Industry overview
What is shaping hospitality
Hotels, restaurants and travel brands are judged on every stay, meal and review. Guest experience, consistency and online reputation drive bookings.
- Online reviews strongly influence bookings
- Consistency across properties builds trust
- Guests expect personalised service
Client background
A hotel owning company, working in Rajasthan. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A hotel owning company
- Sector
- Hospitality
- Team engaged
- Finance & Accounts
- Services
- MIS & financial reporting, Virtual CFO services
Client challenge
The company owned five heritage hotels in Rajasthan, each run by a separate manager with its own reports. The owners could not compare performance or see whether rising costs were eroding profits.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: monthly performance reporting for a hotel owner.
- Establish accurate, reconciled numbers management can rely on.
- Put a reporting and compliance rhythm in place that runs on time.
Target audience
Scope: Five hotels.
Audiences we typically reach in hospitality
Guests and dinersCorporate travel buyersFront-line staffTravel agentsOnline reviewers
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Rajasthan. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
A structured finance engagement: review the current process, set up controls, run the routine and report.
- 1Brief
- 2Hotel KPI dashboard
- 3Insight
We designed a monthly management report with occupancy, average room rate, revenue per available room, food and beverage margins and key costs for each hotel, drawing data from property systems and accounts. Hotel managers were trained to submit data in a standard format, and the report highlighted variances against budget and last year with short explanations.
MIS & financial reportingVirtual CFO services
Sampling strategy
- Every ledger, entity and transaction stream in scope was covered, with sample-based checks during review.
Data collection
- Source documents, bank statements and ledgers were collected through a secure shared workspace.
Data quality & validation
- Maker-checker review on all entries
- Bank and ledger reconciliations
- Client approval before every filing or report
- Supporting documents kept for every figure
Data analysis
- Variance analysis against budget and prior periods
- Ratio and trend analysis
- Cash-flow view for management
Key findings
- Monthly reviews became a regular discipline.
Consistent measures across hotels made comparison and action possible.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: consistent measures across hotels made comparison and action possible.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: monthly reviews became a regular discipline.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The owners identified one hotel with low occupancy and high staff costs and worked with its manager on pricing and staffing.
- The owners also used the reports to plan seasonal pricing and staffing more accurately.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Monthly MIS pack and reconciled books
- Compliance calendar and filings
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: are properties delivering brand standards?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.