Mar

Hotel operating departments can be divided into two main groups: those that generate revenue and those that don't. Typically, hoteliers focus on the first group when analyzing financial performance— after all, that's where the money comes from!

HotStats Limited · 4 Mar

Let's face it: Parking isn't the flashiest hotel amenity, but it can have a massive impact on a guest's experience, not to mention a hotel's bottom line. Considering that the average driver spends 17 hours per year searching for parking, a hotel's parking facility can be a welcoming oasis in a parking desert.

HotStats Limited · 27 Feb

The World Health Organization says that COVID-19, more commonly known as coronavirus, has the potential to become a pandemic. It's already rocked the hospitality industry with canceled flights and forced hotel cancellations, even closures.

HotStats Limited · 24 Feb

For hoteliers and investors, it's easy to be dazzled by revenue numbers. Unfortunately, when labor costs jump, revenue can quickly disintegrate. This is why getting a grasp on payroll data is at the heart of driving profit.

HotStats Limited · 17 Feb

Let's face it, when it comes to benchmarking, most hotel professionals historically put their efforts into measuring room revenue. Sadly, if you're only focused on rooms, you're missing out on ancillary revenue and, ultimately, profit.

HotStats Limited · 10 Feb

Health clubs and spas have taken off in recent years. Revenue for health clubs in places like the U.S. has risen steadily for the past decade. But when it comes to benchmarking your hotel's health club or spa, focusing on these revenue numbers alone can actually cause your hotel strategy to crash and burn.

HotStats Limited · 3 Feb

Hoteliers can learn a valuable lesson in seasonality from boxing. Contrary to what some might believe, great boxers don't just roll with the punches. They study their opponent's every move, quickly plan, make adjustments, attack and counter attack. The same strategy should go for planning for the dips and swings of seasonality changes in the hotel industry.

HotStats Limited · 20 Jan

Are you putting too much emphasis on your hotel revenue strategy? Many hotel professionals miss an important fact: Your focus should be on overall hotel performance, not revenue alone.

HotStats Limited · 6 Jan

Average daily rate (ADR) is one of the most popular revenue metrics in the hotel industry. A key contributor to revenue per available room (RevPAR), it allows hoteliers to zoom in on how much a room is selling for on average and, typically, RevPAR growth driven by ADR is more profitable than RevPAR growth driven by occupancy, since the latter increases the variable costs associated with servicing additional rooms. Driving rate, meanwhile, doesn't have a cost attached to it, and, essentially, results in pure profit.

HotStats Limited · 20 Dec

Data is king, but futile if you don't know how to best interpret the numbers. Asking yourself, "What's the best way to analyze my data?" is too broad and only adds to the confusion. A better approach is to start by setting goals for your analysis. What specific information do you want to extract from your data?

HotStats Limited · 3 Dec

The hotel industry has long been obsessed with revenue. But if you care about a hotel's operational health, relying on revenue alone only tells one chapter of the whole story.

HotStats Limited · 4 Nov

Tracking the evolution of key performance indicators (KPIs) over time allows hoteliers to identify meaningful trends, create forecasts and budgets and assess the results of different strategies. To perform this kind of analysis, data has to be recorded within consistent time intervals and in chronological order. This is known as a time series.

HotStats Limited · 10 Oct

Revenue per available room, or RevPAR, has historically been the most widely used metric for benchmarking performance in the hospitality industry. Its success as a key performance indicator or KPI is the result of its efficiency and simplicity. RevPAR is efficient because it combines the results of both occupancy and average rate into one number. And it's simple, because all you need to calculate it is occupancy and average rate:

HotStats Limited · 27 Sep

Online travel agencies are digging their fingers further into the hotel industry. One of the latest disrupting features comes from Booking Holdings-owned Agoda and its Mix and Save option, which it hails as a win for budget-conscious travelers. It could also be a loss for hotel operators.

HotStats Limited · 15 Aug

Financial performance in the hospitality industry is traditionally measured in absolute terms: actuals for the relevant KPIs are compared against their budgeted numbers and, from this assessment, action plans are developed to correct course when needed. Moreover, in the presence of changes in market conditions, budgets are revised to make goals reflect the new business environment.

HotStats Limited · 30 Jul

There are myriad acronyms in the glossary of hospitality financial analysis, but two in particular haunt hotel managers like a specter: ADR (average daily rate) and RevPAR (revenue per available room).

HotStats Limited · 19 Jul

Nothing irks people more than paying for something they don't need or use. I once paid $50 for a pair of pants I never ended up wearing—but that's on me. I'm to blame. It's another thing altogether when you are forced to pay for a pair of pants that you didn't want in the first place.

HotStats Limited · 7 Jun

In a previous blog post, I took aim at RevPAR. My pursuit: to puncture the long-held notion that it's the most exemplary data point to consult within the hospitality industry. And, according to one comment, I succeeded in doing so (thank you, Don Weintraub, you made my mother very proud).

HotStats Limited · 23 May

Ever since Fred Harvey opened his first "eating house-hotel" establishment along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) tracks in Kansas in 1878, food and beverage has become an integral part of the hospitality business in the U.S. Harvey's invention was a more formalized approach to what was served to guests of the grand hotels and smaller inns that dotted the landscape from Europe to Asia throughout eras before.