Notes for owners · Industry-Specific Software Guides
What an Independent Hotel Should Check Every Month
Check occupancy and average room rate by booking source, then match each OTA payout to its reservations. Review what guests, travel agents and companies still owe, and which room charges missed the folio. GullySystem’s Hotel Management Software reports most of these. OTA bookings reach it only through a channel manager you run.
Ganesh HS, Strategy and Technology, GullySystem · · 3 min read
Occupancy and room rate, by source
Occupancy alone says how full the hotel was. Average room rate, split by booking source, says what each night was worth. A full month at a low rate may only mean rooms went cheap through one channel.
Compare OTAs, walk-ins, phone bookings, travel agents and corporate accounts. Look at nights sold by room type as well. A type that never sells at its rack rate may need a different rate plan.
- Nights sold by room type
- Average room rate by booking source
- Corporate and agent nights against contracted rates
- Cancellations and no-shows by channel
OTA payouts against the bookings behind them
Each channel pays later, in one amount, after commission and other deductions. The payout rarely matches the booking report line for line. Match each payout to its reservations, and list the short ones.
Do this in the month it happens. A short payment found three months later is hard to argue. Ask your accountant how the deductions on each channel statement should be booked.
What guests, agents and companies still owe
Travel agents and companies often settle after a month of stays. Their dues tend to live on a printout. Review each account’s balance and how long it has been due.
Open guest folios matter too. A folio left unsettled at departure is easy to lose. So is a split bill where the company paid only its share. One list of open folios and agent balances, read monthly, keeps them in view.
Charges that never reached the folio
Room service written on a KOT, a minibar count and laundry all need to reach the room bill. When a guest leaves early, an unposted charge is gone. Compare restaurant sales marked to rooms against charges on folios.
If the restaurant posts straight to the room number, the gap should be small. If it uses paper, check a sample of KOTs each month. Discounts given at checkout belong on the same review.
- Room service KOTs against folio postings
- Minibar and laundry charges
- Discounts and waivers at checkout, with the reason
- Bills split between guest and company
Blocked rooms, linen and the bank
A room blocked for repair is a night not sold. List blocked rooms and how long each stayed out. Linen issued against rooms occupied shows whether stock is going missing.
Last, match card, UPI and OTA credits in the bank against collections recorded at the desk. Each unmatched line gets a written reason. The month then closes on figures someone has checked.
Hotel monthly review sheet
One page with a row for each check in this guide: occupancy, rate by source, payouts matched, open folios and agent dues, unposted charges, blocked rooms and bank lines. Note this month’s figure, last month’s and who checked it.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Do we have to replace our PMS to get these figures?
Usually not. Many PMS products already report occupancy and rate. The gaps sit around the PMS, in payouts, folios and agent dues that staff patch together by hand.
Will OTA bookings reach the hotel software by themselves?
Not by themselves. OTA bookings arrive through a channel manager that passes them to the room chart. Website and phone enquiries are entered at the desk.
Is a night audit routine part of it?
No, not of the kind a large PMS runs. The desk closes each day by reading arrivals, departures, charges posted and collections by mode. Owners read the same figures.
Does a small homestay need any of this?
Probably not as software. A homestay with a few rooms and no restaurant can run on a diary and UPI. The monthly checks still help, kept in a notebook.