TABLE OF CONTENTS Room revenue forecasting is the starting point for maximizing all hotel revenues and minimizing all hotel expenses. These are the two most important financial goals for any operations manager. Identifying the causes of increases or decreases in actual business levels, understanding financial ratios and formulas used in revenue forecasting, and preparing accurate and useful forecasts are essential to the success of any department or business.
Room revenue forecasts are also used to prepare restaurant and banquet revenue forecasts. To forecast revenues for the hotels restaurant, the restaurant manager will consider the following details included in the room revenue forecast:
Total rooms sold or occupied for each day
Number of guests per room
Number of group rooms occupied
The manager will then look at the banquet weekly forecast to determine what percentage or number of guests will be attending meal functions provided by banquets. This will affect the number of guests available to dine in the restaurant.
To forecast banquet revenues, the banquet manager uses guaranteed customer counts as well as the number of group rooms in the hotel. The revenue forecast includes the actual number of rooms picked up by a group, and it tells the banquet manger if the meal function will meet the number of customers guaranteed in the contract.
Several other revenue departments will forecast their revenues based on room sales. These include the Gift Shop, Telephone, and Recreation departments, among others, which will use a formula based on...
