Hotel Finance Strategy

GO PAR is the new and exciting measurement everyone is talking about in the hotel business. But let’s be honest. It is a bit of a stretch to comprehend. It is a little more complicated than REVPAR.

The hotel business is a form of retail business. Every day we must balance our revenues with our settlements, just like you would if you owned a store. Or for that matter any business that has sales every day and the customers pay for their purchases at the time of the sale.

If you complete a regular monthly close in your hotel, and I certainly hope you do… and if closing your books takes longer than three-five working days, then this is meant for you. 

That’s a big statement because if you are involved in the budget in your hotel and you have played baseball then you are probably saying to yourself that I am off my rocker.
The budget is a mean and unruly nasty guest that comes every year and sometimes does not leave completed for weeks, even months.

I heard this about 40 years ago and it has stuck with me. I was a newbie cocktail waiter working part time in my hometown hotel. One of my regular weekend customers was the controller and he was telling me he needed an income auditor for the summer line-up.

In a nutshell you want to know what is going on in the hotel relative to making the budget/forecast for the month and any pertinent property issues that may affect future earnings one way or another. It is kind of a snapshot “full-disclosure” principle mini pop.